A Lamp Unto My Feet
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When was the last time you needed to use your cell phone as a flashlight, perhaps to look for something in the garage, read a menu at a darkly lit restaurant, or find something in the backyard at night? Why did you need it? Your answer probably includes some expression of dark or darkness.
As a sinner living with other sinners in a fallen world, you encounter darkness every day. While you may experience Instagram-worthy, sunny day picnic lunches, the reality is that life is more of a midnight walk through the woods. On any given day, you probably encounter more darkness than you do truth. So, to move forward without danger and get to where you are meant to go, you need something to light your way.
No passage gets at this need and God's provision better than Psalm 119:105: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."
It sure does seem in some ways that something is wrong these days. Something is just not right. It seems as if the darkness is all around but maybe we are having difficulty with the apparent light. What is difficult in this new time in life in 2024 is that the darkness is not that easy to see. Because it looks like the light. It reminds me of a movie I watched where they were in space with walls that project images of planet earth. Its now day time and as the sun is there shining its light a man finally says, do you guys notice that we can look directly into the light and I feel no heat from it. We don’t get sunburned anymore. There is something wrong. And that maybe the confusion we experience today and we are losing confidence in much of what we used to call authorities.
Who can we trust? Who can we rely on? How are we supposed to see the light in the darkness when the darkness looks like the light? This is not a new phenomena. We see this dynamic throughout all of the scriptures.
For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret.
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
The reality of darkness in this world has been since it has been and it continues with the god of this world who is doing what he can to blind the minds of unbelievers keeping them from actually seeing the light. The world is full of unbelieving people who are being kept from the light by the god of this world and they are casting a false light that are causing professing Christians to wander from the light of scripture to follow the false light of this world which is no light at all; nothing but darkness.
The reality is that so much has happened in the recent culture since Covid and the issues has seen exponential growth. The wealth and availability of information is at an all time high. We don’t need to memorize anymore. Everything is now at our fingertips. I remember at a pastors meeting… it was like real life matrix. He did not know but after a few minutes online, he seemed pretty capable to contribute to the discussion. its like our second brain already. Unfortunately with all the wonderful access to good information, we also got an increase in bad information. Another one of my friends is convinced now that the earth is flat. How are we supposed to know? How do we know the difference? The answer is profound yet so easy… one word. Bible. Lets take a look at our passage today.
Your word is a lamp to guide my feet
and a light for my path.
I’ve promised it once, and I’ll promise it again:
I will obey your righteous regulations.
The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.
The Light
The Promise
The first thing we are gonna look at is the wonderful characteristic of the Word of God being a light for us in the darkness. Second, we will see the failure of our promises and the faithfulness of the promise of God to rescue His people.
Thesis: Though sin and the pattern of this world cause us to lose confidence in the lamp given to us by the living God, it is the Word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit that will pierce the darkness even if it appears as light, to show us the good news that Jesus is the light of the world.
I. The Light
- A light unto my path.
A. It is clearly the best known scripture in all of psalm 119. It shows that the gracious God we serve gave us a wonderful gift that the Word would be a guide for conduct, life, understanding, truth and all that we need for our walk and journey in this dark world.
Spurgeon writes, “We walk through this world and are often called to go out into its darkness. Let us never venture there without the light-giving Word, so that our feet will not slip. Everyone should use the Word of God personally, practically, and habitually, so he can see his way and what lies in it. When darkness settles all around me, the Word of the Lord reveals my way like a flaming torch.”
B. Back in the day before electricity, for many towns there were no fixed lamps or light posts shining down on the road or walkways. When people traveled we are told that they carried lamps so they would not stumble into a ditch, walk over a ledge, or fall into a sewer. Without the lamp, the dangers were endless and imminent. And so it is with our environment today. The dangers are endless and imminent.
C. This is the life and culture that we live in in this dark world. We will not ever know anything around us nor the paths, nor the directions if we did not have the Word of God. It shows us which way we are to go when we cant see or know the right way. The Word of God will give us direction. We will know which way to go.
For their command is a lamp
and their instruction a light;
their corrective discipline
is the way to life.
Send out your light and your truth;
let them guide me.
Let them lead me to your holy mountain,
to the place where you live.
