Psalm 119:113-120 (2)

Introduction

Last week, we began to talk about double-mindedness. The psalmist hates the double-minded among God’s people. He wants them to choose this day whom they will serve. But as for Him, He says, “I love Your Law.” The psalmist is not double-minded. He is devoted to God’s Law. He loves God’s Law.

In this passage, the first mark of one not double-minded, the first mark of one single-mindedly devoted to God’s Law is love for God’s Law.

But let’s go on to consider a few other marks…

Major Ideas

Mark #2: Those who are single-mindedly devoted to God’s law wait for God’s word (114)

Psalm 119:114 NASB95

114 You are my hiding place and my shield; I wait for Your word.

[EXP] We are impatient creatures. We don’t find it easy to wait… especially when we are under some sort of attack. The psalmist in Psalm 119 was attacked by enemies who were lying about him. We might be attacked in various ways for obeying the word of God. And when we are, we want to respond. When we are struck, we want to strike back. We don’t want to wait. But we must wait. We must wait on God’s word, trusting that He will be our hiding place and shield until our salvation comes.

Q: Besides impatience, what do you feel when you have to wait? Powerless, uncertain, etc.

Although we may feel powerless, God is present to hide us and protect us with His power. Although we may feel uncertain, God will certainly bring about our deliverance in His time. Although we sometimes have to wait for God’s word to be fulfilled in our lives, God is always available to us as our hiding place and shield.

Waiting on or hoping in God’s Word teaches us to trust in God rather than ourselves or our circumstances.

In Philippians 3:20, the Apostle Paul talked about waiting. He wrote…

Philippians 3:20 NASB95

20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;

If we have trusted Christ for salvation, we spend the rest of our lives trusting Him and eagerly awaiting His return.

This waiting is not easy. Sometimes it feels uncertain, and we have no power to change it, but through all our waiting we exercise that same trust that we first placed in Him.

We trust Him as our hiding place.

We trust Him as our shield.

We devote ourselves to His word because He is the word we are devoted to.

We are not double-minded. We know where our devotion must lie. It must lie with Christ, the Word made flesh. We wait for Him.

Mark #3: Those who are single-mindedly devoted to God’s law observe God’s word (115)

Psalm 119:115 NASB95

115 Depart from me, evildoers, That I may observe the commandments of my God.

To observe is to keep, maintain, or protect. In observing God’s word, we are to protect or maintain our obedience to God’s word. We are to keep up our obedience to God’s word in the way that we would keep up a car, a house, or a flower.

[ILLUS] In order to maintain a flower bed, you have to keep the weeds out. If not, they’ll take over and choke out your flowers.

This is why the psalmist says, “Depart from me, evildoers...” Friendship with evildoers is a weed that will choke out our observance of God’s word.

[APP] Pay attention to your friendships.

Are you close with evildoers who are leading you away from obedience to God’s word?

Pay attention to your influences.

Are you being influence by evildoers (through entertainment, media, etc.) that are leading you away from obedience to God’s word?

Mark #4: Those who are single-mindedly devoted to God’s law hope in God’s word (116)

Psalm 119:116 NASB95

116 Sustain me according to Your word, that I may live; And do not let me be ashamed of my hope.

If we are hoping, we are not having. For example, if we hope for more energy, we do not have the energy we think we need. We hope in God’s word because in our circumstances we do not have the deliverance God’s word promises.

The psalmist is hoping God’s word because he does not yet have the deliverance God’s word promises.

In this life, we will need to be sustained. Living won’t always be pleasant. Circumstances will not always be ideal. Health will not always be good. Relationships won’t always last. But God’s word can give us hope through it all. Psalm 37:24 says this about the one who trust in God and His word…

Psalm 37:24 NASB95

24 When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, Because the Lord is the One who holds his hand.

[ILLUS] If you’ve ever held the hand of a small child as you walked on an uneven surface, you know what I call “the jerk”. It’s when the small child suddenly trips and is headed for the rough surface with bare knees. Instinctively and instantly you jerk the child up in hopes of saving his or her knees. (The little shoulder might be out of joint but the knees are fine.)

This is what the Lord does for us as we hope in His word. He enables us to live in an uneven, dangerous world by holding our hand, by sustaining us with His word.

[APP] Where is life uneven for you at the moment? Where is it rough? Where do you need the Lord to sustain you?

Ask the Lord to let you see hope in His word.

Where has life been uneven for you in the past? How did the Lord sustain you?

Thank the Lord for holding your hand.

