Psalm 119. When I read this, I'd like you
to think of it as the words of the Lord himself. And it is,
but it's also the words of the writer of this psalm and his
own experience. And that's mainly how I'm going
to be looking at it. While I read this, think of these
as being the words of the Lord himself. Psalm 119, beginning
in verse 49. Remember the word unto thy servant,
upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction
For thy word hath quickened me. The proud have had me greatly
in derision. Yet have I not declined from
thy law. I remembered thy judgments of
old, O Lord, and have comforted myself. Horror! hath taken hold upon
me because of the wicked that forsake thy law. Thy statutes have been my songs
in the house of my pilgrimage. I have remembered thy name, O
Lord, in the night and have kept thy law. This I had. because I kept thy precepts. Let's pray. Lord, how we love your word.
How thankful we are that you've given us your word that reveals
thy son. And Lord, we ask that you would
Take your word and quicken each one of us by your irresistible
power and grace. Enable us to behold the beauty
of your son. How we thank you for him. Lord,
we ask that you would give us the grace to enter in personally
by your spirit into this passage of scripture. Teach us what it
means. We pray that your gospel would be preached in the power
of your spirit. And we pray that we might be
enabled to worship you. Forgive us of our sins. Oh Lord,
give us the grace to truly confess our sins before you. Lord, we ask that you would cause
us, by your grace, to be poor and to mourn and to be meek and
to hunger and thirst after your righteousness, that you would
enable us to be pure in heart, peacemakers, merciful. And we
would ask for the grace to be persecuted for the righteousness
of thy son's sake. Glorify yourself in our midst. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Verse 49, remember the word unto thy servant,
upon which thou has caused me to hope. I pray that the Lord
will give me and you the grace to enter into this statement. Now, when he says, remember thy
word unto thy servant, he's not afraid. He's not going to remember
it. He is using that same thought
that David used when he said, Do as thou hast said. You said
this. This is your word. Remember this
to do this for me. Do as thou hast said. Remember
thy word, the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me
to hope. Now, I love to think of this
thing of hope from the scriptures. It's so different than I hope
so, you know, hope it doesn't rain today. Nothing like that
at all. Hope is a confident expectation
of good from God. You know you're going to have
it because he said it. Now with regard to hope, hope
is not something you see. It's something you expect. I
have a hope that when I stand before God on judgment day, that I will be judged by him
as someone who has never committed a sin. That's what justification
is. I have a hope that I'm gonna
stand before him and he's gonna say to me, well done, thou good
and faithful servant. And I know this, that has absolutely
nothing to do with what I have done in time in this body. It's because Christ did well. And if he did well, I did well. He is my righteousness. Now that's my hope. And I have
a hope that everything between that day of judgment and right
now is working together for my good and his glory, because that's
what the Bible promises, and we know that all things, all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are thee called according
to his purpose. Now that's my hope. My hope is
that I'm gonna stand before God perfect on judgment day. I can't
see that, but I believe it, because the word of God teaches this.
I'm going to stand before God perfect. That's my hope. And
that everything between now and then is all going to be for my
good. No worries. No worries. Nothing to worry
about because God is in absolute control of everything. I love
it when the Lord gives me the grace to believe that. You know,
a lot of times I'm not thinking that way. Neither are you. We
ought to all the time, shouldn't we? But what a blessed thing
it is when the Lord impresses on our mind, remember the word
unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope. Verse
50, this is my comfort in my affliction. Now you can see the
Lord saying that. He said, I'm the man that has
seen afflictions infinitely more so than you or I will ever know
anything about. But this is David speaking, or
whoever wrote this psalm, This is my comfort in my affliction,
for thy word hath quickened me. Now, affliction. We're living in a fallen world.
And there is afflictions involved in that. I think the chief affliction
that a believer experiences is the fact that he's still a sinner.
That is an affliction. living in a body that is sinful. I love what I love that song
we sing or it's always sung as a special waiting for my body
that will never sin. I'm waiting for that. And what
a glorious thing that will be to be without sin. And in this
world, the Lord said in the world, you shall have tribulation, the
afflictions of of life, of the terrible things that we are going
to experience in life, the sickness, the disappointments, there's
all kinds of trouble in life. And that is a part of the afflictions
of this body. But we have this comfort in our
afflictions that his word hath quickened me. I don't know how to say this,
but when you're unable to hear the word and the power of the Holy
Spirit, you feel quickened, don't you? You feel life. Life from the
dead. And it's such a wonderful thing.
