Psalm 119:1-8 - Aleph
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
The Hebrew alphabet—like the Greek, English, and all other alphabets—exists to declare the glory of God. Alphabets serve their highest purpose when they call on us to behold the glory of God in His Word.
Psalm 119 does that with the Hebrew alphabet.
It’s twenty-two stanzas—each one built on the successive twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet—call us to love, delight in, understand, and obey the law of God so that we might live to His glory.
We begin tonight with the first stanza—aleph, the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet. In the Hebrew, every verse of this stanza begins with aleph.
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
1 How blessed are those whose way is blameless, Who walk in the law of the Lord.
The blameless way is the way of walking in the law of the LORD. Those who walk according to His law will be blessed.
To be blameless before God doesn’t mean that we will be blameless in the eyes of everyone else. The world in general and individuals specifically may hate us and call us guilty, but it is ultimately the judgment of God that concerns us. We want to be found blameless before Him. The way to do that is walk in the law of the Lord.
To walk is to live, to move through life according to God’s Word. God’s Word is for doing; it is for application. Certainly God’s Word must be believed, but what we believe shows up in how we live. If we do not walk according to God’s Law, then we do not really believe it.
The word law reminds us of this. A law is to be kept; it is to be obeyed. A law applies to everyone and everyone submits to it. No one is above the law.
And this law is the law of the LORD. Walking—not just believing, not just studying—but walking according to this law is how we get to God. It’s how we draw near to Him.
He is the blessing to those who walk in the law of the LORD. Walking in the law of the LORD doesn’t necessarily bless us with physical health or material wealth, but no matter what we face, walking the law of the LORD will assure us that God is with us.
Q: But what’s the problem with our blameless walk in the law of the LORD?
We haven’t walked in the law of the LORD perfectly. There are times that we have stepped outside the law of the LORD and our way hasn’t been blameless. And those instances are enough to eternally rob us of the blessing of God’s presence with us.
In other words, the blessing of God’s presence with us can never be ours because we haven’t walked in His law blamelessly.
Q: So what’s the solution to this problem?
Well, some might argue that Psalm 119:1 is calling for a striving toward blamelessness—a sincere effort to walk in the law of the LORD. If we really try, God will bless us with His benevolent presence. But God’s standard is not ‘try hard’ but perfection and this ‘try hard’ offers us no assurance. How are to know when we are trying hard enough to please God?
The only real solution to this problem—our lack of walking blamelessly in the law of the LORD—is Jesus. He fulfilled the law on our behalf and died as the sacrifice for our law-breaking. His resurrection is proof that God’s accepts all those who trust in Jesus as covered in the perfect righteousness of Jesus. And those who trust in Jesus are then empowered by the Holy Spirit, to try hard or strive toward holiness—to try hard or strive toward walking in the law of the Lord blamelessly. But even when we fall short, we have the assurance that the law’s demands have already been met in Jesus. So while we who trust Jesus strive to obey God through the power of the Holy Spirit, we rest in the perfect obedience, sacrifice, and resurrection of Jesus.
Because of His perfection and the gift of faith that God has given us in Him, we are eternally blessed with the presence of God.
2 How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, Who seek Him with all their heart. 3 They also do no unrighteousness; They walk in His ways. 4 You have ordained Your precepts, That we should keep them diligently.
These verses add nuance to v. 1. Instead of ‘walk in the law of the LORD’ in v. 1 we have ‘observe His testimonies’ in v. 2. ‘Walk’ and ‘observe’ mean the same thing in this context, but we do need to pay attention to the word testimonies.
To give testimony is to give witness. God’s law is a witness against the wickedness of humanity in general and His people in particular, and it is a perfectly dependable testimony of God—who He is in His justness, holiness, mercy, grace, love, etc.—and what He demands from us.
We also notice in v. 2 that those blessed are those who seek Him with all their heart. There are at least two things that we should notice here:
(1) Those who seek God with all their heart do so by obeying His law (i.e., His Word). There is no such thing as a person who is ‘seeking hard after God’ without the Word of God. Those who seek Him will be in and strive to obey His Word.
