The Word of God in the Heart of Man: Overcoming Temptation - Psalm 119:33-40 (Psalms 119:33-40)

4:28Guaranteed. Business, guaranteed, very profitable business. And all you have to do is pay him quarterly distributions on those profits. A silent partner. It's called white-collar crime. And you go to jail for that. And I told him, I said, you know, we'll go to jail for that. Very profound. But it was a very precarious situation. But there, for a moment, it was like, okay, this would solve a lot of problems. And I can remember thinking this would solve a lot of problems, but it would sure create a lot more problems. This past week, another individual approached me while I was here at the church. I'll call him the bad plasma man because he went to go, this was his story, he went to give plasma, and it just so happened that they took his plasma and then didn't give him any money for it. So he comes to me with his arms all bounded up with the tourniquets and marks where they had taken all the plasma and was telling me about this catastrophe. And we spent some time talking, and I gave him a little bit of money, talked to him about the Lord.

5:58But in the end, I think he was a con. Artist. And the difference between white-collar crime and blue-collar crime, or professional crime and amateur crime, is really not the dollar amounts, or it is the dollar amounts, the difference. The heart is the same, though. Both drawn to dishonest gain. Dishonest gain. And something is happening in the psalmist's life at this point where he is feeling that draw to dishonest gain. And in verse 37, his eyes looking at vanity. There's a leaning within him to be tempted, to be drawn away from running the race, from his commitment to personal purity.

6:51And so that's what's going on. Temptation. And temptation comes in many shapes and many sizes and will hit you at many different times in your life. There will be temptations to personal gain. There'll be temptations to power. There'll be temptations for the vain things of the eyes. There'll be temptations to fear when you should trust. There'll be temptations to be proud, when you should be humble, and on and on. You are going to experience temptations in your life, and how you respond to them will determine what kind of race you're going to run. And if you do not respond rightly in those times of temptation, you will.

7:30Not run the race. Your purity will be compromised. And this psalmist is feeling this. And he shows us in these eight verses how to deal with temptation, how to overcome temptation. And so this morning I want to walk through this text, and I want you to see two things that you need to do in tempting circumstances. Two things that you need to do in tempting circumstances. First thing you need to do is pray for God's guidance. First thing you need to do is pray for God's guidance. Look at verse 33. First, pray for God's guidance to make you see His way. You need to see His way. No matter what circumstances you're in, the first thing you need to know is understand what God has to say about the situation you're in and the principles that they touch. Look at verse 33. Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I shall observe it to the end. Teach me, Lord, you must teach me. It's an imperative. You teach me.

8:43In fact, you must teach me, Lord, the way of your statutes. There's one way here, the way of what's right, as outlined in his statutes. And I shall observe it to the end. Make me see your way. Lord, make me see your way. Because if you don't see his way, you'll never be able to go any further. Look at his commitment. And I shall observe it to the end. I shall keep it to the end. If you will teach me your way, I will keep it to the end. It's the picture of a guard hut in Job, a little guard hut that guards the way into a property. I know when I was in Malawi, whenever we walked, or whenever we drove up to a house, a compound, or whatever, there was a gate. And we'd pull up there. I wouldn't see a guard, but from out of nowhere, this guard would appear. He would open the gate. He had this little hut or a little place that he would stand by the gate, come out, open the gate, let us in. But the idea was to only let that in which was good, not to let in that which would be harmful. And that's the picture of the of the psalmist here. Teach me, and I will keep that way. I will observe your way, so that only your statutes, the way of your statutes, enter in and out of my life.

10:19Teach me. You've got to make me see it. Second thing. Second thing, pray for God's guidance to make you understand His way. Not only do you need Him to teach you His way, but you need His His His His His His For him to give you understanding. Look at verse 34. Give me understanding that I may observe your law and keep it with all my heart. Give me understanding. You must give me insight. You must explain this to me. You must illumine my mind so I can understand what it is you have taught me. You have taught me your statutes. Now give me understanding. Illumine my mind. Let me understand my circumstances in light of your statutes so I know the way out for me. That I know how these principles and statutes and your ordinances bear on my life.

