God's Word: Laws for Life

Thank you for your word Thank you for Psalm 119 and all the lessons you've taught us May we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ our Lord We pray in Jesus name Amen Psalm 119, Psalm 119 verse number 169 We find ourselves at the end of this great chapter This chapter that teaches us so much about God's Word and how it is the answer to all things in life We began in Psalm 119 verse number 1 where God's Word is the basis for all blessing The basis for all blessing it comes from God's Word We end with God's Word being those crucial laws for your life and for mine

And in between we saw how God's Word was a shield for our safety How God's Word gives peace for those who are persecuted How God's Word comforts those who are conflicted How God's Word is that shield of safety to those of us who need to be protected And on and on it goes as the psalmist explains to us how important God's Word is in our lives. I've come to the conclusion that very few Christians believe in the importance of God's Word for their life Oh, they have a Bible They'll bring it to church They might even read it throughout the week every once in a while

But they don't see the value of God's Word for their lives It's really sad And I talk to people. I even talk to pastors and in their churches and the people that they they work with on a regular basis And it's really sad to see how people devalue the Word of God in their lives My whole life is built around the importance and the treasure and the value of God's great Holy Word that is the answer for all things in your life and mine Because it tells me about my God Helps me understand who he is And when I see him, I understand me, but I need to see him first

And so the Word of God opens up to us everything we need to know for life and godliness And yet so many Christians really don't care about the time they spend in God's Word And yet we need the Word of God in our lives And so tonight I want to give you what the psalmist gives Almost like a summation of all of Psalm 119 in this last section This 22nd section You know, think about it What have you learned over the last 22 weeks? Really it's 26 weeks because we had a four-week introduction to Psalm 119 on the sufficiency and the supremacy of God's Word in your life and mine

So we've had 26 weeks and I wonder if you were to reflect back on Psalm 119 What was it that stuck out most in your mind? What verse spoke most clearly and loudly to you? You know as I go back and I review Psalm 119, for me there's always something sad about the conclusion of a book or a chapter that we've studied such as something like this Whenever I come to the end of a study of a book, we're in Luke now, we got years to go before we finish that, but you know, whenever we come to the end it's almost like, oh wow, I can't believe it's over

And then I anticipate the start of something new to see what it is God is going to teach us through another portion of His Word Now we've come to the end of Psalm 119 What God's Word says about His own very Word How He explains to us through the psalmist and all of his experiences the importance of the Word of God in his life And I trust you've learned many valuable lessons that will lead you every day of your life Tonight, I want to give you five of them Five key principles, five what I will call laws for life

You know, when we look at the laws of Scripture, we know that God's Word is not burdensome to our hearts John tells us that in 1 John chapter 5 that the commandments of God are not burdensome They don't weigh us down They are the delight of our soul These laws govern our lives If you can embed them into your heart and mind, then your life tomorrow and the succeeding days will be better than the previous days There are five principles that will help you understand the importance of God's Word for your life and what you need to do every single moment of every day

So the psalmist kind of sums up the whole chapter in this last section of Psalm 119 Let's do as we always have. I'll read the odd verses, you read the even verses Psalm 119 verse 169 Let my cry come before thee, O Lord Give me understanding according to thy word Let my lips utter praise, for thou dost teach me thy statutes Let thy hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen thy precepts. I no longer fear salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight

Let my soul live, that it may praise thee, and let thine ordinances help me. I am prostrated like a lost sheep, seek your servants, for I do not forgive your commandments Principle number one Here it is Ready? You need to desire God Desire the person of God That's number one And that is seen in the psalmist's cry for help That is seen in the psalmist's concern for understanding It is seen in the psalmist's confidence in God's delivering power You need to desire God Everything about him He needs to be your heart's desire The psalmist says this Let my cry come before thee, O Lord

He says, let my supplication come before thee You know, when you desire God, you cry out to God The psalmist has already said over in verse number 145, I cried with all my heart, answer me, O Lord, I will observe thy statutes Verse 146. I cried to thee, save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies. I rise before dawn and cry for help When you desire the Lord, when you desire God, you cry out to him to help you You long for him to come to meet you where you are When you desire God, you want him so much, you can't help but cry out to him

