GOD'S WORD DIRECTS US

Introduction

-GPS has become the norm in our society, which was something we would have thought came out of a science fiction show when I was a kid. But even though GPS is supposed to get you to where you are going, even it has flaws in its maps and doesn’t always work properly.

~For example, if you would try to use Google Maps to get to my house, even though it says it knows where I live, if you follow the map it actually leads you to the exact opposite end of the subdivision. It never actually takes you to our house.

~I’ve tried to get that fixed—putting in map corrections with Google. But they haven’t fixed it yet.

~There’s nothing worse than something that says it will put you on the right path, but then in actuality it gets you lost.

-As bad as that is for a GPS, it’s even worse for those philosophies and worldviews that claim that they give you the right path to life, but then actually lead you in the wrong direction and you end up lost. Not only is it problematic for the here and now, but then your eternal destiny is at stake as well.

-With all the chaos of this year, we have seen numerous worldviews and philosophies and life plans on display, and they all make contradictory claims. Since they are all contradictory, they can’t all be true. In fact, we know that there is only one worldview that is true. And that being the case, the vast majority of people in the world are going down the wrong path. And they need to see the light (so to speak).

-In the past few weeks, I’ve talked about what this world needs in a day and age like ours. The world needs a spiritual church that doesn’t rely on the power of the flesh or the ways of the world but relies on the Holy Spirit. The world also needs mature Christians who know and live out the faith, not infants who don’t even have a grasp of the basics.

~And now, today, the world needs something powerful and eternal to direct its path so that it walks in truth and not error.

-The verses we are looking at today come out of Psalm 119 where the psalmist proclaims the glory and wonder of God’s Word and declares that it is all that is needed to direct one’s life. And what this tells us is that out of all the influences in the world that could affect the direction of one’s life, only God’s Word leads to truth and leads to a life pleasing to God.

-So, my hope is that this lesson will lead us to following the direction that God’s Word has for our life, and then share that with others. I want to talk about 5 different ways that God’s Word will help guide us.

1) God’s Word protects our heart (vv. 9-11)

Psalm 119:9–11 ESV

9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. 10 With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! 11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

-The biblical concept of heart includes your thinking, your will, and your emotions. In a sense, it is the rudder that steers your ship; it is the CPU that runs your computer. Where your heart goes, so goes all the rest of you. So, as Solomon pointed out in Proverbs, we are to guard our hearts with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

-The psalmist also realized its importance. He gives the prayer that God would not let his heart wander away. That is what our hearts have a tendency to do, even as saved sinners. Our hearts want to go in a wrong direction. The hymn writer captured this quite poetically in Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, where he wrote:

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

~But then the hymn writer joins the psalmist, as he continues:

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

-The psalmist asks and answers the question on how a young man can keep his way pure or cleansed, and the answer is by guarding it with the Word of God.

~The word for “guard” can also mean to preserve. When you want to preserve something so that it lasts for a long time, you place it or seal it in a container. You want to preserve some fruits or vegetables, you preserve it in a jar or can.

-If you want your heart kept and remain pure, you preserve it in the Word of God. You surround your heart with the Word of God. You seal your heart in the Word of God.

-He states it another way in v. 11. What is the way to flee sin? By storing up God’s Word in your heart. Yes, this is rightly often used to promote Scripture memorization. But you can have the facts of Scripture in your heart and it not move you.

-The word for store or hide can also mean to treasure. When you treasure something, it has a special place in your heart, and you revisit it in your heart quite often.

~When you first fall in love, you treasure that person in your heart. And when you think about that person, you think of them often and you think of them fondly. It involves all your mind and emotion and will.

~The same with God’s Word. We treasure it in our hearts, and we think of it often and fondly, and that way it protects us and keeps us from sin—it saves us from ourselves.

-God’s Word is able to direct us by protecting our hearts FROM sin and FOR God…

2) God’s Word strengthens us in difficulties (vv. 25-28)

Psalm 119:25–28 ESV

25 My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word! 26 When I told of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes! 27 Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. 28 My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!

-The psalmist talks about his difficulties in vivid language, and it might be language that many of us can relate to in our day and age. He is so low, that it’s like his soul clings to dust. The pressures and anxieties are so hot and heavy it’s like his very soul is melting from the sorrow.