Thomas Manton writes, “Austin reckons up two hundred and eighty-eight opinions about the chiefest good. Men are seeking out many inventions, looking here and there to find.”
D. The Word of God as our light shines and shows us our conviction.
But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them,
E. One of the big reasons why we are naturally resistent to the scriptures. We do not like it when the evil ways in us are exposed. But this is a warning that shows us all the dangers before us that will be a pits and stumbling block that stand in the way of the doorway to heaven.
Anyone who loves a fellow believer is living in the light and does not cause others to stumble. But anyone who hates a fellow believer is still living and walking in darkness. Such a person does not know the way to go, having been blinded by the darkness.
Thomas Maton also writes, “What will be the end of his going? He mistakes the way, sins for duties, and good for evil; or he mistakes the end, thinking he is going to heaven, when he is in the highway to hell.”
And it shows how much worse it gets. We by nature love the darkness…
And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.
F. More and more we see the clear and absolute need for us to have the scriptures and for it to be our ultimate guide to direction. And more and more today our confidence in the scriptures is shaken and our culture continues to strengthen its grips on our hearts. And this is shown clearly as to how we respond to critiques on the scriptures. We are embarrassed and quickly dissmiss the issues with more confidence weakening excuses. We are embarrassed by what the Bible says because we are primarily influenced by culture instead of scripture. So the Bible is on trial. I am confident in the Bible and it is good all that it prescribes is good and I stand by it all the way. What about slavery? We talked about this… what about rape?
G. So some will accuse the Bible of immorality because of the regulations it gives about those have been raped. The Bible shows that God is OK with rape. First of all, nowhere in the scriptures does God say that it is ok to rape somebody. Dinah, the concubine of the levite, the men of Sodom, Lot giving his daughters, Amnon raped Tamar. All devastating and all condemned. In Deuteronomy we see that if a man rapes a married woman he is put to death. So what’s the problem then. Its the provision for the man who rapes a virgin.
If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
“If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride-price for virgins.
H. But Why in the world would God not command that the rapist be killed for such a horrible and despicable act? Because in the words of Tamar that would be worse than the rape.
“No, no!” Tamar cried. “Sending me away now is worse than what you’ve already done to me.”
But Amnon wouldn’t listen to her.
According to cultural anthropology rapes resulted in either slavery or prostitution for women who were not the daughter of the king.
Her brother Absalom saw her and asked, “Is it true that Amnon has been with you? Well, my sister, keep quiet for now, since he’s your brother. Don’t you worry about it.” So Tamar lived as a desolate woman in her brother Absalom’s house.
I. No life, no home, no children, no interest at all from another man. Life was over. This was the provision that God made to salvage a life for the victim. Now it was the man who had to marry. The father could still refuse if the woman would rather live out her life in desolation. God is always looking out for justice. He is the definition of justice. You may not like it, but is the culture influencing you. The question is why? Its not scripture cause this is what scripture says. Either we gonna believe it or not.
II. The Promise
-The vow we don’t keep is the one He does.
A. And the vow of the psalmist is to obey the word of God. But the reality is we do not and we did not. We cant even keep track of the many ways we broke the command of God. But even if you broke only one of the smallest of commands, James is clear that we are still as guilty before God as one who has broken all of it. We all like sheep have gone astray each of us to his own way. Like it was during the time of the judges, people did what was right in their own eyes.
B. Thats what its like today even within the church there is so much wrong so much deception. We don’t even realize that when we think we are shining a light we are embracing the darkness. We need to repent. We need to believe. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is no one righteous no not one. There is no one on earth who always does good and never sins. And even when we think we see the light its still embracing the darkness. But I got some good news today.
C. In the covenant of redemption the agreement between the Father Son and Holy Spirit, the Son promised to obey the word of the Father. He made a vow and he kept the promise. He promised once and promised and again and did it. He lived the life we should have lived and he died the death we should have died so that we can have the wonderful everlasting life God ordained for us. We can have life and life more abundant because Jesus died for our sins according to the scriptures and he was buried and he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. He became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. By His wounds we are healed.
D. And the Word that is our light and a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path also sheds light on somthing awesone. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you confess with you mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved.
E. This is the beauty of the lamp unto our feet and the light unto our path. The Word is our guide. It will not let us down. Hear it trust it today no matter what the world shines on the subject.