Thy word hath quickened me. Thy word hath given me life.
Listen to this scripture. James 1.18, of his own will begat
he us, quickened us, given us life. through the word of truth. There's such power in his words.
You know, even in preaching the gospel, I am convinced that the
only thing the Lord uses is his word. Just his word. Not my comments on the word.
His word. His word quickened me. Oh, I love the word of God. I
love the Bible. Look at me. Verse three, the proud. Now that word is the
same word translated scornful in Psalm 1-1, the scornful, those
who scorn. And it's part of pride. They
go together. And pride is the most delusional
sin there is. That's the best word I can think
of. It's delusional. What do you got to be proud about?
I think of that scripture, who
made you to differ from somebody else? What do you have that you
didn't receive? Now, if you received it, why do you glory as if it
came from you? And no man has any reason to
be proud because whatever you do, God gave you the grace to
do it. You can't give yourself the credit for it on any level.
It's a delusional sin. It's so contrary to the gospel.
The proud have had me greatly in derision, and you can see
these as the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, but yet it's also
the experience of the believer. They have no love for the gospel,
we believe. It's contrary to their experience,
it's contrary to their hopes, so they have us greatly in derision. Yet have I not declined from
thy law. Now, first of all, we see the
Lord saying this, but I wish that we could enter into the
glory of this. This is the testimony of every
believer because of the righteousness of Christ being their personal
righteousness before God. I've not declined from the law.
Now, the only way I'm not afraid of the law is if I've kept it.
And in Christ, I have kept it. I have not declined from God's
holy law. I have a perfect obedience before
God's holy law. I've kept it. I've not declined. Well, yeah, you have. No, I haven't. Not in Christ. And my salvation
is in Christ and I have not declined. These are the words of the Lord.
Yes, but it's the words of every believer too. I've kept God's
holy law. Now look what he says in verse
52. I remembered by judgments of
old. Oh Lord. And have comforted myself. Now that word of old is. Also
translated in the Psalms in Psalm 90, from everlasting to everlasting. Now, what this is talking about
is the eternal nature of his judgments and his salvation.
And this is what the Psalmist says comforts me. This comforts
me. I love Revelation 13, eight,
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Before I was a
sinner, there's the Savior. Before I had any existence, there's
the Savior. That comforts me. I think of what the writer to
the Hebrews said in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 3. All the works were
finished from the foundation of the world. That comforts me. It lets me know that salvation
has nothing to do with my works because my salvation was accomplished
before time began. Listen to this scripture for
the children, being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil. Now that's how much salvation
doesn't have anything to do with my works for the children. being not yet born, either having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to
election, might stand not of works. Does that comfort you? 2 Timothy 1.9, he saved us. He called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. That comforts me. That comforts every believer. Do we intellectually comprehend
it? No. Do we believe it with all
our hearts? An eternal salvation. Whom he did foreknow, them he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that
he might be the firstborn. among many brethren, moreover,
whom he did predestinate. Then he also called whom he called. Then he also justified whom he
justified. Then he also what glorified. I was talking about salvation
before time. Now I'm going to talk about an
eternal glorification in whenever eternity future is then that's
how complete this salvation is. What should we say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? I remember thy judgments. That's
talking about the judgments of the cross, of old. God is a God of righteousness
and judgment. Everything is perfectly righteous,
perfectly just. It all took place before time
began. And I comfort myself, oh Lord. Look in verse 53. Horror hath taken hold upon me. because of the wicked that forsake
thy law. Now, we first of all see these
as the words of the Lord, but look in verse 136 of this same
chapter. Rivers of waters run down mine
eyes because they keep not thy law. Now, as I said, we can certainly
see this is the Lord's sentiment. And this word horror is a mixture
of hurt and indignation. I'm horrified. I'm terrified. I hope we will not become so
hardened and desensitized by sin that we do not have this
horror concerning sin in others or most especially in ourselves. I hope I am horrified by my sin. Yes, the sin of others, but this
is talking about this. This. It's drawn from a love
to God. A love to his character. Being amazed at his grace toward
you to where you're horrified that you could commit such sin
against God. I pray that the Lord would deliver
us from becoming hardened towards sin. You know, I think of that
scripture that speaks of the deceitfulness of sin, and it's
so deceitful. What does the writer say? Horror. And in verse 136, he
said, rivers of water. come out of my eyes because they
keep not thy law. Now, this is the attitude we
all should have towards sin in ourselves and others. These things write unto you that
you sin not. You know, I love that command.
