‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort,
who comforts us in all our troubles,
so that we can comfort those in any trouble
with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.’
2 Corinthians 1:3,4
Psalm 119. 65-88
Once there was a King who had a close friend with whom he grew up.
The friend had a habit
of looking at every situation that ever occurred in his life (positive or negative)
and remarking, "This is good!"
One day the king and his friend went hunting.
The friend would load and prepare the guns for the king
but he must have made a mistake
for when the king fired the gun his thumb was blown off.
Examining the situation the friend remarked as usual, "This is good!"
To which the king replied, "No, this is NOT good!" and sent his friend to jail.
About a year later, the king was hunting in a dangerous area.
Cannibals captured him and took him to their village.
They tied his hands, stacked some wood, set up a stake and bound him to it.
As they approached to set fire to the wood,
they noticed that the king was missing a thumb.
They had a superstition that they never ate anyone that was less than whole.
So they let the King go.
As he returned home, he was reminded of the event that had taken his thumb
and felt remorse for his treatment of his friend. He went immediately to the jail.
“You were right," he said, "it was good that my thumb was blown off."
"And I am very sorry for sending you to jail for so long.
It was bad for me to do this."
"No," his friend replied, "This is good!"
"What do you mean, 'This is good'?
How could it be good that I sent my friend to jail for a year?"
"If I had NOT been in jail, I would have been with you."
A sort of illustration of Psalm 119.71
71 ‘It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.’
‘Good’ is a key word in this part of Psalm 119
65 ‘Do good to your servant according to your word, O LORD. ‘
68 You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees.
‘Afflicted’ is another key word.
67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.
And these two key words are linked:
71 It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.
This is the first time in the psalm that we have the word ‘afflicted’
but it is clearly part of the writer’s experience as he walks with God.
He did not live on a continual spiritual high and neither can we.
82 My eyes fail, looking for your promise; I say, When will you comfort me?
And the next verse has a vivid picture of ‘a wineskin in the smoke‘.
The leather bags that held wine were stored
hanging from the roof above the fire.
If they were forgotten about, they dried out and cracked
and no doubt the wine would have a smoky flavour.
This man is crying out to God:
‘I don’t want to be a cracked smoky wineskin.
Why do I have to wait for you to help me?
Why are you hanging me out to dry?
Yet he says, it was good for me to be afflicted …
How often would you hear someone say that today?
When people are afflicted, when they suffer they make a fuss.
They demand compensation, remedies
they don’t say It was good for me to be afflicted.
It is not a very congenial thing to say in our time.
We don’t do affliction. People don’t want to suffer.
THERE ARE FEW QUICK FIXES FOR AFFLICTION
We like instant results, quick fixes, continual pleasure.
Please don’t tell me we have to wait.
Please don’t tell me I shall have to suffer.
Perhaps because there are so many pain killers for pain in our bodies
we think that there should be instant pain relief
for our minds and souls as well.
That approach affects Christianity also.
People would like and we would like Christianity to be a bit easier.
But it isn’t easy.
There can be times when God is wonderfully near and his love is sweet.
Times when prayer is answered as we hoped
and more wonderfully than we thought.
We should thank God for those good times of blessing
but we should remember that they are gifts to us, not ours by right.
But there are also times when faith is hard, when God seems far away
and we go through one difficulty after another.
The Bible says such times are also good.
When people come and talk to me about church membership
as well as discussing things about God and Jesus as you would expect
this is an area which increasingly I want to put before them:
how will they cope with suffering.
It’s important that they understand
that Christian commitment will not be roses all the way
that we need to learn not to quit but to keep going.
It’s important in our witness if nothing else.
Non Christians observe how we cope with difficulty.
Do we complain? They complain - have we a different reaction?
Do we give up? They give up, but they will be intrigued if we don’t.
Will we get bitter or better?
If we react just the same as anyone else,
they will not be intrigued and not be impressed
and conclude that Christianity is not worth looking into further
because it doesn’t seem to make any difference to our lives.
But if we can say in any sense that it was good for me to be afflicted …
TO BE TRUE TO Jesus WILL MAKE YOU LIABLE TO AFFLICTION
Let me give you an example of someone some you know.
Stephen was a chief’s son in an African country.
His father had gone back to the old tribal practices
but Stephen had committed to Jesus.
When his father died people expected that Stephen would follow the tradition
of seeking to father a child by several of the women of the tribe.
Happily married himself and committed to Jesus
he refused to follow this corrupt practice.
Result? A long period of affliction.
Rejection, threats, flight, seeking asylum in this country
a long depressing episode,
where I do not believe their case was always handled justly.
Thankfully they now have a settled, fulfilled future in this country.
The affliction which arose from loyalty to Jesus did end,
but not quickly, not easily.
To be true to Jesus will make you liable to affliction.
SOMETIMES WE DESERVE OUR AFFLICTION.
A sad story about a certain Presbyterian minister visiting Brazil.
He was taken to a pizza restaurant to sample the Brazilian approach to pizza.
Piece after piece of different flavours
and sometimes for variation a rich lasagna or spaghetti bolognese
And then the sweet pizzas, chocolate, banana, cinnamom.
Perhaps sample is not the right word for what he ate that evening.
Maybe you can guess how this story ends.
By the morning he was afflicted. And it was his own fault.
Though he felt very sorry for himself he only had himself to blame
and hopefully he has learned something from that affliction
- even a night running to the toilet and a day on bread and water can be good.
SOMETIMES WE ARE TESTED BY UNDESERVED AFFLICTION
We can think of many examples in this category.
I simply think of a friend in England who is to hear this week
whether he is able for another course of chemotherapy.
It wasn’t through over eating or a careless lifestyle or immoral behaviour -
that this dark shadow hangs over
a man devoted to Christian ministry and to his loving family.
What shall we say to such a family?
This is where the quick fix approach totally breaks down.
This where we need the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom and gentleness
so that we know what to say and what not to say
when to speak and when to keep quiet and maybe just touch and hug.
But in all these cases we want to come to a place where we say
it was good for me to be afflicted that I may learn your decrees
God’s WORD WILL HELP US IN OUR AFFLICTION
What helps the person suffering for being true to Jesus?
As well as prayer and encouragement
the sense from God’s word that they are on the side of truth
that this suffering is worth enduring for the blessing that is surely coming:
2 Corinthians 4.17-18 says that ‘our light and momentary troubles
are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.’
What will help the person suffering by their own fault?
Nothing else but a relearning of simple gospel truths
that God wants us to live in certain ways
and it is not good for us to choose our own ways
and our suffering then works as warning signals
to bring us back to God who as his word says
will abundantly pardon.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn learned this in a Soviet labour camp.
‘In my most evil moments I was convinced that I was doing good,
and I was well supplied with systematic arguments.
It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw
that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good.
Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil
passes not through states, nor between classes,
nor between political parties either—
but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts.
. . . That is why I turn back to the years of my imprisonment and say,
sometimes to the astonishment of those about me:
“Bless you, prison!”
I ... have served enough time there. I nourished my soul there,
and I say without hesitation:
“Bless you, prison, for having been in my life!”