You know, prayer is something that we don't do as Christians as we ought to do We know we give a little ditty in the morning when we get up, and a little ditty at night when we go to bed, and we think that we've done a good service for God We think God's happy with us, that we gave him five minutes in the morning, and five minutes at night he ought to be happy And we think that we're pretty good spiritually because we got up in the morning and prayed for five minutes, and then we go to bed and we're half asleep and give him five more minutes

But you know, the essence of your spiritual life is determined by the length of your time on your knees To be long with God is to be strong for God To be short with God provides many, many problems for us Are you long with God? Do you desire God? I have come to realize that when I desire something, I want to spend time doing that something When I desire God, I want to spend time with God. I want to be with him. I want to honor him. I want to glorify his name In the psalmist, he would cry out to God He would long for God He spent time asking God many things

You know, if you were to hand in your checkbook and calendar, I could tell you everything about your life you need to know Just give me your calendar and your checkbook That's all I need And I can tell you about your character. I can tell you about what's important to you. I can tell you more about your life than you ever dreamed of, just by looking at your checkbook and your calendar, where you spend your time and how you spend your money Those two things determine what is important to you In the psalmist, he desired God He cried out to him

He was longing for a relationship with the living God He wanted God to answer him He wanted God to give him understanding And that's where we understand we are concerned about God He wants to understand the word of God When you desire God, you long to understand what God has to say And this is throughout the psalm Look back at Psalm 119, verse number 27 It says this, Make me understand the way of thy precepts, so I will meditate on thy wonders And then over in verse number 34, Give me understanding that I may observe thy law and keep it with all my heart

Verse number 73, Thy hands made me and fashioned me Give me understanding that I may learn thy commandments Verse number 99 says it this way, I have more insight than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I have observed thy precepts Verse 104 says, From thy precepts I get understanding And then over in verse number 125, It says this, I am thy servant Give me understanding that I may know thy testimonies And then verse number 130 says it this way, The unfolding of thy words gives light But it gives understanding to the simple

Verse 144, Thy testimonies are righteous forever Give me understanding that I may live You see, he had this constant desire to understand the word You know, we can know a lot about the Bible We can, I mean, read the psalmist. I mean, he knew the Bible He meditated upon the word of God He memorized God's word He could recite verses for you He knew about the character and nature of God And we can know by accumulating all kinds of information about God But we need to understand God so that we can relate it to our life and how we live every day

That's why the psalmist said, Give me understanding, because if you do, I will live Verse 144, I want to live. I want to live in a world where I am able to make an impact, where I'm able to understand who you are, God, what you have for me And the psalmist has that same cry at the end Lord, give me understanding according to your word. I need to understand everything in life according to the word of God To run everything through the grid of Scripture so that I can clearly understand what's happening in life So, you understand his desire because he cried out to God

You understand his desire because of his concern about understanding the word of God And you understand his desire because he had confidence in God to deliver him Listen to what he says He says, Deliver me according to thy word Deliver me according to thy word Do you believe that God can deliver you from any problem? Do you believe that God can deliver you from any sinful habit? The psalmist believed in the rescuing power of God to deliver him from whatever was in his life Ask people about how it is they experience the delivering power of God Listen, folks

If God can deliver us from the kingdom of darkness and transfer us into the kingdom of light, then God can deliver me from any sinful habit that I have. I believe that with all my heart If I have a problem with alcohol, God can deliver me God can deliver you If I have a problem with lying and deceit and hypocrisy, God can deliver you If I have a problem with pornography, God can deliver me God can deliver you from anything So, you got to ask yourself, why is it some people aren't delivered? If God can do that, why doesn't God do it? Let's take smoking, for instance

There's no verse in the Bible that says you can't smoke, right? Some people say, well, you know, smoking, I got a nervous habit, so I smoke And you got one guy over here, and he prays and he seeks God, and he's delivered from smoking He's gained victory And you got a guy over here who says, well, I just can't gain that victory. I just can't stop smoking Why is it one can and one can't? Is God able to deliver all people from any problem that they have? If it's a habit, if it's a sinful habit, can God deliver them? Of course He can

