Praising God for the Wonder of His Word

If you have your Bible with you, and I hope you do, turn with me to Psalm 119.
Psalm 119, and I want you, as you're turning there, to imagine that you have
arrived at class and it's an impromptu assignment this morning. You remember when you
got to class and the teacher said, get out a piece of paper, we're gonna have a
quiz. Now go back, we don't want that up there yet. Just go to the Psalms, there
you go, thank you. But imagine You've arrived at Psalm one night, or you've arrived
at class, and there is, you've been handed several pieces of paper and a pen,
and the teacher says, "Here's your assignment in class today. You're going to take
as long as you need, but I want you to write either an essay or a poem, and I
want you to reflect in your essay or your poem your appreciation for, your love
for, the value of God's word in your life. You have as long as you need, take as
much time as you want. It can be as short or as long as you'd like for it to
be. How long before you'd be done?
How much would you have to say if that was your assignment this morning?
How much would you have to reflect on? Would it be easy or hard? How many pages
do you think you could fill? And maybe more important would what you write on the
paper actually be what's true about your own life as it relates to God's word.
Because we can say all kinds of flowery things about how important God's word is.
The question is, is that true for us? Do we treat God's word like it is as
important as we might say it is? Psalm 119 is a hymn of praise for God's people
to come together and sing where this psalmist, and we don't know who it is or we
don't know the context or in what setting this was written, but this psalmist is
pouring out his praise to God for his word. He's expressing the great value of
God's word, the blessing that he finds in God's word. And I want you to get you
oriented to the Psalm this morning before we dig in to see what it says. This is
the longest Psalm in the Bible. This is 176 verses.
It's actually the longest chapter in the Bible. Actually this Psalm is longer by
verse count than 31 books of the Bible.
There are more verses in Psalm 119 than there are in Galatians,
Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, first and second Thessalonians, Titus,
Philemon, James. I mean, we can go through not only New Testament,
Old Testament, there's a lot that this Psalmist has to say about the value of God's
words. Very interesting, a unique psalm. It was written for corporate worship and
there are 22 verses, 22 stanzas in this psalm. You think about singing a hymn that
has 22 stanzas in it. That's what this psalm is. Each stanza has eight verses.
And the reason it has 22 stanzas is because there are 22 letters in the Hebrew
alphabet, and each stanza takes a letter from the Hebrew alphabet,
and each line in the verse begins with that letter. It's an acrostic Psalm.
So let me now put up the page. So this is what it looks like in your Bible. If
you've got your Bible in the lab, you can look at mine or you can look there, but
look right in the middle of that first paragraph. paragraph. See where it says
"elef"? Can you, is there an arrow there? Yeah, right there.
See where it says "elef"? That's the first Hebrew letter, the "a", and in the first
eight verses, every line, every, in the, in each verse, begins with the Hebrew
letter "a". And then you look down and there's the letter, there's "beth", which is
the second Hebrew Hebrew letter. Do we have an arrow for that too? I think we do.
Oh, yeah, we zoom in. Now you can see it closer. So there it is. So there's the
A left and there's the Beth. Your Bible, does it have those same markers in there?
Those Hebrew letters all the way through? So this is an ABC book about God's Word.
You have ABC books for your kids at home, right? Where there are different letters.
You know, Z is the xylophone every time because That's the only Z word we know.
But this is a Jewish song. It's a hymn. It's the Hebrew book,
the ABC book all about God's word. God's word from A to Z, or in this case, from
A left to Ta, which is the Hebrew letters. The Psalm uses eight different words in
Hebrew to refer to God's word. So these words are often translated this way.
God's word is sometimes called the law, it's sometimes called His word,
sometimes called the testimony, the rules, the commandments, the statutes,
the precepts, and the promises. And all of these words, while they're sometimes used
interchangeably, have little different shades of meaning about them. So God's law
refers to God's direction. It's to be obeyed. This is what God has told us to do,
we're to obey it. God's word is anything God says. God's testimonies are God as the
expert witness revealing what is true about sin and disobedience. God's rules are his
instructions related to right what's right and what's wrong. God's commandments are
his, they're like his law, it's the non -negotiables that God gives us. His statutes
list our duties to him and our duties to one another. His precepts are wisdom and
guidance for life and his promises are enduring eternal words of blessing that God
gives to us. So this is a psalm that is a celebration of all of the aspects of
God's word, the totality of God's word. The psalmist loves every part of God's word,
every promise, every precept, every rule, every commandment. He loves it, not just
the good verses, not just the ones you put on coffee mugs or on the backs of t
-shirts. He loves all of it. He knows that all scripture is profitable.
