Sermon Transcript Tone Analysis

Psalm 119.

We will begin our reading in verse 57.

And we will read through verse 64.

Hear the word of Our Lord.

You are my portion O Lord.

I have said that I would keep your words.

I am treated your favor with my whole heart.

Be merciful to me, according to your word.

I thought about my ways and turned my feet to your testimonies I made haste and did not delay to keep your Commandments.

The cords of the wicked have bound me but I have not forgotten your law.

At midnight, I will rise to give.

Thanks to you because of your righteous judgments.

I am a I am a companion of all who fear you and of those who keep your precepts.

The earth.

Oh Lord is full of your mercy.

Teach me.

Your statutes.

There are those who have at times level to charge against us in the reformed community that We have deviated from worshipping God.

And we worship His word.

And they they level that critique.

As if to say that we place God's word.

higher than it should be, that we emphasize God's word too much and sometimes they even include the critique that we are legalist that we care only about love keeping for the sake of law, keeping but as we've spent, the last several weeks, going through, various Psalms, and looking at the ways in which the Lord has chosen to structure his church, We come again to. the Psalms and to this song in particular, To seek to understand the place of the word of God in the life of the church.

in order to understand what place the word ought to have, We must first understand why it is that we place such an emphasis on God's word.

Why it is that we push and encourage people to, to keep God's commands to obey his laws.

And we find this in the opening verse Of our checks verse 57 says, you are my portion.

Oh, Lord.

In both of the checks that we read today, both from Ezekiel and 1st Peter, we were reminded that under the Old Testament economy, the priest and the Levites did not receive an inheritance in the land.

And why is that?

Because their inheritance was to be the Lord.

And I think this is an often missed aspect of what it means for the church to be a holy priesthood.

We are to view our inheritance as the Lord.

Our portion is to be the Lord.

And it is this love for the Lord.

This satisfaction in having the Lord and all that, that entails that is what drives us then that is what drives every aspect of our life.

And it is having the Lord.

As our portion, that drives us to his word.

Think about what our savior said.

In places such as John 15 and also John 14.

He says if you love me keep my Commandments and it is as if to say not as if he is directly stating that love for God is displayed.

Through obedience to his word and this is what we find in this song.

Selection all of Psalm 119 as I've reminded you in the past deals with the singular subject of the word of God.

But this section particularly deals with the word of God as it flows from A heart that loves God.

And So, It Begins.

It begins with those simple words.

That simple phrase you are my portion, not as we look at this song, we are going to look at it with two main headings.

I realize that is deviating slightly from my typical three, but we will see if we can make it work.

The first is that the word changes us.

The word, changes us.

I want you to notice the progression that we see.

Starting in verse 57, the song that says you are my portion O Lord, I have said, I would keep your words, you see the psalmist desire for obedience starts with a fact that he recognizes the Lord is his portion.

The Lord is his inheritance, and on a practical level, what this means then, is that what the psalmist cares about most in the world is having the Lord, and pleasing the Lord with his life.

Having the Lord first.

Because if you do not have the Lord, you will not desire to please.

The Lord.

This means that he desires.

First and foremost, the Lord over all of the of the material possessions that he could acquire.

There's a trend of going around on, I assume it's on Tik Tok.

I'm seeing it on Instagram, where they're taking.

They're taking this little clip from VeggieTales and it's where I think it's King George and the rubber ducky if I remember, right?

But Bob is asking Larry.

How much stuff?

Is enough.

And Larry response, I don't know.

How much stuff is there?

I need to see this drives on the basic disposition of our hearts.

That we have this sinful desire to get all of this stuff and it can be good things.

It can be building a wonderful field logic Will Library.

It can be collecting cars.

It can be, we'll just name whatever your hobby is.

It could be having a quirky coffee cups or just having nice coffee cups, having China, whatever, whatever it is.

The song as though, the psalmist focus is not on having all of these material.

Things, his focus is singularly on having the Lord And the wonderful thing is, he doesn't say the Lord will be my portion.

he says, you are my portion O Lord and so it is this recognition that for the believer who has a Believer lives in that in that reality that the Lord is his That therefore, that is what drives him to pursue.

Enter desire.

Obedience to God's word.

And then he goes on and he says, I am treated your favor with my whole heart.

Notice that his Pursuit.

His pursuit of the Lord's favor.

It's not a half-hearted effort, it's not something where he thinks, you know what?

I will pursue the Lord's, favor on Sunday and Monday, and Tuesday for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

I will pursue my own favor.

He's not saying I will pursue the Lord's favor Monday Wednesday and I will pursue my favorite, where my friend's favorite, where my boss is favored for the rest of the time.

He says, he desires the Lord's favor.

With his whole heart, with all that he is and often times the heart.

In Scripture.

Is used as, as reference to the seat of emotions.

And so when he says that he entreats the Lord's favor with his whole heart, we should also understand that he is saying he will use and he desires to use his emotions his Passions.

In the pursuit of gone.

Now for those for us and the reform Community, this is a good reminder, it's a good reminder because sometimes we are sadly referred to as the Frozen chosen and it's almost as if we have this reputation, which I think sadly is true more often than not, then that we must bestow it.

That we must be expressionless in our emotions.

And the ironic thing is that the Psalms teach directly against that, the Psalms are full of emotion.

In fact, some have have have commented that the Psalms contain a right expression of all the human emotions and that's part of what makes them.

So, beneficial for us and worship is that they teach us how to use our emotions, how to use our passions in a manner that glorifies and honors gone.

So the song that says that he entreats the Lord's favor with his whole heart and then noticed what he says next.

He he says be merciful to me.

No, he could have stopped right there.

He could have just said, be merciful to me.

And that would have been a wonderful statement.

It would have been David or the psalm is acknowledging that.

He is, indeed the Lord's.