The Creative Work of the Word of God - Psalm 119:169-176 (Psalms 119:169-176)

1:30Seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments. If you've been with us, especially these last three weeks, last couple weeks, in the R stanza, or the Raish stanza, the theme was revival, revival, praying for revival. And then in the Sheen stanza, the one we looked at last week, we observed that the effect of revival produces an awe of God. An awe of God. And that life lived in awe of God. That's what revival does. It awakens us so that we would live with a view of God, a high view of God, in awe of God. And then in verse 167, he finishes that stanza with two verses. My soul keeps your testimonies, and I love them exceedingly. I keep your precepts and your testimonies, for all my ways are before you. Get to the end of the Sheen stanza, and he says, I keep, my soul keeps, I keep your precepts. And right there, you'd think, okay, that's the end of the psalm. Because you remember, he started way at the beginning. That was his plan from the beginning, or his prayer from the beginning. Way back in verse 4, he says, You have ordained your precepts that we should keep. Them diligently. And then he utters this prayer, oh, that my ways may be established to keep your statutes. So his desire from the very beginning, oh, I want to be a keeper of your word. And as he journeys through this psalm, this masterpiece that he created, this poem, which I believe took years, if not over a decade, to write. Didn't happen on a weekend. But as he journeyed through life, this desire to keep God's word was ever present. And he went through many different trials, many different things, uttered many different prayers. And then in verse 67, he goes through this affliction, and then he's able to say, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. And so God used affliction in his life to teach him to keep his word. And so he's excited. He even can say, God, your affliction was good because now I keep your word. Answer to prayer, affliction. And then he gets to the end here of the Sheen stanza, and he says, I'm in awe of you, and because of my awe of you, I keep.

4:19It almost stands. He got what he prayed for. But then we look at verse 176, and he says something that turns the whole thing on its ear. He says, I have. Have gone astray like a lost sheep. That's how he ends it. Wow. Why? How do we reconcile that? Well, that's what we're working through this morning. That's what we're working through this morning. One thing we can say for sure about this psalm or this psalmist is he was impacted by the Word of God. He was impacted by the Word of God.

5:00The Word of God He took in, and the Word of God transformed him. It went to work deep within his heart, and it formed a life. It shaped his life. His love and delight in the Word shaped who he was and the person he became and the thoughts that he expressed. Remember in Mark chapter 4, Jesus teaching his disciples about the mysterious work of the Word of God. Remember in Mark 4, he teaches them about this, he's talking about the parable of the soils. And in verse 11, he says, To you, it has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God. And then in verse 20, he explains the parable of the soils, and he says, And those are the ones on whom the seed was sown on the good soil. They hear the word and accept it and bear fruit. Some 30, some 60, some 100 fold. Jesus speaks about the word going in. These are the ones they received it, and the word went to work, and it created a harvest. It shaped their life, and what came out of them was a harvest of righteousness, a harvest of truth. And he goes on to explain in what I call the parable of the ignorant farmer, right afterwards. He says, And he was saying to them, The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil, and then he goes to bed at night, and he gets up by day, and the seed sprouts, and it grows. How? He himself does not know.

6:35The soil produces the crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. Mysterious working of the Word of God in the heart. Don't really know. Just like a farmer doesn't really know how it grows. All I know it does. Word of God does the same. In fact, Jesus goes on right afterwards in Mark 4, and he says, How do we picture the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we present it? It's like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches so the birds of the air can nest in its shade. What do we like in it? It's like the Word of God going forth like a mustard seed, and it goes into the heart and to the soil of humanity. There it finds root, and there it is. It grows and there it starts shaping and forming a new life, a life that then dominates and expresses itself above the surface where everyone can see and it becomes the dominant, the dominant theme and has many uses. Well, the Bible teaches, Jesus Himself teaches that the Word of God is living and active, and it always accomplishes its work. It has an effect upon those who take it in. It will have an effect upon you this morning if you will take it in, hear, and believe.

8:15It changes a person. That's what it does. It awakens, it revives, it instructs, it leads, it guides, it imparts wisdom, it gives insight. The Word reveals God and it creates an awe of God. And it fashions a life that is lived in awe of God. You see, the Word of God gives us a true picture of God. And at the same time, it gives us a true picture of ourselves. We are finite. We are fallen. And as we look into the Word of God, we see that. The Word that awakens. And the word that revives and reveals God to us also humbles us.

