Psalm 119 - What Impacted Me the Most and Its Implications For Us as A Church (Psalms 119)

0:48I want to share with you what impacted me the most about this Psalm, about this journey that we've taken over the last six months. What impacted me the most and its implication for us as a church. I just want to ask you a couple questions here before we get started. What is wrong with this picture? Now, here is someone who is a highlighter. You see something wrong with this picture? He really is not a highlighter, is he? He's a colorer, he's an artist.

1:31Kind of misses the picture of what another picture. What's wrong with this picture? Crest mouthwash, 24-hour protection, but you need to use it twice a day. Something kind of wrong with that, right? It's really not a 24-hour protection mouthwash because, well, you need to use it twice a day. Here's another one. What's wrong with this picture? The ultimate island veggie burger. Add bacon. Kind of ruins the whole picture, right? The whole purpose. It's really not an ultimate veggie burger if you add a bunch of bacon on it. Well, I want to take this to what's wrong. I want to, as we work through this message this morning, and it may not seem as polished as some of the other sermons because I'm speaking to you largely from my heart. I'm preaching to you largely from what really impacted me. And what I want to do is work towards two elements of a genuine church. That if these two elements are not there, not here, let me put it, let me bring it down to where we are. If these two elements are really not. Here, then we really are not a church in the sense that we should be. We're really not a church. The Spirit of God is not here. That we're like this mouthwash, we're like this highlighter, we're like this veggie burger with a bunch of bacon on it. We're really not what we think we are. And so, I want to share with you what's impacted me the most. And as we began working through this psalm, said at the outset, the psalm itself is a picture of what happens when the word of God enters a receptive heart. This whole psalm, it's a picture, the mystery of the word of the kingdom of God that goes out in the form of words, good news. And when it is received like a seed into the heart, it sprouts, it grows, it takes over the soul of man and it produces a new entity, an entity that loves and produces righteousness. And so, this whole scene, this whole psalm, is the interaction of a young man who probably spent, I think, over a decade writing this, if not more. This was a A journal, a prayer journal of an individual who had received the Word of God, took it deep into his very core of his being, and the Word of God went to work. The Word of God went to work in his life. And if you have the Word of God, if you have truly received the Word of God, then it is doing this very same thing in your life.

4:58And so I want you to see as we go through what I have for us this morning. When the Word of God, or what happens when the Word of God is received by the human heart, four things. Four things it does. Four works it produces. And so I just want to walk through them. I've already seen some of them, and I'll spend more time on the latter. But first of all, when the Word of God meets a receptive heart, it imparts an understanding of the blessed and cursed ways. It's the first thing it does. It gives you a knowledge of what God blesses, and it gives you a knowledge of what God curses, and it gives you a sense of what is right and wrong, and what God is pleased to bless. This blessed state was seen in Psalm 1. The psalmist opens up the whole Psalter with these words: How blessed is the man who does not walk in the Counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. His delight is in the law of the Lord, and as a result, he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water. He will grow, he will yield fruit in its season, and his leaf will not wither, and whatever he does, he prospers. That is the blessed path, the blessed way. As laid out in Psalm 1 and in Psalm 119, verse 1, the psalmist starts out with the very same words: How blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. How blessed are those who observe his testimonies, who seek him with all their heart. They do know unrighteousness. They walk in his ways. You have ordained your precepts that we should keep them diligently. There's this knowledge when the word of God goes to work, when you hear the word, there's this knowledge that God has set for us a path, precepts that he blesses, and he gives them to us so that we may keep them diligently.

7:12There's also this knowledge of this cursed state, this cursed state, and it was also brought out at the very beginning of the whole Psalter. Psalm 1. The wicked are not so, they are like chaff, which the wind drives away. These are the ones who walk in the counsel of the wicked. Wicked. They stand in the path of sinners. They sit in the seat of scoffers. Theirs is a direction of further and further away from God and more cemented and more hardened in their rebellion against God. They are not growing in his ways, but growing away from him. And that's the cursed state. And they're like chaff. They will not stand in the judgment. They will not stand in the judgment. And if you can just get a picture of what the judgment would be like, the best thing I can describe is like a great tsunami that just comes in, a big wave. If you saw the images of the tidal wave in Japan that just basically came and took and devastated the landscape, inescapable, when I was out on the ocean, I remember being out there in a little bitty boat and fishing, and I'm sitting there thinking, what are we doing this? The magnitude of the sea and the big waves was just frightful to me. And the sense of the judgment, something that comes that is so overwhelming that absolutely nothing can stand except what God has purposed to stand. That's the judgment. And those who have departed and wandered their own way, this is coming for you. A time when all is dissolved around you and you cannot stand. And you find yourself completely separated and isolated from every sane. Thought and from everything good with a conscience that has just been pulled back and the lash of your own conscience that would drive and torment you forever. This is the judgment that's coming.

