Sermon Tone Analysis

*Title: How All Should Respond to the All-Satisfying and All-Sufficient God and His Word*

*Text: Psalm 119:57-64*

/Preached by Pastor Phil Layton at Gold Country Baptist Church on November 30, 2008/

www.goldcountrybaptist.org

* *

I want to begin where our text begins, talking about satisfaction and contentment:

- Where are you seeking your satisfaction, brothers and sisters?

- In all honesty, would you describe yourself as a content person, satisfied with the lot or portion in life God has given you?

- Would those who were around you this past week or month describe you as a content person, a thankful and stable man or woman who rests not in circumstances but in the sufficiency of God and His Word?  

- What in this life truly satisfies?

What do you believe you /need/ to be content?

- What portion of this world and its possessions /must/ you have?

*57 **The Lord is my portion**; I have promised to keep Your words.**

**58 **I sought Your favor with all /my /heart; Be gracious to me according to Your word.** **59 **I considered my ways And turned my feet to Your testimonies.**

**60 **I hastened and did not delay To keep Your commandments.**

**61 **The cords of the wicked have encircled me, /But /I have not forgotten Your law.** **62 **At midnight I shall rise to give thanks to You Because of Your righteous ordinances.**

**63 **I am a companion of all those who fear You, And of those who keep Your precepts.**

**64 **The earth is full of Your lovingkindness, O Lord; Teach me Your statutes.*

The first verse of our passage today really sets the tone of the whole with the opening line: “The LORD is my portion,” or some  translations make it a direct address: “You are my portion, O LORD.”

The /TEV /paraphrase says “You are all I want O LORD.”

When the LORD is our shepherd, we should not want or lack outside of Him and His provision.

My God supplies all my needs.

God is all-sufficient and all-satisfying, and God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

This text is about, and the title and focus of our message is about:

*How to Respond to the All-Satisfying and All-Sufficient God and His Word.*

 

*#1.

Be Content with God’s Sufficiency (v.

57-58)*

 

The word /portion/ (v.57) has been explained as ‘dependence upon for support … an astounding testimony of God’s sufficiency [so that we will] rejoice in the Divine compensation of spiritual resources’[1]  rather than the earthly or material focus of so many.

70 Their heart is covered with fat, /But /I delight in Your law … *72* The law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of gold and silver /pieces./

Portion is somewhat parallel to inheritance imagery in Scripture

 

111 I have inherited Your testimonies forever, For they are the joy of my heart.

The inheritance or portion we receive from God is not only sufficient, it is superior to anything in this world, it is supremely satisfying and supremely joy-producing, happiness-inducing, or as v. 11 can be translated “I have /treasured/ Your Word in my heart.”

We have already in past weeks seen the writer of Psalm 119 say he loves God’s Word, longs for the Word, and longs for more longing and deeper desire, and he desperately prays for more eye-opening treasure-discovering soul-satisfying delight in the Word of God, and ultimately in the God of the Word (inseparable in his writing).

So in verse 57, when he writes “The LORD is my portion,” he not only means he is content with what God has provided, he says it is in God Himself that he finds all contentment and satisfaction, in the all-sufficient Savior and sustainer of his soul, for all of life.

Knowing the Lord through His Word as our portion is not only greater than the best this life can offer, it is /far greater, /it is not only of superior value, but of surpassing value, matchless worth/.

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/ /

Paul understood this.

“I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

This fueled his joy and contentment in Philippians 4:

 

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!

*11* … I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. 12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.

13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me … *19* And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Abraham understood this principle and was content with God’s sufficiency.

While Lot wanted the well watered plain of Jordan and pitched his tent toward the advantages of Sodom, Abraham was satisfied with what God would provide /in the desert/.

David understood God to be his portion as well, as Ps.

63 records:

 

1 /A Psalm of David, *when he was in the wilderness* of Judah/.

O God, You are my God; I shall *seek You earnestly*; *My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,* In a dry and weary land where there is no water.

2 Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory.

3 Because Your lovingkindness is *better than life*, My lips will praise You. 4 So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. 5 *My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness*, And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.

6 When I remember You on my bed, *I meditate on You in the night watches,*

 

One of my favorite Puritan writers Thomas Brooks sums up well the biblical illustrations of this mindset in /The Transcendent Excellency of a Believer's Portion above All Earthly Portions*[2]*/

‘I would counsel every Christian to answer all temptations with this short saying, "The Lord is my portion" [Ps.

119:57].

O Christian, when Satan or the world shall tempt you with honours, answer, "The Lord is my portion"; when they shall tempt you with riches, answer, "The Lord is my portion"; when they shall tempt you with preferments, answer, "The Lord is my portion"; and when they shall tempt you with the favours of great ones, answer, "The Lord is my portion"; yea, and when this persecuting world shall threaten you with the loss of your estate, answer, "The Lord is my portion": and when they shall threaten you with the loss of thy liberty, answer, "The Lord is my portion"; and when they shall threaten you with the loss of friends, answer, "The Lord is my portion"; and when they shall threaten you with the loss of life, answer, "The Lord is my portion."