All scripture is inspired all scripture has worth and value and he has overcome with
joy and praise because he recognizes how special God's word is how blessed we are
to have it that God is a God who reveals himself to us that he discloses himself
to us God is not a silent God he's not a hidden God he's a God who has spoken
and has revealed himself to us through his word. Now here's what hit me as I was
meditating on and studying this Psalm over the last several weeks. This Psalmist
wrote this hymn of praise to God's word when he was probably reflecting exclusively
on the first five books of the Bible, what we call the Pentateuch. We don't know
exactly when he wrote this, but when he's Thinking about God's word, God's law,
God's precepts, his commandments, he's probably thinking about those rolled up scrolls
that are in the temple that contain the word of God. This psalmist does not have a
Bible at home, likely. You didn't have Bibles back in those days.
If he wanted access to God's word, he had to go down to where it was. And there
were periods in Jewish history, where it was stored away and nobody was paying any
attention to it.
So he might have simply been an Israelite who had heard God's word spoken,
had memorized large portions of God's word. That's what he would have known, but the
word we're talking about is the Pentateuch. And what he has heard, what he has read
in the first five books of the Bible, thrill his soul, so much so that he's got
176 verses where he describes how thrilling this is, the wonder and the power and
the majesty of his word. He doesn't have any New Testament. He doesn't have any
Jesus. And he's still thrilled with what God is revealing. He most likely has no
idea that this hymn that he's writing will one day be God's revealed word to us.
He doesn't know he's writing scripture. He's simply pouring out a heart of praise to
God I'm just wondering how many of you as you have read through numbers and
Leviticus if you've read through numbers and Leviticus have found Yourself, this is
so thrilling. My heart is so full reading here in numbers, right? I Mean there are
there are chapters where you get there and you kind of go can we get through this
really? Do I need to know the dimensions of the temple today? do I need to know
what the gold overlay was all about?
But this psalmist crafts twenty -two stanzas, him a praise to God about the wonder
of his word, and here's why, catch this, this is the key to all of it, the reason
the psalmist is so overcome with joy and praise for God and for his word is
because it is through his word that he came to know the God who's the author of
the word. That's what's at the heart of all of this. His praise for God's word is
because of what God's word has revealed to him, which is the God who is behind his
word. He loves God's word because he has come to love the God who is revealed
through his word. And he has experienced then, in coming to know God, his experience
that God's word can be transformative and life -changing in his own life once you
know the God who has revealed it. This is critical.
The Bible, God's word, is only another book of poetry and history and ethics until
or unless you know the God who is the author of it. That's when it becomes alive.
That's when it has its power. The Bible has no power,
no divine power in the life of a person who doesn't know the God who is the
author of it. It's simply another book. It's words on a page. Is it wise? Yes.
Is there, can an unbeliever read God's word and go, "That makes a good point.
That's interesting. Sure they can do that." But for God's word to have power, It
only has power when you come to know the God who is the author of it. This was,
by the way, my experience as a young man. So when I first heard the gospel in
high school and started reading my Bible, I remember in reading my Bible,
I was not getting much out of what I was reading. I mean, the stories were
interesting and I liked this point or that point and I'd remember some But it it
didn't have power until somebody sat me down and said I don't think you really get
it. He was right He showed me the reality of my sin, which I had been minimizing
He showed me the glory of God, which I had also been minimizing at that point
There was a real transformation that took place in my life and as a result of that
transformation. I had a hunger To want to know the God who is revealed in
Scripture, I had questions, I wanted to dig into the Bible, I was studying it, I
bought commentaries and I had, I still have some of the legal pads where I would
take notes back then and write down and try to get answers to things. When I came
to know Christ in that summer before my junior year in college, what became
immediately true about me was I wanted to read God's Word. I wanted to study God's
Word. I wanted to tell other people about God's Word. I wanted to hear it preached.
I wanted to memorize it. I wanted to live my life according to it. God's Word is
a fine book. It's even a great book for those who don't know the author of it.
But when you come to know God, it's a different book. It's a powerful book. It
becomes glorious because it shows you the person who is behind it.
I agree with theologian Richard Pratt who says this about God's word. He says the
reality is we can't even understand the depths of what God has said, much less find
the energy for putting it into effect in our lives unless we are communing
personally, engaging personally, encountering dramatically the presence of God in our
lives. The key to Psalm 119 thrilling your soul as it does the Psalmist is you
have to know the God whose word this is. So two things to keep in mind as we
look at this Psalm this morning. First, it's a fair question for you to ask if you
don't have a passion or a hunger or a love for God's word. If you're not motivated
to read it or study it or meditate on it or memorize it. If it doesn't thrill
your heart the way it thrills the heart of the almost here, it's fair to ask
yourself, do I know the God whose word this is?