9:08And when we see ourselves in light of the perfections of God, guess what happens? We are humbled. When we see ourselves in the light of the perfections and the glory of God that the word of God shows us, reveals to us, we are instantly humbled, humbled to the ground. And yet, through that humiliation, the word doesn't destroy us, but it gives us hope. It gives us this grand picture of God and ourselves in light of God, and it humbles us, but then it gives us hope. Hope, something to hope for. And it's in this last stanza of this great poetic masterpiece that our psalmist gives us one final and honest look at himself, even a very raw look at himself.

10:06And we know that if ever there was a person who had been impacted by the word of God, this is the one. This is one who loved the word. This is one whose life was shaped by the word. And so, as we look at his concluding thoughts, we can see that our psalmist not only gives us an honest look at himself, but he also gives us a close-up look. At the work of God in the heart of man. You want to know what God is doing in you? If you have received His Word, this is it.

10:42There are four effects, four effects that the Word of God has upon those who delight in it. And I want to look at those this morning so that you'll be able to answer the question and honestly look at yourself and say, Is God's Word at work in me? If I asked you that right now, is God's work, is God's Word at work in you? How would you answer? Well, I hope that as you look at these four effects, that you will know whether or not the Word of God is at work in your life. So the work, the creative work of the Word of God, it creates, it works, and it's active, and it's working today in the lives of all those who believe.

11:32So as we go through this, this is an invitation for you to believe, for you to see, and if you do not believe, to come to belief. It's an invitation to believe and let the Word of God do its work in you. So the Word of God does four things. The Word of God, first of all, creates a desire for the presence of God. The Word of God creates a desire for the presence of God. Look at verse 116. Let my cry come before you, O Lord. Give me understanding according to your word. Let my supplication come before you. Deliver me according to your word. In these two verses, the psalmist is seeking God's personal attention and inviting God's personal presence into his life. And this is evident by the way he approaches God with four very basic needs. Basic needs that we can all identify with and all share. Four basic needs. Look at how he approaches God. First, he has a need or a desire to be heard. Let my cry come before you. Let it come before you. Literally, let this come to your face. Literal, let it approach. Kind of like Esther coming in before the king of Persia. Let my cry, that loud, it's a loud utterance, even an inarticulate cry, just a strong cry of emotion.

13:02Let me come, let my cry be heard. Maybe he's overwhelmed by worldly pressures, as the psalmist in David in 61, who said, Hear my cry, O God, give heed to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call out to you. And when my heart is faint, lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Or maybe. Maybe he's overwhelmed by personal responsibilities, like Solomon, who, upon dedicating the temple, says to the Lord, O Lord, my God, listen to the cry and the prayer which your servant prays before you today, that your eyes may be opened toward this house night and day, toward the place where you have said, My name shall be there.

13:52Or maybe it's a combination of all these. He's overwhelmed. He's overwhelmed with life, with whatever is going on, with his shortcomings, with the pressures around him. But he's crying out, May my cry come before you. You know, this is something mothers can identify with for sure, and certainly many fathers. A baby cries, has, you know, if you've had six kids, so we've often been able to hear a lot of cries in our family as they were growing up. And a baby's tone, pitch, sound all sends a different signal. I mean, there's the cry that comes up from a baby that's just sheer pain. Okay, like something, he gets hurt, gets burnt, or something falls on his foot, or the doctor gives him a shot. Boy, you hear that shriek and cry of pain.

14:58It's like Dr. Gives him a shot, and then all of a sudden you hear this cry, and then the oxygen goes out of his mouth, takes the oxygen out of the room, and then all of a sudden it comes back. Right? And everyone's running for cover. Or maybe it's the same happens when you take a bottle away from the baby. There's that kind of cry that he's just mad as a hornet. And you see the countenance change, right?