9:16You will not stand if you wander from his precepts. But those, the psalmist talks about the cursed state in Psalm 119. He says, You rebuke the arrogant, the cursed who wander from your commandments. The cursed are the ones who are currently wandering away. Psalm 119:18:118 says, You have rejected all of those who wander from your statutes. I remember when my wife was telling me she worked at a missing child agency. When a child was lost, they would begin the search. She said, One of the saddest parts of the whole job was when they called off the search, meaning they had given up. Let me tell you something: there are people that are going astray, they are under God's curse. But as long as there is a church, as long as there are people who are going after them, there's hope.

10:22But it's when that search is called off that all is lost. That's the cursed state. When God says, fine, go. Go. Become what the momentum of your own sin will have you to be. I have spoken to you. I have given you my word. You know enough about me that you should turn and you should give me thanks. Go. That's the cursed state. Become what the momentum of your sin will make you to be. Be formed by that.

11:06So the first thing that the word of God does is it imparts an understanding of the blessed way and the cursed way. The second thing that the word of God does when it meets a receptive heart is it awakens a genuine desire to keep God's ways. That's what it does. It's the word of God in you. Then it will do this. It will impart to you an understanding of the blessed and cursed ways, and it will awaken in you a desire to keep God's ways. Look at our psalmist. In verse 4 of Psalm 119, he says, You have ordained your precepts that we should keep them. And then look what he says in verse 5: Oh, that my ways may be established to keep your statutes. Do you see what the Word of God is? Given him an understanding, and it has awakened a desire to keep. I want that for my life. I believe what you say about the blessed and cursed ways. I understand that, and I want to keep your ways.

12:11And this is really the main message of the psalm. We saw this last week: that the main message is to delight in God's word. In verse 92 and 93, the psalmist says this: If your law had not been my delight, then I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have revived me. If the psalmist were standing here today and said, After all that I've written, my one exhortation to you, no matter who you are or what stage in life you're in, is to delight in the law of the Lord. That is how I can commend you to the rest of your life. Delight yourself in the law of the Lord. That would be the psalmist's message. That's his main exhortation. Delight yourself in the law of the Lord. And see, those who do not delight are going to be the ones who cannot keep. Delighting in the law of the Lord is closely associated with keeping God's ways.

13:23And so I looked a little bit at this last week, so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. Word of God, when it meets a receptive heart, it awakens a genuine desire to keep God's ways. And there are implications for this for us as a church. We are to be a society that delights in obeying God's Word. That is one of the two aspects. If you don't have this element in the church, we're not a church. We're a veggie burger with a bunch of bacon on it.

13:57If we are not a society that delights in obeying God's word, a society of faith that keeps the word of God active and alive in all of our conversations and in all of our associations, that's what a church is. We delight in God's word. So the question is, do you delight? And a good measure of this is, how close have you been to His Word this past week? How close have you been to it? I mean, there's a measure of delight for some of you because you're here this morning. Some of you, you had to be here, so I'm not sure that quite gets a measure to your account as being delightful. But maybe that is God's reaching you anyway.

14:48Well, then maybe this last week was really busy because of the finals and all that kind of stuff. Okay, so what was your time? What was your, how close were you the week before last? Or the week before that? It starts. A pattern is a real objective reality. The closeness that you are to God's Word and to the conversation of God's Word is a direct measure of your delight. And sometimes we go through our lives thinking we delight in the Word of God when we don't. We're like mouthwash that claims to be 24-hour protection, but you have to use it a couple times a day. It's us. But the third thing, when the Word of God meets a receptive heart, the third thing it does is it exposes our chronic tendency to defect from God's ways. It exposes our chronic tendency to defect from God's ways. You see, the main threat to keeping God's ways is an internal one. Psalmists understood this. The Word of God went to work. And the problem with our fallen human condition, even as believers, is that the greatest threat to keeping God's ways is not delighting in them, which leads to walking away, disregarding his ways.

16:08You see, the psalmist understood this tendency in his heart, didn't he? He did not trust his heart. Get that very early on, you understand. He knew of this disposition, this tendency to defect. See, the Word of God, it imparts an understanding, it awakens a genuine desire, but then it exposes. The greatest threat to this desire of ours to keep God's way, the greatest threat is defecting. And this is seen that the very beginning, the psalmist in verse 10 says, This, with all of my heart I have sought you. Do not let me wander from your commandments. Very early on, he said, I want to walk in your ways, and I know the biggest threat, it's within me. Don't let me wander. But this is also seen throughout the Psalm. You see this thought over and over and over. His desire was to keep the way of God, and he was utterly dependent upon God to make it so. And I'll just read you a few of these. In verse 17, he says, Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word. If you don't deal bountifully with me, I will not keep your word. Verse 34, give me understanding, that I may observe your law and keep it with all my heart. If you don't give me understanding, guess what? I will not keep it.

