(audio cuts out) to Psalm 119. And I had scheduled to do Psalm 119 for our class, and what was interesting is that I went to the Shepherds Conference the previous weeks, and there was a sermon on all of Psalm 119 in one sermon. And if you guys know Pastor Mark Dever, who is the leader of the Nine Marks Ministry.

He's a well-known author, theologian, and he's an extremely brilliant man. But during his sermon, he read all of Psalm 119, which took almost 20 minutes, I felt like. And I remember thinking, that is a great way to shorten your preparation time. I'm not gonna do it now, because that's just way too much, even just to go through.

But his point was, in doing that, this is a profoundly beautiful Psalm, but how many of us have read it in its entirety, and how many of us have actually gone in to dig deep? So today, I had to sit and think how to cover this book. I mean, even just last week when we covered the Psalm 119, I felt like, gosh, that was a lot of material just to go over, a lot of verses just to go over in a one-hour session.

So what I'm gonna do today is break this down, and we're just gonna go at the pace of making all the observations that we can, okay? Now, what I'd like to do then today is to have more of your involvement, okay? That means, someone's, you know, laughed a little bit.

Yes, we're gonna have some awkward moments when I ask you guys questions, and I'm gonna expect you guys to try to answer and then volunteer to raise your hand and say your answer to the question, okay? So please, please let's do that. All right, in turning to Psalm 119, I wanna give you guys some preliminary information about the Psalm, all right?

So, first, authorship. In this class, I remember reading a part, only a portion of Psalm 119 to you, and telling you flat out, hey, it's young King David, okay? He's a young man who wants to love the word of God. And then I remember someone asking, well, hey, how come my study Bible says it's not King David?

Well, traditionally, okay, by, like, if you go to old school theologians, if you go to Jewish tradition, King David is the author. If you were to talk to an individual who is of the Jewish religion, okay, not a Christian, but Jewish religion, he would say, Psalm 119 is for sure King David.

And there are a lot of reasons why. So for me, I just, you know, when I read it, I just assume it's King David, 'cause that's what I was taught, too. I realized there are different views, okay? There is a view that because of the way this person sounds in Psalm 119, the struggles, the difficulties, the pains that he has, it might be somebody who is in the post-exilic era, meaning Northern Israel has already fallen, Southern Israel has fallen to Babylon.

And if you remember the time of, like, Daniel and his friends, and King Nebuchadnezzar, who was forcing everybody to obey and worship idols, you can imagine how, you know, devastating of a situation that would have been. People say, it sounds like that. So maybe it's somebody in that post-exilic time.

Somebody else would say, you know, it seems like it's even worse than that, where the word is so far, this person is hungry for it. And when were they so eager to reestablish the word? When they were coming back to Jerusalem. So not only the post-exilic era, but the era of the return.

So we're talking like Ezra, Nehemiah, okay? So about 450 BC. For me, sometimes that kind of logic, yes, is good, because you read it and you see the content, and you say, it sounds like somebody who spoke out of this context. For me, I still take the position that it's King David, and I wrote for you the reasons why.

Okay, I'm not gonna go into detail, but essentially, comparing one Psalm to another, and the fact that this Psalm is, in many ways, not only big, but it's meticulously beautiful to a huge scale. And let me make sense of that. It's kind of like, you know, somebody who is devoted to writing Psalm, or writing, can write a good essay.

Somebody who's made an entire career, lifelong career out of writing, will have huge works of art, like huge essays, or books. Does that make sense? So, in thinking about comparing different Psalms one to another, there's evidence that this kind of meticulous attention to detail, beautiful, like, basically this is an art, you know?

Shows that it's King David. Furthermore, he calls himself your servant, which exists in other Davidic Psalms, and the psalmist mentions that he speaks of God's testimonies in the presence of noblemen and kings. He doesn't sound like, you know, just your average leader. He sounds like royalty, okay? So, that's just a tidbit about the authorship of Psalm 119.

