God's Word: Comfort for the Conflicted

Lord, you are so good to allow us to be here once again to study your word We thank you that you gave us one more day We have no guarantee of tomorrow, but we know that what we learn this evening will enable us to live for you this night And if you choose to give us tomorrow, and the next day, and the next week, and the next month, I pray that the things we learn would stay with us, so that we could be a testimony to the Living God in the work of His Word in our lives We pray in Jesus' name, amen Psalm 119 is where we're at Psalm 119, verse number 49

As we make our way, verse by verse, through all 176 verses, we trust that you have learned much over the last couple of weeks as we've been studying Psalm 119 And tonight, I'm going to tell you exactly why God has put this on my heart, to study this whole chapter at this time of the year But to understand Psalm 119, we've come to realize that God's Word truly does bring forth its desired results in the lives of God's people

In other words, God's Word truly does work. I love the verse in 1 Thessalonians 2, verse number 13, where the Apostle Paul says, "...and for this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you receive from us the Word of God's message, you accepted it not as the Word of men, but for what it really is, the Word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe." That verse is a verse to the testimony of the power of God's Word in the life of people who believe

In other words, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are committed to studying God's Word, God will produce His desired work in your life to conform you to His image God's Word is powerful enough to transform your life God's Word is powerful enough to effect change in your life God's Word in God's Word alone In fact, let me say it to you this way If you've got your Bible, turn to John chapter 6 John chapter 6, Jesus says these words to His disciples It says in verse number 60, "...many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a difficult statement

Who can listen to it? But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, Does this cause you to stumble? What then, if you should behold the Son of Man ascending where He was before? It is a spirit who gives life The flesh profits nothing The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and our life But there are some of you who do not believe For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were, who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him And He was saying, For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted Him from the Father

As a result of this, many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore Jesus said therefore to the twelve, You do not want to go away also, do you? Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life And we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God Jesus answered them, Did I myself not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil Now He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot For he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him

In that conversation with His disciples, the Lord says, Listen, the words that I speak to you, the words I give to you truly are life They are the words that give life, not only the quality of life, but the quantity of life The words I give are eternal They last forever And therefore, because they are eternal, they give to you, they infuse life to you Not just eternal life, but abundant life And then He says, But there are some of you who do not believe Will you go away also? And Simon said, Well, Lord, we believe that You have the words of eternal life

We believe that You are the Holy One of God And yet Jesus said, But there are some of you who do not believe You know, there are many people who are Christians who say they believe that God's Word gives life There are many people in the church who are professing Christians who would echo the same sentiment Because when Simon spoke, he said, We believe, including Judas, one of the twelve Judas was one who played the role Judas was one who lived a lie Judas was one who would affirm the fact that the words of God gave life, but he, in fact, did not experience that life

And maybe you're one of those this evening You would attest to the fact that, Yes, I believe that God's Word effectually works in those who believe, and I believe that God's Word gives life And yet and yet there is no change in your life Christ came to you and said, Will you go away also? What would you say? Do you truly believe that God's Word gives the life that changes a soul and transforms a man and transforms a woman into the image that God wants them to be? I believe that That's why I preach the Word of God That's why I preach verse by verse through the Word of God

That's why I don't have to use a lot of illustrations because they mean nothing They're just my opinion and my stories So I share with you the Word of God because it's His Word and that's what transforms a life Jesus said, I am the resurrection and I am the life He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life And the life I came to give you is abundant It goes beyond anything you can ever imagine And that's what Psalm 119 is about And the life that God gives, listen carefully, the life that God gives is the only life that can comfort you amidst your conflict

The life that God gives is the only life where you will find comfort when you face conflict Only His life And that's what the psalmist echoes Now we know that God is a God of comfort How do we know that? Second Corinthians chapter 1 tells us, verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God We know that the Bible teaches that our God is a God who comforts His people