15:29Well, here's a cry. Then there's that cry of a child that just wants his mom, or just wants to be comforted, just wants his mom to be there, to help, delivered, for whatever reason. And that's the cry going on here. He's saying, oh, God, listen to my cry. Let it come before you. You, Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God. Be near. Be near. Hear my cry. Be near. You see, God's presence is necessary for you, for him to hear, right? So he seeks this presence. He goes on, these other desires. Look it back. He's got a desire, not only a desire to be heard, but a desire to be understood, or a desire to understand. Look at verse 169. Give me understanding according to your word. And that's an imperative command to God or imperative plea. Give me understanding. Understand me, understanding, cause me to understand. And it carries that idea of cause. He's saying, God, give me understanding. Place in me comprehension. That's what he's saying. See, we all have a desire to understand, to understand what's going on around us, to understand God, to understand ourselves, to understand, God, what are you doing in this circumstance? What's going on? I think to a large degree, he's crying out for an understanding. Give me understanding according to your word, according to the instrument of your word. Tell me what's going on by your word and in accordance with your word. Tell me. Let me understand.

17:11So God's presence is necessary not only to be heard, but God's presence is necessary for him to give you understanding. The third desire he lifts up here is a desire for God's favor. Look at verse 170. Let my supplication come before you. Again, that same expression, let come before you, but it's a little more, it's a little different term. He says, let not just come to your face, but let it come into you. Very much the same word like Noah entering into the ark. Let my supplication come into you. Let it go into the inner core of your heart. Take it in. Take my situation, my supplication. Really, it's a word for supplication. Let my cry for favor, my humble request, God, I want your favor in my circumstances, in me, my situation, be concerned for me. Let my supplication come before you. Let it come from, let concern for me flow out of you from the core of your being.

18:27So God's presence is necessary. You see the intimate connection. He's looking for God's presence. And then finally, second part of 170, he gives a fourth desire of his, a desire for God's deliverance. Deliver me according to your word. Cause my deliverance according to your promise. You see, he desires God's presence, a presence to be heard, a presence to understand. You're not going to understand. God's not going to hear you unless he's present. You're not going to be able to understand God unless he's present. You're not going to be able to have his favor unless he's present. You're not going to be able to have his salvation unless he is present.

19:10I remember, I think I may have mentioned this to you before, but when I was growing up, we lived up in northern New Mexico on the side of cliffs many times, canyons all around us. And one particular house, we live back. Up to a canyon. My little brother, who I think was about maybe three or four, wandered away from the house, went to this back canyon, and there was a steep drop-off down into a ravine, probably about 40 feet. And he wandered away, fell off this cliff, and landed down in the bottom of the ravine, broke his arm, and basically there was just walls going up on all sides, so I'm not able to get out. Well, after a little while, my mom and I were out on the porch, and we were talking or something. My mom said, I think I heard something. I said, I didn't hear anything. I heard this faint little cry. She says, no, I hear somebody crying.

20:16And I heard this voice, this cry make its way through the pines. And it was the cry of my little brother, who was down at the bottom of this ravine. And we quickly went out to look for him. I went to the edge of the cliff. I looked down, and there he was on the other side of the cliff, or at the bottom of the canyon, trying to make his way up on the other side. And he kept falling down, and he was just crying. And it was a cry. I never will forget the cry. It was a cry for help. It was a cry for mom. It was a cry for mom to have mercy. It was a cry for mom to come and deliver, to come help, get him out.

21:00And that's the psalmist's cry here. God be with us. God be with us. And that is his name, God with us. He's with us to hear us, to give us understanding, to show us favor, and to deliver us. You see, one of the first effects that the word of God has upon the heart of man is it creates a desire for the presence of God. I'm going to ask you to do an honest evaluation of yourself. Do you have a desire for God's presence?

21:36Do you honestly desire his presence? It's evidence of whether the word of God is at work in you or not. Or if you're happy to go through a life without the presence of God, that's evidence that you have not received, you have not truly believed the word. Well, there's a second effect that the word, the creative work of the word of God, does. The word of God forms a disposition to honor the word of God. Sounds a little redundant, but that's exactly what's taking place. The word of God forms a disposition to honor the word of God. There will be a disposition that the word of God creates in you or forms in you to honor the word. There'll be this desire to honor the word of God.

