Blessing of Obedience

Introduction

-Thank the congregation for how we have been blessed coming in and getting to know them over the past 3 months

-The gift baskets

-Everyone who has gotten to know us

-Looking forward to getting to know everyone even better as the time goes on

-introduce Psalm 119

-Longest chapter in the Bible

-22 Stanzas 8 verses each organized as an acrostic poem in the Hebrew language

-Almost every verse refers to God’s word

-theme is definitely exalting God and his word

-Author is uncertain although David, Daniel, or Ezra are all potential authors

If I could say there is one theme that is consistent throughout the Psalm it would be Reading and Obeying God’s Word. There is a definite emphasis that we need to consider.

READ PASSAGE

1. Reading and Obeying God’s Word brings Blessing- vv 1-3

a. Begin by asking the question “What does it mean to be blessed?”

i. There are some who would associate blessing with material wealth or healthy lives­—They distort the whole meaning of this passage to promote a prosperity gospel—Faith and Obedience means you prosper materially.

1. We know from Pastor Steve’s messages from 2 Peter that there are false teachers.

2. This is a distortion of the gospel

If it doesn’t mean material gain, what does blessed mean”?

ii. Some translations simply translate this word as “happy” but that doesn’t really capture the essence of what is being communicated here

"Trust and Obey" was written by John H. Sammis in 1887

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

iii. Biblically this word can be understood as the “deep seeded joy and contentment found in obeying God”

1. Spurgeon says “walking in God’s way”

2. The passage Pastor Paul read for us in Psalm 1 also talks about the blessed man—the man whose delight is God’s word

3. “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."—John Piper

b. What are some characteristics of the “blessed”?

i. Verse 1 the blessed are blameless

1. This is a word that is often used to describe New Testament believers who have been made blameless by faith in Christ

2. Literally means having integrity—How do they get this integrity, or become blameless?

ii. they are blameless because they “walk in the law of the Lord”

1. The term walk here refers to a habitual pattern of living

2. The word of God is chicken soup for the Christian soul. It is full of practical principles that are intended to be implemented into our lives.

3. That is why the blessed can “walk” in the Law of the Lord, it dictates their living. Every act is measured against the standard of God’s word

iii. The Blessed are committed to their walk with God

1. Verse 2 elaborates further by saying the blessed “seek after him with their whole heart”

2. This is a commitment, a diligent life commitment to holiness. No half attempts, partial obedience is disobedience

3. How committed are we to our walk with God?

4. It is because of this commitment that they do no wrong but walk in His ways

The key thing to notice here is that the joy and contentment, or the “blessing” comes from obedience. The blessed “walk in the Law of the Lord”, “seek after Him with their whole heart”, and, “do no wrong, but walk in His ways.” This is practical, rubber meets the road language. There are many things about God that we cannot understand. There are several aspects of theology that are difficult. But here we see that there are many ways that we can read and obey. There is a beauty in that simplicity. We are blessed by the simplicity of walking in obedience to God’s word. The more we grow and mature through our obedience the more “blessing” or contentment we can experience.

- “Read your Bible Pray Everyday” song illustration—it really is that simple

Another characteristic of the being blessed that we enjoy today as believers is we are blessed by our faith in Christ

iv. For us being blessed means being “in Christ”

1. Ephesians 1:3— “who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing…”

2. Today we have the joy of receiving blessing by being in Christ. Through the redemptive work of the cross, we have every blessing, through nothing of our own doing we have been granted blessing from God.

3. What greater blessing could there be than to be redeemed by the blood of Christ.

It is important for us to pause here and consider our own obedience. What motivates us to follow what God commands in His word?

i. Our obedience comes from our love of Christ. Jesus says in John 14:15 that if we love Him, we keep His commands

I find that I draw most of my illustrations from three sources, my dad, my brothers, and Calvin and Hobbes. I found a comic that got me thinking about doing what is right and wrong.

📷

ii. I think Hobbes hits the nail on the head and like Calvin sometimes its hard for us to come to grips with the fact that our actions demonstrate what’s in our heart because a lot of the time we don’t do what we are supposed to do.

a. If our hearts are full of love for Christ we should obey Him just like He says

b. I think we can all relate to Paul in Romans 7 when he shares the internal struggle we have to live according to God’s commands. Fortunately, in John 14 Jesus doesn’t stop there

iii. Jesus continues in verse 16 by saying, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever…”

This brings us to the next point in Psalm 119…

2. Reading and Obeying God’s Word Requires Help- vv 4-6

a. We Can’t do this on our own! READ THE VERSES

i. Look at the change in tone that the Psalmist has.

