Psalm 119:1-8 Obey
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(Rough Draft)
(Rough Draft)
The Greatness of God’s Word.
is very unique.
is one of several acrostic poems found in the Bible. Its 176 verses are divided into 22 sections, one for each of the 22 characters that make up the Hebrew alphabet. Each of the eight verses of each section begins with that same Hebrew letter.
The Blessing of obedience to God’s Word. vs 1-2
The effect of obeying God’s Word, 6-8
-Not be put to shame
-Praise from a changed heart
Psalm 119
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__________________
What the Bible is … A blessing to those who obey, vs.1-3
We will only look at 4-5 sections in our series. is broken up into 22 sections which lends itself for a good chapter to read for a month of daily devotions.
Today we will just look at just 8 verses in the Psalm.
The focus of is the greatness of God’s Word. ???
British Politician William Wilberforce was the key leader in abolishing slavery in England.
Intro - British Politician William Wilberforce was the key leader in abolishing slavery in England.
Intro - British Politician of the late 1700’s, William Wilberforce.
He was the key leader in abolishing slavery in England.
With great resistance and against all hope Wilberforce lead the way to the abolishment of slavery in England.
British Politician William Wilberforce was the key leader in abolishing slavery in England.
In 1791, the first time a bill was introduced to abolish slavery in Parliament 163-88. Wilberforce introduced the bill every year again and again until it passed.
With great resistance and against all hope Wilberforce lead the way.
With great resistance and against all hope Wilberforce lead the way.
Many hated that Wilberforce was against slavery.
While Wilberforce had enemies and fierce opposition ...
While he fought fear and doubt He stood on the truth of God’s Word.
Here is why I mention Wilberforce.
Every night on his walk to his London home from parliament William Wilberforce stood on the truth of God’s Word. As Wilberforce walked through famous Hide Park - He would quote all 176 verses of .
In , the greatness of God’s Word is mentioned 173 times.
It was this passage of our new study that kept the spiritual anchor of Wilberforce held strong.
It was this passage of our new study that kept the spiritual anchor of Wilberforce held strong.
If was good enough of the great Abolisher of slavery, it is good for us as well.
In the Hebrew Bible the Psalm is an Acrostic. Each section uses the next letter in the Hebrew Alphabet. Each line of text in each section begins with the same letter as the section.
Spurgeon
1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord!
2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart,
3 who also do no wrong,
but walk in his ways!
4 You have commanded your precepts
to be kept diligently.
5 Oh that my ways may be steadfast
in keeping your statutes!
6 Then I shall not be put to shame,
having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
7 I will praise you with an upright heart,
when I learn your righteous rules.
8 I will keep your statutes;
do not utterly forsake me!
Transition - One of the reasons that Wilberforce stood on is that He saw that God’s Word blesses.
Transition - One of the reasons that Wilberforce stood on is that He saw that God’s Word blesses.
What the Bible Does .... demands unqualified obedience. Diligent & steadfast, vs. 4-5
I. God’s Word blesses (repeat) vs. 1-3
I. God’s Word is a blessing (The Bible is) vs. 1-3
1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord!
2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart,
3 who also do no wrong,
but walk in his ways!
A. There are blessing for those who embrace and obey God’s Word.
How I must respond - Praise and eyes fixed on the the commands
A. Vs. 1 There is Purity in this persons life because his way is blameless (undefiled - KJV).
-He walks (he lives his life) following the law of God.
There is a blessing in purity of a good reputation.
There is a blessing in purity in being trusted by others.
There is a blessing in purity in a life that spiritually serves as an example to others.
Purity comes from being blameless.
In God’s Word there are blessings.
A person who is p
Illustration - When we parent our children many times we want them to be good. To obey, to share, to treat others fairly.
As parents and grandparents we want to control our children’’s behavior. We can get very focused on behavior.
When my oldest was 3 it started to dawn on me that while I might be able to control her behavior there was one thing that I couldn’t perfectly control - her heart.
We are called as parents and grandparents to tend to our children’s hearts spiritually. To talk to them about their heart & how they are responding to God.
Look how verse 2 does not leave us in moral behavior modification.
Vs. 1 & 2, Walking in the law, Obedience (keep his testimonies)
vs. 2 There is Faithfulness (spiritual consistency) in learning to keep God’s testimonies (God’s Word)
2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart,
3 who also do no wrong,
but walk in his ways!
Psalm 199:2-3
2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart,
Testimonies = God’s Word or God’s Commands
There is a spiritual steadiness in keeping God’s testimonies.
A train with great power always knows its direction. It does not veer off course. Why, It is following the track it is meant to run on.
The person who purposes to live a life of obedience decides to follow the track of God’s will for their life.
They can stay steady and faithful because they run on God’s track. God has set their direction.
This faithfulness is not only in direction, but in stopping and going.
This means that when the Christ follower falls, when he sins, that he does not let the sin hold him down.
