Spiritual Gifts part 67. Father, my life is in Your hands.

Pastor-Teacher
John Farley
Thursday,
December 30, 2010

Spiritual Gifts Part 67: Father, my life is in Your hands.

The Doctrine of Adoption

To be a son is to be obedient.

To suffer is to learn.

Son of God by nature (deity) though He was [A], He learned [B] from the things He suffered [B] —obedience! [A]"

The essence of sonship is obedience.

All but 3 of its 176 verses speak directly of the Word of God or one of its synonyms: law, word, judgments, testimony, commandment, statutes, precepts.

This psalm 119 employs 8 different Hebrew words to refer to the Word of God.

Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem. It has 176 verses. It is organized into 22 stanzas each with 8 verses.

In the Bible, 8 is the number of new beginnings.

There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet.

In this acrostic poem, Psalm 119, each stanza is dedicated to one Hebrew letter, and they occur in order.

The remarkable thing about the acrostic poem is that each line, each verse in the stanza, begins with the Hebrew letter that is being featured.

Each verse in stanza 9 begins with the 9th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, teth.
And each verse in stanza 10 begins with the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, yodh.

The writer of Psalm 119 was going through horrible suffering as he composed these stanzas.

The teth pictures a snake, or a hand ready to grip another. It means to surround, and represents relationship.

Jesus Christ holds out to every person the offer of a relationship with God, the relationship of adopted sons and daughters, by faith.

The yodh pictures a cupped hand, a hand closing, prepared to take hold of something and ready to work.

It means deeds or works, and so represents divine production.

The yodh pictures a cupped hand, a hand closing, prepared to take hold of something and ready to work.

The psalmist sees God’s hands fashioning him through teachings, chastisement, comfort and compassion.

This signifies the obedience of adult sons and daughters of the Father.

The kaph pictures an empty hand, open and ready to be filled. It symbolizes the palm of the Lord’s hand.

It represents the outstretched hand of spiritual need.

The kaph pictures an empty hand, open and ready to be filled. It symbolizes the palm of the Lord’s hand.

Its meaning is to cover, to allow, and to provide strength.

It refers to someone being held and comforted, or being sustained under the power of another.

This letter points to the tender comfort that the Father provides for His adult sons and daughters when they go through suffering or affliction.

So we have
the hand of relationship,
the hand of workmanship, and the hand of compassion in the 9th, 10th, and 11th letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

These letters are the focal points for the 9th, 10th, and 11th stanzas of Psalm 119. These stanzas deal with affliction, learning, and obedience to the word of God.

ISA 49:16
“Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;”

Christ at the cross was obedient to His Father’s will even though it meant suffering.