(The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956, 615-617)
What will help the person suffering but it wasn’t their fault?
As I said, we don’t want to fire out quick fix Bible verses
but we need to remind people perhaps especially when things are good
that there is so much in the Bible that speaks about when times are bad.
The stories of Joseph and Job for example or many of the Psalms.
Joseph at the end of the book of Genesis
may have brought some of his suffering on himself,
firing up the jealousy of his brothers
but so much of it was undeserved -
the false accusations of Potiphar’s wife
the forgetfulness of the baker leaving him to wait in prison
At the end what does he say to his brothers?
‘You intended to harm me but God intended it for good’ Genesis 50.20
Job, an innocent man who suffered devastating losses
and then had to endure the quick fixes and harsh judgements
of his so called ‘comforters‘.
He does not receive an answer to why he has suffered so much
but his story ends with a closer, deeper knowledge of God
one we can trust even when we don’t understand.
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared.
He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours
as it struggled to force its body through that little hole.
Then it seemed to stop making any progress.
It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.
So to help the butterfly he took a pair of scissors
and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.
The butterfly then emerged easily.
But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch the butterfly
because he expected that, at any moment,
the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body,
which would contract in time.
Neither happened!
In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life
crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.
It never was able to fly.
What the man, in his kindness and haste,
did not understand was that the restricting cocoon
and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening
were God's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings
so that it would be ready for flight
once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Beware the quick fix!
The timetable of affliction can be good.
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good
of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Lord
We bring to you the times when we have suffered for Jesus’ name
and we pray for those who go through more than we do
May your joy and love sustain and be a strong witness to the oppressor.
We bring you those messes of our lives which are our own fault.
May your love and truth gently restore us as we turn to Jesus.
We bring you those experiences where we cannot see the reason
But again may we and those for whom we pray see Jesus.
Be joyful in hope, patient in suffering, faithful in prayer
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him
so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Sermon of 18 July 2010 True Freedom and Deep Value Psalm 119.41-64
Psalm 18.19
'He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.'
Almighty and gracious and 'spacious' God
we praise you for the length and depth and height and breadth
of your love for us in Christ Jesus
your Son and our only Saviour and Lord.
We thank you that in Christ we can be free
from condemnation and all restriction
free from guilt,
free from despair
free from fear and suspicion of other people.
We thank you for that perfect love that casts out fear
for fear is to do with punishment.
As we worship today
may the Holy Spirit deal
with the alienation
that keeps us far from you
and from each other.
May we enjoy your grace and space.
May we know your rescue
and your delight in us
through Christ our Lord
Amen
Psalm 119.41-64
The Health Services Executive is much in the public eye
especially over the needs of vulnerable teenagers
many of whom get sucked into criminality
and sadly some meet lonely, violent deaths.
Especially if like me you live in a leafy suburb
it is all too easy to get into an attitude of condemnation
and pronouncing what ‘they’ should be doing more
whether ‘they’ are the police or social workers or schools
or of course the families themselves.
Condemning is all too easy and cheap and useless.
I would like us to pray today for people in places not so far away from here
places of profound social deprivation
and to keep praying regularly for God’s blessing to be seen practically
so that people there may enjoy the peace and safety that we take for granted.
Before we pray it will be helpful to try and understand more
and to see what God says in his word
And please, let none of us say that thought that may be hanging in our minds
‘Lock them all up and throw away the key.’
Or bring back flogging, bring back hanging’
Even if those things were possible they would be counter productive -
violence produces more violence
and for Christians they are counter to the spirit of Jesus.
The story of the prodigal son for example is about mercy to a delinquent
not locking him up or flogging him or making him live on bread and water.
The Irish Examiner did a feature on youth crime last week (16 July)
looking at how complex the problems are
and what is being done to try and help.
Research suggests that teenagers in trouble
are likely to be from families where there is alcohol abuse,
a history of criminal activity and ineffective parenting.
They are likely to drop out of school and
to keep the company of other young people hanging about.
What then happens often is that youthful high spirits
and a lack of maturity as teenagers
leads to impulsive, out of control behaviour
which does not see the long term consequences and cost
whether to themselves their families or the wider community.
The Examiner articles highlight different key things
which need to happen together to bring about change:
education, employment, increased Garda presence,
sustained involvement by social services
a culture of co-operation between the courts and social services.
Where does prayer and faith come into all this? In two main ways.
First lets pray that government makes decisions
that allow even scarce resources go to these places of most need;
lets pray for teachers who can persevere in schools
where there is much reason to be discouraged;
lets pray for employers not to dismiss a job application
because it comes from a ‘bad area’;
lets pray for people to get a sense
that drowning their pain and emptiness in alcohol or other drugs is not the answer
that there is hope in a restored relationship with God.
And lets pray for family relationships to be restored all over the place.
That leads us to our second main line of prayer
looking at the spiritual roots of these problems
that people would understand what God says
about true freedom in him and about how much he values us.
TRUE FREEDOM
45 I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.
‘Freedom’ is a word which cannot really stand on its own.
It is not reasonable to claim the freedom to shout ‘Fire’ in a crowded building.
If a fox has freedom to hunt hens then the hens are entitled to be free of fear.
Retired people sometimes find that the freedom they looked forward to
not having to go to work each day
becomes a burden not a delight, they are bored not fulfilled.
To use a painful example in recent news
we cannot allow a freedom to drive as fast you like.
So be very careful with people who complain
about their freedom being hampered by rules and regulations.
We need rather to think in the way that the Psalm writer thinks
who says as another version puts it
‘I have gained perfect freedom by following your teachings’
When I was a student I did a tour of Greece in three weeks.
I didn’t see all the ancient sites
but I remember in a youth hostel meeting some guys
who were doing the world tour for a year or so.
You might have thought they were more free than me
more time and space do as they pleased
but they were bored.
One of them remarked how he envied those of us on a quick tour.
We were focused, we were following a plan.
Do not listen to the voices that suggest
that the teaching and the rules of the Bible are oppressive or restrictive.
The opposite is true.
As the old prayer says: God’s service is perfect freedom.
Here’s something from an unlikely source
that understands something of the roots of true freedom.
‘Men are free when they are in a living homeland,
not when they are straying and breaking away.
Men are free when they are obeying some deep, inward voice of religious belief.
Obeying from within.
Men are free when they belong to a living, organic, believing community,
active in fulfilling some unfulfilled, perhaps unrealized purpose.
Not when they are escaping to some wild west.
The most unfree souls go west, and shout of freedom.
… The shout is a rattling of chains, always was.’
DH Lawrence is a writer
usually associated with the loosing of restriction on personal liberty
but here at least he has glimpsed the emptiness of unrestricted freedom.
Lawrence wrote, perhaps longingly,
about people obeying some deep, inward voice of religious belief’.
Now lets look at what Jesus himself said about obedience in John 15
9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love,
just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.
11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business.
Instead, I have called you friends,
for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.'
No longer slaves but friends.
When we are with our friends are we not most free and fulfilled?