17:41Verse 88, revive me according to your loving kindness, so that I may keep the testimony of your life. Give me life, renew me, awaken me, raise me from the dead, so that I may keep your testimony. Testimony. If you don't revive me, I cannot keep. Verse 134, redeem me from the oppression of man, that I may keep your precepts. Redeem me so that I may keep. If you don't redeem, verse 146, save me, and I shall keep your testimony. You get the picture seen throughout his prayer at the beginning: Do not let me wander from your ways. Keep me, keep me, keep me. Allow me.

18:29And then his prayer at the end, verse 176, after all was said and done, he says this, I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant. What a dramatic end. What an unexpected end. He didn't arrive. At the end, he's aware of his proneness to wander away, even after all that he had gone through. You see, this tendency to defect is still very much alive in us, isn't it? A tendency to go astray. Very much alive.

19:16Very much alive in you. And you need to be aware of it. There is a tendency, and I think you are. If you're honest, if you spend any time in the Word, the Word will expose this chronic tendency. Your biggest tendency or your biggest problem is not something on the outside, it's something on the inside. Why couldn't man possess paradise? Why could Adam and Eve not possess paradise? Very profound. Because they were not content. There was a defection in their heart. They were in a state of innocence, but not confirmed holiness. They were in a state of innocence, and their heart defected.

20:10When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. There was this defection. That's why man couldn't possess paradise. You want to know why Israel could not possess the land? Because of a defecting heart. And you know why you will not keep God's law? It's because of a defecting heart.

20:46I want to give you an idea of some of the temptations that you will face, that you are facing, and that those in this room are currently facing. Going right through Psalm 119, there are 17 of them that I Just a cursory glance, just could see the temptations that was going on in his life to defect. And I'm going to run through them very quick. Number one, in verse 22, there was this fear of man, this reproach and contempt. And you're going to experience a contempt. Not everybody in the world is going to applaud your decision to follow Christ and to live according to his standards. And there's going to be a temptation to defect. In verse 36, he says, Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to dishonest gain. So it'll be a temptation to defect out of a love for dishonest gain, gain of any kind.

21:47Then there's this tendency to have roaming eyes and look at that which is vain. In verse 37, turn away your eyes from looking at vanity and revive me in your ways. Turn my eyes from looking at vanity. There'll be a tendency to look at that and covet that which is unprofitable, and that will keep you from delighting in the law of God. In verse 46, it's evident that there is a temptation to be ashamed of God's word before your superiors.

22:21He says, I will also speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be ashamed. Inside, we're going to have a tendency to be ashamed, not just in ourselves. Superiors, but everybody. But a tendency to be ashamed of God's word is going to keep you from delighting in it. In verse 49, there's a hopelessness in the face of affliction. Sometimes affliction will get so bad that you'll have a tendency just to give up and be hopeless. In verse 51, he comes back to this: the arrogant, utterly deride me. There's going to be a tendency to drift away from God because you're, again, afraid of man, not only this time their contempt, but their open derision, their open mocking. So some can put up with the contempt, but some cannot. They'll be distracted when it turns even more violent. Another thing that will keep you or tempted, our psalmist that will tempt you is loneliness. In verse 54, he speaks about the songs that his statutes are my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. For many of us, the journey with God is going to take us down some lonesome valleys, and out of a desire for companionship, there'll be a temptation to not delight, to go after something else. And there's the affliction caused by brutal people, the contempt that turned into derision, that turns into open assault. You're ready to stand the assaults of mankind. It goes on. There's wealth, there's vengeance.

24:00I have a tendency to take on vengeance. In verse 78, they subvert me with a lie, and I'm going to retaliate. Exhaustion, my soul languishes. In verse 81, my soul languishes for your salvation. And that will be a tendency to stop delighting. Then there's the frustration, temptation to be frustrated with God's timing. Verse 84: When will you execute judgment on those who persecute me? You ever gotten frustrated with God? It's a temptation to defect. Then there's verse 101: there's multiple opportunities that this psalmist faced for fleshly living. He said, I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep your word. You're going to have a whole bunch of opportunities for worldly living. I was telling my kids not long ago, I'm not too concerned about keeping you restrained on some things because you're going to have a whole lifetime full of worldly opportunities to become as fleshly and worldly as you like. That's going to be reality. But if you go after those, you cannot delight in God's law. He goes on, and he gives us, there's a cold heart. He says, My eyes, our hearts can grow cold due to evil in the world, and we could literally be hypnotized by what's going on around us. And develop a cold heart that will keep us from delighting in God's Word. There is a distractive heart that fails to be in awe of God's Word. And there is a proud heart that can lead us to thinking we've arrived and distract us. So many temptations you will face.

