Write out for the next couple minutes the letters of the alphabet right beside the Hebrew letter. Make the same emblem right beside it. Boy, you're getting a Hebrew lesson tonight. That's why I make the coffee in my house, because it's biblical Hebrews. So just work on that second column. Some have two letters beside it, but just do the letter on the left side. The letter is pronounced in the first column. The second column, that is the Hebrew letter as it's written out. So when you see words, they're pieced together with the letters there, and that's how you translate the Hebrew Bible. So what I want you to do is right beside each letter, the Hebrew letter. Repeat, basically repeat the letter. Well, if you got a fat pen that puts out a lot of ink, it's all going to bleed together. Right, right. I took this offline and it's different pronunciation too, such as the word bathe, B-E-T-H. Here on this paper is B-E-T, bait. And yet in my Bible, as far as the letter, it's called Baith. And like I say, if it's too light, look at your Bible where it would have the letter. So y'all can tell people tomorrow, y'all had a Hebrew lesson. Almost. One's got like, looks like a walking cane. The other one looks more like a T with the top of the T a little crooked. And the word Heth, H-E-T is on here, it's H-E-T-H, and then the word after that, Teth, T-E-T-H. And somebody's got music playing to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Too bad it's not Hebrew music. Oh no. I'm going to help you out. Right there. Yeah. That's even more clear, ain't it? Okay, as you're doing that, I'm assuming you've already turned to Psalm 119, and the letter we're looking at is the letter Psalmic. Psalmic is actually the portion of Scripture in Psalm 119 from verses 113 through 120. Is anybody having any trouble with the letters? Yeah, just about. Probably was. Bird feather. Okay, now that you got it started, you don't need to finish it right now, but that's something I want you to kind of practice with, because those letters, I'm going to show you maybe like in a week or two, maybe a few words. and we're going to see if you can compare the letters and say the Hebrew word. So it gives you just a little bit of instruction as we go along here as far as how the Jews would read their Bible. So in Psalm 119, if you look there in verse 113, what we see in this passage of scripture And let me look a little further. This has been a challenging day for me. I want you to notice what verse 113 says. Verse 113 says, I hate vain thoughts. But your law do I love. The word for vain thoughts, if you notice, it's italicized the word vain. That means in the original language that was not there. And so what it's saying, I hate false. Now that doesn't make sense, but if you knew what the Hebrew word was there, it would make sense. What the Hebrew word there actually means is divided thoughts or being double-minded. it means not being able to decide or it actually means to hop or leap. In other words, it's like somebody leaping to this side and then leaping back over to this side. Well, I'm coming back, just being indecisive, double-minded. And you know what the Word of God says in the New Testament? It says, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. I want you to notice where this is also used. It's used in a few places in the Old Testament, but if you look back in 1 Kings chapter 18, 1 Kings chapter 18, there is a situation there with Elijah. And Elijah is actually calling out the prophets of Baal. And as he calls out these prophets of Baal, want you to notice in verse 21. In verse 21, the Word of God says, And Elijah came unto all the people and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? And that word, halt, same word, how long do you skip over, or leap back and forth, or hop between two opinions. If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. What had happened, Baal worship had entered into Israel, and they were trying to worship God, the one true and living God, but they're trying to worship Baal. And they're going back and forth and back and forth. You remember how Elijah challenged the people, or actually challenged the prophets of Baal. It says in verse 22, then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks, let them choose one bullock for themselves, cut it in pieces, lay it on wood, put no fire under it, and I will dress the other bullock and lay it on wood and put no fire under." You call on your gods, I'll call on the name of the Lord, and the God that answers by fire, let him be God." And all the people answered and said, it is well spoken. And you remember how the prophets of Baal started calling out to Baal, and what Elijah did, he made fun of them. He says, maybe your God's sleeping, you need to yell a little bit louder. And you remember how he made fun of the false god. And then you remember how his sacrifice, God consumed it with fire from heaven and it just boom. So hear what the psalmist is saying. He's got this thought going. He's saying, I hate vain thoughts. Or I hate those that are double-minded, that are constantly leaping from one thing unto another thing and going back and forth, back and forth. Now the opposite of that, he says, but your law do I love. He hated the double-minded unstable person going from one doctrine to another doctrine and not being settled, but he loved the Word of God. Here are two opposites. There is the double-minded and then there is the Word of God that does not change. Notice here in verse 114, he says, you are my hiding place and my shield, I hope in your word. God was his first line of defense. His second line of defense was God. Now that's a good line of defense. In other words, what he's saying, he's relying upon the