If you see other people who just can't get enough of God's word and you think to
yourself, yeah, I'm not like them, you ought to ask, why not?
Second thing to keep in mind as we look at this is that the purpose and the power
and the value of God's word is ultimately where it takes you. It It leads you to
God into a deeper knowledge, a deeper understanding of him and his ways. It will
deepen your relationship with him. We have to be careful. There are some people,
because of their love for God's word and its power in our lives, we want to
elevate it and make it the fourth person of the quadrinity. It would have to be
the quadrinity when there were four. Or some people will say, "The Trinity is
Father, Son, and Bible." And they just take the Holy Spirit out of that. That's not
what the Bible teaches. The Bible is there to point us to the Father, the Son, and
the Spirit. It is by the Spirit, the Bible is the sword of the Spirit and the
hand of the Spirit to do his work. Do we love and value God's word? Yes, but we
love and value God's word because it points us to the God who we ultimately
treasure. So God's Word is a tool we love because of where that tool takes us.
The reason we have to be careful about this is because some people love God's Word
because it makes them smarter and makes them look better. Okay? You follow me on
this? Some people love God's Word because if they know God's Word they look good in
front of other people.
The Bible even talks about this. The Bible talks about knowledge. In the King James
it says knowledge puffeth up. People who have a superior knowledge of God's word can
get all puffed up and become self -righteous and become self -important.
And we have to be careful that we don't become proud that the Bible does not turn
us into proud, self righteous, puffed -up people.
No, if the Bible doesn't take you to the God who then humbles you in his presence,
then you're not reading the Bible right. I have to say, it is not lost on me that
I had determined I wanted to teach this Psalm several weeks ago before I knew that
this would be the week that John MacArthur would go home and go to be with the
Lord. In my first decade of my spiritual life in the 80s, there is no one who had
a bigger impact on my understanding of God's word than John MacArthur. I probably
listened to 500 sermons. Back then, the church where he was a pastor,
Grace Community Church out in California, had a tape lending library. You didn't have
to buy the tapes, you could just check them out, even if you didn't live there. So
I would send in my order form and I would order 32 tapes to check out at a time
and I would listen to 16 of them and then I would put those 16 in an envelope I
would pick 16 new ones that I wanted to listen to and I would mail those back and
while we were waiting for it to go back and forth I was listening to the other 16
so we called it bicycling those cassette tapes back in the day and and I just had
a constant supply in my car there was always a John carter tape, I could listen
to. I learned not only about the Bible, but I learned about God, and I learned to
love for the power of God's word because of how faithfully John MacArthur taught it
through those years. And so I think it's fitting that in this week when we're
reflecting on his life in ministry, many of us are, it's fitting to be here in
Psalm 119. We're not gonna read all 176 verses as we typically read the passage
we're going to study, but it would take 25 minutes to read all of it. I timed it.
That's what it would take. And so we're going to do an overview of this.
Actually, we're not going to work our way verse by verse as we typically do if
you're visiting with us. We typically try to go verse by verse and go deep. 176
verses. We're going to go kind of a bird's eye view, helicopter interview over the
top of this. I found some sermon series online, 22 series,
one on each of the stanzas. That would be a profitable thing to go through. If
you'd like to go really deeper in this psalm, you can get this book by the Puritan
Thomas Manton. He preached 190 sermons on Psalm 119.
This book is more than 3 ,100 pages long, and it's, I haven't read it all,
but what I've read is profitable. So what you'll get from me in the time we have
this morning is an overview and some of my takeaways from my time in this Psalm.
We will be dipping our toes in the waters of this Psalm, and we're going to start
just by reading the first eight verses together. Before we read, let me again pray,
Father, we ask for your help. We want your spirit to be our teacher this morning
we thank you for your word and the revelation of yourself in your word speak to us
by your spirit through your word we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.
Here is the word of God for the people of God Psalm 119 beginning at verse 1. The
psalmist says, "Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
who seek Him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong but walk in His ways.
You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. O, that my ways may be
steadfast in keeping your statutes. Then I shall not be put to shame, having my
eyes fixed on all your commandments. I will praise you with an upright heart when I
learn your righteous rules. I will keep your statutes. Do not utterly forsake me.
