***Welcome to This Week's Sermon:
August 22, 2010
Happy birthday Aaron my gracious son…
“Thy Word Is Truth: Part 9”
Psalms 119 v 65-72
“Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Jehovah, according unto thy word. 66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge; For I have believed in thy commandments. 67 Before I was afflicted I went astray; But now I observe thy word. 68 Thou art good, and doest good; Teach me thy statutes. 69 The proud have forged a lie against me: With my whole heart will I keep thy precepts. 70 Their heart is as fat as grease; But I delight in thy law. 71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; That I may learn thy statutes. 72 The law of thy mouth is better unto me Than thousands of gold and silver.”
As we begin this 9th division of Psalms 119, I want us to especially see two great truths in this section. Of course the world sees most of the truths of the Bible to be obtuse and archaic with little if any value in today’s ‘real’ world. These two great truths that are in this section are especial loathsome to those who are lost. ***Yet for the genuine Christian these two great truths are foundational realities to human existence…
The first,
“It is good that we have experienced affliction, that the affliction leads us to God’s Word”
The second,
“The Bible and it’s Godly wisdom IS FAR MORE VALUABLE THAN ANY THING THIS WORLD HAS TO OFFER.”
Both truths the world reads and absolutely is sickened by the thought of them……
But today we will discuss how these truths and others about the Word of God are supreme blessings to those who LOVE God and are called to be His Children…
Now let us look at the 9th division of Psalms 119, the letter: Teth.
The Psalmist, having been afflicted, shows,
*How graciously God dealt with him, in bringing him profitably
through affliction.
*He prays for a right judgment and knowledge.
*He expresses his LOVE to God’s law, and the value he set upon it.
*The Psalmist shows much of his affliction was caused by the wicked.
*He shows the condition of the godly.
V 65…Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Jehovah, according unto thy word.
Everything God has promised through His Word: HAS COME TO PASS, Jehovah has kept His written Word with all it’s plethora of promises and blessings to and for His children, the “born again” believer…….
John 3 v 5-7
“Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God! 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born anew.”
Every servant of God can testify that God has done him nothing but good, and therefore he can speak well of His name and of God’s inerrant Word...
This is the summary of the Psalmist’s life, and assuredly it is the sum of ours. The Psalmist tells the Lord the conclusion of his heart; he cannot be silent, he must speak his gratitude in the presence of Jehovah, his God. From the universal goodness of God in nature,
Psalms 119 v 64
“The earth, O Jehovah, is full of thy loving-kindnesses: Teach me thy statutes.”
It is an easy and pleasant step to a confession of the Lord's uniform goodness to us personally. It is something that God has dealt at all with such insignificant and unworthy beings as we are, and it is far more that He has dealt well with us, and so well, so wondrously well.
God has done all things well: this truth has no exception. In divine intervention and in grace, in giving prosperity and sending adversity, in everything Jehovah, YHWH, has dealt well with us. ***In return it is only fitting that we acknowledge His LOVE, grace, and mercy for us; and give praise of this kindness…
This kindness of the Lord’s is, however, no chance matter: He promised to do so, and He has done it according to His Word. It is very precious to see the Word of the Lord fulfilled in our happy experience; it endears the Scripture to us, and creates in us a LOVE for the Lord of that Scripture. The book of divine intervention tallies with the book of promise, the Bible: what we read in the page of inspiration we meet with again in the leaves of our life story.
We may not have thought that it would be so, but our unbelief is repented of now that we see the mercy of the Lord to us, and His faithfulness to His Word; henceforth we are bound to display a firmer faith both in God and in His promises. ***God has spoken well, and He has dealt well.
Yhwh, Jehovah, IS THE FINEST OF MASTERS; for it is to a very unworthy and incapable servant that God has acted so blessedly. Should this not compel us for LOVE’S sake to willingly and voluntarily delight in God’s presence and service more and more? We cannot say that we have dealt well with our Master; for when we have done all, we are unprofitable servants;
Isaiah 64 v 6A
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags…”
But as for our Lord, He has given us light work, large maintenance, LOVING encouragement, and liberal wages (ETERNAL LIFE: SALVATION).