Lord God. God is his hiding place. and God is his shield. Now you think about it, if the enemy is coming, and you know they're coming, but they're not there yet, you need a hiding place. God is his hiding place. If the enemy is right upon you, you need a shield. So he's saying that God is his hiding place. for when the enemy is approaching. And God is his shield. In other words, he's right there to protect him when the danger comes. You remember what it says back in Genesis chapter 14? In Genesis the 14th chapter, you remember Abraham went to rescue his nephew Lot. And there were five kings that made war and took off Lot and his family and all the people around and held them captive. And you remember Abraham got the people that worked for him together. There were about 300 of them. And he went and conquered those five kings and delivered them. Now the sad thing about that, Lot went right back to Sodom. But in chapter 15 of Genesis it says in verse 1, After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am your shield, and your exceeding great reward. You can imagine why this is written here right after Abraham conquers those five kings. Abram took them by surprise. Now what if they come back for revenge? They regroup and they start attacking Abram. That's why God sends this message. And he tells Abram, I am your shield and your exceeding great reward. In verse 4 he says, And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be your heir, but he that shall come forth out of your own bowels shall be your heir. And then in verse six, and he believed in the Lord, and the Lord counted unto him for righteousness. Abraham was saved by faith. God was his first line of defense, and God was his second line of defense. Here what we see in Psalmic, in verse 114, thou art my hiding place. Look back at Psalm, I believe it's Psalm 91. In Psalm 91, my pages are stuck together. Notice what it says in verse 1, "...he that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High." shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Here is our hiding place. It is in the Lord God. And it's under His shadow that we have protection. You think about a shadow. A shadow is depicting an image that's in between you and the sun. That means there's a reality there. God is a reality. and his shadow is over us. He's promised never to leave us nor never to forsake us. So in verse 115 he says, Depart from me, you evildoers, for I will keep the commandments of my God. What seems to have distracted the psalmist here is the psalmist has evildoers upon his mind. Those that are double-minded, those that are unstable in their ways, those that have left the Word of God. And so he says in verse 115, depart from me, you evildoers, for I will keep the commandments of my God. Think back in the Garden of Eden. What if Adam had said that? Depart from me, you evildoer. That's the first Adam. Look at the second Adam. Our Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness being tempted. You remember he told Satan to depart from him. Satan departed. Think about Joseph and Miss Potiphar, the seductress. What did he do? basically told her he didn't want nothing to do with her, but she kept coming after him to the point where he fled the scene. We are told to pursue after holiness, and here what the Word of God is telling us for, I will keep the commandments of my God. I'm going to keep the Word of God. I'm going to continue with the Word. The Word is keeping him. So down in verse 116 and 117 we see what he's dependent upon. He's saying, "...uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live, and let me not be ashamed of my hope." He had a sure hope in the Lord. He had a sure hope in the Word of God. The Word of God does not change. Therefore, what God says that he will do, So we find in verse 117, he says, Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe. And I will have respect unto your statutes continually. There is no shame when your hope is sure. And our hope is in the Lord, so we are not ashamed of the Lord. In verse 117, here is grace upon grace, which is much needed. He's asking God to hold him up. And he knows if the Lord holds him up, he's going to be safe. Therefore, here is grace, and that's what we need. Let me tell you, we need grace not just for salvation. We are saved by grace, but we're also kept by grace. You know what? We're saved by grace, and it's by grace we are walking. It is grace for the moment. How we need that grace. Grace gives us respect unto the Word of God because that's what the psalmist has here. He respects God's Word. And he has grace upon grace to pour out upon us. He's trusting in the Lord. He's trusting in his Word. But I want you to notice he's also trembling before the Lord. Notice in verse 118. You have trodden down all them that err from your statutes, for their deceit is falsehood." Here's how God deals with people that are in error. Those people that are in error are those who leave out God's Word, or they pick and choose with God's Word, or they twist God's Word. And so what the psalmist says, God's gonna trodden them down. God is gonna move them out of the way because they err from the Word of God. There are people that are erring in God's Word constantly. And just because somebody has thousands and thousands of followers does not mean that's of God. All you have to do is look at some of the groups out there. Look how many Muslims are there. I don't even know. How many Jehovah Witnesses are there? How many Mormons are there? These are big movements, but they have taken the Word of God and twisted it, or just have nothing to do with it. Here, how God deals with those that are in error. God troddens them down, for their deceit is falsehood. they desire