To return to the problems we began with:
is this not the freedom and the friendship we want for young people
in danger of ruining their own and others’ lives through crime?
Not a freedom where they kick over responsibilities
and head for the deceptive wild west
but a freedom and fulfilment they will find in relationships
which are wholesome positive secure constant.
And is that not a freedom and friendship we each need?
Not simply as a social blessing
but one with spiritual roots in the friendship of Jesus Christ?
True freedom and deep value.
We go to v 57
‘You are my portion, O LORD; I have promised to obey your words.’
You are my portion, my share in life, my inheritance.
The promised land in the book of Joshua was apportioned out
given by God in separate lots or portions to each tribe
but the Levites (Joshua 13.33) had no portion (inheritance) in the land
because their portion was the Lord.
What was a great spiritual reality for the Levites in the Old Testament
becomes in the coming of Christ a reality for every believer.
It is simply and wonderfully this: The LORD is all that we need.
That was something that in the despair of the book of Lamentations
the writer of Lamentations held on to:
3.24 'I say to myself, The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’
The city was captured, the temple was in ruins,
all that they had held dear and treasured was in bits
but they still had wealth in God.
One writer puts it like this:
In saying ‘God is our portion’ we lay hold on God as a person.
We grasp all his riches as ours
and think of ourselves as having a legal entitlement to them
and we appropriate them as our very own.
We say to him
‘All your resources are mine to draw on.
Your strength flows to me in my weakness;
your wisdom comes to me in my folly;
your righteousness is mine to cover my sinfulness;
your presence is mine in my loneliness;
your comfort is mine when my heart is broken by grief;
you are my solid rock and the foundation of my life
when everything else around me is falling to pieces;
your life is what I draw on; your life is my life. YOU are mine.
We shouldn’t claim this in any arrogant self confident way
but this is the point, it’s an inheritance, an allocation a gift from God -
we have done nothing to deserve it
but when we say God is our portion we mean
‘In Christ I have everything. I’m a prince in his kingdom.
I have honour and dignity; power and wisdom.
I possess all this for I possess God as my portion.
And if we know the wonder of God being our inheritance
what other response can there be than how that verse ends?
I have promised to obey your words.’
If we long that alienated young people and fractured families
should live better ways
we’d better live that way ourselves in obedience of this God in Christ
of whom we can say:
The LORD is my portion, I am rich in him.
He has given me true freedom.
Loving Father
We bring your our concern for people not far away from us
who struggle with basic freedoms
who have not had the opportunities we have had
who feel vulnerable and afraid
where there is pressure on the young to join a gang
and pressure on young and old just to give up
and drown their sorrow or let drugs deaden the pain.
We acknowledge, Lord that if we lived where they live
if we had the upbringing they had
we might well be no different in our behaviour.
Help us dear Father to be truly Christian
to model lives where freedom in Christ
is harmonised with obedience to Christ
and increasing Christlikeness in all our reactions.
We thank you for teachers, doctors, social workers, police
who seek to do their best in serving others.
Give them wisdom, renewed energy and good humour
and may our whole nation be compassionate rather than condemning.
We have heard God’s word;
we have worshipped him with praise and prayer.
Now may the Holy Spirit go on writing God’s law in your hearts;
may the mind of Christ be truly in you as you go into all the world
and love the Lord your God
with all your heart and soul and mind and strength
and your neighbour as yourself.
'He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.'
Almighty and gracious and 'spacious' God
we praise you for the length and depth and height and breadth
of your love for us in Christ Jesus
your Son and our only Saviour and Lord.
We thank you that in Christ we can be free
from condemnation and all restriction
free from guilt,
free from despair
free from fear and suspicion of other people.
We thank you for that perfect love that casts out fear
for fear is to do with punishment.
As we worship today
may the Holy Spirit deal
with the alienation
that keeps us far from you
and from each other.
May we enjoy your grace and space.
May we know your rescue
and your delight in us
through Christ our Lord
Amen
Psalm 119.41-64
The Health Services Executive is much in the public eye
especially over the needs of vulnerable teenagers
many of whom get sucked into criminality
and sadly some meet lonely, violent deaths.
Especially if like me you live in a leafy suburb
it is all too easy to get into an attitude of condemnation
and pronouncing what ‘they’ should be doing more
whether ‘they’ are the police or social workers or schools
or of course the families themselves.
Condemning is all too easy and cheap and useless.
I would like us to pray today for people in places not so far away from here
places of profound social deprivation
and to keep praying regularly for God’s blessing to be seen practically
so that people there may enjoy the peace and safety that we take for granted.
Before we pray it will be helpful to try and understand more
and to see what God says in his word
And please, let none of us say that thought that may be hanging in our minds
‘Lock them all up and throw away the key.’
Or bring back flogging, bring back hanging’
Even if those things were possible they would be counter productive -
violence produces more violence
and for Christians they are counter to the spirit of Jesus.
The story of the prodigal son for example is about mercy to a delinquent
not locking him up or flogging him or making him live on bread and water.
The Irish Examiner did a feature on youth crime last week (16 July)
looking at how complex the problems are
and what is being done to try and help.
Research suggests that teenagers in trouble
are likely to be from families where there is alcohol abuse,
a history of criminal activity and ineffective parenting.
They are likely to drop out of school and
to keep the company of other young people hanging about.
What then happens often is that youthful high spirits
and a lack of maturity as teenagers
leads to impulsive, out of control behaviour
which does not see the long term consequences and cost
whether to themselves their families or the wider community.
The Examiner articles highlight different key things
which need to happen together to bring about change:
education, employment, increased Garda presence,
sustained involvement by social services
a culture of co-operation between the courts and social services.
Where does prayer and faith come into all this? In two main ways.
First lets pray that government makes decisions
that allow even scarce resources go to these places of most need;
lets pray for teachers who can persevere in schools
where there is much reason to be discouraged;
lets pray for employers not to dismiss a job application
because it comes from a ‘bad area’;
lets pray for people to get a sense
that drowning their pain and emptiness in alcohol or other drugs is not the answer
that there is hope in a restored relationship with God.
And lets pray for family relationships to be restored all over the place.
That leads us to our second main line of prayer
looking at the spiritual roots of these problems
that people would understand what God says
about true freedom in him and about how much he values us.
TRUE FREEDOM
45 I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.
‘Freedom’ is a word which cannot really stand on its own.
It is not reasonable to claim the freedom to shout ‘Fire’ in a crowded building.
If a fox has freedom to hunt hens then the hens are entitled to be free of fear.
Retired people sometimes find that the freedom they looked forward to
not having to go to work each day
becomes a burden not a delight, they are bored not fulfilled.
To use a painful example in recent news
we cannot allow a freedom to drive as fast you like.
So be very careful with people who complain
about their freedom being hampered by rules and regulations.
We need rather to think in the way that the Psalm writer thinks
who says as another version puts it
‘I have gained perfect freedom by following your teachings’
When I was a student I did a tour of Greece in three weeks.
I didn’t see all the ancient sites
but I remember in a youth hostel meeting some guys
who were doing the world tour for a year or so.