Moving forward to the structure of it, this is a massive work, okay? Psalm 119, as many of you guys know, because on your Bible, it'll say, and break up the Psalm into little sections, is a ginormous acrostic. You guys know what an acrostic is, right? You know that song, "Love"?

L is for the way you look at me. O is for the only one I see. It's like an acrostic, L-O-V, it all sounds, it all matches, it's a way to remember, it's a way to express, it's a way to say something in a very artistic way, okay? You guys don't know that song?

You do know that song, okay, thank you. Now, here's the thing, though. The thing is, 22 stanzas, okay? 22 stanzas, because it follows the Hebrew alphabet. And so, if some of your translations have actually the heading, it'll say, Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, that's the Hebrew alphabet. And what's beautiful about it is, all eight verses in each stanza begins with that Hebrew letter, okay?

And so, if you think about it, to write something like this, and in this way, at the time, it must have required such great attention, and required such dedication, okay? And I ask you the question, what can we deduce by something like this? For me, I sit and I think, gosh, for us, we live in a generation where spontaneous, in-the-moment speech is seen as most real and genuine.

You know what I mean? Like, to be real, it has to be unedited, it has to be raw. For this, I think King David, psalmist, took time meditating, and essentially saying, I'm thinking about God and his word to such a detail, he is not only writing such a huge work of art, but essentially, he's kind of like saying, from A to Z, from front to end, I've thought about this, you know what I mean?

And so, to think about the devotion, dedication, and the time just to work at this, you appreciate the fact that this individual has thought deeply about God and his truth, okay? That's an encouragement to us. For us who live in a time when our deepest thoughts come from like one-liners, from a generation where if a sermon goes for an X amount of time, we zone out, and all that kind of stuff, this psalm is a huge work of art showing the depth of devotion and thought that the psalmist has, okay?

So that being said as a way to think about it, let's read a section and really dive into it. So let's go into verse one, and we're gonna read to verse eight, and our goal today is to really dive into verses one through 17, or one to 16 and stop there, okay?

But I'm gonna break it up into two sections. The first, how blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. How blessed are those who observe his testimonies, who seek him with all their heart. They also do no unrighteousness, they walk in his ways.

You have ordained your precepts that we should keep them diligently. Oh, that my ways may be established to keep your statutes. Then I shall not be ashamed when I look upon all your commandments. I shall give thanks to you with uprightness of heart when I learn your righteous judgments.

I shall keep your statutes, do not forsake me utterly. Okay? Now in this, in verses one and two, the author begins with a questioning statement. It's in the form of a question, but it's basically a statement that causes us to ponder what it means to truly be blessed. I want you guys to take a moment to scan down verses one through eight, and please describe the person who is blessed according to verses one through eight.

So, skim it really quickly, and when you're ready, raise your hand and tell me, in verses one through eight, what is the description, just one, of an individual who's really, really blessed? Okay? (silence) All right. Giving you a little time to scan. Who's got a, yes? Whoever sees God and obeys his statutes.

Great, whoever sees God by obeying his laws, his statutes. Any other descriptions? Yes. His way is blameless. What else? Yes. They do know unrighteousness, okay? So obviously this first section has, a theme to it here, as it describes the individual who's really, really blessed. And I want you guys to take a moment to think about that, okay?

For us, when we think of an individual who's been really, really blessed by God, is that the same kind of concept that you have? That's an important question to ask. As a matter of fact, let's think about this for a little deeper. He says, twice, in verse one and two, how blessed, oh gosh, how blessed are you?

If we see people with lots of wonderful, beautiful children, we might say, how blessed. You must be so blessed. If we see an individual who's just worked so hard to achieve a significant milestone in their life, whether it be getting accredited, whether it be having a degree, and then once they achieve it, what do they say?

I feel so blessed, okay? Well, is that all the kind of same perspective of what it means to be blessed? Someone answered for us, when you think of blessed even, what do you think of in the first place? What do you think of when you think blessed? What comes to mind?