But the question comes, do you desire God? I am convinced that whatever you desire to do controls your life If you desire God, God controls your life If you desire something else other than God, that will control your life. I'm convinced of that In fact, the psalmist said it this way, this one thing I desire, Psalm 27, verse number four, this one thing I desire, and I will seek So whatever I desire will govern what I seek This one thing I desire, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, that I may behold the beauty of the Lord

The psalmist said I had this one desire One desire And because I had this desire, I will seek after that desire That I may dwell in the house of the Lord, that I might behold the beauty of the Lord all the days of my life That was his desire The psalmist in Psalm 119 had a desire for God to deliver him from any situation, any problem that he was in, and he believed and had confidence that God could do it The Bible says when we, in Hebrews, we need to approach the throne of grace with boldness, with confidence Why? That we might ask God for grace to help in time of need

God wants to bestow the strength of his grace in our lives to help us during our time of need There are a lot of people who just don't want to have a solution to their problem They want to live where they're at They're not that concerned about what it is they want to do The Bible says over in Psalm 73 these words, Whom have I in heaven but thee? And besides thee I desire nothing on earth My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever

The psalmist came to the conclusion in Psalm 73 after looking at the wicked and realizing that they are prospering and then he goes to the house of God and when he goes to the house of God he gains perspective on the wicked and their destination and realizes that they will die in their sin And he realizes that he has experienced the mercy of God and so he says there's one thing on this earth I desire and that is my God Just one thing

What do you desire? Do you desire God more than anything? Do you want Him more than anything? Do you pant for God? Do you long for a relationship with the living God? Is that the priority in your life? Because if it's not, you're not going to gain any kind of strength to overcome sinful problems Went to the doctor this past week. I go to the doctor and say, Mr Sparks, just hop on the scale there Sure So I hop on the scale She says, oh Mr Sparks, you've gained a little bit of weight No joke How'd you figure that out? Well, you're about six pounds heavier than you were last time you were in

And you know, in the office they have all these signs One out of three children in America are clinically obese Did you know that? One out of three So I'm looking at this information and the information is saying the number one problem in America that receives more attention than any other problem in America is the problem of people being overweight Did you know that? I'm looking at the material. I'm thinking, are you kidding me? But that's what the problem is So I go stand on the scale She goes, oh Mr Sparks, you've put on a few pounds Yeah, okay So there's some kind of pill

There's some kind of program There's some kind of physician There's something that says, you need to lose weight so this is how you're going to do it So the question comes back to me and I'm thinking about this Can God deliver me so that I can lose weight? Do I believe that? Yeah, stop eating That always works, doesn't it? But you know, think about it Think about it You can talk to people Some guy says, well, yeah, I'm having a problem with pornography Oh, that's so bad Then you start talking about people and losing weight Well, now you're meddling You're meddling You're too close to home

But can God deliver you from any habit? See, I believe He can and I believe God's Word is powerful enough to do that. I really truly believe Most people, they don't believe that They don't think that God's Word God's Word can save their soul from hell but can't help them with their smoking habit their drinking habit, their drug addiction whatever it is, God can't help them with that Really? A psalmist all he could say was Lord, deliver me according to your Word In whatever situation I encounter Lord, I need you to deliver me You see, he desired God

Ephesians 2 verse number 3 says very clearly that when we were in our unbelieving state we fulfilled the desires of our flesh We did Whatever our fleshy desires were, we sought to fulfill them Well, when you become a Christian those fleshy desires begin to subside and you begin to have a desire for God and a hunger for God and a longing for God that you might seek his face and honor him, seek his word and glorify his name The psalmist said Psalm 37 trust in the Lord, do good dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness, delight yourself in the Lord, he will give you the desires of your heart

Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in him he will do it, he will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noon day rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him do not fret because of him who prospers in the way Delight yourself in the Lord, he will give you the desires of your heart You see, there is desires in our heart What are our desires? Well, if we delight ourselves in God and he becomes our soul desire, then our desires become his desires and God will fulfill those in our hearts and lives