We also know that God gave us His Spirit and that Spirit is called another Comforter Over in John chapter 14, verse 16 And I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper or another Comforter and He, that He may be with you forever That is the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it does not know, does not behold Him or know Him But you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans God never leaves us comfortless because He gives us the Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, who is the ultimate Comforter God Himself is the Comforter

The Spirit of Truth is a Spirit that resides within us to comfort us We also know that the people of God give comfort How do we know that? 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verse number 6 Paul says this, But God who comforts the depressed comforted us by the coming of Titus So now we know that God is a Comforter and as Savior He comforts His people The Spirit of God is called the Comforter and the Spirit of God will never leave us comfortless And God gives us Christians who understand the comfort of God and they can comfort us amidst our depression because they use the Word of God

Which leads us to our text this evening, Psalm 119, verse number 50 This is my comfort in my affliction that Thy Word has revived me God's Word also is a Comforter and therefore God surely equips us with everything we need to receive comfort amidst conflict He the God of comfort makes sure the Spirit of God indwells us who is the ultimate Comforter with the people of God who come around us to comfort us because they use the Word of God to counsel us that we might receive comfort

You see God wants to make sure that the life He gives is the life that provides comfort amidst whatever anguish you face, whatever hardship you encounter, whatever trial you're engaged in, whatever difficulty you face But that comfort stems from the Scriptures And God will use His Word in your life and in mine to give us comfort That's why I love Psalm 94, verse number 19 When my anxious thoughts multiply within me Thy consolations delight my soul That is just so good because we all have anxious thoughts We all worry about something

The psalmist said, hey, listen, when the anxious thoughts multiply within me, it means they're overwhelming me Thy consolations, he calls the Scriptures, the consolation He calls the Scriptures that which comforts him Thy consolations now delight my soul Because God's Word consoles my soul, I can now delight in what God's Word says when my anxious thoughts multiply. within me See, the believer understands that The psalmist got it The question is, have we gotten a hold of it? Do we understand that amidst our conflict comes comfort from the Word of God? God's Word is that which does it

So we're going to read the text this evening And I've had a few complaints from people that when we do the alternate reading that you can't hear what you say on the tape That's because you folks don't read loud enough Now, I don't know what you're ashamed of This is the Word of God So you need to be able to scream it out. I mean, I scream every week, so it's no big deal for me But folks, because the microphone is so close to my mouth, it doesn't pick up what you say So you need to read a little louder so those who get the CD or get the tape can hear the verse you're reading

Okay, so we're going to do as we've always done. I'll read the odd verses You read the even verses All right, we'll begin with Psalm 119, verse number 49, down through verse number 56 Remember the word to thy servant in which thou hast made me hope Now that's much better That's really good All right, verse number 51 The arrogant utterly deride me, yet I do not turn aside from thy law. I have never doubted thy righteousness, for the love of the Lord, and have not murdered myself Burning indignation has seized me because of the wicked who forsake thy law

Your trust has been in my soul, and I will find no forgiveness. O Lord, I remember thy name in the night, and keep thy law It is in my mind that I have served the Lord three steps All right, that's pretty good We'll see if that comes out this week on the tape God's Word comforts those who face all kinds of conflict We're going to see how that happens tonight. I want to bring three points to you this evening that will help you understand how God's Word is going to bring comfort to your soul Number one is this God remembers His people

If there's anything that's going to bring comfort to your soul, it's the very fact that God never forgets and God is faithful to comfort His people God always remembers His people That's what the text says Remember the word to thy servant in which thou hast made me hope. I love what He says He doesn't say, Lord, remember my works He says, Lord, remember your word We like to think that God's going to comfort us because we do so many good things for Him That's just not the case. I mean, it's good that you do things for the Lord You need to serve the Lord

But the fact that the psalmist asked the Lord to remember His Word, He's asking God to remain true to His Word, to be faithful to His Word because, Lord, that is what gives me hope God remembers His people Because He does, there is hope Number two, there is help There is hope and there's help Now, when we think of hope, listen carefully Hope is not some kind of wishful thinking that we as Christians have about something that we hope will one day happen It's like, well, I hope that one day I get married Or I hope that I'm able to buy this brand new car Or I hope that one day I have a baby

