Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

When I first arrived to Liberty University, I loved many meaningless things.

I loved video games, I loved heavy metal music, and honestly, I loved sin.

Don’t get me wrong, I had the holy spirit, and I believe I’ve been a Christian since I was little, but just barely.

I believed in the morality and truth of it, and I didn’t want to do sinful things.

But I just didn’t act like it.

I tried to fill loneliness in my heart with many things, even very very sinful things, but nothing worked.

Of course it didn’t.

They weren’t made to fill that.

But then I met a girl.

And I was interested in her!

I thought she was really cute!

So I got her phone number and started texting her pretty often, as well as spending time with her in person.

One night she said to me, and I’ll never forget it, that she was going to READ HER BIBLE.

I was astonished.

I mean, I had a Bible.

It was a little NIV bible with a CAMO design from high school.

I had left it at my parent’s house, because I never used it!

I just used the app on my phone.

But when she told me that I immediately realized two things: this woman truly loves God, and I need to read my Bible!

I even convinced her to come with me to get a new Bible from the Liberty Bookstore (which made her think I was a new Christian, which is fair, because I basically was).

I started reading the book of Proverbs out of this ESV Study Bible, and my life began to change.

I began to be more and more convicted of sin.

The Holy Spirit used that woman, who is now my wife, to rebuke me.

I began reading the Bible often, regularly, and even daily.

I went from barely opening my Bible app to rarely putting down my ESV.

God’s word grabbed me, pulled me in, and molded my heart.

Today, I can confidently say that the Psalms are my favorite biblical literature.

I love all of God’s word, but if I could only have one book, it would be Psalms.

And in Psalm 119, a Holy-Spirit-inspired Psalmist beautifully and extensively expresses The Value of God’s Word.

It is all done in an acrostic poem within the 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, and while we won’t be covering all 176 verses today, we will be starting with verses 1-8, the Hebrew letter aleph.

Psalm 119:1–8 (ESV)

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.

Oh 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!

The title of my sermon is The Goodness of Obeying God’s Word, and we are going to learn we must Seek God, Praise God, and Obey God.

Let’s Pray.

Throughout the Psalms there are a lot of words that mean something specific in Hebrew that isn’t often how they are used in English, so throughout the text today I’m going to be working to clarify these words so that we can understand it today in our modern context.

I want to ask a question.

what does it mean for someone’s way to be blameless?

Well, the Psalmist uses two Hebrew words in that first verse that are important for us to understand reading this text.

The word way, or der-eckhc, means manner, or behavior.

And blameless means impeccable, without fault.

So blessed are those whose behavior is impeccable.

But to be blameless, there has to be a standard to which someone could fail!

And that’s where the second part of the verse comes in.

Who walk in the law of the Lord!

It adds to that first part, almost saying “those whose way is blameless, they walk in the law of the Lord!

So the Psalmist is saying that those who walk in the law, which is the Hebrew word Torah, are blessed!

This would be specifically the first five books of the Bible, often called the books of the law, and considering that this was written as Hebrew poetry for Hebrews, it is a recognition that their behavior should be walking in God’s law.

So reading it now, it makes more sense

Blessed are those whose way is blameless,

who walk in the law of the Lord! - v1

Then, the text talks about keeping his testimonies.

The word for keep could also be translated as OBSERVE, and testimonies is another Hebrew word that just refers to general laws, so the text is saying “HEY, those who OBSERVE God’s LAWS, HIS RULES, they are BLESSED!”

It says that they seek him with their whole heart.

now, today we hear heart, and we think that means that the Psalmist is describing desire, and passion, and emotion.

but that’s not at all what the Hebrew understanding of the heart was.

that’s a very valentines-day point of view that we hold in modern day, but when Hebrew’s say heart, they mean WILL.

It’s about disposition and intention, and today it could even be thought about the same way as we think of the mind.

They view the heart as the decision maker.

So seeking the Lord with their whole heart doesn’t mean loving him so much as it means knowing him.

They seek to know him fully.

These people, these blessed people, they do no wrong, but instead, walk in his ways.

In God’s ways.

They are moral and upright.

Their behavior is instead to walk in the ways of God.

They seek to know Him with all their being, all their will, and they walk in his ways, the paths he has now set for them, rather than walking off his path to the bad ways.

Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,

who seek him with their whole heart, v2

who also do no wrong,

but walk in his ways!v3

My wife and I recently got a dog,

his name is Apple Cider and he’s a cute little husky mix.

Well I have the primary responsibility of taking him outside for walks and to go potty.

And there are plenty of times where I’m walking him and he want’s to run out into the road or go down a steep hill, and of course I pull him back so he doesn’t go those ways

He doesn’t know how dangerous these things are for him, and since I love Him, I teach him to stay on the right path and to go my way.

Well God’s ways are much higher than ours.

And just as we try to wander off into dangerous paths, God and his instruction pulls us back in the right direction.

Now as you’re reading this text you might realize that there is a shift in who the Psalmist is speaking to.

Rather than speaking generally, about these people, he makes a statement about God.

And whenever there’s scripture that says something about God, something that he’s done or said or is, it’s extra important.

We must LEAN in to hear what God’s word says about him.

God has commanded.

He is the king, he declares from his throne that his precepts, meaning his instructions or his commandments, must be kept.

This is important, it’s a verse right in the middle of these eight verses, and it’s the centerpiece.

God, the righteous king, says to OBSERVE his instructions.