But you know, the psalmist he was, he desired God so much, he would cry to him continually That's all throughout Psalm 119 It's all throughout the psalms themselves Excuse me And not only would he cry to God, he was concerned that God would give him understanding according to his word He wanted to know more than just having a whole bunch of facts about God He wanted to understand the word of God as it related to his life And he was confident that God could deliver him from any situation he found himself in Are you that way? That's somebody who desires God

Who is so committed to God, so sold out to God, that he will trust in the Lord, he will commit his way into the Lord, he will delight himself in the Lord, he will rest in the Lord, because he is all about God That's law number one Law number two is declare the praises of God Desire the person of God, and number two, declare the praises of God Back to Psalm 119 The text reads as follows Let my lips utter praise for thou dost teach me thy statutes Let my tongue sing of thy word, for all thy commandments are righteous The word utter means to boil over

There is something in you that's uncontainable, and that is praise for God The laws for life are declare the praises of God To sing He says, let my lips, let my tongue sing You know, for the tongue to sing, excuse me, the heart must be right Because Christ said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks So what's ever on the inside comes out on the outside We need to remember that People who are praising God are the kind of people who have a heart that is committed to God, and wants to sing of his wonderful nature and character And the Bible speaks a lot about praise

The Psalms, all 150 chapters, are all about, all about praise and worship And it's Israel's praise book, it's Israel's worship book Well, we serve the same God Israel serves, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob And this should be our praise book as well But we have forgotten about the importance of praise in our lives We have forgotten to praise God with our lips, with our tongues, to sing of the word of the Lord And the psalmist, well, he was concerned that somehow his lips would boil over with praise because of who God is He says, when you teach me, Lord, your statutes, that's the way I am

You know, I went to Bible college, and I went to seminary, and I learned many great things from many great men And it caused me to praise the Lord But when I sit down and I begin to study on my own and ask the Spirit of God to teach me, it gets me so much more excited about God, that I want to praise Him. I want to glorify His name The psalmist said, Lord, thou dost teach me thy statutes God, you're teaching me And so my lips want to utter praise to you

My tongue wants to sing of thy word. I want to sing the words of God. I want to sing those words in such a way that others will know that I love the Lord God You know, for the most of us, praise is not a priority It should be It's just not Listen, if you desire God, if you desire the person of God Himself, you will declare the praises of God If you're not a person who likes to praise God, it's probably because down deep you're not desiring Him

Because once you desire Him, and you see Him for who He is, and you long to be with Him, you cry out to Him, you're concerned that He gives you understanding, your confidence in the fact that He will deliver you, you can't help but praise Him You just bubble over with praise Well, that was the psalmist He was bubbling over with praise to God But think about your life

Are you the kind of person who loves to praise the Lord God? You know, sometimes, you know, we gather together to sing, whether it's Wednesday nights or Sunday mornings, you know, we don't like to sing very loud for fear of what people might, next to us, might think about how we sound You know, you're not singing to them You're singing to God You know, we can't get people to say even a praise-a-lujah or anything, a holy grunt during the services for fear of what people might think about them speaking out during the service Thank you Thank you And yet, we need to be people of praise

Let me tell you something about praise Praise escorts you into the divine presence of God Did you know that? Praise escorts you into the divine presence of God Listen to what the psalmist said Psalm 100, verse number 1 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth Serve the Lord with gladness Come before Him with joyful singing Verse 4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise Give thanks to Him Bless His name How are you to enter His courts? How are you to enter His gates? With praise and thanksgiving Praise escorts us into the divine presence of God Listen to this

Psalm 50, verse number 23 says, Whoso offereth praise glorifies me Whoever offers praise glorifies my name Honors me And I'm convinced that, for the most part, we want to glorify ourselves We want to honor ourselves, so we can't spend time offering praise to God because we're thinking about ourselves And the Bible says, if you offer praise, then you're going to glorify my name The Bible says over in Hebrews chapter 13, verse number 15, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of our lips that give thanks to His name, for with such sacrifices God is pleased

Psalm 22, 3 says that God inhabits the praises of His people The praises of His people Praise escorts us into the divine presence of God Praise is that which encompasses us with the divine protection of God Praise is that one element that encompasses us with the divine protection of God Psalm 18, Psalm 18, verse number 1 says, I love Thee, O Lord, my God, my strength The Lord is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the hoard of my salvation, my stronghold Nine times He says, my Nine times