22:27And look at verse 171. Honor God. Through speech. Let my lips utter praise, for you teach me your statutes. Let my lips spring forth. May you cause my lips to gush like the headwaters of a river. Will you let them gush or boast in you? Let my lips praise you, boast in, glory in. And why? Number one, because God is his teacher. Look at, let my lips utter praise, for you teach me your statutes. You're the teacher. You personally have taught me. Hey, look, the best schools are all about getting the best faculty, right? The best masters to teach you the skill, right? Or to teach you. That's what the good schools are all about. Well, here's the psalmist saying right here: it's like, God Himself is my teacher. You teach me, and you teach me your statutes. That is, that which you have inscribed, that which you have written for us. You teach them to me. The wisest, the most brilliant thoughts that have ever crossed the horizon of theirs, you personally teach them to me.

23:46And he must teach them to us because he's the only one who really knows them thoroughly, right? And so he has to be our teacher. He must be. So there you see this psalmist's desire to honor God through his speech, but also. Honor God through his song. Look at verse 172. Let my tongue sing of your word, for all of your commandments are righteousness. Righteousness. Word for sing is sing. It doesn't get any more complicated than that. It's what Miriam, you remember in Exodus 15, 21, after Pharaoh's army was destroyed, then Miriam said, sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted.

24:31So why does the psalmist want to sing? Look back. For all your commandments are righteousness. Not just righteous, righteousness. It's like the definition of righteousness is God's commandments. Or God's command. God's commandments are righteousness. The definition of righteousness. All of them, the totality of them. And this is cause for singing. The God of the universe, who teaches men and women his statutes, teaches us righteousness through his commandments. So if you're a songwriter, look into God's commandments. Plenty of song material there. Because in those commandments, God reveals himself, his wisdom, his beauty, perfect wisdom.

25:30There. Definition of righteousness. So, one of the second things that the Word of God does as it's doing its mysterious work, as it's first awakening and sending forth the shoots and the roots, is that first it creates a desire for the presence of God and then it forms a disposition to honor the Word of God. Do you see how a life is now taking shape? One that desires God's presence and one that has a disposition to honor the Word of God. Third, the Word of God fashions a dependency upon the Word of God. The Word of God fashions a dependency upon the Word of God. So not only does it create a desire for the presence of God and forms a disposition to honor God, it fashions a dependency upon the Word. The psalmist became dependent upon the Word. Look at verse 137, or 173. And he says, Let your hand be ready to help me. Now then drop down to verse 175, and let your ordinances help me. See those two words, help? There's a little bracket going on here.

26:49He says, Let your hand be ready to help me. Psalmist is dependent upon God's help. Let it be. Remember when God said, Let there be light? Well, the same verb here is that the psalmist is saying, Let there be help. Let there be help. Let your hand be ready to help me. The word for help there is, let your hand be ready to serve me. That's what he's saying, let your hand serve me. Seems pretty bold, right? We kind of think of ourselves as God's servant, right? We don't think of God as our servant, right? But that's exactly what the Word of God pictures God as. He is the ultimate servant. Now, He doesn't bow down to the whims and desires of fleshly, carnal men and women. But in Him, all things exist. He holds us together. He is the one who is ultimately servant, the greatest servant of all. As Jesus said, the greatest in heaven is the servant of all.

28:04So here's the psalmist saying, Help me. Going back to the baby illustration, I also remember the baby's first steps, and it never gets old. Watching those first steps when the baby finally can get to their feet, wobbly, and every once in a while just do a catastrophic seat drop, right? And if you and I did it, we would go to the hospital and be there for a while. And then they get those feet up, you know, and then that mouth goes open. You know, I take that step.

28:44And they're looking at mom or dad, and the hands are held out, right? Let your hand be there to help me. The baby knows and starts taking that step. Well, that's the picture here. That psalmist is saying, I am taking my help. Let your hand be ready to help me because I am going to start walking in your way. And he gives four reasons for expecting God's help. Look at 173:46. Let your hand be ready to help me because I have chosen your precepts. And your precepts have caused the need for me to help and for me to need your help. Probably from the outside, there were those that were probably down on him because of the word of God, but probably also from the inside, his inability to measure up.

29:45I am going to, I have chosen your precepts. That's what he's saying. I have chosen. That is, it's a settled decision. I have made up my mind. I'm going to walk in your way. You have chosen me, and now I have chosen you. And I am going to walk in your precepts. So help me. There's inadequacies on the inside, and there's pressures on the outside. Help me. So he says, help me because I have chosen your precepts. Look at 174. Help me because I long for your salvation, O Lord. I long for it. I long for your, I desire intensely your salvation.