O, sir, if Satan should come to you with an apple, as once he did to Eve, tell him that "the Lord is your portion” … or with a wedge of gold, as once he did to Achan, tell him that "the Lord is your portion"; or with a bag of money, as once he did to Judas, tell him that "the Lord is your portion"; or with a crown, a kingdom, as once he did to Moses, tell him that "the Lord is your portion."’

Hebrews 11:24-27 (NASB95) 24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy *the passing pleasures of sin*, 26 considering the reproach of Christ *greater riches than the treasures of Egypt*; for he was *looking to the reward.*

When Psalm 119:57 begins with “The LORD is my portion” it has roots in those time of Moses and Aaron.

When God prepared Israel for the Promised Land, He told Aaron (Num 18:20): “You shall have no inheritance in their land nor own any portion among them; I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.”

Deuteronomy 10 and 12 further specified that the priestly line, the line of Levi was not to be given a portion or inheritance of the land in Canaan, but they were given something better: the LORD was to be their portion, in other words their sole supply and satisfaction.

The /New English Translation /translates Psalm 119:57 as “The LORD is my source of security,” with this footnote: “The psalmist compares the Lord to landed property, which was foundational to economic stability in ancient Israel.”

So this includes stability.

The psalmist is saying that, like the Levites, he wants his portion of divine blessing to be God himself since nothing is better and nothing will ever fully satisfy his or anyone else’s heart but God himself.

To possess God is truly to have everything.[3]

Charles Bridges said: “The moment that any rival [to God] is allowed to usurp the throne of the heart, we open the door to disappointment and unsatisfied desires.”[4]

The entire history of Israel has been summed up this way:

‘Whenever the people of Israel failed God and turned to idols for help, it was evidence that they did not really believe Jehovah was adequate to meet their needs.

In the time of Elijah, Israel tried to remedy the drought by turning to Baal, the Canaanite storm god, but it was the Lord who sent the rain in answer to the prophet’s prayer.

When the enemy threatened to invade their land, the leaders of Israel often ran to Egypt for help, as though Jehovah was unconcerned and unable to deliver them.

The psalmist in this section makes it clear that the Lord God Almighty is all we need … Believers today have a rich spiritual inheritance in the Lord Jesus Christ, for God’s fullness is in Him and we are “complete in him” (Col.

2:9–10).

He is our life (Col.

3:4) and our “all in all” (Col.

3:11).

Because we are in Him, we have “all things that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3).

Our riches in Christ are revealed in the Word, which is our “spiritual bankbook,” and His wealth can never diminish.

The psalmist had made promises to obey the Lord (vv.

8, 15–16, 32–34, 47, 106, 115), but that is not how we get our wealth from the Lord.

What He provides for us is a gracious gift, not a loan, and we are not required to promise to repay Him (Rom.

11:33–36).

Accept the inheritance He has given you, rejoice in it, and trust Him to supply every need.’[5]

Having a faithful good loving LORD as our portion gives us hope.

Lam 3:22-25 (ESV) 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

24 *“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.*”

25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

Psalm 16:5-11 (NASB95) \\ 5 *The Lord is the portion of my inheritance* and my cup; You support my lot.

6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Indeed, *my heritage is beautiful to me* …11 You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is *fullness of joy*; In Your right hand there are *pleasures forever.*

Psalm 17:13-15 (NASB95) 13 Arise, O Lord, confront him, bring him low; Deliver my soul from the wicked with Your sword, 14 From men with Your hand, O Lord, From *men of the world, whose portion is in /this /life [i.e,

only this life, look at v. 15] …*

*15* As for me, I shall behold Your face in righteousness; *I will be satisfied with Your likeness* when I awake.

My dad wrote an email this week from Colorado where my mom had successful surgery for a torn ligament in her leg, and a good report that her tumor was benign:

“We feel in very good hands, especially the Lord holding our hands through this whole ordeal … Before she was rolled out to surgery, I read portions of Psalm 73 before praying with Donna and Dr. Britton:

 

Psalm 73:23-26 (NIV) 23Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.

24You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.

*25**Whom have I in heaven but you*?

And *earth has nothing I desire besides you.

*26My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and *my portion forever.*

Psalm 142:1-5 (NASB95) 1 /Maskil of David, *when he was in the cave*.

A Prayer. /I cry aloud with my voice to the LORD; I make supplication with my voice to the LORD. 2 I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare my trouble before Him. 3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, You knew my path.

In the way where I walk They have hidden a trap for me. 4 Look to the right and see; For there is no one who regards me; There is no escape for me; No one cares for my soul.

*5 I cried out to You, O LORD; I said, “You are my refuge, My portion in the land of the living.*

Augustine said our heart is restless till it finds its rest in God alone.

Spurgeon said in his sermon on Psalm 119:57: ‘Man was made in the image of God, and nothing will satisfy man but God, in whose image he was made …  This portion is to the fullest degree, satisfying.

Nothing else will ever end the awful hunger of the soul of man, which, like the grave, forever yawns for more.

But the infinite God fills the heart and he who has the Lord for his portion has all that he can desire … You may sit down and imagine all that you could have wished—and then if you rightly view your God—you will see that He surpasses all your desires.

Never, even in eternity, will you be able to conceive of a joy beyond your God, a bliss surpassing Himself!

Next, dear Brothers and Sisters, the Lord is an elevating portion.