He gets up. He repents. He confesses his sin. He receives God’s forgiveness.
Notice that this faithfulness to obey God’s Words is not just a behavior modification.
Vs. 2 Seeking Him -
It is not just in action only, but it is in heart as well.
2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart,
As parents and grandparents we want to control our children’’s behavior. We can get very focused on behavior.
When my oldest was 3 it started to dawn on me that while I might be able to control her behavior there was one thing that I couldn’t perfectly control - her heart.
We are called as parents and grandparents to tend to our children’s hearts spiritually. To talk to them about their heart & how they are responding to God.
Look how verse 2 does not leave us in moral behavior modification.
We keep God’s testimonies by seeking Him. By trusting Him. By finding our greatest pleasure in Him.
God not only wants obedience in our action.
God wants something that is much more difficult to give than our actions. He wants your heart to follow Him.
Illustration - When we parent our children many times we want them to be good. To obey, to share, to treat others fairly.
As parents and grandparents we focus on our children’s behavior. We can get very focused on behavior.
When my oldest was 3 it started to dawn on me that while I might be able to control her behavior there was one thing that I couldn’t perfectly control - her heart.
We are called as parents and grandparents to tend to our children’s hearts spiritually. To talk to them about their heart & how they are responding to God.
Look how verse 2 does not leave us in moral behavior modification.
2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart,
God wants your affections, your emotions, your motivations, your desires.
Following God means to “Seek Him with your whole heart.”
We are blessed by seeking God with our whole heart.
We are seeking who is best.
We are seeking who satisfies.
We are seeking who loves us unconditionally.
vs. 3 He wants you to “walk in His ways” not just on the outside, but also on the inside.
We walk in God’s ways in outward obedience and inward transforming obedience.
N.T. Verse -
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The beauty of God’s Word is that it is supernatural.
The Bible does for you what no other book can.
God’s Word penetrates the heart.
It transforms the heart.
It does surgery deep within, in places maybe that you didn’t know you had.
It brings transformation into your soul and spirit.
No relationship can transform like God’s Word.
No other book can transform like God’s Word.
No job or hobby can transform like God’s Word.
God has given you His best when He gave you His Word.
God has blessed you with His Word.
SLOW) You are blessed & transformed when you spend time in God’s Word.
SLOW) You are blessed & transformed when you spend time in God’s Word.
Some of you wonder why you are spiritually stuck.
You feel like you have spiritually plateaued.
(Question) What is holding you back from a daily time being transformed by the living Word of God?
If you are spending time in God’s Word, why just 5 minutes. Go deeper.
Vs. 2 Integrity (whole heat)
Why a short devotional book read? Add to it the Bible.
Vs. 3 Following
Why? Because God’s Word Blesses
Transition - We have seen what God’s Word is - it is a blessing/a gift to us.
What does God’s Word do?
In verses 4-5 we see what God’s Word does. God’s Word demands.
II. (God’s word does) God’s Word demands unwavering obedience (vs. 4-5)
4 You have commanded your precepts
to be kept diligently.
5 Oh that my ways may be steadfast
in keeping your statutes!
Verse 4
NIV says, God’s Word is to be “fully obeyed”
ESV & King James says “Kept Diligently”
Diligently = tirelessly obeyed, consistently obeyed, earnestly, carefully, attentively, eagerly
“Fully Obeyed”
We fully obey God’s Word for 2 reasons:
A) God commands it (He is the King)
B) We see the beauty of God’s Word (verse?)
103 How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
I met with a pastor friend of mine recently in Augusta. We catching up and sharing about ministry. Sharing ministry ideas and what we were learning.
He is ministering in Talladega & we met at his favorite Asian place in Augusta.
We got our plates of food. While I was mid sentence he takes his first bite slumps in his chair, throws his head back and smiles. I stop talking and just look at him. He says, man - we don’t have food like this is Talladega.
I think he had gotten tired of eating tripe and opossum.
His mouth was in heaven.
103 How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
103 How sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Psalm 119:
A child left alone would live off of a diet of cake and candy and quickly get tooth rot and become overweight.
A child left alone would live off of a diet of cake and candy and quickly get tooth rot and become overweight.
In Bible times - before the discovery of refined sugar - honey was the sweetest thing you could place in your mouth.
When God’s Word tastes
When you live a life of eating foods that are high in fiber, natural and have no refined sugar you taste buds become sensitive to sweetness.
In Bible times they did not know how to keep bees.
Hives and honey were only wild.
Honey was rare - sweetness was rare.
The Psalmist says, God’s Word is sweeter than honey.
Have you ever tasted a home made candy or treat that you could sit down with a bowl of and eat the whole thing.
A sugary snack that is like dangerous.
How would it change you life if that’s is how your soul craved God’s Word?
That you could not get enough.
That in the morning, you had to get into the container.
That when you were alone you ate it and couldn’t stop until you were stuffed.