Or I hope that some day the pastor will shake my hand on the way out the door Or I hope that this is going to happen That's wishful thinking, folks The bottom line is when you, in the Bible, hope for something, you are trusting something very stable and very secure Hope for a Christian is surety Hope for the believer is faith Hope centers around what God has said and believes what God has said That's why we have a steadfast hope The psalmist says, Lord, when you remember Your Word to Your servant, I'll have hope

Lord, because You're faithful to Your Word, I will have the hope I need, the security I need. I will have the confidence I need Confidence is a good word to substitute for the word hope. I have confidence, Lord, because You remember Your Word You see, when we trust what God says, we have confidence We have hope Remember what Joshua said in that farewell sermon in Joshua 24? When he said to the nation of Israel in verse number 14, I'm sorry, Joshua 23, verse number 14 Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth

And you know in all your hearts, in all your souls, that not one word of all the good words which the Lord your God spoke concerning you has failed All have been fulfilled for you Not one of them has failed. I mean, what a way to end your life and to encourage the people of God by saying, I'm gonna let you know that I'm gonna die and I want you to realize that everything that God said happened just like He said He never failed once That's why Joshua was able to stand strong when others weren't

That's why Joshua was chosen to lead the nation of Israel after Moses because he was a man of great faith and great hope in God and confidence in God He believed that what God said would come true because he believed in his God He is the source of all truth And he was used in a mighty way by God So at the end of his life, he could say, let me tell you something It all came true Not one word of God has failed because God is true to His word Turn with me to Hebrews 6 Hebrews chapter 6, verse 13

For when God made the promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself saying, I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you And thus having patiently waited, he obtained the promise In other words, Abraham finally obtained the promise 25 years after it was given. 25 years after God said to Abraham, I'm gonna bless you. I'm gonna multiply your seed It's gonna be a great and mighty thing It was 25 years later that that was fulfilled The Bible says that Abraham patiently waited and he obtained the promise Verse 16

For men swear by one greater than themselves and with them an oath given as confirmation is at the end of every dispute In the same way, God desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeableness of his purpose, interposed with an oath In order that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement We who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us, this hope we have as an anchor of the soul. A hope both sure and steadfast We have a hope We have a confidence

We know that what God tells us is true because he is faithful And the psalmist says, Lord, remember your word to your servant Your word, Lord What you have said What you are faithful to For there in that arena is where I receive all my hope And if I have hope, I'll have help For the next verse says, in verse 50, this is my comfort and my affliction that thy word has revived me This is my comfort and my affliction Now, we don't know what the psalmist's affliction was We have some ideas as we read on, but we don't know what the affliction was that the psalmist faced

But he knew this, that in the midst of that affliction, there was only one way to receive comfort And that was through the word of God There is no other way That's where you need to look because that's where the comfort comes from And the psalmist said, I've come alive. I've been quickened. I have been revived. I have received the comfort from your word Listen, when we were dead in our trespasses and sin and the word of the Lord came to us, what did it do? It caused us to be raised from that dead, from the dead spiritually

When we were dead in our trespasses and sin, it was the word of God that quickened us and made us alive and gave us the life-giving spirit Well, the psalmist says, just like the spirit of God gave me life when the word of God came to me, so now I receive the comfort that quickens me through the word of God It comes because God is true to his word Look at Isaiah chapter 43 Isaiah 43 Listen to the word of the Lord This is really, really good

It says in verse number one, But now thus says the Lord, your creator, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel, do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name You are mine When you pass through the waters, I will be with you And through the rivers they will not overflow you When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior Listen, let me show you how God's word comforts you