11:18Make me be able to connect and understand your circumstances, my circumstances, in light of your word. Give me understanding that I may observe your law and keep it with all my heart. Again, the picture of keeping. And the keeping this time is that picture of Adam. You remember Adam in the garden? The Lord in Genesis 2, he places him in the garden to do what? To cultivate it and to keep it. That was Adam's job. Keep the garden. Tend it. Take care of it. And that's the picture here that we are to, he's given us to tend and keep our garden. Our hearts before him. You see, Adam failed to be able to keep the garden. He failed in his responsibility to take care of the garden because he first failed in his responsibility to keep his heart. And you'll do the same.

12:17You need to have God to teach you, but you need to have him make you understand so that you can observe it and keep it with all of your heart. Notice what the psalmist is pledging. Notice how he wants to live his life before God. He wants to observe it to the end of his days, to the end, with the quantity of his life. But then look at the second part of verse 34, and keep it with all of my heart. He wants to keep it with all of his heart, the quality of his life. He wants to give him the best quantity of his life and the best quality of his life. But in order to do that, he's dependent upon God to teach him his ways and to make him understand his ways. So in times of tempting circumstances, you need to pray for God's guidance. That he would make you see his way and that he would make you understand his way, but third, to make you walk in his way. Now, you talk about a statement of dependence, right? We're dependent. The psalmist is very dependent upon God, right? Look at verse 35. Make me walk in the path of your commandments.

13:31For I delight in it, for I delight in it. Make me walk. Again, it's that imperative command. He's just talking to God out of desperation. God, you make, teach me, give me, make me. And it's all that imperative. You must teach me. You must give me. And you must make me walk in the path of your commandments. And the walk, you need, Lord, you must make me walk. You must hold my hand and walk me through the circumstances. Make me walk in the path of your commandments. The idea of a path is that it leads from one place to another place. So it has a specific course to take, a route. And no matter where you are, no matter what circumstances you are, this very moment, as you leave here, there is a path that leads to righteousness, a path that leads to delight and blessing.

14:35And it is a delightful path. And like the psalmist, we should long that God would make us walk in that path. Lord, that's the blessed path. And I want to walk in it. But Lord, I'm completely dependent upon you to make me see the path, to make me understand the path, and then to compel me to walk that path. Is that not a state of dependence? This psalmist is completely dependent upon God in these tempting circumstances, but in all circumstances. Is that not us?

15:15Look at that statement, for I delight in it. Verse 35. Make me walk in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. I delight in it. Word for delight there is the picture of a young man who delights in the beauty of a young woman. Just, I'm captivated, I'm taken in. Wow, I'm just, it's not hard for me to think, I totally delight in your word, in your commandments. That's what he's saying. So there's two things you need to do in tempting circumstances. First, you need to pray for God's guidance. You need to pray for God's guidance. That is, to make you see His way, to make you understand His way, to make you walk in His way. You need to be able to see. You need to be able to hear. You need to be able to understand. You need to be able to obey. Second thing you need to do is pray for God's intervention. Pray for God's intervention.

16:15Look back at verse 36 specifically. And this is where the psalmist turns the corner, and now he's starting to pray directly for God's intervention into his life. He's already begun by saying, God, Teach me, give me, make me. Now he's saying, okay, God, let's get really personal. Incline my heart to your ways. And that's the first thing we need to be praying for in any and all of our circumstances, that God would incline our hearts to his way. Incline. The word literally means to bend. Bend my heart to your way. It's the favor that Ezra received that was extended to him in going back and to rebuild the temple. That's that favor that was given, that was extended to him. A similar word is used when Esther goes in before the king and she's afraid to go before him because if he does not extend the golden scepter to her, it means death. And as Esther went in, that golden scepter of favor was stretched forward to her. And same picture here. What the psalmist is saying is, God, extend your favor to me by extending my heart towards you or by bending my heart towards your ways. Incline my heart to your ways and to your testimonies, to your witnesses, to your self-witness and self-sworn testimony of yourself. Incline my heart to that. And not to dishonest gain.