1. Switches from speaking in the third person about the blessed, to first person in what begins a prayer that will take up much of the chapter

ii. Makes the statement that God has commanded His statues to be kept

1. The HSCB captures what this verse is saying better than the ESV. It says,

4You have commanded that Your precepts

be diligently kept.

5 If only my ways were committed

to keeping Your statutes!

6 Then I would not be ashamed

when I think about all Your commands.

iii. It appears that the Psalmist has identified what keeping the Law looks like in the first 3 verses and he acknowledges that he cannot do it and responds by crying out for help

1. “the prophet David observes the charge which God gives, and that is, that his commandments be diligently kept: here, then, he observes his own weakness and insufficiency to discharge that great duty…”-Spurgeon

2. We know now that what the Psalmist is experiencing was the entire purpose of the Law

a. Romans 7:7, “…Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.”

b. Galatians 3:24, “So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith…”

The Law was never intended to be the way of salvation. It was intended to reveal sin and guard us from sin until Christ came. As Paul will go on to explain in Galatians (we won’t take the time to look at it in depth), this doesn’t mean that we negate the Law. It should just bring us to the place of the Psalmist; dependency on God that comes from truly understanding what the Law was asking. It couldn’t be kept. That is why the Psalmist cries out to God.

iv. “If only”…in this two word phrase the Psalmist not only acknowledges his inability to keep God’s commandments, he also shows his desire is that he would be able too. He yearns for the blessing that comes with obedience but through that desire is confronted with his inability to meet the requirements.

v. We all, like the Psalmist need to recognize our own inability to live the way we should and that sometimes we don’t have the right desires for our lives. We all have fallen short, but God in His grace gave us the Holy Spirit Who helps and sanctifies us despite our flesh.

1. He not only gave us His commands, but He gave us the help we need to live according to them

vi. Our lives need to change just like the Psalmist’s desires his to. We need to desire to be holy, to keep God’s statues. We need to pray that our minds may be renewed. The amazing blessing is that the more our minds are renewed by God’s word the more our desires change to be in line with God’s word.

b. We who are in Christ will never be put to shame Re-Read VERSE 6

i. What is the shame that the Psalmist is talking about here?

1. Shame of sin, “Sin brings shame, and when sin is gone, the reason for being ashamed is banished.”-The Treasury Spurgeon

2. When we read and see what God has commanded in His word and measure our lives against it, it can bring shame, or embarrassment

3. Adam and Eve were not ashamed in the garden until they broke God’s command and then they covered themselves up.

4. The Psalmist again is reflecting on his own inability to live up to God’s standard

What the Psalmist desires is that there would be nothing in his life that would cause him to be ashamed. There wouldn’t be the stain of sin that causing him as Spurgeon says, “to blush”.

Again, this points us to the cross. Paul wrote,

ii. Romans 10:11 anyone who believes in Him will not be put to shame

1. For us in Christ we have no shame because Jesus paid the penalty. Even when we stumble and fall, we have no reason to be ashamed because we are in Christ

3. Reading and Obeying God’s Word Results in Praise- vv 7-8

a. Our praise must come from the right heart—which we gain by reading and obeying God’s word

i. “upright”—refers to honest sincerity

ii. “Righteous rules”—God’s character is revealed in God’s word

b. We need to have a desire to learn and to study

i. There is a saying “a Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn’t.”

ii. The basis of a solid Christian walk is a healthy devotional life.

1. Donald Whitney in his book, “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life” wrote, “No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word. Nothing can substitute for it.”

c. The more we learn about God the more praise we will possess in our hearts

i. “We must learn to praise, learn that we may praise, and praise when we have learned.”—Spurgeon

ii. what more could invoke praise in our hearts?

d. We who are in Christ know that He will never forsake us

i. We have the indwelling Spirit that seals us

Conclusion

-We find joy in life when we live according to God’s word

-we are blessed because despite our shortcomings at keeping God’s commands we have the Holy Spirit Who helps and guides us

-We are blessed because God will never forsake us and the more we learn by reading God’s word the more reasons we have to praise Him.

-Prayer