Sermon Tone Analysis

Textual Idea – The Psalmist challenges us to consider our ways, repent and get our feet on the path of obedience without delay!

Sermon Idea – In a world filled with constant evil, Christians need to constantly reflect on their ways, repent & get on the path of obedience without delay!

Interrogative – How are believers to function in the face of constant evil as we journey on the path of life?

Transition w/ key word – Our text provides 2 commitments we must constantly make on the path of life.

1.

A commitment to perfect obedience - 57-59

2. A commitment to prompt obedience - vs. 60-64

Introduction – Years ago when our daughter Beth was graduating High School, I wanted to do something special with her, and since we lived in Maryland right alongside the Chesapeake Bay, I found beginning sailing course at the marina in Havre de Grace.

It was 3 day course to teach you how to pilot a small sailboat.

I had an interest in sailing ever since Cheryl’s dad took us out on a large sailboat he used to own.

There is a lot to learn and understand if you want to pilot a sailboat safely.

You constantly have to be aware of what’s going on around you, paying attention to all kinds of factors to avoid disaster.

We spent a few hours in the morning in the classroom learning boating safety and sailing fundamentals and then went out on the boat to put into practice what we learned.

We had a written test to take and then we had to do a practical sailing test complete with a “man overboard drill” which was a lifejacket thrown overboard.

The assignment was to do a figure eight maneuver to get the boat into position to snare the life jacket with a rescue pole.

The day we took that test, it was pretty wind & the water was choppy so it was challenging but I was thrilled Beth and I both passed and got our basic sailing 101 certification.

That meant we could rent a sailboat on our own in the bay.

Because you’re dependent on wind power to propel your sailboat, there is so much you have to pay attention to when under sail because you don’t just crank up the motor to maneuver out of harms way.

You have to pay attention to other boats you could collide with, for dangers lurking under the waters, not to mention your heading and course so you don’t drift to where you definitely don’t want to be! Having a fixed object off in the distance that was immovable, in our case the Havre de Grace lighthouse, helped us make adjustments to correct our course and keep on track!

Transition - I will go back to our Revelation study next week as we have Lord’s Supper scheduled and the first 4 verses of Rev. 15 are well suited for that Lord’s Supper service, but for today, I want to follow-up on what we discussed last week on the importance of the Bible.

Last week we heard about the Gideon ministry and the world-wide need to get the Bible translated into the over 4,000 languages that do not have access to the Word of God in their own language.

Tom Bickham updated me yesterday that the Gideon Bible app now has 1900 languages available on it and they are adding more to it all the time!

Neither you or I are language scholars so we can’t do much personally on that front; we can give and share the Gideon Bible app with others.

We do have the ability to take advantage of the Bible we have access to which can help keep us on track in a world filled with constant evil.

In our study today from Ps. 119:57-64, Transition - I want us to see two commitments we can make in order navigate as believers in world filled with evil.

Read Text Ps. 119:57-64 as we consider “Obedient Feet”

1.

A commitment to perfect obedience - 57-59

Explanation - Last summer we studied Psalm 119 as part of our SOAP Bible journaling reading plan.

It is the longest Psalm by far of the 150 Psalms with 176 verses.

Psalm 119 is an acrostic of the Hebrew Alphabet, 22 stanzas of 8 verses each, all dealing with the theme of loving, obeying and living by the law of God.

The anonymous Psalmist refers to the way we walk 13 times, one of which in this little pericope from vs. 57-64.

The context of this passage according to Dr. John Phillips is the Psalmist had been robbed because in the KJV vs. 61 says “The bands of the wicked have robbed me; but I have not forgotten Thy law.”

The NKJV I just read says “The cords of the wicked have bound me…” It’s possible he was bound by a band of marauders while they took his property.

In any case, he was in a difficult position!

In either case, this fits lives today in 2022 because we’re being robbed of our sanity by the constant evil, constant bad news & scandal afoot in the world today that seems to run unchecked.

Many of us are convinced the last presidential election was stolen by cheating & that President Biden is not the rightful president.

We’re angry at the awful sin and debauchery constantly being shoved down our throats with the LGBTQ agenda, the grooming of children by pedofiles, the constant race baiting, and vitriol of evil people committed to the murder of unborn babies.

If we’re not careful, as believers, we’ll get swept up in our anger and be gravely tempted to retaliate as if we had a gun stuck in our face in an alley somewhere and our valuables were taking by force.

Or we could drift away in our faith and walk with Christ and embrace apostasy and false teaching.

Whether the psalmist had experienced a violent robbery, or whether he’s frustrated by being surrounded by evil as though bound in chains and is powerless to do anything about the evil he sees, he makes a couple of profound commitments to have obedient feet to God’s Word and God’s way.

His first commitment is to perfect obedience.

• Vs. 57-58 - If he had been physically robbed, he affirms by faith the Lord is the one who supplies his needs.

“You are my portion O Lord…” Folks, the sooner you realize contentment, satisfaction & joy are not found in the possessions you have, but in the person you know, life will be so much more enjoyable for you! (Verse slide) Jesus said in Luke 12:15 “And He said to them, “Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.””