18:00Dishonest gain is, well, anything that comes contrary to God's sworn testimony, God's commandments. Anything underhanded, anything depraved, anything off-color, any kind of gain. Lord, and if this is Daniel here, you kind of get the picture of, wow, what a great inclination, what great opportunities he had for power, for resources. Or for whoever the psalmist in, if it's not Daniel, and I believe the more I study this, that Daniel is probably the best candidate based upon the internal evidence. But whoever the psalmist in, it's clear that they had an opportunity to great gain. And there was this pull, there was this leaning towards this gain. Incline my heart not to personal gain. Look at verse 37.

18:56Not only does he need to incline your heart to his ways, but pray for God's intervention to turn your eyes from vain ways, from vain ways. Look at verse 37: Turn away my eyes from looking at vanity and revive me in your ways. So make sure my heart, Lord, you do something in my heart. You take the initiative. You must do this. Bend my heart to your testimonies and turn away my eyes from looking at vanity.

19:27Interesting expression here. Idea of turn away my eyes is an interesting expression. It's the expression of Abram walking through the land of Canaan, passing through the land of Canaan without settling. That's the idea. Passing through without settling. That's the idea. Lord, cause my eyes to pass through the landscape without settling on that which is vain. And isn't that a plea in how we should approach areas of temptation? In fact, they call it, turn away my eyes from looking at or for even seeing vanity. God, insert yourself into my life to where my eyes do not settle upon that which is vain. And vain is anything that is worthless or anything that it certainly carries the idea of that which is evil, that which is false, that which is cheap, that which is temporary. But it's anything that isn't of great value. That's vanity. So he's saying, cause me, and there's a whole category of sin and temptation that would fall under that. Incline my heart to your testimonies, not to dishonest gain, and turn away my eyes from looking at vanity, and revive me in your ways. Revive me, give me life. Remember the Last thing he says in verse 32, I shall run in the way of your commandments. At the beginning of verse 25, he's saying, revive me according to your word. And now he's saying, revive me in your ways. Breathe life into me that I may be in your ways. Run in your ways.

21:23I find this very fascinating. The psalmist has already made a statement that he's going to observe it to the end of his days. He loves the word of God enough to commit his whole life to it. He loves the word of God enough to say, I want you to have the best quantity of my life and the best quality of my life because I delight in it. I love it. I delight in it. But then there's another side that I find very interesting here. But he's saying, make me walk in the path. Now, if you really delight in something, it's usually not hard to walk in it, right?

22:06But here he is, make me walk in your path, for I delight in it. And then incline my heart. I delight in it, but you still have to incline my heart. Turn away from my eyes. I delight in your word, but turn my eyes away from looking at vanity. What's going on? Isn't there kind of a picture of humanity here? Do you think he really does love the word of God? I think he really does. But he also has a lean. An inward bent towards that which is wrong, doesn't he? Is that not a picture of humanity in the raw?

22:39A love? I think he truly does love God's Word, of course. And many of you truly love God's Word. Truly love God, and yet there's this inward inclination to sin. Why? It's because we live in a state of unconfirmed holiness. We're growing in grace. The psalmist was growing in grace. We are growing in grace. And yes, there's going to be this bent towards that which is wrong, even though there is a love for that which was right. And what God's Spirit is doing in us is teaching us to say no to ungodliness and yes to the things that are of Him. That which conforms to His statutes, His ways, His testimonies. So we need to pray for God's intervention to incline your heart to His ways, to turn your eyes from vain ways, but also to establish holy fear in you. Also to establish holy fear. Look back at verse 38. Establish your word to your servant as that which produces reverence for you. Establish your word to your servant as that which produces reverence. The word for establish. Literally means to cause to stand, cause to endure. Make your word endure to me as that which produces reverence.

24:12Think about what he's saying here. Cause the word to become and to always be that which causes fear of you, a holy fear of you. He's saying, don't let the word become something that I disregard, something that becomes cheap, or something that becomes I become disinterested in, or that which takes a lower priority in my life. He's saying, may the word of God, as I read it, may it always be that which establishes a holy reverence of you.