25:53But the Word of God exposes this chronic tendency of ours to defect. So when the Word of God meets a receptive heart, it imparts, it awakens, it exposes, and finally, it reveals God's solution for our condition. It shows us, we want, it gives us an understanding. Think about what the Word of God does. It comes and it gives us an understanding of what God blesses. It gives us an understanding of what God curses and what that cursed state looks like.

26:33And as such, it awakens us a genuine desire to be in the blessed way. And then we start understanding. As we understand the Word more, it exposes us to this chronic tendency that we have to defect from God's ways. And so it leaves us at a point of utter humility. God, what can be done? But the beautiful thing is. The psalmist doesn't leave us without the explanation or the answer to that question because the Word of God reveals God's solution for our condition, and it's the ultimate solution. And this is what impacted me the most: what we need is God's shepherding love.

27:21That's what we need. We need to delight, but we need that shepherd that comes after us, that seeks us. Verse 176, the psalmist cries out, I have gone astray like a lost sheep, like a perishing sheep. Get this picture in your mind: a sheep in the desert, completely exhausted, on the verge of death. That's this psalmist saying, This is me, seek me. If you think about that, what does a sheep in that situation need? Well, it needs somebody who knows it, it needs someone who will seek it. That is, that sheep needs somebody to know that it's astray, needs someone that was willing to leave the comforts that he possesses or she possesses and come. Needs someone who will. Know it, seek it, someone who will not give up until they find it. And then, when they find it, that sheep needs someone who will raise it up, lift it up, carry it, needs someone who will feed and take care of it, and someone who will lead it to a place of safety. That's what the sheep needs. Someone who knows it, seeks it, finds it, raises it up, feeds it, and leads it. That's what the sheep needs. It's exactly what this psalmist is saying that he needs.

29:00And early on, from Genesis to Revelation, God is revealed as one with a shepherd's heart for his people. See this early on in Genesis 3. And when the woman saw the tree is good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, she took it, she ate, gave to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sowed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. They heard the sound of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man and said, Where are you?

29:52What is God doing? He knows them and he is seeking them. And what happens? You know the account, right? What did God do? Come up to him? You did exactly what I told you not to do. I told you you would die. That's what's going to happen. See, the first thing that man had to be saved from was God's own reaction, right? He had to be saved from God's reaction to annihilate him. There had to be something.

30:29So, what did God do? He called to the man, Where are you? Found them, and then the Lord covered them. Verse 31, the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and he clothed them. He clothed them. You see the shepherding love? Took the life of an innocent one, covered their nakedness. But he also did something else that was very merciful. He blocked their way to the tree of life. He said, It's not good that man is in this state. So you, I don't want man reaching out, taking of the tree of life, and living forever.

31:23That was God's shepherding love. God said, The day you eat of it, you die. They did die spiritually. He said, Now you're going to experience a world that's not going to live according to my law. And you're going to see the pain. You're going to experience the misery in all of that. But I'm not through with you yet. And so he sends a shepherd. He sends his son. No clearer picture of God's shepherding love is manifested more clearly than in his son, Jesus Christ. Philippians 2:5 says this: Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. But he emptied himself, left his comfort zone, took on the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men, being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. He was going to provide that covering. He was going to be the final satisfaction that would restrain God.

32:42John 10, 14, Jesus says, This, I am the good shepherd, and I know my own, and my own know me, even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. He says, I know my own. I came to seek and to save them. I lay my life. Down for them. He goes on to say, but no one has taken my life from me. I lay it down. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again. This is the commandment that I received from my Father. I'm giving my life. I'm laying it down for you.

33:21So get this picture of what's going on in the whole scripture and the whole panoramic of God's progressive revelation. What's happening? God says, okay, you cannot stretch forth and take from the tree of life. It's not good. You're going to die. It's good. But man will be raised. The way to the tree of life is through the resurrection, the resurrection by the good shepherd. So man will die. He will not be allowed to eat of the tree of life, but man will be raised. And in Revelation 22, 13, Jesus says, This, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

34:08Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to eat of the tree of life. So man is going to die. Man is going to experience a world where God's law does not reign in the hearts of man. But God is not through with man. Man is going to go through death, and God is going to raise up a new man, and out of that man, he is going to. Confirm him in holiness. Give him the tree of life.

