Loving God's Word

I. Introduction

Text Idea: Each stanza to this point involved requests the psalmist made toward God. Now, the psalmist expresses his love for the Word of God because of its effects in his life. Each verse highlights why he loves the Word of God.

Sermon Idea: We are to love the Word of God because it offers us true wisdom, guidance, and satisfaction in life. We are to love the Word because it always points us back to our first love, Jesus Christ.

Text gives us THREE reasons why we are to love God’s Word

II. God’s Word Gives Wisdom (v. 97-100)

(v. 97) The psalmist boldly proclaims that he loves God’s law; while most of the previous stanzas were pleas directed toward God, this section is a proclamation of praise regarding God and His Word

-Notice that this is an exclamation the psalmist is making; all of this psalm hinges on this verse—”O how love I thy law!”; this love is no doubt the result of a love for God because to love the Word of God is to love the God of that Word

-As the psalmist stops to ponder God’s Word, he cannot help but pause in this wonderful chapter in order to praise the Lord for His Word; it is of so much value and pleasure to the psalmist that he cries out his love for God’s Word

-He compares the Word with other things, and yet, the invaluable Word surpasses all the treasures of this world; it is God’s Word that transforms lives spiritually and demands His highest affection, obedience, and praise

Ex.) Think about what we love and how it affects our actions; If I love to cut grass, I will purposefully make time to cut grass during the day; if I love my spouse, I will make time to be present with her, listen to her, help her, pray for her, etc.; if I love coming to church, I will make church attendance a priority

Ex.) Whatever we love, we will talk about, spend time with it, think about it, give it our attention, etc.

+ The point is that whatever our heart is set on will dictate our actions; our love for something motivates why we do what we do

-This is what the psalmist is doing; because he loves God’s Word, he praises the Lord for it and lists why he loves the Word of God; this is not a superficial love, but a genuine love because it is God’s Word given even to him

-This is, no doubt, evidence of a believer whose heart is set on the Lord and His will; a genuine believer will love the Lord and His Word; prior to salvation, we all are were opposed to God and His Word, but because of Christ, we will love Him and obey His Word

Deuteronomy 6:4-6 The greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and might; Jesus affirms this in Matt. 22:37-38, and Deut. 6:6 stresses that loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, and might involves us loving His Word and treasuring it in our heart

John 8:31-32 Jesus explains to those Jews who believed on Him that genuine disciples are they who continue/abide in His Word; His Word is that which brings knowledge of the truth and liberates us; genuine believers will be genuine disciples

WHAT IS A DISCIPLE? Disciple (mathētēs)—a follower, a learner, a pupil; it is one who patterns life after the teaching of his Master; a disciple/follower of Christ is one who has believed on Christ for salvation, receives His Word, and patterns his life according to His Word in obedience

-As the psalmist boldly proclaims his love for the Word, it stems from one knowing the love of God at salvation and one who genuinely loves the Lord; the rest of this psalm is built off this one verse; as we will see in this text, a genuine love for the Word of God is a reasonable love and will have certain affects in our life; WHY DOES HE LOVE THE WORD? First reason is here!

a.) Greater wisdom than the enemies (v. 98)

-We do not know the fulness of the psalmists’ predicament, but it is apparent that he had enemies who opposed him; instead of cowarding to their lies and attacks or agreeing with their sinful ways, he sought wisdom from the Lord and lived out God’s commands

-WHAT IS WISDOM? Wisdom—knowledge put into practical use; spiritual truth that is received, understood, and applied; results in godly living

EX.) Think about changing a flat tire—one can know all the facts regarding changing a tire; one could even have all the steps memorized, but a wise individual would get out of the car and put that knowledge into practice by changing the tire

True wisdom can only come from the Lord. (v. 98a)

-Notice that the psalmist emphasizes “thou”; it is God who is making the psalmist wiser than his enemies; it was not of his own effort or of his own doings; it is the Lord who provided such wisdom and enabled him to live wisely

Proverbs 2:6 God gives wisdom; from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding

James 1:5 God’s Word tells us to ask of God in faith if we lack wisdom becasue He gives to all men liberally and does not upbraid (reproach)

-Therefore, the source of such godly wisdom is God, and He imparts this wisdom “through thy commandments”; this means that the means the psalmist (and us today) can be spiritually wise is through hearing, receiving, understanding, and obeying God’s Word

-Likewise, a wise believer is one who knows the truth in God’s Word and puts that truth into practice into his or her daily life; it is more than mere Scripture memorization or factual knowledge because that truth must take root and change our actions, conforming our lives to Scripture

True wisdom from God surpasses this world’s wisdom. (v. 98b)

-Notice that the psalmist compares this wisdom that the Lord offers to that of his enemies; God’s wisdom surpasses man’s wisdom; it is greater in quantity and in quality than the wisdom this world could ever offer; it far excelled the world’s wisdom

-It is possible that the psalmists’ enemies used their own wisdom to destroy the psalmist, but their futile attempts failed; God’s wisdom sustained and protected the psalmists’ life

-Likewise, God’s wisdom is a greater wisdom than what this world could offer us today; we stand in need of His wisdom and in need of applying His Word

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 God will destroy this world’s wisdom, and this world’s wisdom does not know God; God’s wisdom is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ; through Christ, sinful man can be redeemed to a holy God and then be used to declare Him to the world

b.) Greater understanding than the teachers (v. 99)

-This wisdom from God’s Word caused the psalmilst to have more understanding than all of his teachers; these would be his instructors and possibly even those who taught him from his youth

-The psalmist is not boasting in himself or his accomplishments or even ridiculing his teachers; rather, he is emphasizing why he loves the Word—this Word of God is the means to wisdom and produces an understanding of truth

