Psalm 119:49-64 The Comfort & Steadfast Love in the Word

Title: The Comfort & Steadfast Love in the Word

Text:

Series: : the Word of God

Introduction:

Have a hymnbook ready

Opening Illustration:

Alzheimer’s Disease is defined as: common form of dementia, believed to be caused by changes in the brain, usually beginning in late middle age, characterized by memory lapses, confusion, emotional instability, and progressive loss of mental ability....

The passage before us is seemingly and exhortation against “spiritual Alzheimer’s”. It is an exhortation to remember where true comfort and steadfast love are found.

The Occassion of the Song:

The scorn of the proud and the robbery of the wicked have given the cause for this song (v. 51, 61).

The question that this stanza will answer is, “What should I do when verbally and physically mistreated?”

Relevance:

This is more important than you realize. We care so much about what people think and say about us that is shapes what we wear, what we say, and how we act.

Illustration:

This past week, many of you watched the State of the Union address. What you may have overlooked is that much of what took place at the State of the Union were practices that were intended to communicate. From women who wore all white to the speaker of the House ripping up the President’s speech. These activities are responses to perceived wrongs or injustices. In many ways, the State of the Union address was a culmination of a ongoing war of words and policies that clearly existed before this address. Thus, the State of the Union was manifesting reactions within an ongoing verbal and political dispute.

How do you respond?

Relevance #2

I would also say that it should matter to especially the younger crowd because if you have observed others go through trouble, it should be confirmation to you that you WILL go through affliction and you may not think that the teacher will remember the exam, but life is no respecter of persons.

You cannot put a “Hello Kitty” bandaid on a wound that needs 10 stitches and expect that it will hold. You cannot put temporary blocks pleasures in place to give you what comfort you can only find in the Lord’s Word.

Three Common Consequence(s) of Verbal & Physical Mistreatment:

Either we are caused to forget about what really matters and we react

OR we turn to lesser temporary means to find a temporary solace or satisfaction

OR we are caused to turn to a Source for strength to weather the mistreatment

Illustration:

Many of us may mistakenly think that our president turned to the LORD for his source of strength, but that is not what the speech revealed. His prayer breakfast the next day did not confirm otherwise. After the prayer breakfast and acquittal, he held another briefing where it the source of success made more apparent. He turned to evidences of economic success and personal stories of victory in the lives of Americans. Of the three options I have presented, he did the second one. It is hard to argue against the apparent success and the record; but my question to you this morning is to what or who do you turn? The economy is not eternal. Health care will fail one day because death is certain for all of us. To whom will you then turn?

Proposition:

Because of God’s word comforts the afflicted, we must be mindful of his promises (v. 52, 55, 61) Remembrance is the path for renewal of hope!

(illustration: This do in remembrance of me!)

The mind is a powerful means!

2 Corinthians 10:5 KJV 1900

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

(1) Be mindful of the word of the Lord who comforts! (49-56)

A. Mindfulness in the middle of Personal, Verbal Attack (v. 49-52)

(a) The Word Causes:

- Hope for those in relationship (v. 49)

- Life through comfort [for those in affliction] (v. 50)

(b) The Reason for this Needed Word

- [for] Perseverance (v. 51)

- [for] Comfort (v. 52)

(b) The word is his comfort in response to verbal, personal affliction (v. 50-51)

(c) He is active in remembering and comforting himself in the word (v. 52)

Pithy Summary: Comfort comes from the commandments! Life comes from His Living word! Hope comes from His words! Perseverance is possible by his promises.

Relevance:

Many of us wait for a text message from a friend to affirm us, while we neglect the text of scripture from our Father.

Illustration:

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What we need is so much more than mindfulness about business appointments. We need to remember the word of the Lord that comforts.

B. Mindfulness in the middle of General Obstinance (v. 53-56)

(a) Seized but soothed (v. 53-54) (statutes - regulation) - It is songs of statutes that soothe him)

(b) Blessed in remembering and keeping the law (v. 55-56)

Pithy Summary: Just because a song is a an “oldie” does not mean it is a “goodie”.

Relevance:

If songs will sooth the soul, they must be rooted in true, wholesome doctrine. I am thankful for songs that possess deep, rich true Theology, and I am amazed how shallow the Theology is of some of the hymns that we sing from our hymnbook. Some of us are unaware because of our tradition(s). Tradition is tragic when we it leads to blind acceptance of untruth.

Illustration:

Many of these are songs about God, as if we are performing rather than songs to God as if we are singing to Him. Make a simple comparison between a doctrinally rich song and that is misleading:

Page 405 - My Faith Has Found a Resting Place / Page 269 - O Word of God Incarnate

Page 372 - Living for Jesus -

Word-rich music and doctrinally sound music soothes the soul in distress. Test traditions by timeless truth!

Colossians 3:16 KJV 1900

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

(1) Be mindful of the word of the Lord who comforts.