34:37That's the picture. Through the shepherding ministry of Jesus. So God's solution to our fallen condition is Jesus, great shepherd. And what impacted me the most about this Psalm is its raw depiction of our humanity and our need for God's salvation in Jesus. This is what we all need. This is what everybody on planet Earth needs. And what struck me, what impacted me, is the implications that this has for our church today. The last verse of Psalm 119 gives us the solution to our greatest dilemma, and it also gives us our mission. Psalm 119, 76 says, I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments. You see, our solution, the solution for all of us, is that we are to call upon the great shepherd and delight in his words. That's where the whole scripture takes us. We are to be a community that calls upon the great shepherd and delights in his words. We are to be learners and followers of him. So that's our solution. That is your solution. And that is what the psalmist sets before us. That's what the scripture sets before us. And that's what the scripture will do in you: will reveal to you God's ultimate solution. You need a shepherd. You will never not need a shepherd.

36:19But this last verse also gives us our mission. We are to teach others to call upon the great shepherd and delight in his words. You see what we're supposed to do? Call on the great shepherd and delight in his words. And then, what is our mission? We are to teach others to call upon the great shepherd and delight in his words. That is, we are to go and make learners and followers of him. So, not only are we to be a society that delights in God's word and keeps it active and keeps it alive in our community and in our lives, we are to be a society of shepherds and shepherdesses.

37:02We are being made into the image of the one who left his comfort zone and went after the lost, those who were straying. We're all that way, right? We have a defecting heart. There are so many people in this room right here that are dealing with these temptations of a defecting heart. And what this community is to be is a community of shepherds and shepherdesses that are looking out, that are watching, that know each other, that go after each other. Because all of us have this tendency to defect. And it is through the ministry of the church that God has ordained that these ones who are defecting will be brought back to Him.

37:59People all around us are needing to be sought. You need to be sought. And you know that. What's wrong with the picture? What's wrong with the church that does not delight in God's words or does not seek after those defecting ones? You know what's wrong with the picture? It's really not a church. This is the heart of the one who left heaven. And that is why he came. That is why he has left us. When you come into the body of Christ, one of the first questions you should ask yourself is: How can I edify and build up somebody today?

38:50Many of us come into the body with all kinds of things going on. Some of you are just trying to recover from the images that you have in the movie that you saw last night. You come in with a chip on your shoulder. Some of you come in for a whole bunch of different reasons. Some of you come in because you have to be here. I would encourage every one of you to come in here into the body and know that there are people with these temptations to defect, and that you come with the purpose of looking to edify and go after somebody and say, How can I edify and strengthen somebody today?

39:24Because if you're not a good steward of those that are right in here, don't kid yourself that you're going to be a good steward of those outside these walls. God has brought a whole host of people around you, and we're here today, and we need to be sought. Well, I want to just kind of summarize when the Word of God, what the Word of God does when it meets a receptive heart, is it imparts, it awakens, it exposes, and it reveals. That's what it does. So, as we take one final look at Psalm 119, I want to give you the summary silhouette of the mountain, and then we'll close.

40:09Two states of being: the blessed and the cursed. That's what the psalmist speaks about. The main message, delight in God's law, the main threat, wandering astray, the only solution, the great shepherd, the impact. Implications that this has for us as a church. We are to be a society of shepherds and shepherdesses who call the great shepherd, who call upon the great shepherd, delight in his words, and seek to teach others to call upon him and delight in his words as well.

40:48Blessing and curse, delight wandering astray, the only solution, Jesus Christ. So let's be the church. Heavenly Father, just pray now that as we bring this study to a close, Father, that we will not miss the main message, that we ourselves would not be anything less than the church. Father, let the Word of God truly have its effect. We know that if what the Word of God does, we saw what it did in the life of this psalmist. Father, we welcome the work of your word in our lives. Father, we want to be transformed, we want to be renewed, and we want to be conformed into the image of your Son, the work of your word. Father, and help us. Father, help us to have an eye. Help us to know each other. Help us to know those who are facing particular struggles in their faith. Father, help us to seek them and to not give up until we find them. Father, and do whatever we can to pick them up, raise them up, and bring them back, knowing that we cannot do anything apart from your Spirit, but. That through your grace and through the agency of people who convey your word, you are drawing people to yourself. You will raise the dead. And, Father, we just pray for everyone here this morning that has a defecting heart. Father, we call upon the work of your great shepherd to do whatever you need to do to draw us close. In Jesus' name, amen.