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Psalm 119 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is with great joy and urgency that I share with you the Word of God with the saints of Durbin Memorial Baptist Church this morning.
Recently, I have been talking with a variety of folks on what salvation is. Last week we talked about salvation being by grace through faith in Christ according to word and for God’s glory. I mentioned then that each week we may focus a little more closely on any particular clause of that statement more intently than the others, but they all work together in unison.
This morning, as an introduction to our text, I’d like to focus a bit closer on “FOR GOD’S GLORY.” Because I think sometimes we get the reasoning for salvation twisted around. It is a humbling truth to swallow, but ultimately, salvation is not about you, but about God. Salvation is the expression of God’s amazing grace. You’ve likely heard the hymn Amazing grace, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” In that hymn, John Newton right characterizes the sinner saved by grace as a wretch. A wretch is a despicable person who is in great misfortune. The Amazing grace of God is that He would love a wretched creature like you and me despite our vile nature.
And I know you may be thinking, Pastor I’m not that bad of a guy. I help out my neighbors. I work hard at my job. People like me. But while I want us all to be respectable, well liked citizens, Believing ourselves to be the “good guy” shows a lack of understanding of the Holiness of God, the set apartness of God, the absolute perfectness of God.
My wife knows that I have a major flaw. (Surprising I know!) But she knows that every time we go out to eat, if there is any sauce of any kind involved, it is going to end up on my shirt! I’ve learned that I can’t tell you how many shirts I have ruined with a big blob of buffalo sauce. For those of us who struggle with this as I do, you know that it only takes one little glob to ruin a perfectly good shirt.
Our sin, any and every time we have fallen short of perfection, stains our lives. It makes us unacceptable to the all Holy God. But out of His sheer love and grace, our God cleanses the stain of our sin, washing us with the blood of Jesus, making our stained garments clean! Whiter than snow!
Where I’m going at with this is that our salvation, our cleansing, isn’t about us being special in and of ourselves, but rather about God being full of grace and mercy to love the unlovable! Our salvation brings glory to God because it is an expression of His great love! God is love!
Salvation is found in seeing God for who He is and joining the angelic hosts in singing His praises and serving His will.
Another misconception in this line of thought is that making a profession of salvation is about escaping judgment. “I don’t want to go to hell so yeah I guess I’ll get baptized!” While God’s gift of eternal life certainly transfers our judgment from ourselves to the cross of Christ, the escape of punishment is a blessed byproduct, not the main point. When we come to Christ, we are professing Him as Savior as Lord, as the One worthy to be served. We are, by the grace of God, coming into congruence with reality. We are seeing past the veil of sin and deception to see in wonder, “Wow! There is a God! There is the God! And that God is full of Love and Grace! That God is worthy to be served! That God expressed His Love and Justice through the Cross of Christ!”
We are at a point of celebration at this moment in our church. Last week we saw a profession or faith. I’ve had other conversations in which it truly seems like the Spirit is working on the hearts of those in our midst. But one thing I’ve tried to make clear in all of the wonderful conversations I’ve had lately is that salvation is not about doing whatever it takes to receive my get out of hell free card, it is about seeing Jesus for who He is, King of kings, Lord of lords. As one person I was talking to stated, “He is THE KING.”
That’s something we all need to better understand. Our faith in Christ is centered around who our God is, not what He can give to us. Our salvation is for His glory. If you are floundering in faith right now, it may very well be that the object of your faith is not big enough in your heart and mind. There is a direct connection between our faith and how big we see our God.
This morning we are going to return to another stanza of Psalm 119, you can turn there now if you would like. As we walk through verses 137-144, we are going to highlight 4 attributes of God and see how those glorious attributes influence our response, our service. We will see how the great God of creation is something to be marveled at, worthy of our full attention and how His greatness then influences our lives as we live them out for His glory.
Let’s begin in verses 137 and 138:
137 Righteous are you, O Lord, and right are your rules. 138 You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness and in all faithfulness.
As you walk through Psalm 119, you find that it is divided into 22 segments, each with 8 verses. These sections are formed by being an acrostic of the Hebrew alphabet. Each time we have looked at one of these segments, we have seen the great emphasis on the goodness and impact of God’s Word. That is certainly the overarching theme that we should take from any reading of Psalm 119. However, I find verse 137 particularly interesting in our topic this morning, because the initial focus is not on the Word of God, but rather the God of the Word. You see the Bible is good. You will find interesting stories, helpful proverbs, beautiful songs, and many life lessons all throughout. Those are good things, but are secondary to the primary purpose of the Word. The primary purpose of the Word is to proclaim to us who God is so that we might see His goodness and serve Him! The message of God’s grace to provide salvation to a fallen creature is presented consistently throughout. The intervention of God to save His people occurs consistently. The gospel is given in the garden, pointed to in the Law, prophesied in the prophets, lived out in the gospels, and applied in the epistles. You cannot separate the value of the Word of God from the God of the Word.