30:30And your law is my delight. Help me because I've chosen your precepts, because I long for your salvation, and because your law is my delight. And fifth, let my soul live that it may praise you. Let me live because I want to praise you. Help me, be there, so that my soul may cause boasting in you everywhere I go. That's what he wants. He wants to live so that God's praise or that boasting in God would happen everywhere he goes.

31:11But notice, notice in verse 75, the instrument of God's help. He's asked God for his hand, right? Help me. Help my. Let your hand be ready to help me. And look at what that hand looks like. And let your ordinances. Help me. You see, your ordinances, that is your words of revealed decisions, your recorded acts. Let them serve me. Let your hand serve me. Let your ordinances serve me. So the hand of verse 173 is also your ordinances of 175. So what he's saying is, God's word is the instrument. That is his hand.

32:05God's word is the instrument that helps the soul live and praise God. The word itself is the instrument, the hand. So the instrument that caused the need also supplies the remedy. I've chosen your precepts, and because of that, I need your help. But then the precepts, the words, the ordinances themselves are the help. So what the Word of God does is it fashions a dependency upon God's Word. And that's what it does. So it creates a desire for the presence of God. It forms a disposition to honor the Word. And then it fashions a dependency upon the Word of God. Do you see how a life will all of a sudden start taking shape?

32:55A fourth. Fourth effect of the Word of God. The heart of man. The word of God exposes our greatest problem and points us to the ultimate solution. And that's what takes us to this last verse. Last verse of this epic psalm: I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments. See, we have a tendency to go astray, don't we? Verse 176: I have gone astray. That is, in a perfect active sense, I have strayed from the proper course. I have drifted. I have erred. I have wandered away from safety.

33:47Wow. Like a lost sheep. And the word for lost there is perishing. It's a participle. Like a dying sheep, like a sheep that has gotten away from the shepherd, away from the flock, away from nutrients, away from water, out there bleeding and crying in the desert, perishing, most vulnerable. That's what the word for lost is. It's a very pathetic picture. A sheep wandering aimlessly, staggering on the brink of death. So it's no wonder, as he sees himself as this lost sheep, that our psalmist appeals to the Shepherding ministry of God. Look back. I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant. Seek your servant. Imperative. Diligently search for me. Find me. Bring me back to safety.

34:51For I do not forget your commandments. They haven't left my memory. I know enough to know that I'm in trouble. I know that I'm not where I should be. Seek me. And those commands which are still in his mind is a shepherd's hook, drawing him to the shepherd. What a strange ending. The ending, like how one commentator said it like this. And this is the conclusion. A lost sheep? This long psalm of ascriptions, praises, vows, resolves, high hope ends in this, that he is a perishing sheep?

35:45It's not how I would have ended the psalm, right? Not how Hollywood would have ended the psalm. I mean, where's the happily ever after? All along, our desire is that, is for this psalm. To arrive, he wants to keep. Oh, that my ways would be established before you to keep your ways. We want him to arrive. We would have ended the psalm right here at verse 168. I keep your precepts and your testimonies. Done, finished. Moral perfection. I'm there.

36:31That's what we'd like to see. That's the happy ending, right? That's what I love about Scripture. It's brutally honest, right? Talks to us about our true humanity. You see, the psalmist, what he's doing is he is exposing our greatest problem to us. And he is pointing us in the direction of the ultimate solution. We can't keep, can we? We constantly stray. It's really not a surprise. It's surprising, but it's really not a strange ending. It's actually a very profound ending because it creates an awareness of our greatest need. Our greatest need is for a shepherd.

37:28You see, our greatest problem remains. At least in some degree, but it points us to the ultimate solution. We still have this tendency to go astray. And what happens here at the end is the psalmist is pointing that ultimate hope is not in the competency of the sheep, but in the competency of the shepherd. Ultimate hope, our hope, is not in ourselves, but in the competency of the great shepherd. It's no accident when John, after walking with Jesus all those years, opens up his gospel like this: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The word is the shepherd, the shepherd is the word, the same essence. The word is of the same essence as the incarnate shepherd of our souls.