EX.) Ephesians 4:11-16—God has given to the church pastors and teachers for perfecting of saints, work of the ministry, and edifying of body of Christ; to grow in knowledge of Christ into a perfect (mature) believer

+ Teachers are not evil or unnecessary; God gives certain believers the spiritual gift to teach and even calls certain men, who meet the qualifications in Scripture, to preach Word

+ The emphasis is that we need the Word to have such godly wisdom and understanding in life

-Notice that he emphasizes that God’s testimonies (Word) was his meditation; he was able to obtain a greater understanding of God’s Word because he pondered, studied, and reflected on God’s Word

-This shows who his real teacher is—the Lord; man can reach the ears, but cannot affect the heart; God is able to open our eyes to His law and give understanding

c.) Greater understanding than the ancients (v. 100)

-The psalmist contrasts with this third group—the ancients (aged, elder); this is not a derogatory word, but it is a word that classifies those who are older; think about the advantages to one who is more aged—they can speak from experiences in their own life, they can attest what the Lord did for them, they could explain how the Lord taught them

-Learning from those who are more aged is essential to the spiritual growth of the church; Job 32:7 tells us that days should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdom

-Job 32:9 tells us, too, that great/aged men are not always wise or understand judgment; in essence, some could be advanced in years and still be immature spiritually

-The main point here is not dealing with age, but rather, the point is that the psalmist obtained a greater understanding through obeying/keeping God’s Word

-Godly wisdom and understanding is not based on affiliation, degree of education, or age—it is based on how one receives the Word of God and obeys the Word of God

Application: How can our lives be godly lives? How can we live wisely in the presence of our enemies and mature in our walk with Christ?

-It might be that we face difficult people that desire for us to fail and fall; we desire to live godly before them to point them to Christ

-It might be that we have loved ones in our families that do not know Christ, and we desire our lives to be a godly witness before them

-We must follow the psalmists’ pattern in v. 97-100: Love the Word, Read the Word, Meditate on the Word, Obey the Word

III. God’s Word Gives Guidance (v. 101-102)

(v. 101-102) The psalmist shows us here how the Word of God dictated and governed his steps in his life; godly wisdom will lead to a holy life that is surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ

-Both of these verses use verbage that expresses a path or direction man can go in life; truly, man can only go two ways in life: the way of wisdom or the way of folly; the way of blessed man or the way of the cursed man; the way of Christ or the way of this world; the narrow way or the broad way

-Psalmist shows us here that God’s Word does not only give wisdom and understanding, but when God’s Word is applied, it leads a life directed and guided by God; shows us what the guiding Word does

a.) Guides us away from evil (v. 101a)

-Notice that the psalmist states that “he refrained his feet from every evil way”; this speaks of restricting and witholding one’s life from going a certain direction; the Word of God was that which kept him from going into the evil way that sinned against God

-The evil way always has the same results; it always leads to a path of disobedience toward God that results in judgment, destruction, and much loss

-Notice that it is not just some of the evil ways; God’s Word is absolute truth and completely pure; therefore, it will never lead us in a way that transgresses the Lord

i. Man’s ways will always lead toward the evil way.

+ Apart from Christ, man is desparately wicked and heart is deceitful; there is no need to trust our own conceits because it will lead to destruction

+ Proverbs 14:12—Scripture tells that there is a way that seems right to man, but those ways lead to death

+ On the contrary, God’s way leads to righteousness; therefore, we cling to what His Word says rather than our own conceits

b.) Guides us toward righteousness (v. 101b-102)

-Notice that the psalmist shows us the positive; he withheld his steps from the evil way in order to keep God’s Word; loving God’s Word caused him to negatively avoid evil and positively pursue righteousness

-Notice he emphasizes that he did not depart from God’s judgments; this shows a persistence to obey God; it was not half-hearted obedience because a genuine love for the Lord and His Word leads to a genuine desire to obey Him

-The motivating factor for obeying God and not going the way of evil is the fact that God taught him; because the Lord taught the psalmist, he could be assured that the way is right

ii. God is our Teacher who guides us in the right way.

+ Notice that the psalmist emphasizes that God is our instructor; taught—speaks of throwing, casting in the right direction

+ John 14:26—Jesus iterates that the Holy Spirit is our Teacher and will bring His Word to our remembrance

+ John 15:26—Jesus emphasizes that the Holy Spirit will always testify of Christ; Christ is always the central figure of Scripture

+ John 16:13-14—Jesus states that Holy Spirit will always guide into the truth; always glorify of Christ; receive Christ’s message and declare it to us

Illustration: Think about what all the DOT does to ensure you arrive to your destination safely; there are lines on the road to keep us in our lane because we can be seriously hurt if we do not stay in our lane properly; there are stop signs, traffic lights, yield signs in order to keep us from harm; there are mile markers, city signs, etc.—This is how the Word of God is to us; it puts up the guardrails to keep us from evil and allow us to get to our destination, which is first salvation by grace through faith in Christ and then a holy life unto the Lord.

Application: God’s Word always demands a human response—God is able to guide us, and yet, it is through His Word and illumination of the Holy Spirit

+ Open Word of God; pray for God to open your eyes to His truth

+ Pray for the Lord to help you understand the truth and give grace to apply it

+ Aim, with God’s help, to obey what His Word says

IV. God’s Word Gives Satisfaction (v. 103-104)

(v. 103-104) The psalmist declares his final reason why he loves the Word of God; God’s Word satisfied the psalmist internally and eternally

a.) Because God’s Word satisfies, it will create a greater delight for truth.

-Matthew 5:6

-1 Peter 2:2-3

b.) Because God’s Word satisfies, it will create a greater hatred for sin.