This is clearly seen in the often recited verse from 2 Timothy 3. 2 Timothy 3:16–17 “16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” All of Scripture is beneficial to the “MAN OF GOD” so that he would prepared for the good works God has for Him to do. The Word of God is highly profitable, but it only truly profits those who through the Word of God see, understand, and serve the God of the Word.
Our Psalmist is a great example here. His affection for the Word of God displayed throughout the entirety of this Psalm is flowing from his understanding of the God of the Word. Look again here at these first two verses. Psalm 119:137–138“137 Righteous are you, O Lord, and right are your rules. 138 You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness and in all faithfulness.”
The psalmist talks about the rules and testimonies of the Lord, but they are in the context of the very righteousness of the God who gives them. Church, do you understand that God is righteous? What does it mean to be righteous? When we go through the children’s question in the beginning of our service, their answer for this question is God’s goodness and perfection. A dictionary would tell you that to be righteous means to be free from guilt. We can all recognize when something is undeniably good, when things are right., when there is peace, and when there is discomfort because of unjust behavior or unrighteousness around us. We can understand right and wrong because we are made in the image of God. I hope this isn’t too much of a rabbit trail, but the only reason we understand justice and right, is because God has created us to have those values. There is no real evolutionary reason for us to have moral standards of goodness. If “survival of the fitness” was the lifeblood of our creation, then there would be no need nor desire to take up for the oppressed. There would be no sense in punishing those who take things from others. But our Lord, our Creator, is righteous. Being made in His image, we rightly cringe at atrocity and seek the betterment of those around us. While we are all guilty of misapplying justice on occasion, we should praise God that He never misses.
God is all good and in His “goodness” in His righteousness, He has appointed His testimonies. God’s Word is good because the God of the Word is good. We can’t really grasp the goodness of the Word without realizing that the God behind it is good as well.
So how do we respond to the Righteousness of God? Look to verse 139:
139 My zeal consumes me, because my foes forget your words.
Flowing from the righteousness of God, our psalmist is fueled to serve! He says, “my zeal consumes me,” Zeal is arduous service. It’s being fired up! The psalmist is inspired, driven rather, to serve the righteous God through applying His righteous testimonies, even though those around the psalmist forget God’s Words.
Now, that is something to ponder on. I’ve heard so often, “times just aren’t what they used to be.” or “Our country is going to hell in a hand basket!” or “things are just getting worse and worse.” That may be true, but first I assure you that we are not the first people to see rampant depravity in our midsts. Read through 1 Corinthians. But even if we assume we live in the worst time in human history, what is the response of the one who understands the righteousness of God? Are we to think that service to God is futile, as if the sin has won? Do we give up? Do we stop gathering and practicing the “one another’s” of the New Testament? Do we dive on in to self-service? No! On the contrary, look at the psalmists word’s carefully. “My zeal for serving the righteous Lord consumes me all the MORE, as I see my foes forget your words.”
When the world seems to be going off the rails, the righteous response is not to throw in the towel and dive in, but rather to serve the righteous God all the more!
I appeal to the passage often simply because it has been so impactful on my own spiritual formation, but we cannot forget that in 2 Corinthians 2, believers are called “Ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us.” If you are looking at the world and seeing a lost and broken world, then may that reality propel you to share the gospel message you have been entrusted with! Be fueled to serve with zeal and vigor! You can be used by God to share the Light of Christ in this dark world. You can tell others the reason for the hope that is within you. You can seek to bring God-honoring order to your neighborhood. You can love your neighbor as yourself and all the more cherish the grace of God that has been lavished upon you.
Too often I see those claiming Christ as Lord living with a nihilistic worldview. I can see how one might be tempted this way but let me encourage you with some words I heard in grade school, “Suck it up buttercup!” Jesus has shared His victory with us and enabled us to serve Him, when the world is dark that is the time to double down and serve all the more.
When we see the righteousness of God for what it is, we are fueled to serve!
And our great God is not only righteous, we see more of His great character in our text this morning.