Amen. May God bless this reading of his word. The grass withers and the flower
fades. The word of our God will stand forever. So here's what we're going to look
at this morning. I want us to see the riches that are found in God's word. I want
us to see how we are to rightly respond to God's word, and then I want us to
think briefly about why it is we tend to neglect God's word. What is it that
causes us to neglect his word? So let's look at the riches of God's word first. I
started this morning with a pretend assignment about writing an essay about why you
love God's word, but here's a real assignment for you for this week. I want you to
take this Psalm this week, take a few minutes each day, and read four stanzas,
24 verses. No, that's three stanzas. Three stanzas, 24 verses. Okay,
just three stanzas, 24 verses. And if you do that Monday through Friday, no,
it's got to be four stanzas. So Read four of them. Yeah, read four, there are 22.
If you read four a day, four stanzas, so that's how many verses, that's 32 verses.
32 verses. If you read four a day, then when you get to Friday, you'll just have
two stanzas left. You'll have read 20, you'll have 22. And each day when you read
your four stanzas, I want you to go to the verse and say, "What does this tell me
about the benefit "that is found in God's word. Let me show you what I'm talking
about here. If we look at verse nine. So verse nine says, how can a young man
keep his way pure by guarding it according to your word? What's the benefit there?
If I want to live a life of purity and holiness before God, which should be my
desire as a follower of Jesus, if that's what I want my life to look like, God's
word is going to be a benefit. It will help me keep my way pure. So God, your
word helps me keep my way pure. Look at verse 10, "With my whole heart I seek
you, let me not wander from your commandments. If I want to know who God is, the
true God, the God who made the heavens and the earth, if I'm seeking him and want
to be in his presence, his commandments will lead me there. They will keep me from
wandering away to other places. God's word will keep me stable and anchored in God.
Look at verse 11, we'll just do this one more time. I have stored up your word in
my heart that I might not sin against you. You probably know that one, thy word
have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you. When I take God's word
and memorize it, it will have power and protection against sin. God will use it in
my own life to protect me from Falling into temptation You see how you can come up
with your own list of the riches that are found in God's word Just by going
through one verse and saying what's the benefit that is that is identified in that
verse I did this recently And and I came up with seven categories Because as you
go through this you you start to see oh he said that before but he's saying it a
little different way here I came up with seven categories that the psalmist seems to
come back to over and over again. Seven areas where God's word is a source of
blessing or a benefit for those who know him and trust him and believe in him.
So I'm gonna walk you through my seven categories and maybe you'll see that as you
go through it yourself this week. Here's the first category. When you need wisdom or
guidance in life, the psalmist as God's word will give you, it will be your source
of wisdom and guidance. Now there are a lot of verses in this Psalm that speak to
the fact that God's word gives wisdom and guidance. Here's a couple of them. Psalm
119 verse 98 says, "Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies,
"for it is ever with me. "I have more understanding than all my teachers, "for your
These are my meditation, I understand more than the age of it, for I keep your
precepts.
So if you're looking for guidance, if you need divine wisdom, if you need God to
direct your life, the Bible says look here, God's wisdom is found here, you'll find
guidance and direction that you need, and wisdom here by the way is different than
knowledge. So knowledge is knowing the facts, wisdom is being able to apply those
skillfully in your life. There are people who may not have all the facts,
but they know how to apply it right. There are some people who have all the facts
and don't know how to apply it. Wisdom is to be valued. And God's word is the
ultimate source of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the
Bible tells us. And according to this verse, it makes you wiser than your enemies,
wiser than your teachers, wiser than your elders. If you lack wisdom, the Bible
says, ask God for it, and God says, if you need wisdom, I've given you a
storehouse of it in my word. Here's another verse you know, Psalm 119,
105. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
When the way ahead is dark and I don't know where to go and I'm afraid of
stumbling. When I need clarity, when I need perspective, when I need illumination,
God's word will give me that direction.
Who doesn't need wisdom? If you're thinking, well, I don't, you've just proven that
you do, okay?
Who doesn't need guidance and direction for their life? And here's the thing,
we look for it in all the wrong places. We go,
I need wisdom. I wonder what the Reddit thread says about that. I need guidance.
I'm gonna check Instagram. I get such wisdom from my social media influencers.
I need wisdom. I'm gonna ask my unwise friends what they think. We should seek
godly counsel. That's a good thing to do, but many of us are seeking wisdom from
fools
We're going to self -help books and podcasts. We think Joe Rogan can really help me
straighten out my life
Listen what you've got on your lap On your device you have the wisdom and counsel
of the Almighty God who is infinite in his wisdom And you're going somewhere else?
Okay, one category for God's word, it gives you wisdom and guidance. Here's the
second one. It is a source of protection for us from sin and from harm.
We just read it in verse 11. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not
sin against thee. Look at verse 114. You are a hiding place and my shield.