-In a world of pandemic where we might be separated from those we normally have contact with; in a world of political and cultural divide; in a world of violence and hate, it is difficult. And people find so many different ways of coping. Unfortunately, the worldviews of so many lead them to either hide themselves in drugs and alcohol, hide themselves in fantasy, or just hide themselves from the world.

-The psalmist found a different solution. In v. 26 he gives a prayer to God, reminding himself that God has answered him in the past, with the hopes of a similar answer in the future.

-But until the answer to prayer comes, he knows where to go to for a source of strength that will get him by moment by moment. He tells us in v. 28 that God gives strength through His Word.

~When he is anxious, he gets into God’s Word. When he has doubt, he gets into God’s Word. When he has worry, he gets into God’s Word. When he receives troubling news, he gets into God’s Word. When world events are overwhelming, he gets into God’s Word. And there he finds the strength to carry on.

-When things get rough, other worldviews will cause you to run away from God and His Word. They might try to tell you that you have everything you need in yourself. All you have to do is believe in yourself. All you have to do is find yourself. The problem is, you know that you in yourself is all sorts of messed up.

~You need something that will make you lie down in green pastures. You need something that will lead you beside still waters. You need something that will restore your soul.

-You will not find that in pop psychology or inspirational speeches. True strength is drawn from God and is found in His Word. When life is at its most difficult, and it seems impossible to go on, you look to the Words of the One who made you and sustains you, and it will guide you through all the difficulties that you are enduring.

3) God’s Word gives knowledge of His goodness (vv. 65-68)

Psalm 119:65–68 ESV

65 You have dealt well with your servant, O Lord, according to your word. 66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments. 67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. 68 You are good and do good; teach me your statutes.

-If you have ever tried to memorize something, one tool that some have used to help is to connect the words with a picture or some other sort of prompt. If you need to memorize a speech for school, you connect different sections with different prompts. You can do the same with memorizing Scripture.

-Sometimes we forget how good our God really is. When things in life get heavy, when problems keep reoccurring, when the news is constantly negative, we become cynical, we question God, or we turn away from Him.

-But when we get into God’s Word, all throughout it is a prompt about how good God really is. Yes, we have these temporary, earthly problems that we cope with. But, in spite of all that, when you see in His Word all that God has done and how well He has treated a rebellious humanity, you are reminded not only about how good He is in general, but the Word also prompts you to remember how good He has been to you on a personal level.

-The psalmist first recognizes that God has dealt really good with him, which he says is in accordance with the word—God has made promises and God has kept those promises. A promise-keeping God is a good God.

-The psalmist also recognizes that not only is God good, but His Word and His commandments and His standards are good. Those outside of Christianity think that God and all His commandments are stifling and keeping us from the good life. Little do they know that God’s Word points us exactly to the good life.

~God isn’t trying to keep things from us, He is trying to keep the best things in the best ways for us.

-When God in His Word says to keep sex within marriage, it isn’t to keep us from pleasure, it is to maximize the pleasure of a loving, committed relationship.

~When God says not to covet, He knows that true peace of heart and mind only come when you are content with what He has provided you.

-God is good and He does good. His Word reminds us of all the good that He has done in history, and it prompts us to remember all the good He has done in our own lives. And the psalmist then asks God to teach him the Word. The deeper we dive into the Word, the more and more we realize just how good our God is.

-The world thinks that its ways and philosophies are the way to good, but it isn’t. It offers cheap substitutes. If they want good, then they need to know God who is good, and then learn of God and His good works and good ways in the Word.

4) God’s Word leads to His promised salvation (vv. 81-83)

Psalm 119:81–83 ESV

81 My soul longs for your salvation; I hope in your word. 82 My eyes long for your promise; I ask, “When will you comfort me?” 83 For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, yet I have not forgotten your statutes.

-Our good God is a God of deliverance and salvation. He delivered the Israelites from Egyptian slavery. He delivered them from enemies pressing in from all directions. He delivered them from exile.

~God, who is ever patient and merciful, is a God of salvation. And this not only happens on a group level, but also on a personal level. God has delivered people from sickness and death and troubles and tribulations.