Just anything that comes to mind. It could be something from other parts of scripture or just what you think. The Beatitudes, great. Blessed are those, right? Who are meek, who suffer for righteousness, blessed are the peacemakers, et cetera. Good. If you've ever heard a sermon from the Beatitudes, they probably spend time on the concept of being blessed.

The Beatitudes goes completely contrary to what we think is typically blessing. Lots of material, safety, security, and having their life be a success in the lives of the world. So what does blessed mean there in the Beatitudes, and what does blessed mean here in Psalm 119? If you can write it down, the Hebrew word is assure.

Assure. Now, the concept in the Hebrew word here and the Greek word in the Beatitudes is really similar, and what it means is content and happy. And I find that incredibly surprising. Okay? Again, it just goes against and shatters the expectations that we have in our day, in our life.

When we think about happiness and the things that we pursue in order to be happy, does this fall in line? Does it fall in line for you? And it really goes to shatter what we think about all this. And so it reminds me of a passage that we studied at the very beginning of our whole series in Psalm 1, verses one through three.

"How blessed is the man who does not walk "in the counsel of the wicked, "nor stand in the path of the sinners, "nor sit in the seat of scoffers. "But his delight is in the law of the Lord, "and his law he meditates day and night. "He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water." And so as we think about this, the concept for this psalmist, for King David, to feel truly blessed is not so much to win something, it's not so much to achieve something in life.

For him to feel really, really blessed is to be in the model, to be in the form of God's word, to have God's truth be evident in his life, to have God's presence as near as possible. And what you'll see is that that's what he talks about, really. When he considers, again, in verse one, when he considers how blessed are those whose way is blameless, I always really had a problem, to tell you honestly, with the word blameless.

You know, while I was getting ordained, the elders led me through that passage on leadership, and there's that word again, blameless, you know? An elder in the church or a leader in the church, a servant of God, a deacon, must be blameless. And that's always like, okay, who's really blameless, you know?

And there's a sense in which this passage, for me, just continues to challenge every standard. Who is the one who is blameless? Who is the one who is, you know, where no accusation can come? Well, the concept here, when we think of blameless, if you can write down, it's the individual who is complete and has integrity.

In some of your other translations, it'll just, rather than saying blameless, it'll use the word integrity or sincerity. But he describes for us that concept because that concept is hard. If you just leave it at that and say, every single one of you must be blameless, which is true, that concept is difficult.

But he describes it and he says, the one who is blameless is the one who walks in the law of the Lord. He's the one who observes and keeps his testimony. And so, you think about that a little bit, and then you get a little better picture. And I am all the more convicted and challenged to think about all this.

One of the things that we all struggle with is maintaining and keeping alive that passion and faithfulness to God. One of the things that's hard is not so much in the moment when there's an event, when there's a praise meeting, to go and worship with all your lungs and heart and voice, when there is a conference to go and study with your notebook and with everything laid out and you're receiving all that good food.

What's actually hard is having a longevity, right? Persevering in growth and study and walking with God daily. And so, how does he describe it? He describes it as the one who is healthy, the one who is complete, the one who has integrity is the one who maintains this and keeps a walk faithful to the Lord.

And if you think about that, wouldn't that be a huge blessing? I mean, for you guys, just think on your own personal level. I feel like, you know, as you get older, you don't have huge ups and downs, so to speak, but you have this slow progressing, like neglect, neglect, neglect, and oh, shoot.

And then, you know what I mean? When we were younger, we had super highs. We went to high school ministry stuff and we were like, yeah, give you everything, God. And then, boom, you fell to like, I don't know, like stealing and petty theft, or you fell to like lying or cursing or compromising with a girlfriend or boyfriend.

So you had these huge ups and downs. Wouldn't it be a blessing in your own, do you have that kind of heart where you say, wouldn't it be a blessing to be able to walk with the Lord steadily in fervency for a long time? So this is the way the author is thinking, okay?

