My Portion!
Notes
Transcript
A. Rapport for the time
The Path of Lie: Blessedness in seasons of Lament. Stephen Yuille.
John Piper in his book God is he Gospel asks, “If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied in heaven, if Christ were not there? If my answer to the question is yes, it means my portion is in this life.
This is the very question we will look at this morning. What does it mean for God to be my portion? The word is found in the very first verse of our text.
B. Reading of the text
57 The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words.
58 I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise.
59 When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies;
60 I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments.
61 Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget your law.
62 At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules.
63 I am a companion of all who fear you, of those who keep your precepts.
64 The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love; teach me your statutes!
C. Review of the text
Psalm 119:
Goodness of God’s word
Revival comes in God’s word alone
Two weeks on the transforming power of God’s word
Comfort that comes from God’s word
D. Relevance of the text
This week we stop on just one word “Portion.” We desire to understand what it truly means for the Lord to be our portion. The reason we do this is because when we understand our “portion” we see that all of our Christian life flows out of this truth from the Psalmists.
T.S. We begin this morning with what is my portion?
I. What is my Portion?
I. What is my Portion?
57 The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words.
Everything that happens in the part of Psalm 119 comes from the fact that The Lord is the believers portion. It’s the reasoning behind his desire to keep the words of God and to be driven by them. But what does the word actually mean?
This word in the Hebrew is Khaylech and “comes from the distribution of the land of Canaan to the Israelites, and it serves to convey the reality that God alone is the psalmist inheritance”. If you will remember with me, the Israelites are brought to the promise land and as they are about to enter the Lord “portions” out the land to the tribes of Israel. This portioning out is when things get interesting. All the tribes receive a portion of the land, well all but one. Aaron is told that he will not be like the others, The tribe of the Levites.
20 And the Lord said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.
9 Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God said to him.)
1 “The Levitical priests, all the tribe of Levi, shall have no portion or inheritance with Israel. They shall eat the Lord’s food offerings as their inheritance.
2 They shall have no inheritance among their brothers; the Lord is their inheritance, as he promised them.
This is exactly what the Lord did when the people were able to go into the promise land.
14 To the tribe of Levi alone Moses gave no inheritance. The offerings by fire to the Lord God of Israel are their inheritance, as he said to him.
33 But to the tribe of Levi Moses gave no inheritance; the Lord God of Israel is their inheritance, just as he said to them.
7 The Levites have no portion among you, for the priesthood of the Lord is their heritage. And Gad and Reuben and half the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance beyond the Jordan eastward, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave them.”
The Lord provided for all the people of Israel but the Levites he used to go even further to show the people that they would rely upon the Lord so all could see.
23 But the Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the people of Israel they shall have no inheritance.
24 For the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as a contribution to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance. Therefore I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel.”
The Lord provided and was the portion for all but the Levites are set a part to be an example. Hold on to that truth at we go further into the portion that the Lord is in our life.
T.S. Now that we understand the basis for the Lord being our portion and the beautiful picture that it draws for us we can look at the meaning to Our hearts.
II. Meaning to Our Hearts
II. Meaning to Our Hearts
57 The Lord is my portion; I promise to keep your words.
The Desire to keep the words of the Lord comes from the understanding that the Lord is his portion. All that he is and does comes from the Lord being sufficient in everything.
20 My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
Jeremiah is known as the “weeping” prophet. Jeremiah was a prophet of the Lord for over 40 years and had to watch as Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians. In the midst of hardship and great struggle Jeremiah understood that his portion came from the Lord alone and not the things around him.
13 for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.
33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
These are the truths that the Lord taught Jeremiah and is teaching us this very day. The world has nothing to offer us as the Redeemed.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
God is my portion even in my greatest failure before him. What can keep you from the Love of God this morning? Your Past? you don’t know what I’ve done?
GOSPEL
You don’t know what I’ve been doing..The Lord does
The Lord is your portion today and tomorrow and forever more.
5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.
6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
Oh, what an inheritance we have by the blood and the body of Christ. The Lord has provided for me the salvation of my soul.
The verses 58-64 declare that God is our Provision and that has changed how WE LIVE.
God’s Favor becomes our Portion
58 I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise.
God’s ways become our portion
59 When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies;
60 I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments.
God’s praise becomes our portion
61 Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget your law.
62 At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules.
God’s people become our portion
63 I am a companion of all who fear you, of those who keep your precepts.
God’s Love becomes our portion
64 The earth, O Lord, is full of your steadfast love; teach me your statutes!
T.S. What is my protion, the meaning to our hearts and the ultimate question IS GOD MY PORTION?
III. Is God My Portion?
III. Is God My Portion?
“The greatest delusion in our life is to think that we can be happy without God. Everyone is searching for the axis mundi—the connection between heaven and earth. Some have looked for it in pyramids, ziggurats, totem poles, or mountaintops. In reality however, the axis mundi isn’t a place where to reach up to God. It is a person, Christ, who reaches down to us.
“The greatest delusion in our life is to think that we can be happy without God. Everyone is searching for the axis mundi—the connection between heaven and earth. Some have looked for it in pyramids, ziggurats, totem poles, or mountaintops. In reality however, the axis mundi isn’t a place where to reach up to God. It is a person, Christ, who reaches down to us.
When God is ours in Christ Jesus, His power is ours to protect us; His wisdom directs us; His mercy to pity us; His grace to pardon us; His love to refresh us; His joy to satisfy us; His justice to accept us as righteous in Christ, His faithfulness to fulfill His promises to us; and His majesty to make us glorious forever.” (Swinnock, Blessed and Boundless God, 169.)
When God is ours in Christ Jesus, His power is ours to protect us; His wisdom directs us; His mercy to pity us; His grace to pardon us; His love to refresh us; His joy to satisfy us; His justice to accept us as righteous in Christ, His faithfulness to fulfill His promises to us; and His majesty to make us glorious forever.” (Swinnock, Blessed and Boundless God, 169.)
Royal priesthood
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,
2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God’s house.
Spurgeon—-
Spurgeon—-
The Christian knows no change with regard to God. He may be rich today and poor tomorrow; he may be sick today and well tomorrow; he may be happy today, and distressed tomorrow; but there is no change with regard to his relationship to God. If God loved me yesterday, he loves me today. I am neither better nor worse in God than I ever was. Let prospects be blighted, let hopes be blasted, let joy be withered, let mildews destroy everything. I have lost nothing of what I have in God.
The Christian knows no change with regard to God. He may be rich today and poor tomorrow; he may be sick today and well tomorrow; he may be happy today, and distressed tomorrow; but there is no change with regard to his relationship to God. If God loved me yesterday, he loves me today. I am neither better nor worse in God than I ever was. Let prospects be blighted, let hopes be blasted, let joy be withered, let mildews destroy everything. I have lost nothing of what I have in God.
Our peace with God is such that he loves us as if we never been the object of wrath...WOW!!! IS the LORD YOUR PORTION THIS MORNING?
John Piper in his book God is he Gospel asks, “If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied in heaven, if Christ were not there? If my answer to the question is yes, it means my portion is in this life.