~He doesn’t do it all the time in the ways that we might want Him to, but He has done it on several occasions.

-The psalmist needs some deliverance. He needs some salvation…from enemies, from trouble, and even from himself.

~In v. 83 he describes his state of being and mind as being a wineskin in the smoke. Wineskins were obviously made from animal skins, and if they were exposed to high heat or smoke, they would become dry and brittle and they’d start falling apart.

-What a description of our souls. And so, the psalmist says he longs for God’s salvation, and he finds out about this salvation in the Word. The psalmist knows that there is promised salvation in the Word, and that is where he will find his comfort.

-This is true for us on a personal level in that we know that for those who are God’s people will somehow find deliverance from their sorrows. It might not happen in this world, so it might wait until our death, but it will be done according to the Word of God.

-But most importantly, the Word of God talks about the ultimate salvation, which is a spiritual deliverance, from the effects of sin and ultimately death.

~The description of the wineskin in smoke is an apt description of the lost. They are dead in their sins and trespasses. They are far from the source of living water. They are in darkness and need light. So, they are spiritually all dried and shriveled and dead. They will remain that way until they receive the deliverance of their souls from sin’s effects.

-But God’s Word tells about the salvation that all people are looking for. It talks about man’s true state in sin: dead and separated from God. But then it tells us how God Himself took on humanity, died on the cross to be our substitute and pay due penalty of our sin, and how He rose from the dead to show He conquered sin and death. All who simply receive Jesus and believe that He died and rose for you personally will be saved. It is a guaranteed deliverance.

-And we know this because it is found in God’s Word. People may not know how much they truly long for salvation, but they are dry and thirsty for it. And they can know about this salvation through the Word of God.

5) God’s Word guides us in life’s path (vv. 105-106)

Psalm 119:105–106 ESV

105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. 106 I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules.

-I remember years ago staying at a campground in a cabin, and there was a separate bathhouse down a path from the cabin. So, if you had to go to it at night, you would need a flashlight to help get you there because there weren’t any lightposts or lamps that led you there.

~So, you would head out with a general direction of where the bathhouse was, but you would have to watch your step because it was rocky and wooded. You couldn’t point the flashlight straight ahead to get to the bathhouse because you might trip or fall in a hole. You kept the flashlight to the ground and it lit your path so you knew where to take the next step.

-We all need such guidance in life, and the Word of God lights our path. Just like the flashlight, the Word of God doesn’t illuminate the end of our journey (other than that of salvation and glory), but it is able to guide us day by day, step by step, moment by moment.

-People often ponder what it is they are to do with their life. Where are they headed? What is the goal? Wherein lies meaning and purpose?

~While it doesn’t necessarily give every individual the specific answer of what to study, what career to pursue, what relationships to pursue, it does give God’s principles and laws and commandments and wisdom that guide the path to the answers of those questions.

-It is the Word of God that develops our worldview (which is, how we view the world and interact with the world and make our decisions), ensuring that our choices are glorifying to God and helpful in the advance of His kingdom.

~God’s Word gives us the attitudes and virtues that we can develop to ensure our journey not only leads to the right ends, but also how to do so by the right means.

-Unfortunately, all the other worldviews and life-philosophies not only take you on the wrong path in the wrong way, they will lead to the wrong destination. We see that at play right now. We have many of the problems we have, or we are dealing with problems in the wrong way, all because people’s paths are led in the wrong way, guided to the wrong place, giving the wrong answers.

-The Word of God leads us the right way to the right place by the right methods with the right attitudes with the right companions. The journey is as important as the destination, and only the Word of God rightly and safely brings us along.

Conclusion

-What is guiding you? What is it that directs your journey of life? Lust? Power? Greed? Selfish pursuits? Entertainment? Sports? Career advancement?

~Is modern philosophy directing you? Are the ways of the world your GPS in life?

~Or does God’s Word light up your path?

-Christian, what is it that drives your choices? Anything other than the Word of God is not a Christian worldview. Choose today to let it be your lamp.

-But some here may have been led in different directions, but now you want the Word of God to direct you. Believe that Jesus died for you and rose again and experience His salvation…