This text tells us that every trial and every difficulty and every hardship we face comes to us because each of them are absolutely inevitable Inevitable It says when you pass through the waters and when you walk through the fire It's not if, it's when It's not a question of maybe, it's a question of certainty When you pass through the waters, when you go through the fire So the Bible comforts us by letting us know that what you're experiencing is inevitable That's why James says, count it all joy, brethren, when you fall into various trials Not if you fall into them

Not if by chance you happen to walk down the street and you fall into a various trial No, it's when they come, count it all joy, my brethren, because God is going to perform His great work in your life James knew what Isaiah knew That trials were inevitable That's why Job said that man is born into trouble as sparks fly upwards Job knew about the inevitableness of trials

So God's word begins to comfort us by letting us know that what's happening to us is not happening to us for any other reason other than the fact that the creator of the world, as he says in verse number one, the master architect of our lives has designed the water and the fire for us to go through And then he says, not only are they inevitable, they're insurmountable They're insurmountable The severity of the language It's the strong and mighty river It's the fire You know the damage that floods cause and you know the damage that water, water is the most ferocious force on the earth

It's the most damaging thing that could ever happen in the world is when a tidal wave appears or when there's a flood There's fire, the scorching heat of the fire So Isaiah wants us to know that that as we understand trials and difficulties, not only are they inevitable, but for the most part they seem to be insurmountable Because they are so ferocious They are so great If the flood doesn't overwhelm you, the fire will scorch you In many sense, not only are they inevitable, and not only are they insurmountable, they are inescapable Inescapable Listen to what he says

He says when you pass through the waters, when you walk through the fire, you've got to go through it It's inescapable You can't build a boat and sail over it You can't build the bridge and hope to escape it You've got to go through it You can't put on the fire suit and expect the flames not to touch you You have to go through it They're inescapable That's how God's word comforts you Say, how does that comfort me? Knowing that they're inevitable, knowing that they're insurmountable, knowing that they're inescapable Oh, read on

Trials are absolutely incapable of, number one, separating me from God Because what does the Lord say? When you go through, guess what? I will be with you Every trial, every hardship, every conflict, every affliction, every persecution, God says when you go through it, guess what? I'll be with you. I'll be with you They are absolutely incapable of separating me from God And they are absolutely incapable of stopping me from continuing on with God

How do we know that? Because no one can stop the onward Christian who by the power of the Spirit of God understands that whom he did foreknow, he predestined to be conformed to his image See, it's incapable No matter how insurmountable it is, no matter how inescapable it might be, it is absolutely incapable, incapable of separating me from my God and stopping me from continuing on with my God Why? Number five, because every trial, every difficulty, is absolutely invaluable Invaluable It's invaluable Why? Notice what the text says

It says, when you pass through the waters and when you walk through the fire Notice he's not running through the fire He is walking through the fire Why is it that God says you will walk through the fire? How come he didn't say you're going to make a mad dash through the fire so you can get out of there as quick as possible? It's because, you know what, when you walk with God, you walk dependently You walk patiently You walk spiritually You walk with him arm in arm because he said, I will be with you in that fire and in that water And when you're in it, he's walking with you

Guess what? You're in no hurry to get out See that? Now folks, let me tell you something about the word of God The word of God is so practical and so plain and so clear that the psalmist said, in my affliction, I went to God's word and God's word comforted me It would help me understand my God It helps me understand why my God does what he does And it gives me the security that my God is there with me, holding my hand, walking with me, that I might learn to know him, come to be like him because he's conforming me to his image

And let me tell you something, when you get to that point in your spiritual pilgrimage, you begin to relish your time with God and what he's doing in your life And you want to stay right close to him because he is all that matters That's what the psalmist is saying Back in psalm 119, he says very clearly, listen, this is my comfort of my affliction, that thy word has revived me Listen, when you suffer, my words mean little, but God's words mean everything They mean everything In a psalmist's affliction, whether it be personal, emotional, financial, social, we don't know