All right, now looking at the next verses, let's read verse three all the way down to verse seven. They also do no unrighteousness, they walk in His ways. You have ordained your precepts that we should keep them diligently. Pay attention now to verses five through seven. Oh, that my ways may be established to keep your statutes.

Then I shall not be ashamed when I look upon all your commandments. I shall give thanks to you with uprightness of heart when I learn your righteous judgments. I wanna ask you a question here. Now, to say in general, by keeping the Lord's word, we're gonna be blessed. That's really general stuff, right?

But from this little segment that we read, what other benefits does the, you know, does King David see? I'm just gonna say King David, okay? What other benefits does King David see from keeping God's word? What are the results that's gonna come about in his life by means of keeping His word?

Yes. He won't be ashamed. What else is there? (pages rustling) He's going to be able to praise and give thanks to God. What else is there? Be acknowledged. I like that, be acknowledged. In the NASB, translate that established. If you think about that, my goodness, aren't some of those things perhaps some of the deepest longings that we have in our hearts?

For us to be able to rid ourselves of a guilty conscience, what Grace mentioned, in clearing our conscience, where we can enter into a place of holiness, we can enter into a place of other holy people, other saints, without the sentiment of guilt on our conscience, that's huge. To be able to freely worship with clarity, with sincerity, with integrity, that's huge.

The clarity of conscience is so valuable, and then to be acknowledged by God, to be established, not by your own work, but to be established by the Lord. That's a lifelong goal. That's like the goal of our existence, to be pleasing to our master and for our master to acknowledge and establish us.

There's nothing more secure than that. So as you think about this, you'll realize the psalmist is really seeking, through all of this, the best benefits. And lastly, what's interesting to me in verse eight, verse eight, he says, "I shall keep your statutes," and he almost makes like a declaration.

I'm gonna obey your word. And then he says, "Do not forsake me utterly." That's weird, isn't it? It's like, by being with God and his word, and by soaking it in, I'm gonna be established, I'm gonna have a clear conscience, I'm gonna worship. And he says, "Please don't forsake me." Oops.

So the answer to the question I was supposed to ask you, what does a psalmist ask in verse eight? The answer is, "Please do not forsake me utterly." And what's really interesting about that is that, you know, that idea of, "Please do not forsake me utterly," it's something that we would wonder in our perspective as like, that's kind of a weird thing to pray, isn't it?

I'm gonna go on a like a trail of thought with you guys, okay? I'm gonna start off with the statement. I believe us being so privileged, sometimes we don't see the depth of the privilege we have. Okay? And I think that's generally true for us. From King David's perspective, King David loved the law.

When he mentions the law of the Lord, when he mentions testimonies, the precepts, the words that sometimes he uses, words like Torah, the law is Torah. So what is he thinking? He's thinking about those first five books, he's thinking about the words of God that's been passed down. And if you read Deuteronomy, what's really going to be evident is this, blessings and curses, okay?

And so here's a trail of thought. For King David, he's thinking from his perspective that when you are with God through his word, you're going to receive the blessings, the good countenance of the Lord. But when you disobey and you break the covenant fellowship, what do you receive? Curses.

Curses from God Almighty. That's his circumstance, that's his perspective. And so you can imagine, we don't get it. Because why? Because we live in the Hebrews 13, I will never ever forsake you, I love you always, never ever will leave you, that kind of terminology. But you know where the profound truth is?

The curses that are spoken of in Deuteronomy, we do realize it's still true today, right? The curses that are spoken of in Deuteronomy has been taken care of by Christ only for the saints. But for the world at large, those curses exist today. And they will be enacted when Christ returns.

And so what I'm saying is this. Sometimes I read statements like, do not forsake me utterly, God, and it's kind of like, why is he saying that? You know? In what context would he even say that? And part of the reason why I ask is because maybe I take for granted the fact that God's promise to never forsake, to never leave, to never abandon us, that promise is for saints in Christ.

And that's an amazing truth, okay? So in thinking about that, that is why I believe he's saying that, is because for an Old Testament saint, the promises of blessings and curses are readily evident. Okay? Now, to make this a bit more devotional, can we make this our own prayer?

