Sermon - AudioPsalm 119:1-88 - Audio
Psalm 119:1-88 - Reading
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I will delight in your statutes: an encomium in praise of God’s Word [ 119:1–88 ]. Psalm 119, as everyone knows, is “the big one.” Its subject is God’s law, that is, God’s revealed Word, and the genre is the encomium, with the pattern of elevating the subject, listing its praiseworthy acts and qualities, showing its superiority over other things, listing the rewards that attend it, and encouraging the reader to imitate this superior thing (God’s law). Additionally, the poem is an elaborate acrostic in which twenty-two units follow the order of the Hebrew alphabet, with the effect heightened by the fact that each of the eight verses within a unit begins with the letter of the alphabet that is featured in the unit. The overall effect of the poem is like turning a prism in the light: as we progress through the psalm, we contemplate various facets of God’s revealed Word. The rhetorical format involves continuous address to God, which lends an aura of prayer to the entire collection of individual poems. There is no continuous line of thought, even within the eight-verse units (though some of them have thematic unity). The best way to read the psalm, therefore, is as a collection of individual proverbs on the subject of God’s Word. -ESVLB-
Psalm 119 is not just a worship of the Scriptures, but of the Author as well.
*The Psalmist opens with the way the majority of the Psalm will go.
5 - The goal of the whole psalm is that each member of the congregation would share in this eager yearning.
* Thought - The Westminister Confession of Faith states "not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding" of the Scriptures. The Psalmist and the church must believe that all can (have the ability to) come to an understanding of the basic message of the gospel.
6 - When we do not do the things that God wants us to do, or we do the things God doesn't want us to do...we feel shame.
9-11 - This is the words of a person who desires to empty themselves and be led by God. Before Augustine's (church father) salvation he would say, “Lord, make me chaste – but not yet.” However, after God had taken a hold of His life, Augustine could echo these words of the Psalmist. It is when God does a work in our lives that we are able to say that we "desire to seek Him with our whole heart."
9-11 - Do you seek God with your whole heart? How are you sure?
13-16 - What would you give up to hear or read God’s word again?
17 - “He begs for a liberality of grace, after the fashion of one who prayed, ‘O Lord, thou must give me great mercy or no mercy, for little mercy will not serve my turn.’" -Spurgeon-
*Thought - The Psalmist asks in order to live out God's word to the fullest.
Q. When you ask of God, for who's benefit is it for?
25 - God's truth revives us...gives us life.
Q - So if you're not listening/studying/living God's Word...?
28 - The problems surrounding the Psalmist (as seen in Psalm 119:17-24) is troubling their soul. Strength is found in God's Word.
29-30 - “Men do not drop into the right way by chance; they must choose it, and continue to choose it, or they will soon wander from it.” -Spurgeon-
34 - He resolves with his whole mind, strength, and will. The psalmist expresses his deep devotion to the Lord. He loves the Lord and wants to be obedient. Jesus told His disciples, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15) -RSB-
37 - This is many times my personal prayer - Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in you!
Q. How much time and effort do we spend on worthless things? Things are worthless when they have no restorative focus. When the created becomes more important than the Creator.
41-42 - When the devil questioned Jesus...He had an answer. We must have an answer.
53 - Hot indignation. Mixed with sorrow (v. 136), because these who forsake are Israelites, bound to love and obey the Lord. Contrast v. 87. - ESVSB-
66 - Desire Wisdom - James 1
68 - God’s goodness and beneficence are not expressed through His compassion, as elsewhere (e.g., 145:9), but through teaching of laws. -JSB-
70 - Their fat heart was not good for their physical or spiritual health. It meant that their hearts were dull, insensitive, drowning in luxury and excess. In contrast, the Psalmist found delight in the word of God.
71-72 - Thanksgiving for sufferings, Reminds me of 1 Peter 1:1-13
75 - The emphasis is on just rulings, rather than on a just God. -JSB-
83 - "wineskin in the smoke." The smoke damages the wineskin; this is comparable to the harm the writer has suffered at the hands of his enemies. -RSB-
84 - God's delay is seemingly a trial for the Psalmist. -RSB-
2 comments:
I struggle with Psalms like this that extol the virtues of following the laws "that are to be fully obeyed" without becoming legalistic. Reminds me of the prodigal son story and the son that did everything the father asked (followed the laws), vs. the son who squandered everything but still got the party when he came home. It seems that over and over again in the Bible it calls us to follow the laws.
Hi Sandy,
One important difference between Psalm 119 and other places where we are called to follow the Law is the motivation. The older brother follows the laws not out of love for the father but to get what the father has. True following of God's laws flows from love and thankfulness (John 14). This is true even in the Old Testament where we see that God first rescues his people from Egypt and then gives them the Torah that shows them the path for living the redeemed life.
It is a at time helpful to remember that there are rules and laws in many parts of our lives that we do gladly, not out of fear, but because of love.
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