It is a wonder that God has not long ago DESTROYED us, or at least reduced our allowances, or handled us roughly; yet we have had no hard dealings, all has been ordered with as much consideration as if we had rendered perfect obedience. We have bad bread enough and to spare, our dress has been duly supplied, and His service has ennobled us and made us happy as kings. Complaints we have none. We lose ourselves in adoring thanks, and find ourselves again in thoughtful thanksgiving to our God…….
V 66…Teach me good judgment and knowledge; For I have believed in thy commandments.
Teach me to have wisdom and discernment. Let me see and know the importance of Divine things, and give me a perfect LOVE and understanding for your blessed Word...
Again the Psalmist pleads for teaching. Since God had dealt well with him, he is encouraged to pray for judgment to appreciate the Lord's goodness. Good judgment is the form of goodness which the godly person most needs and most desires, and it is one which the Lord is most ready to bestow.
David felt that he had frequently failed in judgment in the matter of the Lord's dealings with him: from want of knowledge he had misjudged the chastening hand of the heavenly Father, and therefore he now asks to be better instructed, since he perceives the injustice which he had done to the Lord by his hasty conclusions. He means to say, Lord, thou didst deal well with me when I thought thee hard and stern, be pleased to give me more intelligence, that I may not a second time think so ill of my Lord. A sight of our errors and a sense of our ignorance should make us teachable.
We are not able to judge, for our knowledge is so sadly inaccurate and imperfect; if the Lord teaches us knowledge we shall attain to good judgment, but not otherwise. The Holy Spirit alone can fill us with light, and set the understanding upon a proper balance: let us ardently long for His teachings, since it is most desirable that we should be no longer mere children in knowledge and understanding.
John 16 v 13
“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.”
The Holy Spirit is the SPIRIT OF ALL TRUTH…….
Hebrews 5 v 13-14
“Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.”
Studying God’s Word thoroughly and repeatedly will help the Child of God understand and live out God’s righteousness in their, our, daily moment by moment lives……………………………………
A person who has learned discernment by experience, and has thus become a person of sound judgment, is a valuable member of a church, and the means of much edification to others. Let all who would be greatly useful offer the prayer of this verse: "Teach me good judgment and knowledge."
V 67…Before I was afflicted I went astray; But now I observe thy word.
Many have been humbled under affliction myself included, and we have been taught to know ourselves and humble ourselves before God. Only through the pain and sorrow of our afflictions can many of us come to a full understanding of how great our sin was and how desperately WE NEEDED A SAVIOR!!!!!!! Affliction sanctified by God is a great blessing; unsanctified, it is an additional curse……
The pain and sorrow of our affliction that brings us to true repentance IS A GLORIOUS BLESSING, a chastisement by God that leads to genuine salvation and absolute faith in Him IS WORTH EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Often our trials or afflictions act as a thorn hedge to keep us in the good pasture, but our prosperity is a opening through which we go astray. If any of us remember a time in which we had no trouble, we also probably recollect that then grace was low and temptation was strong. The silliest and most foolish things I ever did were when I felt on top of the world and thought nothing could harm me.
It may be that some believer cries, "O that it were with me as in those summer days before I was afflicted." Such a sigh is usually most unwise, and arises from a carnal love of ease: the spiritual person who prizes growth in grace will bless God that those dangerous days are over, and that if the weather be more stormy it is also usually more healthy for our faith...
It is well when the mind is open and candid, as in this instance: perhaps David would never have known and confessed his own straying if he had not smarted under the rod. Let us join in his humble acknowledgments, for doubtless we have imitated him in his straying.
Why is it that a little ease works in us so much disease?
Can we never rest without rusting?