(2) Be faithful to the word of the Lord who steadfastly loves! (57-64)

(a) Why? Consider the Inheritance [ that He is the inheritance that truly matters] (v. 57)

(b) How? Consider the details of the Inheritance (three God-Centered Realities) (v. 58-59)

The LORD’s Approval - “I intreated thy favour” - The LORD is the One who gives favour (face, countenance)

He knows of this mercy from His promise.

The LORD’s Way - “I thought on my ways” - The LORD’s Way is best for the people of the covenant.

The LORD’s Lordship - “I made haste and delayed not” - The LORD’s Commandments are worthy of immediate conformity.

Pithy Summary of these three: Be faithful to the word of the LORD because of WHO HE IS! Love the LORD’s Word because of His Person more than for his Products.

Relevance:

Do you desire the Lord for the Lord or do you desire the Lord for what he can give you only? Covetousness is a fatal crime of our Christian culture! Do you seek the Lord as your deepest satisfaction or do you seek the Lord to give you something for your deepest satisfaction?

Hebrews 13:5 KJV 1900

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

Illustration:

This past year, one of the cartoon movie Aladdin was made into live animation. The story line really reveals what is not uncommon in our human nature. When Alladin, a common thief, meets Jasmine the princess, he realizes that he has nothing he can really offer to her materially. The underlying supposition is that in order for her to love him, he must have a position, power, and money as a prince. He is able to fabricate all of this through a Jeanie in a lamp.

This plays to a common expectation that is within our human nature. If I am going to be “wantable” then I must fabricate. Consequently, we treat our relationships this way and we treat God this way. It is not uncommon to treat people as either less or more based on what gain we get from them. Children do this to parents. Employees do this to employers. Husbands do this to wives. God’s children do this to God. This is the “anti-gospel” ethic.

Do you want God for God or do you want God merely for what he can give you?

(c) Consider the Cause for Thankfulness in Darkness (v. 61-62)

[midnight - a time when God exacts judgment on the wicked - , ]

(d) Consider the Companionship of those who fear/obey (v. 63)

Pithy Summary: Be faithful to the word of the LORD in darkness because the LORD is just and there are others with me in this. Darkness hides reality, but the LORD’s Word is Light.

Relevance:

(e) Consider the Exaltation of the LORD (v. 64)

What else could you expect? When the word has confirmed the Lord and his goodness. You can only confirm that the LORD is steadfast in love. , ,

Relevance:

We too should consider that in darkness, can be faithful to the word of the LORD who is steadfast in love. But how?

Recapitulation:

(1) Be mindful of the word of the Lord who comforts!

(2) Be faithful to the word of the Lord who steadfastly loves!

Christ-centriconic Fulfillment:

The weight of doing these two things is overwhelming to people immersed in a culture where it doesn’t seem like the word of really successful.

The context of the writer is likely either during exile or post-exilic (v. 61)

The claim of this writer is that he is a “servant” (v. 49)

For a Jewish person, the “servant”, this term was either to Israel corporately (), the prophet (), the priest ()…etc Certainly a referent to a particular individual to come ().

How is it that Jesus Christ actually fulfills what we see in this passage?

Was it not that He lived in perfect covenant with the Father’s Word?

Was it not that, in spite of this,

Was it not that He was loved perfectly of the Father?

Yet, what we witness in the pages of the New Testament that though Jesus did not decline from the law, he was held in derision, he was bound by men, he made his grave with the wicked.

To what end? That all the earth would be full of the glory of the Lord.

Romans 15:1-

The ideal of is accomplished by Christ alone perfectly.

So how do we partake of such a glorious blessing of the word of the Lord that comforts and the word of the Lord who steadfastly loves?

Conclusion:

How does an unbeliever partake?

Christ is the only Way to enter into relationship with God.

You must be born again.

How does a believer continue to experience?

(*) You experience the comfort of Christ & the steadfast love of God as you are in direct:

Contact/compliance with His word

Communion with His people

The work of Christ has implications for how we live in community with each other.

(2) You experience the comfort of Christ & the steadfast love of God as you are in direct compliance with:

His word

His people (the church)

is NOT to be purely experienced independently. As a part of the community of God, you learn and live it out in community.

Comfort in the word includes companionship at church.

Experiencing the Lord’s steadfast love means loving and being loved by God’s people.

Colossians 3:16 KJV 1900

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

Illustration:

Not too long ago, I was visiting a dear shut in lady of our church. As I entered the room, she looked at me but did not recognize me. I thought that maybe she had begun to experience some form of “Alzheimer’s Disease”. It was then that both her vision and memory became clear. She recognized me and called me by name. Even the fear of Alzheimers Disease is somewhat disconcerting, but when she recognized me, both she and I were comforted in the recognition of that moment.

So it is when God’s people. The Lord’s word both comforts and shows to us God’s loyal love. Jesus Christ has made this comfort and love increasingly clear. This perpetual remembrance is tremendously reviving. Remembering the word is key in the reviving work.