In the middle of the night you had to go get some.
Question - How would that change your life to get that much of God’s Word?
You would grow spiritually like you were on steroids.
God’s Word demands unwavering obedience.
-We obey because we are commanded
-We obey because God’s word is so beautiful
We believe that God’s Word is good!
In verse 5 we see a desire buy the Psalmist
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
5 Oh that my ways may be steadfast
in keeping your statutes!
The Psalmist is saying this. God help me to stay with/be faithful to obeying your Word!
The psalmist asks for help in having unwavering obedience.
How I must respond - Praise and eyes fixed on the the commands, vs. 6-8
We do this for 2 reasons
A) God commands it
B) we see the beauty of God’s Word (verse?)
Jesus reminds us of how unwavering obedience is not to be ignored.
22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?”
23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
God’s Word demands unwavering obedience.
-We obey because God’s word is so beautiful
-We obey because we are commanded
-We obey because we are commanded
Transition - then we see ...
A day is coming when churches will be under even more attack then they are now for obeying all of God’s Word.
-One presidential candidate has stated that if a church speak out against Gay marriage that the church should lose its tax exempt status.
-I think this will one day happen.
-After churches are brought down, then they...
Transition
III. My response is.A
III. The effect of blessing and obedience is worship.
6 Then I shall not be put to shame,
having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
7 I will praise you with an upright heart,
when I learn your righteous rules.
8 I will keep your statutes;
do not utterly forsake me!
Verse 6,
“I shall not be put to shame”
Why is there no shame? God will faithfully fulfill what He promises.
What is the opposite of shame Confident Delight in God and His Word.
Question - Do you confidently delight in God and His Word?
Vs 7
7 I will praise you with an upright heart,
when I learn your righteous rules.
Illustration:
-A child when seeing the World Trade Center says, That’s a big building.
-A young teenager says, How did they get all those windows up there?
-An adult says, That is a marvel of detailed engineering.
When you learn of God’s righteous rules
A spiritual child says - God’s Word is a good list of do’s and don’ts.
A mature believer praises God for the intricacies, the design, the wisdom and miracle of what God has done in His Word.
God’s Word leads us to praise God.
Vs 8
Resolve to keep all of God’s Word.
“I will keep your statutes”
Illustration - Year and a half ago I led a missions trip to minister to the homeless in a squatters camp Jamaica.
The adult man I was rooming with had never been on a missions trip. At the end of the trip I asked, if we have another trip are you coming back?
Fishing and had a good day.
I’m coming back and bringing my wife.
Beach
Amusement park.
He was so transformed by ministry He wanted to do it again and share it.
He wanted more.
-On the way home they say, I hope we get to do this again.
-When you begin to be transformed by God’s Word - you begin to want more.
You resolve to keep it.
Closing - Last line
“Do not utterly forsake me.”
The Psalmist in the last line of our section leaves his train of thought and has this fear.
He sees the perfection of God’s Word and knows there has been times and will be times in which He misses the mark.
There will be times that He fails.
He sees the pollution of disobedience and the purity of God.
He knows that purity cannot mix with disobedience.
He begs God to never to completely leave Him.
He begs God to never to completely leave Him.
Please do not forsake me. Please do not leave me.
Please do not forsake me. Please do not leave me.
“Please do not forsake me.”
It is true that if you are a Christ follower and you are in a season of selfishness & Sin
- That in God’s discipline that He will remove the fullness of His Spirit from you.
-However, your soul will still have a remnant of God’s Spirit.
-God promises us in Hebrews that,
He will never leave you.
In a room of this many people there are some who do not have Christ.
8 I will keep your statutes;
do not utterly forsake me!
-You have not kept the word of God.
-You are guilty before God.
-You are spiritually dead - deserve eternal death
The fear of the psalmist of being “utterly forsaken” should be your fear. At this very moment, without Christ - you are utterly forsaken.
There is hope. God is calling you to a life where you will never be utterly forsaken.
Jesus went to the cross and made a payment for sin by His blood.
Bearing the weight of sin on his shoulders.
The Father turned his face from the Son.
“…My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
27 And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you,
Jesus paid for sin and was forsaken, so that you would never be spiritually forsaken.
Would you say yes to Jesus in faith right now?
Would you go from being forsaken - to never forsaken.
Would you surrender you whole life to following Christ now?
Believer - We have spoken today about the transforming power of God’s Word. Many in this room God desires to bring to a deeper level of walk with Him.
Would you make a commitment to spend daily time with God now?
If you are already spending time with God, would you up your game in God’s Word.
Would you take more of the honey of God’s Word in you?
Pray
hen
When you are listening and following God you have drawn close to Him.
When you are not loving and following God you have drawn away.
It feels like God has moved away from you.
The reality is that God has not moved.
Rather you have moved from God.
The writer know that there will be times when
46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Matthew 27:46
God turned away from the Son as He bore the guilt of sin on His shoulders.