Never be filled without waxing fat?
Never rise as to one world without going down as to another!
What weak creatures we are to be unable to bear a little pleasure!
What base hearts are those which turn the abundance of God's goodness into an occasion for sin? Yet we often do so, be honest, don’t we!!!
Grace is in that heart which profits by its chastening. It is of no use to plough barren soil. When there is no spiritual life affliction works no spiritual benefit; but where the heart is sound trouble awakens conscience, wandering is confessed, the soul becomes again obedient to the command, and continues to be so.
Whipping will not turn a rebel into a child; but to the true child a mere touch of the rod is a sure curative. In the
Psalmist's case the medicine of affliction worked a change, “but"; an immediate change, "now";
a lasting change, "have I"
an inward change, "have I kept";
a change towards God, "thy word."
Before his trouble David wandered, but after it he kept within the hedge of the Word, and found good pasture for his soul the trial tethered him to his proper place; it kept him, and then he kept God's Word. Sweet are the uses of adversity, and this is one of them, it puts a bridle upon transgression and furnishes a spur for holiness.
V 68…Thou art good, and doest good; Teach me thy statutes.
And because thou art good, thou doest good; and because thou delightest to do good, teach me thy statutes.
Sin God is perfectly good, He always does good according to His Word. God will keep His Word to us, not contradicting anything that is written in the Bible!!!
David sees the perfection of God’s Word and pleads once again for God to teach him ALL OF HIS WORD…….
Even in affliction God is good, and does good. This is the confession of experience. God is essential goodness in Himself, and in every attribute of His nature He is good in the fullest sense of the term; indeed, God has a monopoly of goodness, for there is none good but one, that is God.
Luke 18 v 19
“And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, even God.”
His acts are according to His nature: from a pure source flow pure streams. God is not latent and ill active goodness; He displays Himself by His doings, God is actively beneficent, God does good. How much good God does no tongue can tell! How good God is no heart can conceive! It is well to worship the Lord as the poet here does by describing Him. Facts about God are the best praise of God.
All the glory we can give to God is to reflect His own glory upon Himself. We can say no more good of God than God is and does. We believe in His goodness, and so honor Him by our faith; we admire that goodness, and so glorify Him by our LOVE; we declare that goodness, and so magnify him by our testimony.
The child of God is a learner, and delights to learn: we ascribe this to the goodness and grace of the Lord, and hope that for the same reason God will allow us to remain in the school and learn on till we can perfectly practice every lesson.
The Saint’s chosen class book is the royal statutes, the Bible, WE NEED NO OTHER.
We know the sad result of breaking those statutes, and by a painful experience we have been led back to the way of righteousness; and therefore we plead as the greatest possible instance of the divine goodness that we might be taught a perfect knowledge of the law, and a complete conformity to it.
We who mourn that we have not always kept the Word, long to be taught it, and we who rejoice that by grace we have been taught to keep it desire all the more to be instructed in it.
V 69…The proud have forged a lie against me: With my whole heart will I keep thy precepts.
The world looks at our imperfections and declares us to be hypocrites and liars, yet we have sincerely tried to obey His Word with our whole being, every particle of our heart and soul…
To injure David’s character his enemies resorted to falsehood, for they could not find anything against him if they spoke the truth. They forged a lie as a blacksmith beats out a weapon of iron, or they counterfeited the truth as men forge false coin. The original language may suggest a common expression, "They have patched up a lie against me." They were not too proud to lie. Pride is a lie, and when a proud man utters lies "he speaks of his own."
Proud people are usually the bitterest opponents of the righteous: they are envious of their good fame and are eager to ruin it. Slander is a cheap and handy weapon if the object is the destruction of a gracious reputation; and when many proud ones conspire to concoct, exaggerate, and spread abroad a malicious falsehood, they generally succeed in wounding their victim, and it is no fault of theirs if they do not kill him outright.