God's my rock, God's my shield, God's my stronghold, God's my refuge. I love you, Lord. I love you When's the last time we told the Lord you loved Him? The psalmist says, I love you And then he says, I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies The psalmist says that praise encompasses me with divine protection You need God's protection? Just start praising His name Why? Because He's your rock He's your refuge He's your stronghold He's your deliverer He is your salvation

He's all those things and more, and so the psalmist says, because you're all these things, Lord, I love you because you're, I'm just going to praise your name. I'm going to praise your name And so it encompasses us with divine protection Praise elevates us to the divine perspective Did you know that? Praise elevates us to the divine perspective You start to praise God, you get a divine perspective of events That's why the Bible says over in Ephesians chapter 5, verse number 20, give thanks for all things. 1 Thessalonians 5 18 says, give thanks in all things

We'd have praised His name for all things We'd have praised His name in the midst of all things Habakkuk was that kind of person who needed a divine perspective because God said He was going to send the wicked Chaldeans to destroy His people And Habakkuk said, that doesn't make sense. I don't understand why you would use the most wicked, vile people on the face of the earth to come in and destroy your people But this doesn't make sense And then he began to look at God in a different light He began to praise God for His works And as he did, a whole new perspective opened up to him Listen

The word for praise in the Hebrew is a word that means Barak The word to create is Barak It's interesting that they are so similar because those who praise, praise the Creator for His creation And it elevates you to a divine perspective To see things from God's point of view Listen, if you're having a hard time understanding what's happening in your life, just start praising God And God will give you His perspective He'll give you a divine perspective like He did Habakkuk over in Luke 17

Remember the 10 lepers that were healed and one came back and gave thanks to God and praised Him? He was the one who had a different perspective than everybody else did He was the one who got saved He was the one who was born again All 10 were healed but only one had a soul healing And that was the one who came and praised His God because he was elevated to a divine perspective Job Job didn't understand what's happening to his life but he never cursed God He praised God He blessed God And the book of Job is about a man who began to understand the divine perspective of God

Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him So praise is that which escorts us into the divine presence of God Praise is that which encompasses us with the divine protection of God Praise is that which elevates us to the divine perspective of God And praise is that which enables us through the divine power of God Read about Paul and Silas in Acts 16 They were there in prison as they began to sing praises to God There was an earthquake and the doors opened

The chains fell off because there's something about praise that infuses you and enables you to experience the divine power of God unlike at any other time in your life Listen, when you go through times of hardship and difficulty, you need to get on your knees and start praising God Because the Bible says this is the will of God for you that you give thanks in all things That's God's will for you You don't do that, you don't do the will of God You don't do the will of God, you won't have the power of God to get you through the difficulties

But you do what God says and all of a sudden, everything begins to change perspective You see it from His perspective And you experience His power Praise, number five, is that which envelops us in divine peace Be anxious for nothing, Philippians 4 But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made unto God and the peace of God which passes all understanding shall guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord Oh boy, it envelops you with divine peace That's what praise does Praise is the priority of the believer

Praise should be characteristic of our life We should be characterized by the fact that we're praising kind of people And the psalmist says oh, my lips can't contain my praise They're overflowing with praise because of what you've taught me And my tongue wants to sing He goes on to say this, listen to this one, down in verse number 175, Psalm 119 Let my soul live that it may praise thee. I want to live Lord for one reason So I can praise your name How many people have that kind of perspective that you know? Let me live tomorrow so I can praise your name

Let me live this week so I can praise your name Let me live Lord so I can offer a praise to you. I want to declare the praises of God Folks, that's how we should live our lives Desiring the person of God, declaring the praises of God in number three, depending on the power of God Depending on the power of God Psalm 119 verse 173 says, let thy hand be ready to help me for I have chosen thy precepts Verse 175, let my soul live that it may praise thee and let thine ordinances help me He asks for God's ordinances to help him He asks for God's judgments to help him