But the help he received came because in the midst of his affliction, he never ran away from the word, he ran toward the word Oh, by the way, that's the characteristic of the Christian, by the way You can read about it in the parable of the sower and the soil The true believer always digs his roots down deep, doesn't fall by the wayside, but digs his roots down deep into his God because there is nowhere else to go, no one else to cling to And the believer longs for his God and clings to him

And so the psalmist found himself running toward his God, rushing toward the word of God, because that's where the comfort comes See, and that's what we need to learn, right? Every single day of our lives, that when the affliction comes, where do we run? What's the first thing you do when affliction overwhelms you? When the fire begins to burn you, when the water begins to envelop you, what do you do? We as believers need to run to God and his word So God remembers his people And because God remembers his people, there is always hope, there is always help

Now, number two, God's people remember God's precepts God's people remember God's precepts Look at verse 52. I have remembered thine ordinances from of old, O Lord, and comfort myself Lord, you remember me because, Lord, I remember your ordinances, your precepts Our comfort comes because God never forgets And God never fails And our comfort comes because we remember what God has said in his word And we remember those precepts We remember them amid conflict and we remember them amid consternation The psalmist understood very clearly that he was going to be derided

He says, I have remembered thine ordinances from of old, O Lord, and comfort myself Why? Verse 51 The arrogant utterly deride me, yet I do not turn aside from thy law The arrogant, they deride me, they mock me, they scorn me, they slander me And I turn to your law Folks, that is such a good verse for us as believers to realize, what do we do when someone slanders us? When someone, when mocks our name and mocks our God and does all they can to deride our name Told you that I would tell you why exactly Psalm 119 was laid upon my heart months ago to go through at this time

It says back in verse number uh Psalm 119 says, May thy loving kindness also come to me, O Lord, thy salvation according to thy word So I shall have an answer for him who reproaches me for I trust in thy word Psalmists would receive reproach Psalmists would be slandered and mocked And he wants an answer from God so he knows how to speak Psalmist continues on in our verse in verse number 51 It says, the arrogant utterly deride me and I turn to your law. I turn to your law Over my years of ministry, I've had many people mock and slander my name

Over years, whether I was at the King's College in New York as a college pastor, whether as I was at my previous church and and because I preached a gospel that was truly the gospel of repentance that in order to be saved, you had to repent of your sin

They didn't believe that and there was a lot of slandering of my name and the message I preached. I was called the heretic. I was sent Kool-Aid in the mail anonymously because they accused me of being a cult leader and they on three separate occasions would send Kool-Aid, one strawberry, one cherry and one lemon lime. I remember that because I made Kool-Aid every time they sent it to me But I remember that as if it was yesterday

And even most recently we have a young lady in our community who was sought to bring a lawsuit against my wife and I and to slander our name because she's against me and my wife and my family and she has written to the Daily Bulletin, the paper slandering our name She has called the Williamsport, which is the headquarters for Little League because I coach her son and she's tried to get me out of the league and she has written letters to people in the community and done all she can to slander my name, the name of my wife and my children in the community

And I'm going through all this over the last four or five weeks and realizing, you know what? When someone wants to utterly deride you, what do you do? You turn to the law of God You just keep going back to God's Word What does God's Word say about all those things? Because that's where your comfort is That's where your comfort is And that's what the psalmists realized that no matter what anybody says about your name, if you go back to the Word of God, you'll receive comfort from Him

You'll know exactly how to answer those who mock you and you'll be able to stand strong and answer them in a way that brings glory and honor to God That is so important The psalmist amid his conflict knew that it was the Word of God that would bring him comfort He was driven back to it Listen to this Psalm 35 This is what David did Psalm 35, verse number 15 But at my stumbling they rejoiced and gathered themselves together The smiters whom I did not know gathered together against me They slandered me without ceasing like godless jesters at a feast They gnashed at me with their teeth