to deceive people. And it's with falsehood, with lies. In verses 119, it shows how God deals with the wicked. He says, you put away all the wicked of the earth like dross. Therefore I love your testimonies. The wicked here is talking about God's judgment coming down upon those. And he puts them away like dross. What would happen if you purify silver, you heat it up, and then the impurities come to the top, and you kind of skim that off. And when you skim it off, that's the dross. And you do away with it. The psalmist is likening that. He's saying, you put away all the wicked of the earth just like you would throw away the dross. Therefore he loves the testimonies of God. God's judgment comes down upon the wicked. Just think back who the psalmist was dealing with at the time. We don't know exactly, but there were the Assyrians, there were the Egyptians. God dealt with them because they were against his people. You think down through time. There was Herod. God dealt with Herod. You think of Nero. God dealt with Nero. Put it more in more modern times, though this is a while back. You think of Hitler. How wicked and evil Hitler was. Mussolini. Saddam Hussein. You think of all these people. You know what? No matter what era or what time you live in, God's going to put the wicked down. The one thing people don't seem to understand is that their lives are short, and it seems like they're living to gain all they can out of this world. But the days are numbered, and it's appointed that a man wants to die, and then there is the judgment of God. God puts down all the wicked of the earth like dross. Therefore, the psalmist continues in the testimonies of God. In verse 120 it talks about the judgment of God. And notice he says, My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments. It's kind of like, have you ever had like the hair on your skin just kind of stand up because you're scared to death? That's what he's talking like. He's saying, my flesh trembles for fear of God. When you think about the judgment of God, it is something we don't hear a lot about from pulpits and churches anymore. God's going to judge the wicked. And the Word of God tells us that that judgment is coming someday. Look at what it says over in Luke chapter 16, a very familiar passage of scripture. There was a rich man. and Lazarus. Verse 19, it says, there was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gates, full of sores and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abram's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and sees Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Some people say, and they try to explain away scripture and say this is just a parable. Well let me tell you, if this is just a parable, how much worse is hell in reality. Notice here he lifted up his eyes in torments. He was being tormented and yet he could see Abraham afar off. And Lazarus, that beggar, that he ignored on this earth, in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. In other words, that might not even be a drop of water, just a wet finger to touch my tongue. and cool it, for I'm tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that you in your lifetime received thy good things, likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he's comforted and you are tormented. Beside all this between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us, that we come from thence. Then he said, I pray you, therefore, Father, that you would send them to my father's house. for I've got five brothers, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. And Abraham said unto him, They have Moses, and they have the prophets, they've got the Old Testament. Let them hear them. And he said, No, father Abraham, but if one went back from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." That was kind of like a prophetic little saying there. Jesus rose from the dead, and you know what? People still do not believe. And they're going to end up in torment someday. The Word of God tells us, and I'll close with this, over in the book of Revelation. Notice in Revelation chapter 20, Revelation chapter 20 and down in verse 11. The Apostle John says, I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it from whose face the earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those books which were written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it. And death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." This great white throne judgment scene, it's for those that are classified as wicked. And the wicked would be those who know not Christ. Those who live for self, and they try to get everything out of this life they can, they are going to experience that second death. Death and hell. Cast into the lake of fire, where the worm dies not. Where there is eternal torment. That is a reality from God's Word. Jesus spoke on hell more than he did on heaven. It's a reality. And we should not desire anyone to go to hell. No matter how evil somebody might be, you know what, we need to pray for our enemies. We need to bless those that persecute us. We need to reach out with the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. If they don't hear from you, whom God's placed you in their life at this particular time, who will they hear from? Oh, may we be bold in our witness. Let's have a word of prayer and then we're gonna sing a song. Father, we thank you for your word. Psalm 119. Lord, how it emphasizes your word and how precious it is, and how we ought to love it, and how we ought to love you, and be committed to telling others of your goodness and marvelous grace. We ask that you work in our hearts, work in our lives, draw us ever closer to you for Christ's sake. Amen.