I hope in your word, in God's word we find protection. It's a shield, it provides,
he's our hiding place. He's the God of refuge and strength. He's the ever present
help in time of trouble, Psalm 46 says. His word reminds us of these things over
and over again. His word points us to him as our defense, our shield, our place of
refuge. Are there times in your life when you need protection? When you need safety,
shelter from harm? Of course there are. Turn to God's word in those times and be
reminded of the promises that God has made to his children to protect and to defend
them. That's how God's word strengthens you in the middle of these challenges.
Remember Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. The same God who feeds the sparrows
and waters the lilies cares for us and protects us. He's the one who provides for
you. And in Psalm 119 verse 133,
"Keep steady my steps according to your promise, let no iniquity get dominion over
me." If you're wrestling with a persistent sin pattern in your life, whether it's
anger or gossip or some kind of sexual sin or self -righteousness, whatever it is.
God's word is the sword of the Spirit, the scalpel of the Spirit to cut away the
cancer of sin in your life and to help give you eternal life.
God's word is our source of protection. It's also a source of spiritual refreshment
and comfort. "Is your soul weary and depleted?" There are times when we get
spiritually worn out, where we just don't have it in us. God has promised his word
will refresh you in those times. God's word will breathe life and strength into your
soul. Verse 50 of Psalm 119, "This is my comfort in my affliction.
Your promises Give me life in the midst of your affliction.
You turn to God's word and say I need life I need my soul to be comforted.
I need to be refreshed We sometimes sing oh soul. Are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see There's light for a look at the Savior life more
abundant and free turn your eyes upon Jesus. How do we turn our eyes upon Jesus?
We go to God's Word. God's Word is the source. It's the place you go when your
soul is weary.
Excuse me. That's because as the psalmist tells us, God's Word is our source of
delight and hope. And that's the next thing we need to see. God's Word is the
source of delight and joy and hope. Verse 77, "Let your mercy come to me that I
may live, for your law is my delight."
Verse 47, "For I find my delight in your commandments which I love." Now can I
just be honest with you, most of the time when I'm reading God's commandments I'm
not thinking these are so delightful. I just love these commandments. But most of
the time it feels restrictive or it feels burdensome to me. But this psalmist has
come to a place where he goes, "No, there's real, there's life here. Obedience
brings life. There's joy here." Verse 54, "Your statutes have been my songs in the
house of my sojourning." This is his playlist.
God's promises, God's precepts, God's commandments are what he's singing all the day
long that bring joy and life and delight to him. There are seasons for all of us
when joy is absent, when delight is out of reach, when you're low on hope. You've
been through those seasons. Maybe you're in one of those right now. The psalmist
says, "If you Come to God in prayer, open his word, read it, believe his promises,
trust his commands, live them out, your joy can be restored. He will renew your
hope. And you say, "I've tried that and it didn't work." And I would say, "Keep
trying." Do it again. And again tomorrow, there will be a breakthrough.
If this is where you are this morning, you just need to flood your soul with the
word of God, with the promises of God. If you tried it yesterday and it didn't do
any good, try it today and tomorrow and the next day. Have God's word become the
soundtrack of your life. Have it be your playlist, have it be your songs in the
night. God's word is also the place we turn to get understanding about what really
matters in life, what's truly valuable. Where are our ultimate riches? Psalm 119 .72
says, "The law of your mouth is better to me "than thousands of gold and silver
pieces." If I made you an offer this morning, you know, McBeast, you know that guy
on YouTube, have you seen Mr. Beast, or Mr. Beast, that's who he is, okay, not
McBeast, Mr. Beast, so Mr. Beast comes and makes these offers I watch one this week
where he went to a guy and said if you can live In this airplane for a hundred
days. It's yours object Okay, so you're making these crazy things these crazy offers
if I came to you this morning and said I will give you a million dollars a
Million I'll write the check this morning. Here's the only condition, you have to
give up God's word for the rest of your life. No Bibles can't hear it preached,
can't hear it talked about, it's gonna be completely out of your hearing for the
rest of your life. God's word goes away, you get a million dollars.
Would you be tempted? I mean a million dollars, a million dollars, right? You think
I could probably skate by just on what I have memorized, I can't lose that, but
you're never going to hear a preach, you're never going to hear a Bible to turn
to?
The Bible's telling you that would be the path to ruin. Your million dollars would
stink.
God's word is more valuable than that. Verse 127, "I love your commandments above
gold, above fine gold.
Your life will be richer as you study and obey and trust in God's word than it
will ever be if you have a big bank account apart from God's word. Nothing wrong
with having a big bank account. It's a big bank account apart from God's word.