David experienced those who slandered his name over and over again And David throughout his kingship would have to face the ridicule of many many people because of his commitment to his God And the greatest thing about David, one of the greatest stories about David is when they're in En Gedi and every time we go to Israel we go to En Gedi and we rehearse the story of when Saul would go into one of those caves to relieve himself and David and his men were hiding in the caves And Saul came into that cave and the men said to David, oh look the Lord has delivered Saul into your hands

Slay him now in his most vulnerable position and the kingship is yours And David snuck up to Saul He cut off a piece of his robe and as soon as he did his heart was grieved Because he knew that he was not to lay his hand against the Lord's anointed And Saul would exit the cave and David would would call out to him after he was away and showed him what he had done And there was a conversation between Saul and David from a distance But what made David a man after God's own heart is very clear in the scriptures David never sought revenge on his enemies He was not a vengeful man

And that's why God keeps saying over and over again that David was a man after my own heart David knew that vengeance belonged to God That one day he would ascend the throne but he could not control the events so that he could ascend the throne on his own timetable, but in God's timing And therefore he became that kind of man that models to us what it means to trust in your God and not to take matters into your own hands And yet he was ridiculed and mocked and slandered over and over again by his own son, by his own family, by his friends and close associates, by his enemies

They would constantly slander his name Yet he would remain true to his God and go back to the word Listen to what it says over in Psalm 123 Psalm 123 verse number one And with the contempt of the proud, psalmist would look to his God, look up to his God, depending solely upon his God to be gracious unto him Now you think about the men in the Bible because that's what we have to do

We go back to the word of God and how does God comfort us? He comforts us by talking to us about Noah who for 120 years was the preacher of righteousness and for 120 years was ridiculed because he built a boat in the middle of the desert with no water and no trees Instead it was going to rain People mocked him His own family helped him build that boat with him And can you imagine how he had to continually for 120 years encourage his family to keep on keeping on in spite of the ridicule and the persecution they received from building a boat? Because one day it was going to rain

It had never rained before But he believed in what God said People mocked him People laughed at him But when it was all said and done, the boat was built and God shut the door Because if God didn't shut the door, Noah would have opened the door He was a preacher of righteousness He'd open the door for those people who mocked him to save them from eternal damnation But the Bible is very clear God shut the door because time was up There was no longer any room for anyone else to repent And God would begin anew the creation, not the creation of man, but the multiplying of man upon this earth

Look at a guy like Moses who had to go to Pharaoh and tell Pharaoh, the Lord, the God of Israel has said let my people go And Pharaoh laughed at him Who? What God are you talking about? He's not said anything to me. I don't worship that God And Pharaoh mocked him and laughed at him But God was true to his word to Moses And Moses kept going back time and time again until it was too late for Pharaoh Think about men like Isaiah, men like Jeremiah, men like David who went after Goliath Because Goliath would come out day after day and defy, defy the God of Israel

And all those people would listen to this man Goliath, this nine-foot giant, as he would, as he would mock the God of Israel And people sat back The children of Israel sat back because they were afraid of Goliath And along came this little shepherd boy who wasn't afraid Because this man defied the armies of the living God He said, you come with me with a sword, with a spear, but I come with you, come at you in the name of the Lord of armies You see, David realized at a very young age, you can't mock God and live You can't

And people, whether it's the Old Testament saints, the New Testament saints, even Jesus in Mark chapter 5 Remember Jairus's daughter who died? He was a synagogue official in Capernaum And Jesus came to his house And he said, my daughter's dead So Jesus goes into the house And there are people all around And Jesus says, is she dead? Or is she just asleep? And everybody in the room laughed at Jesus and mocked him They laughed at him right in his face Because what's he going to do? Raise her from the dead? Who is this guy? They laughed at him He made everybody leave the room

What did he do? Raise her from the dead But you see over and over again, the people of God who live for God will be slandered, will be mocked, ridiculed, and you know what? They're even mocked and ridiculed in the church In the church The psalmist says, when he was utterly derided, I turned to the law of God Where else is he going to go? He didn't say, when people mocked me and slandered me, I went home to my wife and cried on her shoulder He didn't do that When people mocked me and slandered me, I got on the phone and called my pastor He didn't do that He turned to the law of the Lord