Where we commit in the same tone, with the same kind of, by repetition and by the beauty of the psalm, you see his heart, right? And so let me ask you a question like this. How would you summarize verse one through eight? How would you summarize his view? Okay?

King David's view of his relationship with the word. So take a moment to think about it, and share with us, how would you summarize that? It's always hard to get like everything in a sentence, but think about what was repeated, you know? What was emphasized, and try to hit that as a summary.

Who's got one? How's about, I'm gonna call on a few people, just for the sake of time, okay? How's about, Jack? (laughing) Okay, blessed are those who pursue righteous living. Great, I saw a hand over there. Mobley? Great. (laughing) So he said, oh how happy are those who obey you wholeheartedly, so please be with me.

Okay? Great. As you guys think about that, when was the last time you prayed from that perspective? Like, Lord, I, like make it personal. I am thoroughly blessed when I am in your word. You know, personal prayer. Lord, I am complete opposite of thoroughly blessed when you're far. Do not be far from me, Lord.

You know, please be with me is the same way as saying do not be far from me, Lord. Like, when do we, you know, when do we pray with that kind of perspective? And if you do, that's awesome. Continue doing it. If you don't, pray those prayers this week.

God, I agree with King David. When I'm thoroughly blessed is not when work is going all right. When I'm thoroughly blessed, you know, when I have the heart of the word of God, when I feel the leading of the spirit, so that work I see through the lens of scripture.

I'm thoroughly blessed, Lord, when you're with me. I'm thoroughly blessed, Lord, when you establish me by your word, my highest blessing is to be taught and led by your scriptures. Pray that, okay? So, as a summary, as like a quick thing, I would name, you know, that first stanza, blessed by the word, or something like that, okay?

All right, let's move on to the second stanza, Beth, okay? Number nine, or verse nine. How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your word. With all my heart I have sought you. Do not let me wander for your commandments. Your word I have treasured in my heart that I may not sin against you.

Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes. With my lips I have told of all the ordinances of your mouth, I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and regard your ways. I shall delight in your statutes.

I shall not forget your word, okay? Now, just by way of making sure the emphasis is on the right thing, typically the first words that come out, right? Typically your introduction has your what? Proposition statement. Typically your introduction has that hook, so to speak. And so even with biblical writing, typically what's placed first has a huge emphasis.

And he starts off with a question, which is strike a chord with all of us. How can one keep his way pure? What an awesome question. You know, I feel like that question has been answered, or not asked, asked multiple times, but I don't know if sometimes there is a definitive answer that people cling to.

What I mean by that is, even when I counsel people, and again, it's none of you here, whatever, but even when I counsel people, especially young people, sometimes I'll ask, like, man, I struggle with this, I struggle with that, and I feel apathy, I don't feel motivated, and there's a lot of typical struggles that we have in our spiritual walk.

And sometimes they'll ask me, like, what's a practical thing you can do? Especially when it comes to young men and lust, you know? Especially when it comes to things that are really addicting. Young men and video games, young men and money. I feel like young men have lots of passion for various things, and sometimes it's just incredibly difficult to overcome them.

And so they'll ask, like, what's a practical thing? Like, what's something that's, you know, really kind of doable? And the reason why earlier I said, I don't think there was a substantial answer to that is because why do we ask a follow-up question like that? As if the word of God wasn't practical.

As if maintaining a passion to receive and have the word of God in our hearts is not something that's tangible, right? And so here, he answers the question by saying, by keeping it according to your word, with all my heart I have sought you, do not let me wander from your commandments.

Your word I have treasured in my heart. There is a question here automatically. Do we have a level of confidence? Perhaps by experience, do we have a level of confidence? Okay? You know, experience builds a great amount of confidence, and what I find is that perhaps there's a lot of timidity and a lot of lack of confidence in the scriptures, and maybe it's because it's a lack of experience.