You might have thought they were more free than me
more time and space do as they pleased
but they were bored.
One of them remarked how he envied those of us on a quick tour.
We were focused, we were following a plan.
Do not listen to the voices that suggest
that the teaching and the rules of the Bible are oppressive or restrictive.
The opposite is true.
As the old prayer says: God’s service is perfect freedom.
Here’s something from an unlikely source
that understands something of the roots of true freedom.
‘Men are free when they are in a living homeland,
not when they are straying and breaking away.
Men are free when they are obeying some deep, inward voice of religious belief.
Obeying from within.
Men are free when they belong to a living, organic, believing community,
active in fulfilling some unfulfilled, perhaps unrealized purpose.
Not when they are escaping to some wild west.
The most unfree souls go west, and shout of freedom.
… The shout is a rattling of chains, always was.’
DH Lawrence is a writer
usually associated with the loosing of restriction on personal liberty
but here at least he has glimpsed the emptiness of unrestricted freedom.
Lawrence wrote, perhaps longingly,
about people obeying some deep, inward voice of religious belief’.
Now lets look at what Jesus himself said about obedience in John 15
9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love,
just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.
11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business.
Instead, I have called you friends,
for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.'
No longer slaves but friends.
When we are with our friends are we not most free and fulfilled?
To return to the problems we began with:
is this not the freedom and the friendship we want for young people
in danger of ruining their own and others’ lives through crime?
Not a freedom where they kick over responsibilities
and head for the deceptive wild west
but a freedom and fulfilment they will find in relationships
which are wholesome positive secure constant.
And is that not a freedom and friendship we each need?
Not simply as a social blessing
but one with spiritual roots in the friendship of Jesus Christ?
True freedom and deep value.
We go to v 57
‘You are my portion, O LORD; I have promised to obey your words.’
You are my portion, my share in life, my inheritance.
The promised land in the book of Joshua was apportioned out
given by God in separate lots or portions to each tribe
but the Levites (Joshua 13.33) had no portion (inheritance) in the land
because their portion was the Lord.
What was a great spiritual reality for the Levites in the Old Testament
becomes in the coming of Christ a reality for every believer.
It is simply and wonderfully this: The LORD is all that we need.
That was something that in the despair of the book of Lamentations
the writer of Lamentations held on to:
3.24 'I say to myself, The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.’
The city was captured, the temple was in ruins,
all that they had held dear and treasured was in bits
but they still had wealth in God.
One writer puts it like this:
In saying ‘God is our portion’ we lay hold on God as a person.
We grasp all his riches as ours
and think of ourselves as having a legal entitlement to them
and we appropriate them as our very own.
We say to him
‘All your resources are mine to draw on.
Your strength flows to me in my weakness;
your wisdom comes to me in my folly;
your righteousness is mine to cover my sinfulness;
your presence is mine in my loneliness;
your comfort is mine when my heart is broken by grief;
you are my solid rock and the foundation of my life
when everything else around me is falling to pieces;
your life is what I draw on; your life is my life. YOU are mine.
We shouldn’t claim this in any arrogant self confident way
but this is the point, it’s an inheritance, an allocation a gift from God -
we have done nothing to deserve it
but when we say God is our portion we mean
‘In Christ I have everything. I’m a prince in his kingdom.
I have honour and dignity; power and wisdom.
I possess all this for I possess God as my portion.
And if we know the wonder of God being our inheritance
what other response can there be than how that verse ends?
I have promised to obey your words.’
If we long that alienated young people and fractured families
should live better ways
we’d better live that way ourselves in obedience of this God in Christ
of whom we can say:
The LORD is my portion, I am rich in him.
He has given me true freedom.
Loving Father
We bring your our concern for people not far away from us
who struggle with basic freedoms
who have not had the opportunities we have had
who feel vulnerable and afraid
where there is pressure on the young to join a gang
and pressure on young and old just to give up
and drown their sorrow or let drugs deaden the pain.
We acknowledge, Lord that if we lived where they live
if we had the upbringing they had
we might well be no different in our behaviour.
Help us dear Father to be truly Christian
to model lives where freedom in Christ
is harmonised with obedience to Christ
and increasing Christlikeness in all our reactions.
We thank you for teachers, doctors, social workers, police
who seek to do their best in serving others.
Give them wisdom, renewed energy and good humour
and may our whole nation be compassionate rather than condemning.
We have heard God’s word;
we have worshipped him with praise and prayer.
Now may the Holy Spirit go on writing God’s law in your hearts;
may the mind of Christ be truly in you as you go into all the world
and love the Lord your God
with all your heart and soul and mind and strength
and your neighbour as yourself.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Sermon of Sunday 11 July 2010 God's Word or a Godless World Psalm 119.17-40
Psalm 119.17-40 God's Word or a Godless World
Maybe you’ve been privileged as I have to visit some famous art galleries
like the Louvre in Paris
and you’ve been overwhelmed by all that’s there
so overwhelmed that you’ve done like many other tourists
you follow the signs straight to the Mon Lisa
but you have a sense that there are many more wonderful paintings
that you’ve missed.
like the Louvre in Paris
and you’ve been overwhelmed by all that’s there
so overwhelmed that you’ve done like many other tourists
you follow the signs straight to the Mon Lisa
but you have a sense that there are many more wonderful paintings
that you’ve missed.
But Psalm 119 does not have signage on it to say
this or that verse is the heart of it, the one not to miss.
It is constructed differently.
Each section has a Hebrew letter at its beginning
and each verse of that section begins with that Hebrew letter
So you have a structure to celebrate the variety of God’s word.
This means that each section is like a room in the art gallery
with all sorts of wonderful things put together
and the gallery curator (God!) wants you really to go through all the rooms
is you want to appreciate the whole treasure.
this or that verse is the heart of it, the one not to miss.
It is constructed differently.
Each section has a Hebrew letter at its beginning
and each verse of that section begins with that Hebrew letter
So you have a structure to celebrate the variety of God’s word.
This means that each section is like a room in the art gallery
with all sorts of wonderful things put together
and the gallery curator (God!) wants you really to go through all the rooms
is you want to appreciate the whole treasure.
We have to admit that we don’t have time for that
or maybe the truth is we won’t commit the time.
But let me try to open out some of the treasures God has for us from v 16 on even if we never get them all.
or maybe the truth is we won’t commit the time.
But let me try to open out some of the treasures God has for us from v 16 on even if we never get them all.
1 DO WE APPRECIATE THE WONDERS OF WHAT GOD SAYS TO US?
18 'Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.'
It’s good to have an open bible.
For years now we have copied the practice of the Reformed Church in France
in having a Bible open on the communion table
to remind us that God’s word is to be read, it mustn’t be a closed book.
For years now we have copied the practice of the Reformed Church in France
in having a Bible open on the communion table
to remind us that God’s word is to be read, it mustn’t be a closed book.
But we mustn’t have closed minds and hearts either.
That’s why the Psalmist prays for his eyes to be opened.
There are people who know the Bible well,
maybe they got prizes for memorising as children
and yet it might as well be a closed book for the effect it has had on their lives.