Oh the venom which lies under the tongue of a liar! Many a happy life has been embittered by it, and many a good repute has been poisoned as with the deadliest drug.
It is painful to the last degree to hear unscrupulous people hammering away at the devil's anvil forging a new slander; the only help against it is the sweet promise,
Isaiah 54 v 17
“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of Jehovah, and their righteousness which is of me, saith Jehovah.”
Amen………………………………………………..
V 70…Their heart is as fat as grease; But I delight in thy law.
Still speaking of the proud, those who do not accept the truth of God, their hearts have no fear of right or wrong, of good or bad, THEY HAVE NO REAL SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE OR UNDERSTANDING. Their hearts are full of foolishness.
Their hearts, through sensual indulgence, have grown insensible, coarse, and groveling; but thou hast saved me from such a fate through thy chastening hand. Proud people grow fat through carnal luxuries, and this makes them prouder still. They riot in their prosperity, and fill their hearts therewith till they become insensible, effeminate, and self indulgent. A greasy heart is something horrible; it is a fatness which makes a person idiotic, a fatty degeneration of the heart which leads to feebleness and death. The fat in such people is killing the life in them. Dryden wrote,
"O souls! In whom no heavenly fire is found,
Fat minds and ever groveling on the ground."
The proud are full of themselves, and the nutrition of the Lord IS NOT FOUND IN THEM ANYWHERE!!! They are full of hot putrefying, malignant, decaying air, WORTHLESS TO THEMSELVES AND TO ALL OTHERS……
A balloon waiting to be popped, for there is no meat to their enormous size……
How much better is it to joy in the law of the Lord than to joy in sensual indulgences! This makes the heart healthy, and keeps the mind lowly. No one who LOVES holiness has the slightest cause to envy the prosperity of the worldling.
This is very much worth repeating, for many true believers still seem to envy the worldly prosperity of the ungodly…….
No one who LOVES holiness has the slightest cause to envy the prosperity of the worldling.
Delight in the law elevates and ennobles, while carnal pleasure clogs the intellect and degrades the affections. There is and always ought to be a vivid contrast between the believer and the sensualist, and that contrast is as much seen in the affections of the heart as in the actions of the life: their heart is as fat as grease, and our heart is delighted with the law of the Lord. Our delights are a better test of our character than anything else: as a man's heart is, so is the man.
David oiled the wheels of life with his delight in God's law, and not with the fat of sensuality. He had his relishes and dainties, his festivals and delights, and all these he found in doing the will of the Lord his God. When law becomes delight, obedience is bliss.
***Holiness in the heart causes the soul to eat the fat of the land.***
To have the law for our delight will breed in our hearts the very opposite of the effects of pride; deadness, sensuality, and obstinacy will be cured, and we shall become teachable, sensitive, and spiritual.
How careful should we be to live under the influence of the divine law that we fall not under the law of sin and death.
V 71…It is good for me that I have been afflicted; That I may learn thy statutes.
Such a truth, such an immense truth of eternity!!!
God uses the afflictions, the problems, the pains, the sorrows of this life; whether self-caused, enemy-initiated, or a trial by God, FOR THE VERY GOOD OF THE TRUE BELIEVER!!!!!!!
Romans 8 v 28
“And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose.”
God is not the author of the vast majority of our afflictions, but, and that’s a big BUT, HE WILL USE ALL THINGS FOR THE ETERNAL JOY AND BETTERMENT OF HIS PEOPLE, ALL THE SAVED THROUGH JESUS CHRIST!!!!!!!
Even though the affliction came from bad men, it was overruled for good ends: though it was bad as it came from them, it was good for David. It benefited him in many ways, and he knew it. Whatever he may have thought while under the trial, he perceived himself to be the better for it when it was over. It was not good to the proud to be prosperous, for their hearts grew sensual and insensible; but affliction was good for the Psalmist. Our worst is better for us than the sinner's best.