What do I mean by that? You know? This, a little while ago, I was really egging this guy to go pursue a girl, and I was like, you should go tell her, man! Life is short! Tomorrow's not guaranteed, you know? And he was just really timid. And what's funny is, just thinking about how our generation does the communicating of like, hey, I like you, it's weird.

It's already super timid, you know? If you think about it, it's like, hey, do you wanna go out? Go out where? You know, it's like, it's really broad and vague because you don't wanna be way too direct. That already shows a level of timidity, you know? It's like, just saying, hey, I like you, that's just too weird, you know?

It's just too awkward. So not a lot of people do that. Well, the story goes, again, the guy mustered up enough courage, and you know, he has to like, wrap himself up so before he's, he's like totally doing, like he's going boxing or something, but once he does that, now he feels a level of what?

Confidence. You've done it once, then you can do it again. You know what I mean? And then, next thing you know, it's like, whoa, man, you need to calm down 'cause you're just way too confident. But I tell that story because even with the word of God, there's a sense in which you face various circumstances in your life where it's not just external hardships.

Sometimes it's internal hardships. You don't know why you think the way you do. You don't know why you're so down. You don't know why you have evil thoughts. You don't know why you do what you do. And you have such lack of self-control. In those moments, do we have experiential confidence in the Bible as a way to victory?

You see what I'm asking, right? Like, we can have a level of confidence from afar by people telling us you have to go there in order to get advice and counsel to overcome your situation. It's another thing to say, last time I went to the Bible and I had victory.

Does that make sense? And so this passage is telling us to have that kind of confidence in the word of God. How can a young man keep his way of career? That question is asked. And the answer needs to be a confident by having the word of God in my heart.

Another thing that I found really, really insightful, really, really convicting, is this main point by a gentleman, my John Fable. I read his commentary and I found out that he wasn't from our era, but he was from the time about the 1600s. And he made this point in his commentary, and he says, "For many, there is a, "basically there is like a struggle "with having a confidence in the Bible, "but then there are those who don't even ask "the practical question, how can I remain pure?" And so I quoted this from him saying, "Let him," he's saying, any young man or anyone of us, "Let him not shrink from the glorious enterprise "of living a pure and gracious life, "as though unattainable.

"Let him inquire how obstacles may be overcome, "but let him not think that he knows the road "to easy victory or dream that he can be kept "by his own wisdom." What he means is, don't go to extremes. On one end, some of us are so timid, we think we always fail.

We have a fail-ism, failure-ism or something, where it's almost like our frame of mind is always we just are going to fail. And he's saying, "Do not give up that glorious task "of seeking purity to the degree where you will ask "and seek, how can I be pure?" Right?

And on the flip side, don't be so arrogant to think it's not a big problem. It's not a big problem in my life. It's not a big problem in my church. We've got this under control. You see what he's saying, right? He's saying, "Ask." And then, a gentleman by the way of a name, Walford, in the New International Commentary of the Old Testament, Psalms, he says, "A young man is unaccustomed to the road, "so he must not be ashamed to ask often the Lord "who is ready and able to instruct." I thought that was really wise as well.

Again, this is, I'm looking at this Psalm devotionally, and it's doing a number on my heart. My desire to be pure. How strong is that desire? That first I would think to ask, "How can I get there?" And how strong is that desire to be pure that I would ask, "How can I get there?" Frequently.

And be unashamed of saying, "You know, I don't know. "God, lead me." And isn't that the humble posture that we should have before God? God, you instruct me through your word. You guide me, and humbly we learn and walk the way that he reveals, right? So again, this passage teaching us about this question.

How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your word. Now let's take an observation in verse 10. He says, "With all my heart I have sought you. "Do not let me wander from your commandments. "Your word I have treasured in my heart, "that I may not sin against you." He contrasts two concepts here.

One of treasure and one of wandering. When you guys think of wandering, what's the kind of imagery that you get in your mind? When you think of wandering, what kind of imagery do you get? Or what comes, just word association. Wandering, go. (laughs) Wandering, meandering, it's like, do do do, and just kinda strolling, okay?