That's the problem. And I know you're saying, can I have both please? All right,
well, take it to Proverbs where it says, give me neither poverty nor riches. Gotta
be careful what you wish for. Okay, God's word also is where we find the promise
of his blessing or his favor. The psalmist says it this way as a prayer in verse
135. Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your statutes.
Wouldn't you like to have God's face shining on you? You know how it is when you
were in school and you did something and the teacher was just beaming at what you
were doing. You got up to give your report and the teacher is in the back and
he's just standing there and smiling. You know how it just kind of made your heart
swell or when your mom or your dad were smiling you got the hit and got to first
base and your dad's up there going way to go and it just caused your heart to
swell. That's God's favor. That's God's blessing. his face shining on you. Make your
face shine upon your servant. Teach me your statutes. There's a connection there.
Back in verse 65, he acknowledges that it's as he puts himself under God's word and
submits to it that he experiences God's blessing. Verse 65 says, "You have dealt
well with your servant, "O Lord, according to your word." Here's a clear
relationship. Listen to this. A clear relationship between your submission to God's
word and your experience of God's blessing.
That must say that again. There's a clear connection between your submission to God's
word and your experience of his blessing. Don't submit to his word, his blessing
will be out of reach. Submit to his word, even in hard times, you will have the
blessing of God on your life. Read the book of Malachi sometime. In the book of
Malachi, all of the Jewish leaders go to God and they say, oh Lord, why have you
removed your hand of blessing from us? And God says, because you failed to keep my
word. And he takes them through and says, you got this problem. You got this
problem. You got this problem. He's laying it out. It's their refusal to submit to
God's word that removes the blessing of God from the people of Israel, it's true in
your life as well. When you are stubborn and hard -hearted against God's word,
God withholds blessing. If you want his favor and blessing in your life, you submit
to his word. Last category that I came up with, you may come up with more of
these when you do your own project this week. But God's word is our source of
salvation and life, real life, abundant life. We talked back in our study of
Revelation about the Zoe, the Greek word for life that means not just biological
life, but means abundant life, real living, living in Shalom,
in the peace of God. The psalmist knows that life and salvation come to us from
God through his word. Verse 40, "Behold, I long for your precepts,
in your righteousness give me life. Let your steadfast love come to me, oh Lord,
your salvation according to your promises. He knows life and salvation are found as
he gets to know God through his word. Verse 81, my soul longs for your salvation,
I hope in your word. The psalmist is telling us that everything for which our soul
longs, longs. The longing to be free from the power and penalty of sin. The longing
for our lives, to have the kind of life that we were created to have, where
there's peace. We can't find this apart from God. We can't find it apart from His
Word. We will find it in God as we look for Him to His Word. And it's key.
It's not, again, it's not God's Word that brings you life and salvation. It is the
God who has spoken, who brings it. The word is simply the vehicle through which his
power comes to your life. But all these promises and benefits we've just looked at,
you will not find these blessings true in your life if you don't first know the
God who has made the promises and who promises these blessings. In the New
Testament, the Bible tells us that the message of the gospel, the message of Jesus
coming, living a perfect life of obedience, dying on a cross, and then rising again
from the dead in order that our sins could be forgiven. This message, it says, is
foolishness to the perishing. The people who don't know God look at the gospel,
and they go, "That's ridiculous." The people who don't know God look at God's word,
and they go, "Oh, there's some very nice things in there." Yes, but they don't See
it for what it really is. It's not until you come to know and believe and trust
in God, follow him, submit your life to him that this treasury of promises is
opened to you. All these benefits that we've looked at from God's word are for
those who believe. They are empty and powerless, and they sound like foolishness to
those who have never surrendered to God. So if you're looking for wisdom and
guidance in your life. If you need protection from sin and harm, if you need
refreshment for your soul, you need comfort for your soul. You want joy and peace
and delight and hope. You want ultimate riches. You want God's blessing and you want
the abundant life. It's all available to those who believe the treasury of this
truth is found in God's word. It's unlocked for those who surrender themselves to
Jesus. Have you done that? Do you know the God who has spoken these words?
And when I say know him, I'm not talking about just knowing facts about him. I'm
talking about being involved in a daily living active vital relationship with him.
That's what knowing him is. The Hebrew word for know means to have an intimate
relationship with. Do you have an intimate relationship with the God of the universe,
who is your daily companion. That's what we're talking about when we talk about
knowing the God of the Bible.