It’s like what happens when you live in a touristic area:
all these wonderful sights and things to do under your nose
and we are too busy to get around to them.
Example: I’ve lived in Cork for over 21 years
and I have yet to visit Blarney castle and kiss the famous stone
Nor have I rung the bells at Shandon.
That’s why the Psalmist prays for his eyes to be opened.
There are people who know the Bible well,
maybe they got prizes for memorising as children
and yet it might as well be a closed book for the effect it has had on their lives.
It’s like what happens when you live in a touristic area:
all these wonderful sights and things to do under your nose
and we are too busy to get around to them.
Example: I’ve lived in Cork for over 21 years
and I have yet to visit Blarney castle and kiss the famous stone
Nor have I rung the bells at Shandon.
How many of us need our eyes opened to the wonderful riches
in what God wants to say to us in his word?
in what God wants to say to us in his word?
It’s not simply that the hymn says
‘Wonderful things in the Bible I see
this is the best that Jesus loves me.’
That indeed is wonderful
but there are many more wonders in the Bible
which lead up to that wonder of wonders>
‘Wonderful things in the Bible I see
this is the best that Jesus loves me.’
That indeed is wonderful
but there are many more wonders in the Bible
which lead up to that wonder of wonders>
That there is a God at all ?
That he made all things visible and invisible?
That he is utterly holy and pure and good?
And we are not
And we are not
and yet this God makes it possible for us to know him
because his Son came and died for us and rose again?
because his Son came and died for us and rose again?
That we can have peace, sinful as we are, with a just and holy God?
That we can face death with confidence?
That we can relate to other people with deep love and without fear?
Are those things not completely amazing?
And how would we know any of those amazing things
except that they are written in this book
and that God by his Holy Spirit gives us the ability to
open our eyes and see the wonderful things
And how would we know any of those amazing things
except that they are written in this book
and that God by his Holy Spirit gives us the ability to
open our eyes and see the wonderful things
It doesn’t just come by reading the Bible.
It comes by reading the bible prayerfully.
But there is a cost as God opens our eyes to grasping these wonderful truths.
2 DO WE ACCEPT THE COST OF THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN God’s WORD AND A GODLESS WORLD?
BETWEEN God’s WORD AND A GODLESS WORLD?
The prayer is simple but profound in v 18
but in v 19 there is a note of alarm
19 'I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me.'
And the alarm becomes stronger:
22 'Remove from me scorn and contempt, for I keep your statutes.'
23 'Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees.'
25 'I am laid low in the dust; preserve my life according to your word.'
28 'My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word.'
but in v 19 there is a note of alarm
19 'I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me.'
And the alarm becomes stronger:
22 'Remove from me scorn and contempt, for I keep your statutes.'
23 'Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees.'
25 'I am laid low in the dust; preserve my life according to your word.'
28 'My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word.'
If you take God’s word seriously
you will find increasingly a distance between you and those who leave God out
who put their security in this world and not in God..
The writer to the Hebrews said
‘that here we have no continuing city
but we seek one that is to come whose author and founder is God'.
Peter wrote in his first letter that we are aliens and strangers in this world.
Jesus himself made the distinction: John 15.19
'If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.
As it is, you do not belong to the world,
but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.'
you will find increasingly a distance between you and those who leave God out
who put their security in this world and not in God..
The writer to the Hebrews said
‘that here we have no continuing city
but we seek one that is to come whose author and founder is God'.
Peter wrote in his first letter that we are aliens and strangers in this world.
Jesus himself made the distinction: John 15.19
'If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.
As it is, you do not belong to the world,
but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.'
Some of you know what it is like to be classified as an ‘alien’ in Ireland.
It’s not an easy condition, kept apart, under suspicion,
not regarded as ‘one of us’.
I hope in this church you feel that you are welcome,
wherever you have come from, whatever your legal status is.
But when any of us commits to Jesus our spiritual citizenship changes:
We are no longer going to be at ease, at home
in a world that does not know God;
the positive thing is that we have a home in God
and can rejoice in him because he alone is finally satisfying.
It’s not an easy condition, kept apart, under suspicion,
not regarded as ‘one of us’.
I hope in this church you feel that you are welcome,
wherever you have come from, whatever your legal status is.
But when any of us commits to Jesus our spiritual citizenship changes:
We are no longer going to be at ease, at home
in a world that does not know God;
the positive thing is that we have a home in God
and can rejoice in him because he alone is finally satisfying.
Let me make it clear at this point what is meant by ‘the world’
We are not talking about the created globe on which we are placed -
it is a good and wonderful creation, though spoiled by human sin -
and we are not talking about all human beings who are not Christians.
John 3.16 tells us clearly that God loved the world and gave his Son up for it
that whoever believes should not perish.
‘World’ here refers to those who rebel against God their creator
and want nothing to do with him.
You will know them by their negative response to your faith
as they express mockery, anger, as they start to avoid you, reject you.
We are not talking about the created globe on which we are placed -
it is a good and wonderful creation, though spoiled by human sin -
and we are not talking about all human beings who are not Christians.
John 3.16 tells us clearly that God loved the world and gave his Son up for it
that whoever believes should not perish.
‘World’ here refers to those who rebel against God their creator
and want nothing to do with him.
You will know them by their negative response to your faith
as they express mockery, anger, as they start to avoid you, reject you.
I read the other day about a Christian from a Jewish background
seeking to share his faith with a Jewish couple
he met as they were queuing to visit a Jewish museum.
The wife said he could send his son to a new Jewish school in his area.
He replied ‘I don’t think he could go as my mother was not Jewish’.
‘Oh no, they said ‘That does not matter …
you are still Jewish, they have changed that.’
Then he said ‘there’s another reason he would not be welcome.
I am a Jew who believes that Jesus is the Messiah.’
As he said this, it was as if a steel door had been slammed down.
They both went extremely cold and the husband said
‘Your son does not deserve to go that school’
And they completely ignored him for the rest of the museum visit.
Sadly, something of the Christ rejecting world view had got into that couple
and pleasant friendliness was replaced by hostility on the issue of Jesus.
seeking to share his faith with a Jewish couple
he met as they were queuing to visit a Jewish museum.
The wife said he could send his son to a new Jewish school in his area.
He replied ‘I don’t think he could go as my mother was not Jewish’.
‘Oh no, they said ‘That does not matter …
you are still Jewish, they have changed that.’
Then he said ‘there’s another reason he would not be welcome.
I am a Jew who believes that Jesus is the Messiah.’
As he said this, it was as if a steel door had been slammed down.
They both went extremely cold and the husband said
‘Your son does not deserve to go that school’
And they completely ignored him for the rest of the museum visit.
Sadly, something of the Christ rejecting world view had got into that couple
and pleasant friendliness was replaced by hostility on the issue of Jesus.