Mark #5: Those who are single-mindedly devoted to God’s law regard God’s word (117)

Psalm 119:117 NASB95

117 Uphold me that I may be safe, That I may have regard for Your statutes continually.

The psalmist wants to be upheld or sustained in safety. But notice how that the psalmist doesn’t want safety for safety’s sake but so that he can have regard for God’s statutes continually.

We might think of God’s statutes like an engraving, like a course marked out that we should follow. But we aren’t likely to know the details of that engraving or follow that course closely unless we know it well.

To regard is to continually look on or meditate on. Psalm 119:6 says…

Psalm 119:6 NASB95

6 Then I shall not be ashamed When I look upon all Your commandments.

Likewise Psalm 119:15 says…

Psalm 119:15 NASB95

15 I will meditate on Your precepts And regard Your ways.

[ILLUS] Imagine that I take you to see Michelangelo's statue of David. I sit you down in front of the statue and say, “You got the day to look at this statue to regard its every detail. At the end of the day your happiness will depend on close you’ve paid attention to its different features.”

You spend the whole day peacefully regarding this great work of art and at the end of the day you’ve noticed things you’ve never noticed before.

Now imagine that I take you to see Michelangelo's statue of David. I sit you down in front of the statue and say, “You got the day to look at this statue to regard its every detail. At the end of the day, your happiness will depend on how close you’ve paid attention to its different features.” But on this day their are bombs exploding outside, panic in the streets, pieces of the museum ceiling begin to fall to the floor in front of you.

You spend the whole day fearing for your life while trying to regard this great work of art, so at the end of the day you haven’t really noticed much because you’ve been so understandably distracted.

[APP] Our happiness, our joy doesn’t depend on better circumstances. Our happiness, our joy depends on close we pay attention to God’s Word. But if we have better circumstances in this moment—say for example, if we are safe like the psalmist mentions in this verse—then we must use those better circumstances to pay more careful attention to God’s Word so we’ll be prepared for the worse circumstances.

They say their are two certainties in life: death and taxes. I’d like to add a third from the great Neil Burtt, and that certainty is this, “It gets worse.”

Life will certainly get worse for us before its over. So let’s prepare while we have the circumstances that permit it.

Mark #6: Those who are single-mindedly devoted to God’s law fear God’s word (118-120)

Psalm 119:118–120 NASB95

118 You have rejected all those who wander from Your statutes, For their deceitfulness is useless. 119 You have removed all the wicked of the earth like dross; Therefore I love Your testimonies. 120 My flesh trembles for fear of You, And I am afraid of Your judgments.

I think those who wander from God’s statutes in v. 118 are the double-minded from v. 113; that would explain why their wandering is deceitful. They think they can straddle the fence between obedience and disobedience and fool God into thinking that they are in fact faithful. But their deceitfulness is useless. God knows them through and through. He knows that they though pretend to be faithful, they are not.

God removes them from the earth like dross, the scum on the surface of molten metal. That word dross is related to a German word, drusen, meaning dregs, that little remaining bit of grounds left in the bottom of your coffee cup that you toss out.

God tosses the wicked away, but the psalmist is not wicked. He loves God’s testimonies. God’s word is referred to as His testimonies because His word is witness to what He has said and done and to what counts as obedience and disobedience to Him.

The word testimonies works together with the word judgments in v. 120 to put us in God’s courtroom. God’s word is either witness for or against us, and God’s word is the judge that either condemns or exonerates us.

Now the psalmist knows that he is a sinner before a holy God, so his flesh trembles for fear of God and he is afraid of the judgments of God (v. 120).

[APP] And this is how every man should feel before God and His judgments. None of us have any right to feel confident before the judgments of God because we all shall be condemned of by His judgments if we stand on our own merit.

God’s judgments judge the actions.

God’s judgments judge the thoughts.

God’s judgments judge the intentions.

And the standard of His judgments is perfection.

We have not acted perfectly.

We have not thought perfectly.

We have not intended perfectly.

But this is precisely why we must not stand before the judgment or the judgments of God on our own merit but on the merit of Christ.

You see, if God rejects the wanderers then we all shall be rejected because we’ve all wandered.

If God removes the wicked then we all shall be removed because we’ve all been wicked.

But not Jesus.

Jesus was perfect.

He was perfect in action, thought, and intention.

And its His perfection that is offered to us in the Gospel.

God made Him who knew no sin to be sin so that in Him (i.e., through faith in Jesus) we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus has paid for the judgments against us. Jesus has given us His perfection. In Him, we have the righteousness of God and we experience the perfect love of God that drives out fear.

Conclusion

[PRAYER]