If you know him, then this treasury is open to you. If you don't know him,
today can be a spiritual turning point. Or you can recognize that you have been
distant from him, that you've been apart from him, that your sin has kept you from
him. You recognize the reality of your sin and your need for a savior. You
surrender to Jesus. You say, I want to follow you. I want the blessings to be true
in my life. I will follow you wherever you lead me and God will open these doors
for you. He'll rescue you. Now, we've covered a lot already this morning. It's a
big psalm, but two more things and we'll cover these quickly. First of all, how
should we respond to God's word according to this Psalm.
What's the right way to respond? Well, first we should delight in God's word. Verse
24, your testimonies are my delight. They are my counselors. Second,
I long, or this is verse 174, I long for your salvation, oh Lord, and your law is
my delight. You should read God's word and find joy and delight in it.
Second, you should obey it. We saw that when we started this morning. The first
five verses that we read through are all about I will keep your law, I will keep
your commandments. It starts with this framework of obedience. Verse 60 says I hasten
and do not delay to keep your commandments.
So you delight in it, You obey it third. You follow it. That's kind of a parallel
to obeying it Verse 112 says I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever to
the end
That's that's an activity. Look what the psalmist is saying. I incline my heart I I
lean my heart in the direction of your statutes Forever to the end That's That's a
decision you make every day, to lean in the direction of God's statutes, to incline
your heart in that direction. Most of us make the decision to incline our heart in
a different direction, in the Facebook direction, or in whatever direction you are
searching for delight, you find it over here. No, the Psalmist says I'm gonna
incline my heart in the direction of your word forever to the end. Finally,
you're not only
Delight in it, follow it, obey it, but you also tell other people about it.
Verse 171, "My lips will pour forth praise, for you teach me your statutes,
my tongue will sing of your word, for all your commandments are right." If you love
God and His word, it's going to pour out of you to others.
Now, if all of these things delighting, following, obeying, telling others,
if this sounds familiar it's because they're on these banners over here. This is
nothing new. This is what we've been talking about. This is the path of
discipleship. It's how we live our lives. It's what mature followers of Christ do.
Do you respond to God's word with delight? Do you worship him? Do you follow it?
Do you obey it? Do you tell others about it? If not, why not?
In fact, that's the last question I want us to look at this morning. Why don't we
prioritize God's word? Why don't we neglect it? I'll give you six reasons why I
think we neglect God's word. Here's the first one. We are easily distracted people.
They are easily distracted. We see shiny things and we say, look at that.
This happens to me when I'm reading my Bible. I'll be seven verses in and I'll go,
oh, I need to check this. I was gonna order that on Amazon, right? I'm just, I
go, it's like in the middle of Bible reading, I can't stay focused. I'm easily
distracted. I think there's a reason why I'm more easily distracted reading the Bible
than in other things. And I'll get to that reason here in just a minute, but it's
kind of like the dog on a squirrel, you know It's like the anything that passes by
when you're reading the Bible squirrel. You're off in the other direction Here's a
second reason Spiritual -mindedness is not natural You are not naturally Spiritually
-minded you are naturally currently minded That's how you started life. Currently
minded. We have to set our minds on things above, Colossians says. You have to
intentionally set your mind in the right direction in order to be spiritually
focused. Your mind is not going to go in a spiritual direction by itself. You have
to purpose, you have to be intentional to set your mind in that direction. Here's
the third reason. We don't prioritize the scripture, we neglect it 'cause we don't
like pain. Jesus said following him would include suffering,
and most of us don't like that idea. I don't like that idea. So when we're
confronted with hard things, painful things, we look the other way. We default toward
ease and comfort instead of obedience. Here's the fourth reason. We try to go it
alone. So one of the reasons you neglect God's word is you're trying to do it as
a solo sport, God intended for his word to be read and understood and studied in
community with other people. If you're looking for a way to reinvigorate your study
of God's word, do it with other people. Find a second person or a third person and
say, could we study this together? Could we go through this together? Could we get
lunch this week? Could you help me with this? Get into a Bible study. Get into a
small group. Come to corporate worship, have some accountability.
Here's a fifth reason you neglect God's word, 'cause the devil doesn't want you to
pay attention to God's word. He wants you to neglect it. I think that's why Amazon
pops into my mind when I'm reading the Bible, 'cause I think the devil's saying,
aren't there some other things you should be thinking about? I think we are prone
and tempted to go in that direction. And the sixth reason we might neglect God's
word is 'cause we don't know God. I've said it over and over again this morning,
but if you don't know God, God's word is gonna be foolishness. It's not gonna have
power. It's not gonna have meaning for you. If I gave you the owner's manual to a
car that you don't own, would you wanna study that? I mean, you read it and go,
this is interesting, but it wouldn't have any meaning for you. No, it's the owner's
manual for the car you own that matters to you. If I gave you a box of letters
written by a father to his son or a mother to a daughter. And I said,
you should read these, these are good. But you don't know the mother or the
daughter, you're not the daughter, you would read them and go, that's interesting.