Please be clear on this: not every non Christian is part of the ‘world’
in this negative, hostile, Christ denying’ sense
but it is the case that the warmer we are in our walk with God
the colder we will find the world without Christ
the closer we become to Jesus
the more distant we shall become from those who reject him.
in this negative, hostile, Christ denying’ sense
but it is the case that the warmer we are in our walk with God
the colder we will find the world without Christ
the closer we become to Jesus
the more distant we shall become from those who reject him.
There is a cost to choosing God’s word over a godless world:
Loneliness as a stranger (19); scorn and contempt, slander 22, 23 ;
humiliation 25 weariness with sorrow.
But in all these experiences
he affirms he will keep God’s word and meditate on it
and he prays for strength from God’s word.
Last week I mentioned some bible verse to help us in times of stress:
they are printed out today as well as by e mail
I am adding a couple more to address how we cope with facing a hostile world:
Loneliness as a stranger (19); scorn and contempt, slander 22, 23 ;
humiliation 25 weariness with sorrow.
But in all these experiences
he affirms he will keep God’s word and meditate on it
and he prays for strength from God’s word.
Last week I mentioned some bible verse to help us in times of stress:
they are printed out today as well as by e mail
I am adding a couple more to address how we cope with facing a hostile world:
Joshua 1.7-9
Be strong and very courageous.
Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you;
do not turn from it to the right or to the left,
that you may be successful wherever you go.
Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth;
meditate on it day and night,
so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.
Then you will be prosperous and successful.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.
Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged,
for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.
Be strong and very courageous.
Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you;
do not turn from it to the right or to the left,
that you may be successful wherever you go.
Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth;
meditate on it day and night,
so that you may be careful to do everything written in it.
Then you will be prosperous and successful.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.
Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged,
for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.
2 Timothy 1.7-9
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity,
but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord,
or ashamed of me his prisoner.
But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God,
who has saved us and called us to a holy life--
not because of anything we have done
but because of his own purpose and grace.
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity,
but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord,
or ashamed of me his prisoner.
But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God,
who has saved us and called us to a holy life--
not because of anything we have done
but because of his own purpose and grace.
1 DO WE APPRECIATE THE WONDERS OF WHAT GOD SAYS TO US?
2 DO WE ACCEPT THE COST OF THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN God’s WORD AND A GODLESS WORLD?
2 DO WE ACCEPT THE COST OF THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN God’s WORD AND A GODLESS WORLD?
3 WILL WE BE COMMITTED AND CONSISTENT:
WILL WE CHOOSE, STICK AND RUN WITH WHAT GOD SAYS?
WILL WE CHOOSE, STICK AND RUN WITH WHAT GOD SAYS?
Here we have three aspects of Christian commitment
The first is that we choose the way of truth and set our heart on what God says.
30 ‘I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws.’
We say make a deliberate decision to follow God.
The first is that we choose the way of truth and set our heart on what God says.
30 ‘I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws.’
We say make a deliberate decision to follow God.
This is nothing flighty where we can back out
and change our minds
as if we paint a room blue one year and then pink the next.
This is as deliberate a commitment to God
as couples getting married make their promises to each other.
The second aspect of Christian commitment is that we stick with it.
31 I hold fast to your statutes, O LORD; do not let me be put to shame.
It is relatively easy to make initial commitments
but sadly they can be like new year resolutions which rarely get into February.
Confirmation promises, however sincerely made
even a great conversion experience
are not always followed by day by day consistent discipleship.
Where are the Christians who will stick to what God says?
How many of us can truly sing the words of the hymn?
‘One here will constant be, come wind come foul weather’
There’s no discouragement will make him once relent
his first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.’
I am always glad to hear of people making their first commitment to Jesus
but I am even more glad to watch their lives and see them years later
still walking in God’s way.
The apostle John wrote in his third letter
‘3 It gave me great joy to have some brothers come
and tell about your faithfulness to the truth
and how you continue to walk in the truth.
4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.’
May our willingness to stick continually to the truth bring others much joy.
But there can be more than walking.
31 I hold fast to your statutes, O LORD; do not let me be put to shame.
It is relatively easy to make initial commitments
but sadly they can be like new year resolutions which rarely get into February.
Confirmation promises, however sincerely made
even a great conversion experience
are not always followed by day by day consistent discipleship.
Where are the Christians who will stick to what God says?
How many of us can truly sing the words of the hymn?
‘One here will constant be, come wind come foul weather’
There’s no discouragement will make him once relent
his first avowed intent to be a pilgrim.’
I am always glad to hear of people making their first commitment to Jesus
but I am even more glad to watch their lives and see them years later
still walking in God’s way.
The apostle John wrote in his third letter
‘3 It gave me great joy to have some brothers come
and tell about your faithfulness to the truth
and how you continue to walk in the truth.
4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.’
May our willingness to stick continually to the truth bring others much joy.
But there can be more than walking.
The third aspect of Christian commitment is that we run with a liberated heart.
32 'I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.'
When our children were small one of the many things I had to learn
was how much and how fast they can run.
I remember when Naomi was two or three
we were on the beach with a great flat stretch of sand
and she looked around with a grin and started to run and run
and I had to run after her.
Or when Peter was a bit older
we were visiting a school with a running track
and he just started to run the course and I just stood and watched.
Children run because
they have surplus energy
they enjoy life and they want to experience more
they aren’t weighed down by worries about life.
32 'I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.'
When our children were small one of the many things I had to learn
was how much and how fast they can run.
I remember when Naomi was two or three
we were on the beach with a great flat stretch of sand
and she looked around with a grin and started to run and run
and I had to run after her.
Or when Peter was a bit older
we were visiting a school with a running track
and he just started to run the course and I just stood and watched.
Children run because
they have surplus energy
they enjoy life and they want to experience more
they aren’t weighed down by worries about life.
When we trust in Jesus we become born again, a child of God
we have new life, a new heart
God makes our heart free, or makes it larger
thinking of the heart as basically our will, the command centre of our lives.
we have new life, a new heart
God makes our heart free, or makes it larger
thinking of the heart as basically our will, the command centre of our lives.
Let me challenge you as I must challenge myself
that the best response to God’s word
and to God’s liberation of us from our guilt
is that we can not only walk
but like carefree children we may run in what God wants us to do.
that the best response to God’s word
and to God’s liberation of us from our guilt
is that we can not only walk
but like carefree children we may run in what God wants us to do.
1 DO WE APPRECIATE THE WONDERS OF WHAT GOD SAYS TO US?
2 DO WE ACCEPT THE COST OF THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN God’s WORD AND A GODLESS WORLD?
3 WILL WE BE COMMITTED AND CONSISTENT:
WILL WE CHOOSE, STICK AND RUN WITH WHAT GOD SAYS?
2 DO WE ACCEPT THE COST OF THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN God’s WORD AND A GODLESS WORLD?
3 WILL WE BE COMMITTED AND CONSISTENT:
WILL WE CHOOSE, STICK AND RUN WITH WHAT GOD SAYS?
Monday, July 5, 2010
Sermon of Sunday 4July 2010 Getting the Message Psalm 119.1-16
Psalm 119.1-16
‘Every little helps’ ‘Better value every time’ ‘The difference is, we’re Irish’
‘Nothing added but time’ ‘because you’re worth it’
Familiar to you?