Because that's where his comfort would come from That's what he knew would bring him the solace for his soul And that's what he did And so the psalmist says, the arrogant utterly deride me, yet I do not turn aside from thy law You see, it's easy for us just to forget about God and his word And say, you know, it's not worth it. I'm not going to go through all that Because satan wants you to compromise the truth, see? Doesn't want you to stand on the truth He wants you to compromise it It's a lot easier to compromise it than it is to stand on it

Because when you stand on it, you stand most of the time all alone All by yourself The psalmist says, I turned to the law of God. I would not turn away from it. I turned toward it Stayed true to it And I remembered thine ordinances from of old and I comfort myself Why that's so good. I love Psalm 77 The psalmist says, Thou hast held my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I have considered the days of old, the years of long ago. I will remember my song in the night. I will meditate with my heart and my spirit ponders

Will the Lord reject forever? And will he never be favorable again? Has his loving kindness ceased forever? Has his promise come to an end forever? Has God forgotten to be gracious or has he in anger withdrawn his compassion? Those are all questions the psalmist asks And then it says, Selah Now that is not a word you're supposed to speak because it's it's a word that means pause So he asks all these questions and then he rests or he pauses And then he says, Then I said it It is my grief that the right hand of the Most High is changed. I shall remember the deeds of the Lord

Surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate on all thy work and muse on thy deeds Thy way, O God, is holy What God is great like our God Thou art the God who worketh wonders Thou hast made known thy strength among the peoples Thou hast by thy power redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph And then there's another pause Selah He asks all these questions Has God forgotten us? Is God no longer gracious? Where is God? And then he remembers the word of the Lord How powerful is God is And then he can rest at ease knowing that his God is in complete control of all things

See, that's what God's word does when you when you don't turn from the law of God, but go to it amidst your affliction because that's where your comfort resides In the word, the life-giving word of God So the psalmist remembers the precepts of God amidst his conflict and amidst consternation, amidst the horrors of life Listen to what he says He says, verse 53, burning indignation has seized me because of the wicked who forsake thy law Amid his consternation, amid all of his dismay, amid all of his horror, there is burning indignation in him because people have forsaken the law of God

Folks, that's a good thing to have. I'm afraid that we are so so into what's happening in the world today that we no longer become angry at people who have forsaken the law of God But the psalmist had this burning indignation, this consternation, this horror, this amazement and astonishment and dismay over people who will not keep the word of the Lord, who turn their back on God And because of all that, listen to what he says This is so good He says, thy statutes are my songs in the house of my pilgrimage

Amid the consternation, amid all the horror he faces because people do not want to obey the law of God in his pilgrimage, in the house of his pilgrimage That's his soul That's his body He sees his body as the house of his pilgrimage He knows he's not going to be here forever He knows he's only passing through He knows that one day there's going to be a house in heaven where he will reside forever because that's where his citizenship is So he knows that in the pilgrimage of this house, the statutes of God are his songs He sings The man sings in his pilgrimage, the house of his pilgrimage

He sings songs because he knows that the songs that are centered around the statutes of God bring joy to his soul He sings the songs of God's word That's why in Ephesians chapter 5 verse number 18, when someone is filled with the spirit of God, they sing to one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in their heart to the Lord Someone whose spirit filled has a song in their heart Because they are singing the statutes of God They are controlled by the spirit of God They are controlled by the word of God and they sing those words in the house of their pilgrimage

This man, this psalmist, remembers precepts of God because God remembers his people And number three, the third point is this, God's people not only remember his precepts, but they remember his person His person Let's know what it says Oh Lord, I remember thy name Remember the word name in Hebrew Shem is a word that denotes character, nature Attributes Those who trust in the name of the Lord They are trusting not in a a title of God They are trusting in who God himself is And so he says these words Oh Lord, I remember thy name God remembers his word The psalmist remembers the precepts of God