He asks for God's hand to help him Now God doesn't have a hand God's spirit, right? John 4 24 God is spirit God doesn't have a hand God doesn't need a hand Doesn't have an arm And yet the Bible uses terminology like that to show us the strength of God, to show us to speak of God in human terms so we better have an understanding of how he assists us, protects us, and helps us Lord let your hand help me You see, we need to depend upon the power of God We need to walk dependantly every day Walk in the spirit so we don't fulfill the lust of the flesh Peter had to learn to walk dependantly

He was an independent man, but he learned to walk dependantly upon God All of us need to learn to do that We need to walk leaning upon God We need his hand to help us We need his ordinances, his judgments, his word to protect us We need that And the psalmist was concerned that God would take care of him You know, the Bible says in Deuteronomy 6 24 God said through Moses listen, the words that I'm giving you this day, these words are for your survival in the land of Israel This is for your survival You can't make it without these words. I did a whole series, I think it's on the radio now

The survival of the American family based on the Ten Commandments Based on Deuteronomy And based on the book of Exodus The survival of the American family God said these words are for your good and for your survival in the land of Canaan If you want to survive in today's society you've got to have the word of God You can't make it without it You can't And the psalmist knows that He says, Lord I need your ordinances to help me. I need your hand to help me. I need you Lord. I am dependent upon you every moment of every day. I can't make it

You know, when was the last time you cried out to God and said, Lord, I cannot handle my finances. I need you to handle them for me Lord, I can't handle my kids. I need you to handle them for me Lord, I can't handle my wife or my husband. I can't handle the problems I'm facing. I can't handle, Lord. I'm done trying to work it out Lord, you've got to handle it. I need your hand to help me. I need your word to guide me because I can't do it myself Lord, I need you See, God wants us at that place where we learn to walk dependently upon him every single day

That we walk in the spirit so we don't fulfill the lust of the flesh So that we lean upon him every single moment of the day And you know one of the issues Remember that story in Mark 9? I'll talk a little bit about it on Sunday where Peter, James, and John were up on the Mount of Transfiguration The other disciples were down in the valley and they were in the city and a man came to him and asked the disciples to cast the demon out of his boy and the disciples couldn't do it Remember that story? Jesus comes down and says Oh, you unbelieving generation, bring it to me Christ casts out the demon

And the disciples are just befuddled, man They're bewildered They don't understand it because they haven't been given power to do that kind of thing And so they go off into a house and they get into the room of a house and they say Jesus, come over here Come here How is it you could do that and we couldn't do that? How is it that you were able to do something that you gave us power to do and we couldn't do it? How'd you do that? How come we couldn't? And Christ says Don't you know these things only come out by prayer? The whole essence of dependence upon the Lord God of the universe

You can't begin to do ministry in the energy of the flesh You can't do a spiritual work in the flesh And that's what they were trying to do You can't do a spiritual work for the kingdom of God in your family, your church, your work, your own personal life in the energy of the flesh That's why Paul said to the Galatians, the Galatians say Oh, you foolish Galatians You foolish people

How is it you began in the spirit and are now trying to be perfected in the flesh? How is it that which was a spiritual work by the spirit of God, a transforming work of the power of God, now you're trying to live your life outside of that power and to accomplish great things for God It just can't happen Same thing Christ told the apostles in Mark chapter 9 The psalmist says I need your hand to help me Lord. I need your ordinances to guide me, to strengthen me, to watch over me because I can't do it So, law number one, desire the person of God more than anything else, desire him

Number two, declare the praises of God Number three, depend on the power of God Number four, delight in the promises of God The psalmist said, I long for thy salvation oh Lord and thy law is my delight Thy law is my delight All throughout Psalm 119 he speaks about the delight of God in his life, in his word Psalm 119 verse number 14 says this, I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches Verse 16, I shall delight in thy statutes, I shall not forget thy word Verse 24, thy testimonies also are my delight, they are my counselors

Verse number 35, make me walk in the path of thy commandments for I delight in it Verse 77, may thy compassion come to me that I may live for thy law is my delight And over and over again the psalmist says, I delight in the word of God Listen, we need to delight in the promises of God These things that God has given to us, his word, his promises, are those things that give us life And man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God The psalmist said, Lord, I long for thy salvation