These are advertising slogans which go out again and again
repeating the message in the expectation that it will sink in and we’ll buy.
Be sure that it works, advertising has been going on like that for a long time.
With all these messages coming at us and sinking in through repetition
why is it that we have lost the habit of repeating God’s messages
until they sink in and change us in a much deeper way
than where we shop or what cosmetics we use?
William Wilberforce,
who led the campaign in England to abolish the slave trade
wrote in his diary in 1819
‘walked today from the Hyde Park Corner,
repeating the 119th Psalm in great comfort.’
Maybe he had a bible open as he walked
but it is likely that as a child he would have learned by heart
the whole of this, the longest psalm.
Notice what he wrote, that it gave him great comfort.
The great achievements of a life like Wilberforce’s
had deep spiritual roots
and Psalm 119 celebrates
what we may call the tap root the main root for vital Christian faith.
I hope this summer to preach some sermons on this long psalm.
Not as many as the 190 that one of the Puritans preached,
more than one for each verse
nor even as many as the 22 sermons that John Calvin preached
one for each section
but as many commentators have said it is a treasure store
and there are many nuggets or jewels which we should look at
and indeed memorise and meditate on.
Today we look at vv 1-16 under these headings:
LIBERTY AND VARIETY
SEEK AND WALK: RELATIONAL AND PRACTICAL
LIFE CHANGING RICHES
LIBERTY AND VARIETY
The Psalm opens by celebrating
the blessing of walking according to the law of the Lord.
The first thing to understand is that ‘law’ is not a deadly threatening word here.
It is not an intimidating, condemning list of do’s and don’ts,
it is a guide to a liberating way of life.
Yes, we know from books like Galatians and Romans in the New Testament
that if we use the law in an effort to make us right through we do
it does condemn us,
it is like a mountain too steep for any of us to climb.
But the law as used in this Psalm and in the Old Testament in general
is the instruction of God to his redeemed covenant people.
‘I have saved you, you are my people, so this is how you should live
and how I will help you to live.’ It is a law of liberty.
We should be glad and delight in God’s word as it brings us nearer God.
This psalm is one long invitation to delight in God’s word to us.
The next thing to grasp is the variety in God’s law or word.
In these first 16 verses we have seven different words to describe
what God would say to his people
as he explains the meaning of their covenant agreement.
‘law’ ‘statutes’ ‘precepts’ ‘decrees’ ‘commands’ ‘laws’ ‘word’.
There is no time today to go into their different meanings -
Enough to say that God’s law isn’t just about the Ten Commandments
the basic principles in loving God and our neighbour
it also delves into the detail of preserving olive trees in time of war
and leaving something over when reaping for poor people to glean,
practical and compassionate as well as just.
This liberty and variety in the scripture
challenges us to go deeper into God.
SEEK AND WALK: RELATIONAL AND PRACTICAL
V1 reminds us that we are to walk according to God’s law
and v 3 speaks of doing nothing wrong and walking in his ways.
Our attitude to God’s law is not just theory in our heads nor words on our lips
but lived out in our lives,
‘not just hearers of the word but doers also’ as James wrote.
But here’s the thing: we must also seek God well as walk in his ways.
A truly practical faith is a relational faith.
We cannot truly walk as God wants
unless we seek to know him and worship him.
Nor of course can we say that we have sought and found God
unless that is demonstrated in the way we now walk and live.
There’s a similar balance in vv 7-8
7 I will praise you with an upright heart - we worship and seek God
as I learn your righteous laws - we take in what he wants us to do
8 I will obey your decrees - we commit to do what God says
And we cry out because we know our weakness - do not utterly forsake me
V 10 also makes the same prayer
10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.
Practical and relational, relational and practical.
Have you that positive balance in your discipleship
seeking God, living out what he says?
Many of our problems as Christians come
because we emphasise one against the other.
Some claim to have a wonderful relationship with Jesus
but not much of it is seen in their everyday life.
Others are busy seeking to do good and right and be helpful
but they are in danger of being like the people to whom Jesus will say
‘I never knew you’.
We all need instead lives that have both fruit and roots:
fruit of obedience and Christlikeness
nourished by a root of trust in the living Lord.
The next section develops that theme very practically
LIFE CHANGING RICHES
The psalmist is probably writing about himself and his own struggles
when he asks : (9) How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.
For both in 10 and 11 he speaks about what he is doing
and how he relates to God’s word.
10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Someone once expressed this negatively ‘Dusty bibles lead to dirty lives’
and someone else gave both the warning and the promise:
‘Either sin will keep you from God’s word or God’s word will keep you from sin.’
How dusty is your Bible? How clean is your life?
Is there a purity in our lives that radiates from the treasure of God
buried in us through ongoing reading and memorising and meditating?
Do we rejoice in following ‘God’s statutes as one rejoices in great riches‘ v 14.
Do we delight in God’s decrees
and resolve that we will not neglect his word? v 16
Two people in the New Testament illustrate what is meant here.
Luke 2.19 ‘Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.’
Mary didn’t just rejoice in Jesus as a mother does in her child,
she took to heart what the angels had been saying
and in those hidden years in Nazareth she treasured them
and thought deeply about them.
And of course her son as still a young man in his 30s
shows us how he resisted temptation and kept his way pure.
Jesus constantly referred back to what is written in scripture
and resisted the devil
Here are some example of how hiding God's word in our hearts
can help us deal without sin with some common stress points.
A situation arises where you feel reason to hate someone,
to hit out, to hit back:
Luke 6.27-28 Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who ill-treat you.
You feel like having a ‘pity party’ because things aren’t going well for you
Philippians 4.4 ‘Rejoice in the Lord always …
Or one that struck me recently from Philippians 2.14
‘Do everything without complaining or arguing …’
Or you find yourself in suddenly exposed to sexual temptation
the top shelp of the paper shop
or late at night surfing the net and you find a site
and a voice says ‘Why not, no-one will know ‘
Philippians 4.8
‘whatever is true, …noble,
… right, … pure, … lovely, … admirable
-- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. '
You’re jealous because other people have more money, bigger houses,
better jobs, fancier cars, more exotic holidays
or you’re worried about making ends meet.
Hebrews 13.5 ‘Keep your lives free from the love of money
and be content with what you have,
because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
[ Deut. 31:6]
6 So we say with confidence,
"The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"
[ Psalm 118:6,7]
Or you feel defeated
because again you’ve given in to some addictive behaviour.
Romans 8:1 -
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life
set me free from the law of sin and death.(NIV)
It is good not only that should we memorise some verses
as a sort of first aid when under pressure
but that we should also get into the habit of reading the Bible every day.
Read according to what you can manage.
If it’s only a page or a chapter a day that’s fine.
Read it carefully, prayerfully.
Use bible reading notes to help you.
Start with a gospel or the Psalms.
If a verse strikes you as particularly helpful
write it out on a card and memorise it.
As Jesus did, so we can.
Psalm 119. 11,15-16
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.
I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.