And upon remembering the precepts of God, he remembers the person of God The name of God Oh Lord, I remember thy name His name. I was thinking about this this past week and thinking in my mind about the name of God because there's pardon in the name of God Matthew 1 21 You shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins There's pardon in the name of God There is peace in the name of God He is called Yahweh Shalom, the Lord our peace He is called the prince of peace And so when you remember the name of your God, you're remembering the God who is the prince of peace

You are remembering the God who pardons your sin The Bible says that he is called El Shaddai There is power in the name of God The Bible says in John I'm, sorry in first Corinthians 1 24 that Christ is the power of God So there's power in the name There is peace in his name There is pardon in his name There is protection in his name Yahweh Nisi, Jehovah my banner, my victorious one There is protection in his name Proverbs 18 says the name of the Lord is a strong tower The righteous run to it and are safe The Bible says that there is provision in his name

Genesis 22 talks about Yahweh Yireh, the Lord our provider God is the one who provides for his people The Bible says that there is praise in his name Psalm 8 verse number one Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth The psalmist says I remember your name That is I'm remembering who you are You see, is it not true that the word of God talks to us about who God is? And so when he remembers the precepts and goes back and studies them, he sees God in them

What did Christ indict the Pharisees for? You search the scriptures for in them you think that you have eternal life, but instead you have missed the fact that they speak of me They speak of me, the God who actually is the one who gives life And so when you when you read the Bible, how many times we told you and you read it and you don't see God, you didn't read it right The psalmist read it right He remembered the precepts and now he remembers the person of God himself because he saw his God in the word of God So the psalmist says I remembered your person When did he remember? In the night

In the night Oh Lord, I remember thy name in the night and keep thy law If you ever do a study about what happens at night in the Bible, let me give it to you real quick Psalm 9 there is terror in the night Isaiah 21 there is trouble in the night Psalm 22 there are tears in the night First Thessalonians 5 there is temptation in the night John 13 there is tragedy in the night But you also must realize that Daniel 2 says there is truth in the night And Job 35 says there is triumph in the night But the truth and the triumph only come when you remember the name of the Lord in the night

How many times do we awake in the middle of the night unable to go back to sleep? And God says you need to remember me Not just in the night but all the time Remember me, my name. I'm the God who pardons you from your sin. I'm the God who protects you through life. I am the God who provides for your every need. I'm the God of peace That's me That's the name of the Lord That's who I am And I want to provide all of that for you So the psalmist says I remember this person when? In the nights His nights are filled with the thoughts of God

What are your nights filled with? Tears? Tragedy? Temptation? Trouble? Trials? Or are they filled with truth and triumph? Because you remember the name of the Lord And then why? He says very clearly when I remember I keep the law This has become mine that I observe thy precepts See one thing about the comfort of God it always leads to a greater commitment to God The comfort of God always leads to a greater commitment to God Let me tell you something When you remember the name of God you cannot forget that you have been given a new name because of God. A new name

And not only a new name which in Revelation 2 speaks about the new identity of the believer but with that name comes the name that the Lord has on His robe the name of the city of Jerusalem God's city in the name of His God When we remember His name in the night we are reminded once again of the name that He has given to us because we are His children we are His servants and we follow Him and in that alone we receive the comfort of God realizing that we are His children servants of the living God

So the psalmist tells us that God's word comforts the conflicted it comforts those who are afflicted It comforts us amidst all of our troubles Why? Because God remembers His people Let's pray Our most gracious heavenly Father we thank You so much for Your faithfulness and we thank You Lord that in Your word we see You and through that we receive the comfort of the living God that brings peace to our souls

And I pray Lord that everyone in this room would receive that great peace that comes from God and the comfort of God because they are committed to never turn as a psalmist never did from Your law in Jesus name Amen.