24:48You see, we have a tendency to drift away from the word and to disregard it, to cheapen it through our routine, and to give it a low priority, and then to come and to breeze through some verses very quickly and scarcely come away in awe of the God who is speaking these words to us. Establish, make it stand, make your word stand to your servant as that which always produces a holy fear of you. It's not Proverbs, Psalm affirmed to us that. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and the beginning of wisdom both.

25:38So pray for God's intervention, his intervention to incline your heart to his ways, to turn your eyes from vain ways, to establish holy fear in you, but to also take away shame from you, to take away shame from you. Look back at verse 39. Turn away my reproach, which I dread, for your ordinances are good. Turn away my reproach, which I dread, for your ordinances are good. It's that same word, turn away. Pass by. Don't let my disgrace settle upon me. Don't let that stay with me. And I prefer the NIV translation here. He's speaking about his disgrace, his personal feelings of guilt. A number of commentators take this to mean that he's talking about those on the outside, turn away my reproach from which I dread. That the idea that there are those, he's referring to the reproach that's coming at him. Take this reproach that's coming at me away from me. And certainly that fits in the greater context of Psalm 119. There's certainly a lot of reproach coming at him, and he's dealing with it. But in the near context, the immediate context, it fits better, I believe, to see this as, take away my shame, my guilt. It could be translated as my disgrace, which I dread. And that fits with certainly what he's saying, which I fear. That is the word there, which I fear. He has just prayed that God's word would be that which produces reverence for him. And what he greatly fears is non-conformity to God's word and the shame and the guilt that comes through personal failures. He is inclined to personal gain. He is inclined to look at vanity. And this has caused him pain and shame. And so he is, Lord, turn away my reproach, which I dread, for your ordinances are beautiful. They are beautiful to me. And I agree with them. And I am shamed that I would ever depart from them or be disloyal to them. Turn away my reproach, which I fear, which I am afraid of. He's not afraid of man. He makes that very clear. He's not afraid of the kings. He's not afraid to speak God's word. But he is afraid of disappointing God and being disloyal to God.

28:32Fifth, when you encounter times of tempting circumstances, you need to pray for God's intervention to revive you through his righteousness. Look at verse 40. Behold, I long for your precepts. Revive me through your righteousness. Behold, look at this. See, look at this, Lord. Look at me. I long for your precepts. And this is the first break in all the imperative commands. He's saying, teach me, give me, make me, incline me, turn away, revive me, or establish your word, turn away. And then he comes to this one verb. Behold, I long. It's a humble self-description. Here's the state that I'm in. I long for your righteousness. That's what I long for. I long for your precepts. I long for your precepts. Revive me through your righteousness.

29:36At the end of the whole psalm, he's going to say in Psalm 134, or in verse 174, he's going to say, I long for your salvation. And here he is longing for his precepts. Revive me. Cause me to come to life. Resurrect me through your righteousness. Your righteousness, that which has a characteristic and a quality that belongs to God and not to man. That's where revival is. We need a righteousness that is not our own. As Romans 3 makes very clear, the law and the prophets both point towards a righteousness, a holy righteousness that is beyond that of man, a righteousness that's beyond or of substance that is not of man. And both the law and the prophets testify to this righteousness.

30:40And his name is Jesus, who walked among us, God's righteousness, through whom God Himself joins Himself with us. And that's what we need. We need to be in union with His righteousness. That's what Paul's thinking and his theology of Himself is theology that's built upon the righteousness of Christ. That you and I need to be joined, just like the psalmist needs to be joined to a righteousness that is of a character and quality that is not of ourselves, but is of God.

31:23And there and only there is where life, reviving life, Life that's worth living comes from. You'll never be able to run the race that God has for you in your own righteousness. It will be very disappointing. But the good news is, like the psalmist, cry out to God. He is generous, he will not turn anyone away. If you long for life, ask him to give it to you, and he will give it to you. Call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, and he will give you life.

32:05Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your goodness. Please do your work in us. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.