He went on to share the parable of the rich fool who focused solely on how much he could accumulate and how to store it but God called him a fool because he was dying that very night!

The person you know is the source of joy, satisfaction, contentment and blessing and His name is Jesus Christ!

If we have a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ, we literally have everything!

Recently I purchased a New Living Translation and I love the way they translate what Paul would say in (Verse slides) Philippians 4:10-14 (Read NLT!)

Vs. 58, the Psalmist prayed earnestly to the Lord about His situation, with his whole heart and asked for God’s mercy - Prayer was his first choice, not his last and the reason he asked for God’s mercy is that he understood he deserved nothing from the hand of Almighty God - he actually deserved what he was going through and so much more!

(Mercy is God withholding what we deserve, grace is God giving us what we don’t deserve!)

• Vs. 59 - The Psalmist, inspired by the Holy Spirit, records for us how we should respond, especially in the face of trials & tribulations: Consider our ways!

He thought deeply about the path he was on and realized he needed a correction of course toward perfect obedience.

Notice 4 aspects of his obedience:

A. There was deliberation - “I thought…” -

The question we usually ask first when bad things happen to us is why God?

In reality we need to be asking what God?

What are you trying to teach me, what do you want me to do?

How are you leading me where I need to go?

We’ve all but lost the ability to think critically in our world today.

We don’t think through the consequences or ramifications of choices being made as individuals, churches, communities or as a nation!

We’ve lost the ability to agree to disagree and challenge ideas with constructive criticism.

Today our society believes if we don’t agree with someone or we don’t agree with and affirm their choices, lifestyle or ideas, it means we hate them!

Nothing could be further from the truth!

We need to stop and assess our course, our life and manner of living, our walk with Christ regularly.

Satan wants to destroy us with thousands of little distractions that divide our attention off God and the narrow way He wants us to go that leads to life and life more abundantly that Jesus seeks to give us.

Illustrate/Argue - The English word amusement is a good description of what the Psalmist is saying here: Muse means to think or be absorbed in thought, but when you put the prefix “a” in front of it = amuse - it negates the word so amusement literally means “to not think!”

The endless forms of amusement and entertainment has obliterated our ability to think, to think deeply, critically about God or anything else for that matter!

The Psalmist deliberated, He stopped and thought about his ways - realized he was off God’s course and in the weeds with his life!

B. He considered his destination -

Thinking helps us consider where we are headed.

When I was learning to sail, I was shocked at how quickly we would be off course.

You could be so busy trying to keep the wind in your sail, or you could daydream and look at the scenery and pretty soon you’re off course!

It was fine to look around, it was fine to try to keep the wind in the sail so you could be fast in the water, but you needed to keep your eyes on your navigation reference point - the lighthouse fixed on shore or the bridge crossing the bay & the Susquehanna river or whatever!

The Psalmist asked what path am I on and where does it lead?

(Verse slides) Again, the NLT is insightful on Jesus’ message in Matthew 7:13-14.

The Prodigal Son finally got to the bottom of his life and there in a pig-pen starving, broke and all alone after squandering his father’s inheritance, he stopped to think and assess: We know this because it said “He came to himself…” (Luke 15:17).

He realized the servants in his dad’s house were better off than he was!

C.

There was determination - “I turned my feet…” The Psalmist corrected his course!

He repented or did an about face from the way he was going to the way he should be going.

That prodigal son made choice in Luke 15:18 “I will arise and go to my father…” I’m going to apologize and ask to be his lowest slave.

Moses made a choice to turn aside and see why the bush was burning but not consumed in the desert.

When he turned aside he met the living God!

You have to determine you are going to choose to follow Jesus Christ, daily.

It is a daily commitment!

Fourthly:

D. There was discrimination - “I turned my feet to Your testimonies.”

What I mean by discrimination is the Psalmist rejected all the so-called experts & talking heads and went to God for the truth.

He didn’t go to Oprah, Dr. Phil, or Dr. Oz.

He didn’t look to social media or the news media for what to do.

He didn’t believe the solution to his problems was found in the government or the political process.

He didn’t go to his friends who would tell him what he wanted to hear or someone who would make him feel better about his sin, nope -

He went to hear what God had to say about it.

There is a plethora of worldly, ungodly ideas out there pounding our heads with falsehood and lies every single day!

If the last 2-1/2 years have taught us anything, it’s that if you repeat a lie long enough and loudly enough people will believe it!

Society - “Oh just let us have gay marriage and we’ll leave you alone.”

Gay marriage becomes law across the nation and now they want to groom your kids and grandkids to become gay too!

Satan is the father of lies but he comes across as an angel of light.

We’ve heard for years there is no such thing as absolute truth and what’s true for you isn’t true for me and now everyone is doing what’s right in their own eyes!

We’ve heard that manliness is toxic so we’re shocked when men who are supposed to be brave act like cowards.

Society has kicked manhood to the curb and we have a pandemic of sissies and absentee fathers with mom’s raising boys and feminizing them.

Nearly every sitcom portrays the husband and dad as a bumbling idiot and he’s certainly not portrayed as the spiritual leader of the household!