38:47The word is also our shepherd. And then in John 10, he says, Jesus says, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Verse 14, 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, I lay down my life for the sheep. And in verse 27, he says, My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

39:23The incarnate word is the great shepherd, and he is fully competent to keep us. You know, it's amazing how the word of God works, how it creates a desire, forms a disposition, fastens a dependency, and then points us to the ultimate solution. Do you see how a life then can't help but bear fruit? You know, nothing ruins a person like pride. I think we see this in many athletes, right? Nothing ruins a good athlete more than great success. Even our own Johnny Manzel, incredible football player. And then he won the Heisman. And I don't know his heart, but it seemed like he took his eye off the ball, literally, and it turned to himself. And this changed his game.

40:32Look at it, watch some of these Olympians. Never thought I'd ever root for a Russian against the U.S. team, but sometimes I see some of these U.S. Olympians getting so over-intoxicated with themselves that it's hard to even cheer them on. Pride ruins. It doesn't just ruin athletes, it ruins everyone who touches it, even kings. Look at Nebuchadnezzar, look at just the history of the earth. Scripture, God makes it very clear that he brings down those who are proud. In fact, it also brings down the angelic realm, if you'll remember.

41:17It has impact in the angelic beings as well. In Ezekiel 28:12, speaking of the king of Tyre, Ezekiel talks about how God is going to bring him down, and then he goes beyond and he uses language that cannot possibly refer to the king of Tyre, but to the spirit that is driving and energizing the king of Tyre, and that being Satan himself. And he says this: Thus says the Lord God, you had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Such was this incredible celestial beauty that God would say to this being, you were. Perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering. You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you. And here's the fall. Here's the fall of this celestial being. Verse 17: Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor, and I cast you to the ground. So, how does God? His word goes to work in us, it transforms us, and we are changed from glory to glory. And there is a beauty that comes out of the work of the Word of God. So, how in the world do we not get so intoxicated with ourselves because of the work of the word?

43:07I mean, we are going to be image-bearers. We are image-bearers, but we are going to be glorified image-bearers of the internal, holy God, and we are going to reflect his beauty eternally. So, how do we not get so intoxicated with ourselves like this anointing? Cherub. How does God perfect us even in this life? How does he perfect us without turning us into monsters? How can we ever be glorified without becoming intoxicated with ourselves? Well, this is what the Word of God does. You see, the Word of God gives us a true picture of God. And at the same time, it gives us a true picture of ourselves. We are finite. We are fallen.

44:01The Word that awakens and revives and reveals God to us also humbles us. And when we see ourselves in the light of the perfections of God, we are humbled. And the Word humbles us. So it keeps revealing us to the perfections of God. And we keep seeing ourselves in light of those perfections, not in the light of each other, but the light of His perfections. And when we see His perfections, we are in awe of His perfections. And then we see how far we are from God, and then it humbles us. And so the Word of God is able to sanctify us and cause us to be transformed from glory to glory without becoming intoxicated with ourselves because we always have an eye on the perfections of God. And that's what keeps us humble.

44:54So as he brings these last three stanzas to a landing, I just. Want to point out the Resh stanza brings about revival, which creates, in the Sheen stanza, an awe of God. And in this Tav stanza, it creates an awareness of our need for a Savior. So, revival leads us to an awe of God, which leads us to an awareness of our need for a shepherd, the true shepherd. Well, this morning, are you aware of your greatest problem? A proneness to wander away like a lost sheep?

45:36Are you aware of God's solution? He is fully competent. Call on his name. His name is Jesus. Well, this final stanza looked at the creative work of the Word of God. The Word of God creates a desire for the presence of God. The Word of God forms a disposition to honor the Word of God. The Word of God fashions a dependency upon the Word of God. And the Word of God exposes our greatest problem and points us to the ultimate solution, which is in Jesus Christ. And this is why Jesus could say, outward fruits will be evident.

46:16You will know them by their fruits, because the Word of God does its work. And like a mustard seed, it comes up and it dominates the entire Being. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for everything. We give you thanks. Father, now I just ask that you would have your work do its word work in us as we think again about your excellencies. In Jesus' name, amen.