It is bad for sinners to rejoice, and good for saints to sorrow. A thousand benefits have come to us through our pains and grief’s, and among the rest is this, that we have thus been schooled in the law.
These we have come to know and to keep by feeling the smart of the rod. We prayed the Lord to teach us, and now we see how He has already been doing it. Truly He has dealt well with us, for God has dealt wisely with us.
We have been kept from the ignorance of the greasy hearted by our trials, and this, if there were nothing else, is just cause for constant gratitude.
To be larded by prosperity, is not good for the proud; but for the truth to be learned by adversity is good for the humble. Very little is to be learned without affliction. If we would be scholars we must be sufferers. As the Latin’s say, "Experientia docet", experience teaches.
***There is no royal road to learning the royal statutes; God's commands are best read by eyes wet with tears.***
Maybe this enlightens us in what Paul said:
1 Thessalonians 5 v 18
“in everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus to you-ward.”
Even in great indescribably heinous afflictions, God can make all things new; WE WHO BELONG TO HIM “NEED NEVER FEAR”!!!
REJOICE, AGAIN I SAY REJOICE…….
Rejoice in the Lord always
And again I say, and again I say
Rejoice in the Lord always
And again I say, and again I say
Rejoice
Come bless the Lord, come bless the Lord
Draw near to worship Christ the Lord
And bless His name, His Holy name
Declaring He is good
O that men would praise Him
O that men would praise Him
O that men would praise His name
Praise His name to the ends of the earth
And again I say rejoice...
Let us rejoice always in God and His Word the Bible!!!
V 72…The law of thy mouth is better unto me Than thousands of gold and silver.
Who can say this?
Who prefers the law of our God, the Christ that bought us, and the heaven to which we hope to go, when we can live no longer upon earth, will we cry out to thousands of gold and silver?
How many are there who, like Judas, will sell their Savior even for thirty pieces of silver?
Hear this, you lovers of this world and of money and other material things!
A sweetly expressive name for the Word of God. It comes from God's own mouth with freshness and power to our souls. Things written are as dried herbs; but speech has a liveliness and dew about it. We do well to look upon the Word of the Lord as though it were newly spoken into our ear; for in very truth it is not decayed by years, but is as forcible and sure as though newly uttered.
Precepts are prized when it is seen that they come forth from the lips of our Father who is in heaven. The same lips which spoke us into existence have spoken the law by which we are to govern that existence. Whence could a law so sweetly proceed as from the mouth of our covenant God? Well may we prize beyond all price that which comes from such a source.
If a poor person had said this, the world's proud with riches would have hinted that the grapes are sour, and that people who have no wealth are the first to despise it; but this is the verdict of a man who owned his thousands, and could judge by actual experience of the value of money and the value of truth. He speaks of great riches, he heaps it up by thousands, he mentions the varieties of its forms,—"gold and silver"; and then he sets the Word of God before it all, as better to him, even if others did not think it better to them.
Wealth is good in some respects, but obedience is better in all respects.
It is well to keep the treasures of this life; but far more commendable to keep the law of the Lord. The law is better than gold and silver, for these may be stolen from us, but not the Word; these take to themselves wings, but the Word of God remains; these are useless in the hour of death, but then it is that the promise is most dear.
Instructed Christians recognize the value of the Lord's Word, and warmly express it, not only in their testimony to their fellow men, but in their devotions to God.
***It is a sure sign of a heart which has learned God's statutes when it prizes them above all earthly possessions; and it is an equally certain mark of grace when the precepts of Scripture are as precious as its promises.***
The Lord cause us thus to prize the law of His mouth…….
How can any professing believers in Jesus Christ so doubt the inerrancy, and infallibility of His Bible, without impugning God’s sovereign power and ability TO KEEP HIS GLORIOUS WORD INTACT TO SAVE THE LOST OF THE WORLD???????
Certainly they have not understood or LOVED Psalms 119…
Submitted by: Dr. Harold Chris Smith, sbc
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