‘Every little helps’ ‘Better value every time’ ‘The difference is, we’re Irish’
‘Nothing added but time’ ‘because you’re worth it’
Familiar to you?
These are advertising slogans which go out again and again
repeating the message in the expectation that it will sink in and we’ll buy.
Be sure that it works, advertising has been going on like that for a long time.
With all these messages coming at us and sinking in through repetition
why is it that we have lost the habit of repeating God’s messages
until they sink in and change us in a much deeper way
than where we shop or what cosmetics we use?
William Wilberforce,
who led the campaign in England to abolish the slave trade
wrote in his diary in 1819
‘walked today from the Hyde Park Corner,
repeating the 119th Psalm in great comfort.’
Maybe he had a bible open as he walked
but it is likely that as a child he would have learned by heart
the whole of this, the longest psalm.
Notice what he wrote, that it gave him great comfort.
The great achievements of a life like Wilberforce’s
had deep spiritual roots
and Psalm 119 celebrates
what we may call the tap root the main root for vital Christian faith.
I hope this summer to preach some sermons on this long psalm.
Not as many as the 190 that one of the Puritans preached,
more than one for each verse
nor even as many as the 22 sermons that John Calvin preached
one for each section
but as many commentators have said it is a treasure store
and there are many nuggets or jewels which we should look at
and indeed memorise and meditate on.
Today we look at vv 1-16 under these headings:
LIBERTY AND VARIETY
SEEK AND WALK: RELATIONAL AND PRACTICAL
LIFE CHANGING RICHES
LIBERTY AND VARIETY
The Psalm opens by celebrating
the blessing of walking according to the law of the Lord.
The first thing to understand is that ‘law’ is not a deadly threatening word here.
It is not an intimidating, condemning list of do’s and don’ts,
it is a guide to a liberating way of life.
Yes, we know from books like Galatians and Romans in the New Testament
that if we use the law in an effort to make us right through we do
it does condemn us,
it is like a mountain too steep for any of us to climb.
But the law as used in this Psalm and in the Old Testament in general
is the instruction of God to his redeemed covenant people.
‘I have saved you, you are my people, so this is how you should live
and how I will help you to live.’ It is a law of liberty.
We should be glad and delight in God’s word as it brings us nearer God.
This psalm is one long invitation to delight in God’s word to us.
The next thing to grasp is the variety in God’s law or word.
In these first 16 verses we have seven different words to describe
what God would say to his people
as he explains the meaning of their covenant agreement.
‘law’ ‘statutes’ ‘precepts’ ‘decrees’ ‘commands’ ‘laws’ ‘word’.
There is no time today to go into their different meanings -
Enough to say that God’s law isn’t just about the Ten Commandments
the basic principles in loving God and our neighbour
it also delves into the detail of preserving olive trees in time of war
and leaving something over when reaping for poor people to glean,
practical and compassionate as well as just.
This liberty and variety in the scripture
challenges us to go deeper into God.
SEEK AND WALK: RELATIONAL AND PRACTICAL
V1 reminds us that we are to walk according to God’s law
and v 3 speaks of doing nothing wrong and walking in his ways.
Our attitude to God’s law is not just theory in our heads nor words on our lips
but lived out in our lives,
‘not just hearers of the word but doers also’ as James wrote.
But here’s the thing: we must also seek God well as walk in his ways.
A truly practical faith is a relational faith.
We cannot truly walk as God wants
unless we seek to know him and worship him.
Nor of course can we say that we have sought and found God
unless that is demonstrated in the way we now walk and live.
There’s a similar balance in vv 7-8
7 I will praise you with an upright heart - we worship and seek God
as I learn your righteous laws - we take in what he wants us to do
8 I will obey your decrees - we commit to do what God says
And we cry out because we know our weakness - do not utterly forsake me
V 10 also makes the same prayer
10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.
Practical and relational, relational and practical.
Have you that positive balance in your discipleship
seeking God, living out what he says?
Many of our problems as Christians come
because we emphasise one against the other.
Some claim to have a wonderful relationship with Jesus
but not much of it is seen in their everyday life.
Others are busy seeking to do good and right and be helpful
but they are in danger of being like the people to whom Jesus will say
‘I never knew you’.
We all need instead lives that have both fruit and roots:
fruit of obedience and Christlikeness
nourished by a root of trust in the living Lord.
The next section develops that theme very practically
LIFE CHANGING RICHES
The psalmist is probably writing about himself and his own struggles
when he asks : (9) How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.
For both in 10 and 11 he speaks about what he is doing
and how he relates to God’s word.
10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Someone once expressed this negatively ‘Dusty bibles lead to dirty lives’
and someone else gave both the warning and the promise:
‘Either sin will keep you from God’s word or God’s word will keep you from sin.’
How dusty is your Bible? How clean is your life?
Is there a purity in our lives that radiates from the treasure of God
buried in us through ongoing reading and memorising and meditating?
Do we rejoice in following ‘God’s statutes as one rejoices in great riches‘ v 14.
Do we delight in God’s decrees
and resolve that we will not neglect his word? v 16
Two people in the New Testament illustrate what is meant here.
Luke 2.19 ‘Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.’
Mary didn’t just rejoice in Jesus as a mother does in her child,
she took to heart what the angels had been saying
and in those hidden years in Nazareth she treasured them
and thought deeply about them.
And of course her son as still a young man in his 30s
shows us how he resisted temptation and kept his way pure.
Jesus constantly referred back to what is written in scripture
and resisted the devil
Here are some example of how hiding God's word in our hearts
can help us deal without sin with some common stress points.
A situation arises where you feel reason to hate someone,
to hit out, to hit back:
Luke 6.27-28 Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who ill-treat you.
You feel like having a ‘pity party’ because things aren’t going well for you
Philippians 4.4 ‘Rejoice in the Lord always …
Or one that struck me recently from Philippians 2.14
‘Do everything without complaining or arguing …’
Or you find yourself in suddenly exposed to sexual temptation
the top shelp of the paper shop
or late at night surfing the net and you find a site
and a voice says ‘Why not, no-one will know ‘
Philippians 4.8
‘whatever is true, …noble,
… right, … pure, … lovely, … admirable
-- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. '
You’re jealous because other people have more money, bigger houses,
better jobs, fancier cars, more exotic holidays
or you’re worried about making ends meet.
Hebrews 13.5 ‘Keep your lives free from the love of money
and be content with what you have,
because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."
[ Deut. 31:6]
6 So we say with confidence,
"The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?"
[ Psalm 118:6,7]
Or you feel defeated
because again you’ve given in to some addictive behaviour.
Romans 8:1 -
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life
set me free from the law of sin and death.(NIV)
It is good not only that should we memorise some verses
as a sort of first aid when under pressure
but that we should also get into the habit of reading the Bible every day.
Read according to what you can manage.
If it’s only a page or a chapter a day that’s fine.
Read it carefully, prayerfully.
Use bible reading notes to help you.
Start with a gospel or the Psalms.
If a verse strikes you as particularly helpful
write it out on a card and memorise it.
As Jesus did, so we can.
Psalm 119. 11,15-16
I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.
I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.
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