140 Your promise is well tried, and your servant loves it.
The psalmist begins by praise God for His righteousness, from the righteousness of God flows our next attribute, The truthfulness of God. “Your promise is well tried, and your servant loves it.” God always does what he promises to do, and we can depend on Him never to be unfaithful to his promises.
As we walk through the pages of Scripture we can see this play out time and time again. The foundation of God’s truthfulness is laid in Genesis. One of the promises He gives is to Abraham, a promise that God would make childless Abraham into the great nation, in the land that God would show him. When you read the following chapters it seems as if God may be off on his promise. Abraham’s wife couldn’t have children. But eventually God blesses them with a son. That son goes through some difficulties, but the family grows. By the end of the book of Genesis, the family has certainly grown, but they are in Egypt, not the Land God has originally promised. To make things worse, once you get to Exodus you see that all of Abraham’s descendants are now slaves! It seems like the promise of God was not going to hold! But as you continue to read and work through the history of God’s people, you eventually come to the end of the book of Joshua and Abraham’s descendants have taken the land! Joshua speaking on behalf of the Lord says to the people, “I [that is God] gave you a land which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.”
The promises of God are well tried and true! You will see promise made and promise fulfilled time and time again throughout the pages of Scripture. The truthfulness of God’s promises should fill us with praise! There is one promise in particular that fills me with love. Even predating the promises given to Abraham, immediately following the entrance of sin into creation God tells Satan, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” This is the promise of the gospel! Christ always has been and was always going to be King of kings! There was always going to be sweet victory in Jesus! I love the promises of God! God has been true to all of His Promises and we can be assured that the ones that remain to be fulfilled are sure to do so because of His truthfulness.
How do we respond to the truthfulness of God?
141 I am small and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts.
There are great and wonderful promises for the people of God to hold on tightly. Not the lest of which being, “who so ever believes in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life.” From there we could go on to look at the promise of glory in the presence of Christ, the wiping away from tears, the gifts of the Spirit, and the list could and does go on and on.
But as we grow in our understanding and appreciation for the promises of God, the faithful student of God’s Word does not grow big headed. Our Psalmist knows that he is a part of God’s people. He sees the great righteousness of God and the truthfulness of His promises. Earlier in psalm 119, the Psalmist refers to the God’s precepts as a blessing. This guy knows that he surely has been blessed by immeasurable grace. Yet his description of himself here in verse 141 is humbled. “I am small and despised.” Understanding the righteousness of God and the truthfulness of God ought to humble us to serve.
Through an examination of God’s Word we find that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, everyone, to our own way. But by the grace of God He has laid the iniquities, the sins, of all those who believe in the name of Jesus upon Jesus! We didn’t do that! We are small unworthy creatures who have been graced to serve the All-worthy God! The Lord opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. The world may not get it, but we do not or at the least SHOULD not forget God’s precepts.
This week I had the opportunity to somewhat speak on a terrible situation that happened at a church in our city. As the news piece was put on social media, I was shocked to see how much consternation there was from a large portion of the general public. But the pushback I saw wasn’t even primarily against the sin that appears to have taken place, rather it was against belief in God as a whole or as one person put it, “believing in fictional characters from the Ancient past.” We may live in the bible belt, but that does not mean that everyone around us has come to understand that this is more than a fairytale, that our God is THE God, the creator, sustainer, master and maker. Lived out humble faith will incur vitriol from those who do not share in the faith. But even when we are despised, we can remember the precepts of God, we can remain steadfast in the assurance of our hope, our risen Savior Jesus Christ! He gets all the glory, there is nothing mortal man can do to me that will change that! I am weak, but He is strong. Church may we be humbled to serve.
Thus far we have seen 2 attributes of God, His Righteousness and His truthfulness fueling us and humbling us to serve. Before we finish this morning, let us be reminded of 2 more attributes of God.
Look to verse 142
142 Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true.
For this third attribute of God, I’m going to give the congregation a bit of homework. I know school is out for the summer, but that should mean we have a bit more time for extracurricular studies!
We’ve already touched on the righteousness and truthfulness of God in the prior sections. Those attributes are presented here in this verse as well, but I want to highlight something else that might require just a bit of outside study. I want to highlight what I’m calling the “Omni” God. Omni, O-M-N-I, is a prefix of latin root that means “all.” We have a quite a few “omni” words that we use to describe our great God. Omnipotent - all powerful. Omniscient - all knowing. Omnipresent - all present, that is present everywhere in all of existence. I would encourage all of us to explore the “omni”’s of God. If you are struggling in faith, as we mentioned in the introduction this morning, it is directly tied to a small view of the object of your faith. There may be no quicker way to expand your conception of our God than to explore those “omni”’s, seeing just how all powerful, knowing, and present He is!