I love it. It's so glorious. It's so perfect.
Well, how can you love it if you sin? It's God's word. And
I have that advocate with the father, but I love this admonition. These things run onto you that
you sin not. Rivers of water come out of my
eyes. Now let's go on reading. Horror
has taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy
law. And look at this verse 54. You can see this as the words
of the Lord, but it's the words of every believer too. Thy statutes. Now, this is the word that when
we find the word decree in the Bible, thou has declared the
decree. This is the same word. Everything
in time was decreed by God in eternity. Known unto God are
all of his works from the beginning. The lot is cast into the light,
but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Everything that
happens is because of God's eternal decree. There's nothing that
happens outside of this. You say, well, what about all
the bad things? I understand you thinking that, but God brings
good out of evil. I don't understand how he does
it, but I believe it because I trust his character. His character,
he's good. Whatever he does is good. I don't
have to understand it. I believe in his goodness. No
matter what takes place, God is good. God is good all the
time. And his statutes, that's everything
that takes place. That is a part of the all things
that work together for good to them that love God, to them who
are called according to his purpose. His statutes put a song in my
heart. I'm glad it's that way. It makes
me happy. What would you think of if God
wasn't in complete control? Who is then? No, he's in absolute
sovereign control of everything all the time. It's not difficult
for him. And that puts a song in my heart. And I love to think of the Lord
having a song in his heart when he walked upon this earth. I
think of him singing to his father in perfect communion, perfect
submission. Oh, the singing of the Lord.
I love it where it says in the midst of the church, I'll sing
praise to thee. That means we get to listen to
this song, his singing to his father. And there's something
very special about that. Thy statutes have been my songs
in the house of my pilgrimage. You know, we're pilgrims. We're
only here temporarily. Not much time left. Isn't that
glorious? There's not much time left. Before very long, I'm going to
be in the very presence of Jesus Christ, seeing his face, worshiping
him, perfect likeness to him. You
know, when I think of, I love Psalm 17, 15, where David says,
as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I'll be
satisfied when I awaken thy likeness. Now, the way I am right now,
I think if I saw his face, I'd go down quick. I'd be ashamed. But one of these
days, there'll be nothing to be ashamed of. I'll behold his
face in perfect righteousness. And that's when I'll be satisfied,
when I awake. Think of this time. This is a
promised ever believer. I'm gonna awake. I'm gonna die. And after the days of this pilgrimage
are over, I'm gonna die and I'm gonna awake in the very likeness
of Jesus Christ. Thy statutes have been my songs
in the house of my pilgrimage. I have remembered thy name, O
Lord, in the night and have kept thy law." Now, obviously, we
can see these as the words of Jesus Christ himself. I think
of when he was in the night, when darkness covered the face
of the earth, he never quit believing God. He remembered his name in
the night. Now, when me and you are put
in the night, and we've never put in nightness like that, I
realize that, but we become unbelieving so quick. Not him. In utter darkness, when he was
separated from God, when he felt nothing but the awful frown and
wrath of his father, when darkness covered the world, he remembered
the name of his father. The name of God represents the
person behind the name, you know that. His attributes, his holiness,
his righteousness, his justice, his mercy, his independence,
his immutability, whatever attribute there is of God is represented
by his name. And isn't it a blessing when
sometimes me and you are to some extent in the night, in the dark. We feel by ourselves. We feel
isolated. We feel alone. We feel that way. But God, by his grace, enables
us to remember at least his name. His name. Who he is. Faith is believing who he is. I have remembered thy name, O Lord,
in the night, and have kept thy law. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ could
say this, but so can everyone in him. I have kept thy law. In Christ, I have kept his law. That's why I have nothing to
fear. I'm a law keeper. In the Lord Jesus Christ, I have
kept his holy law. Now, the only way anyone demonstrates
any true respect and reverence for the law of God is if they
know that Jesus Christ is their only obedience before that law.
Now that's when you respect the law. Anything less than that
is disrespect and irreverence toward the holy law of God. The only thing the law accepts
is perfect obedience and every believer has that in Jesus Christ. Isn't that glorious? I've kept
the law. This I had, verse 56. This I
had because I've kept thy precepts. I've kept thy word. Now, justification. The message of the Bible is how
God can be just and justify the ungodly. How he can be just and
look at me and say, that man's just. That man's never sinned. That man's kept the law. How
can that be? The gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ
made the way for God to be absolutely just and justify this person
and say he's kept the law because Christ kept the law, I kept the
law. What a glorious gospel we believe.