But if I gave you a box of letters from your dad written to you, or your mom
written to you that you'd never seen before, you would go, I wanna know what these
said. You would have a different interest if you know the God of the universe if
you have a relationship with him His book is his letter to you
You realize what we've got here do you realize what's sitting in your lap this book
that is full of rich blessings and What makes it a great gift is it's the portal
through which we come to know him? He is the gift That's what the psalmist is
trying to sell us in Psalm 119. I'm gonna close with a long quote from a Puritan,
but before I get to that, look back at the first verse in Psalm 119. It says,
"Blessed are those whose way is blameless, "who walk in the law of the Lord."
Pretty good summary of the whole Psalm. Anchor your life, your words,
your thoughts, and your actions. Anchor it in God's word, and you will experience
God's blessing. Now look at the last verse, verse 176,
"I have gone astray like a sheep,
seek your servant,
for I do not forget your commandments." After 175 verses of extoling the goodness of
God's word, the Psalmist comes to a point where he goes, "I gotta confess, I've
gone astray."
In fact, in the Hebrew, it's really I am continually going astray. I continue to go
astray. It's not I did this once.
In the final sermon that Thomas Mannion preached on Psalm 119,
sermon number 190, he said some things about this verse that I think are very
helpful for those of us who are predisposed to stray by nature who are prone to
wander." Here's how Manion says it. He says, "After grace received," after you become
a Christian, "though our heart was set to walk with God for the main, yet we often
swerve from our rule through ignorance or through inadvertency,
and sometimes are blinded by worldly desires and fleshly lusts, and so transgress our
bounds and neglect our duty. Anybody look at that and say, I can relate to that?
Yeah?
I read that and I thought, well, I'm glad I'm not the only one.
He said, we're all gonna go astray, and he said, by the way, we're gonna go astray
like sheep. That's what the Bible says. All we like sheep have gone astray, not
like dogs. When dogs go astray, They find their way home. When sheep go astray,
they never find their way back home. They need a shepherd to come find them. It's
the difference between dogs and sheep. You're a sheep, not a dog. When you stray,
you don't find your way back home. The Lord has to come and find you and pull you
back in.
And I'm gonna read an extended quote from Manion, the last word on this Psalm this
morning. This is rich, but you gotta follow along with me. I'll read it slowly. He
Because the last verse in Psalm 119 shows us our need of the new covenant,
wherein the pardon of sins is established. All the saints that ever lived have had
their failings and what would become of them, even of God's own children,
if there were not a forgiving God and a gracious covenant away found out to remit
their offenses. We've all had our failings. What would our hope be if we didn't
have a forgiving God? He goes on to say, "This teaches us, again, the necessity of
dependence upon God's care and power for our spiritual preservation. Of all creatures,
sheep need a shepherd, so do we. A spiritual shepherd to keep us from straying,
to reduce us from our wanderings, to weaken our distemper to drive away the wolf.
You need a shepherd, don't you?" He says, "We have a shepherd who loves us,
whereof he hath given full proof and demonstration in that he died for us. John 10
-11, I am the good shepherd that lay down my life for the sheep." Manion says,
"He is not only a great shepherd, as called sometimes. But he is the good shepherd.
He gave his life in a way of ransom to expiate our sins. When he came to seek
and save that which was lost, his first work was to redeem them by his blood.
If he could find in his heart to redeem us by his blood and expiate all our
faults, he will forever us. I have gone astray.
Lead me back to you is how the Psalmist ends this extended Psalm.
And for some of you here this morning that's the prayer you need to be praying.
Lord I have gone astray. Lead me back to you and here's the good news. He will.
He will come and seek you and find you and bring you home and surround you in his
love and forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness and restore to
you the joy and the peace and the delight and the comfort that your heart longs
for. He has promised it to you by his word. Pray with me.
Father, we thank you for the power and the glory of your word.
We thank you because of where it leads us.
We thank you because through your word we have come to know you and now by your
word there is power unleashed in our lives to find joy in the midst of adversity,
to find peace in the midst of the storm.
Your word gives us comfort, stability, and hope. And I pray that would be true for
everyone here. Lord, if there are any here this morning who don't have a
relationship with you or whose relationship with you has been casual, I pray that
they would see their desperate need to be fully surrendered to you and that your
word would be their very food this week. May we relish The joy and the promises
found in your word. I ask in your name. Amen