(2) Those who seek God with all their heart are only those who have had hearts made new through faith in Jesus Christ. One of the New Covenant promises in Christ’s blood is the promise of a new heart that yearns for God. That’s the only kind of heart that will seek Him as it observes (v. 2), walks in (v. 3), and keeps diligently (v. 4) the law of God.
You’ll notice in v. 4 that God has ordained or commanded that His precepts be kept diligently.
Precepts are the detailed instructions of the LORD that are to be carried out diligently.
The NIV translates this verse, “You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed.” God has not intended us to half-way obey His law. He has not intended for us to approach His law half-hearted. We are to be all-in in terms of devotion and obedience.
Again, only Jesus did this perfectly, and our striving toward this end is only effective in Him.
5 Oh that my ways may be established To keep Your statutes! 6 Then I shall not be ashamed When I look upon all Your commandments.
The word ‘way’ shows up throughout Psalm 119. As we’ve already seen, our way is to be blameless; we are to walk in His ways; and now in v. 5 the psalmist prays—as should we—that his ways may be established to keep the LORD’s statutes.
A statute is an engraved or inscribed law—a law eternal; a law forever.
We should pray that we walk in God’s eternal law.
Our praying could sound exactly like v. 5, or it may sound like, “Lord, set my feet upon a rock—solid ground—making my footsteps firm, so that I may keep your statutes,” (Ps. 40:2); or it may sound like, “Lord, Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path, so light my way that I may keep your statutes,” (Ps. 119:105); but I think of how Jesus taught us to pray, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil,” (Matt. 6:13). This is praying that God would sovereignly line up our circumstances or stabilize our circumstances so that we walk in His statutes forever.
If we are in unstable circumstances, we might pray for God to bring stability, but the praying of v. 5 is different. It prays for stable circumstances but not for stability’s sake. It prays for stable circumstances so that the LORD might be more readily obeyed—so that the psalmist will not have to examine himself against the commandments of God during an unstable time and be ashamed.
7 I shall give thanks to You with uprightness of heart, When I learn Your righteous judgments.
Ultimately the only upright heart is the one made upright through faith in Jesus who wrote God’s law on our hearts—another promise fulfilled through the New Covenant in His blood. That heart is the heart that is thankful to God to learn His righteous judgments.
Q: What are the different ways that people learn?
People learn in different ways. Some learn by reading. Others learn by listening. Others learn by doing. But we are to learn God’s righteous judgments in all those ways and more. We are read the law, listen to the law, and do the law; we are also to meditate on the law and hide the law in our hearts.
And we should be thankful that we get to do so. We get to learn the law of God!
Q: What does the word ‘learn’ imply?
We have to learn because we don’t know how to walk in God’s law automatically. Walking in God’s law is less like breathing and more like tying our shoes. Breathing is automatic for us, but tying our shoes is a learned skill. Obeying God’s law is a learned skill. Sure, it’s one that we are pulled to because of our new hearts in Christ, but it is still learned nevertheless.
8 I shall keep Your statutes; Do not forsake me utterly!
The psalmist understands that God forsakes—gives up, casts away—those who break His statutes. So he makes a commitment and utters a prayer—I shall keep Your statutes; Do not forsake me utterly!
But, again, the reality is that we will all be given up, cast away from God if we expect His nearness to us to depend on our law keeping. Our record of law keeping will only serve to condemn us before Him. Our record of law keeping will only serve to separate us from God unless our record is actually Jesus’ record counting as ours.
‘I shall keep Your statutes’ is the commitment we must make because we are saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ.
‘Do not forsake me utterly’ is a prayer that is only answered positively through faith in Jesus.
Conclusion
Conclusion
This is a psalm that makes us thankful for the Word of God but even more thankful for the Word made flesh.
All the yearnings of this psalm are satisfied in Him.