Listen, you know what? When you delight in God, in the promises of God, you long for your salvation Not that, the psalmist is saved, he's for all practical sense, a Christian, as we would explain, a Christian He loves the Lord, he's committed to God, he understands the righteousness of God, he is a born-again individual, and he is longing for the salvation of God You see, our salvation is not yet complete, is it? There's a glorification of our lives, and God is going to make sure that all happens, but the psalmist had a longing for his salvation

He had a longing for the completion of his life that is with God He looked, as Paul would tell Titus in Titus 2, looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ There's that hope of salvation He said it earlier, verse 166, I hope for thy salvation, O Lord, I hope for thy salvation It's all about God, he delights so much in God, he can't wait to see Him He can't wait to see Him, and I'm convinced that's the highest mark of the Christian, he can't wait to see God face-to-face

That's why the Christian doesn't fear death, because he can't wait to be with God He knows that death is a doorway to his ultimate destiny, and so he can't wait to see God, and the psalmist says, I long for your salvation, and I delight in your law And that's the way we, as Christians, need to be We need to delight in the promises of God's Holy Word Why? Because they bring us into a deeper relationship with the living God How many people do you know that truly delight in the Word of God? That the law is their delight? You know, we always do what we want to do

You ever notice that? You say, well, I don't Yes, you do If you want to do it, you do it And if you want to delight in the law of God, you're going to delight in the law of God It's going to become the essence of your life Over in Psalm 71, the psalmist said these words Psalm 71 He says, In thee, O Lord, I have taken refuge Let me never be ashamed In thy righteousness deliver me and rescue me Incline thine ear to me and save me Be thou to me a rock of habitation to which I may continually come Thou hast given commandment to save me For thou art my rock and my fortress

Rescue me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the grasp of the wrongdoer and the ruthless man For thou art my hope, O Lord God Thou art my confidence from my youth By thee I have been sustained from my birth Thou art he who took me from my mother's womb My praise is continually of thee. I have become a marvel to many For thou art my strong refuge People marvel because, God, you're my refuge You're my strength You're my salvation See? When God is your salvation, you are delighted in God so much that when people see you, they marvel at all that you are

Why? Because God is your strength, your stronghold, your refuge, your deliverer, your rescuer, your rock, your fortress That's who he is So, law number one, make sure that you desire the person of God Number two, declare the praises of God Number three, depend on the power of God Number four, delight in the promises of God And number five, do not forget the precepts of God Do not forget them Listen to 176. I have gone astray like a lost sheep Seek thy servant, for I do not forget thy commandments Isn't that kind of a weird way to end this whole psalm? I have gone astray like a lost sheep

Wait a minute, this guy, I mean, he's a pillar of Christian character, man This guy, he's solid in the word, and now he says, I've gone astray like a lost sheep Seek thy servant, for I do not forget thy commandments Why is it he ends that way? Because he understands the frailty of his life The Bible says, all we like sheep have gone astray Each has turned to its own way And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all You see, we know that our Lord is the seeker of man We know that And yet, he still sees himself as a sheep

In the land of Israel, it's kind of neat because, you know, we go and there are different shepherds there, and they have with them sheep And you stop by little marketplaces and there are some shepherds with sheep and sometimes they'll stop and talk to you, and it's interesting that when they stop to talk to you, the sheep, they just begin to kind of wander off You know? And they don't come back You've got to go get them You've got to go get them You see, you know, he didn't say, he didn't say, I have gone astray like a lost dog Because, you see, dogs find their way home

Dogs are smart enough to get back home Sheep can't They're just too dumb And they just tend to wander off He knows the nature of man to kind of wander off and just kind of do your own thing He knows that And so, it's a confession on his part. I've gone astray like a lost sheep And here was a guy who, man, you read Psalm 119, this guy, man, is on fire for God He loves the law of God He delights in the law of God He's committed to the law of God Everything is about the word of God in his life Every verse contains something about the word of God All 176 verses