In our psalm this morning the psalmist declares, “your righteousness is righteous FOREVER.” That word forever means just that, FOREVER! It stretches deep past antiquity and beyond our concept of the future! God’s righteousness has been, is, and ever will be present, powerful, and righteous! God is all knowing and His law is as true as it ever has been and ever will be! Whatever you imagine the peak of power, goodness, and truth, our God is omni that, all of that, and more!
I can only beyond to scratch the surface on these attributes that extend beyond our comprehension, so let’s instead look at the impact God’s “All”-ness has upon His people.
143 Trouble and anguish have found me out, but your commandments are my delight.
From dwelling upon the righteousness, truthfulness, and Omni-nature of God, we here see that the people of God are SUSTAINED to serve.
Our psalmist is no stranger to struggle. Trouble and anguish have found him out. But through all of it he delights in the commandments of God. Delight in commandments flows from an understanding of the God giving the commandments.
Within the study of leadership, recently there has been a push for being a leader who explains the “why” when you give an order or make a request of an employee. Now this is based upon secular study and application, but researchers have found that explaining the why shares the purpose with those who are receiving orders and motivates employees to work towards the purpose they now share WITH the leader.
For instance, if I told the church I wanted some folks to use an entire weekend to come with me out to Eastern Kentucky and ended it there, most of y’all would say, I ain’t doing that. I have other stuff to do. But if I said, Church I need folks to sacrifice some personal time this weekend because we want to take our children to a different part of our state, serve with a local church, and spread the gospel with those folks and our own children, some people would get a little more excited! We might even see about 10 of us sign up to go and then see one of our kids profess Christ as Lord! Oh wait, that just happened!
When it comes to serving God, out of His great grace, He has explained the why and we are sustained by the why! We serve the Lord first and foremost because He is all-powerful and worthy to be served. From there, we obey His commands because we see His righteous, He has shown us His standards of righteousness, and confirmed for us that we glorify Him when we live righteously. He has shown us that following Him is truly for our good and His glory. Though trouble and anguish so often find us our, we can delight in following the Lord because we know that He uses even our struggle for our good. We know that He is our sustaining comfort in affliction and uses those moments so that we might be a comfort for others on His behalf in their moment of affliction. God always has a why and we can rest in Him! We can keep the faith, we can remain obedient, we can even delight in anguish because Our God is in control! Our God fuels our service by His righteousness, humbles our service with His truthfulness, and sustains our service by His greatness.
This brings us to our last verse which contains both an attribute and response.
Look to verse 144:
144 Your testimonies are righteous forever; give me understanding that I may live.
Once again we see the righteousness of God on full display, but the attribute underlying this verse is the Gracefulness of God. In this verse we see that the gracefulness of God Enables service to God.
In the back half of the verse, the psalmist writes, “give me understanding that I may live.” This is a request made by someone who loves the one who is able to grant the request. Not only is the righteous God able, but according to His Word, He will! By His grace, God gives understanding to the simple. He shows us His infinite goodness, truthfulness, power, and grace. He draws us to repentance and faith! And He continues to sustain us as we grow in Him through His Spirit!
Church, may all of us join in praying for God to give us deep and better understanding of who He is as He fuels, humbles, sustains, and enables us to serve Him! May the object of our faith grow bigger and bigger, sustaining our continued service!
All throughout this message today, we have discussed various aspects of the greatness of God. It is my hope that everyone here has grown a deeper affection for THE great God. At the conclusion of our service we always sing a hymn of response. This is an opportunity to reflect on the truth of Scripture, pray to God for wisdom in application, sing praises to His name, and profess unashamedly in this gathering of saints that Jesus is Savior and Lord, worthy to be served.
If through this preaching of the word, you have begun to understand that you are lost in your sin, but you also see that Christ lived and died and rose again, so that if you believe in Him, His righteousness might be imparted to you. If you desire to passionately, humbly, sustainably, and gracefully serve this great God. I want to provide you an opportunity to make that know or even ask more questions. It very well could be that the questions you have within you at this moment is that spark of God giving you the understanding that you need so that you may live life abundant. If that is you today, make that know. Come find me in the hymn, come find me after the service. But I promise you this, all who sincerely ask the Lord to give them understanding and life through faith in Jesus Christ, will receive that good gift from the good, the righteous, the truthful, the all powerful, the gracious God. May that be you today.
Let’s Pray.
