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.
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