And so, here's a guy who is committed to God in his word He says, you know what? I've gone astray like a lost sheep You know, I've kind of realized that the deeper you walk with God, the longer you walk with God, the more mature you are, the more sensitive you are to the way you sin And that's the way the psalmist was Out of humility, he understands because I think within the notion of God's mind, I don't claim to know the mind of God, but this is inspired word God wants us to know that we can memorize God's word, meditate upon God's word, study God's word, love the law of God

There's always that inclination to begin to stray and to walk away There is Look at your life Look at my life And there are times that those things happen We're not always on fire for God We're not always delighting in the law of God We get involved in sin and sinful habits and we begin, and the psalmist knows that He says, I've gone astray like a lost sheep And he says, seek thy servant He didn't say, seek the sheep He says, seek the servant because you're the master and I'm the slave and I want you to come after me, God He knows if God doesn't come after him, there's no hope for him

But God will always come after the sheep That's the way he is He came to seek and to save that which is lost He is the shepherd of your soul He is the seeker of man God will go after you He is asking God, Lord as I go through life, I'm going to stray Just like a sheep. I need you to hunt me down and bring me back Here's his resolve For I do not forget the commandments of God What a way to end. I'm not going to forget the commandments of God Do you know how many times he spoke those words? In Psalm 119 He kept saying, verse number 16 He said it this way

Psalm 119, verse number 16. I shall not forget thy word Verse number 61 He said it this way The cords of the wicked have encircled me, but I have not forgotten thy law And then over in verse number 83, he says, though I have become like wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget thy statutes Verse number 93. I will never forget thy precepts, for by them thou hast revived me Verse 109 He says, my life is continually in my hand, yet I do not forget thy law Verse number 141 He says, I am small and despised, yet I do not forget thy precepts And then verse 153

Look upon my affliction and rescue me, for I do not forget thy law And then he concludes by saying those same words, for I do not forget thy commandments Now I want you to think about that in your life Some of you have been here for 22 consecutive weeks as we've gone through Psalm 119 How much have you forgotten about what God has said? You can't afford to forget You know, God never forgets you, does he? Can a nursing mother forget her children? Psalm Isaiah says, yet I will never forget you, says the Lord He never forgets you

And yet we find ourselves forgetting and not remembering about our God And you read through Psalm 119, and you read Psalm 119 verse number 52, verse number 55, verse number 76, verse number 93, verse number 109 to 112, and you realize that when you remember God and don't forget him, he always brings comfort Always And you read through Psalm 119, you realize in verse number 61, verse number 153, verse number 141, that when God is not forgotten and his precepts are remembered, you always have courage Comfort and courage always come to those who do not forget the law of God

And Job said in Job chapter 8 verse number 13 that those who forget God wither They just wither They don't last And I think about this, and I think about how the psalmist ended this great and wonderful chapter with this resolve, I will not forget your commandments You know, wouldn't it be good if you were to look at your own life and in your own personal quiet time with the Lord, make that same resolve God, I will not forget your commandments Now, he says that knowing he's like a sheep that tends astray

But in his heart and mind there was this resolve that says Lord, I want to remember everything you say. I really do. I don't want to forget And this is a great lead-in to next week To let you know that as we go into next week and we talk about how to retain what we read, how we can begin to hold on and grasp those things so we don't forget Because we need to stand strong We need courage We need comfort And God promises that those who do not forget my word will have that which they need whenever they need it And thus we end Psalm 119, the great study of God's word on God's word

And the importance of God's word in your life and in mine And I trust that you have learned so many things that you will not forget the law of God Let's pray Father, we thank you for tonight and the opportunity we had to study your great and glorious word What a joy it is to know that with you comes peace and joy And I pray, Father, that we would be the kind of people who truly do depend upon the power of God because we truly desire to declare the praise of God. I pray that Lord, we would constantly remember all that you've said That we would be ever mindful of your presence in our lives

That we would hunger and thirst for the word of God all the days of our lives We'd long for the salvation of God to rescue and to deliver us from this present world That we might go home one day to be with you And when we see you, we'll be like you for we'll see you exactly as you are Until that day, Lord, may we have that same resolve as a psalmist to not forget the commandments of God In Jesus' name we pray Amen.