What else? Wandering, absolutely lost. Good, thank you. I like that word a lot. So I'm gonna use that as a way to segue, okay? We wanna take notice of that word, do not let me wander from your commandments. Because beautifully, if you've noticed what he's been doing, is he's been asking God prayerfully for certain things to be done on his behalf.

Things like teach me, guide me. But he also asks in both positive and negative ways. He asks positively things like, yes, teach me and whatnot, and then he asks things negatively, such as do not let me wander from your commandments. And I asked that question about what does wandering for you make you think about?

And it's really that concept of being lost, okay? And if you juxtapose being lost as opposed to what he's talking about in this next couple verses about treasuring. If you think of treasure, what do you do? You put it in a box, in a box, in a box, in a box, in a bank, and then you say, you know, there's my treasure.

You see what I'm saying? And so he juxtaposes these two ideas, and he says, don't let me just idly, like ignorantly, in a lost fashion, go about life, wandering off from your path. But as a treasure, as I would dedicate to make sure the treasure is safe, as I would dedicate to make sure the treasure is exactly where I know it ought to be, with that kind of attention to detail, let me treasure the word of God in my heart, okay?

So let me wrap up by calling us and challenging us. These first two big stanzas, really, what he's doing is expressing his perspective and his attitude. And what we found is words like observe, keep, walk, treasure, rejoice, meditate, and delight in your word. The challenge is, can we commit to doing that?

I'm not asking you right now, you know, like give me an assessment and survey of what you're doing with your Bible study and what you're doing, you know, like with your word intake and all that kind of stuff. But can we commit in our hearts to doing that? Can we, I guess the whole idea is muster up our willpower and say I'm not going to allow regular patterns of living the world.

You just go to work Monday through Friday and you crash on the weekends. I'm not gonna allow that kind of pattern to dictate my life. But with great sense of commitment, with almost a sense of promise, can we commit to doing what King David is talking about? Where he says that he will treasure, right?

Where he says that he's going to speak of these. He says, "With my lips I have told of your ordinances. "I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies, "as much as in all riches, and I will meditate," and he says, "I shall delight." I feel like we're very hesitant to make commitments and we're very hesitant to make like statements like that, right?

And rightly so, because in wisdom, scripture tells us, look, you're a man. You're not able to keep like promises for the next month and the next year and stuff like that, so don't make vows, you know, that's what the scripture says. But I think there's a difference between, and I kind of wrote this in your thing, there's a difference between a heartfelt commitment to the Lord and just a vow to anybody.

There's a difference between, first of all, making a vow directly to God and making a vow to your neighbor. There's a huge difference, right? Just as there's a difference when you just not only make a vow, but when you speak, when you speak to a neighbor as opposed to your God, there's a difference.

When I speak to my child as to, let's say, the President of the United States, there's a difference. To whom you make a commitment and to whom you make a vow makes a huge difference. And then the content of what you do, right? The content of what you're vowing.

When, you know, oh, I can't remember his name all of a sudden, but in the book of Judges, the guy who vowed to sacrifice his daughter. Jephthah, thank you. Making that kind of commitment, essentially what you're putting down is a promise. Something almost of, you know, if you make a, you have a debt and then you have your, what's that word, collateral, you know what I'm saying?

The content of his vow, was that something in his control? Absolutely not. Was that something God called for? I don't think so at all. But when we make a commitment like, God, I'm going to be saturated by your word, I'm going to live according to your word, I'm going to obey you, that is both proper and called for by God himself.

You see what I'm saying? And so we don't have a problem with making vows when it's in the appropriate time to the appropriate person. Just like we make vows to, you know, in work, we make commitments, just like we make vows and promises to our spouse when we get married.

You know, just recently I was doing a marriage counseling. Hey Jack, do you remember your waiting vow? (laughs) Just kidding, I told him I was going to make fun of him and put him on the spot. But you know, it goes like, you know, I take, I, you know, Jack or Mark, take X and so to be my lawfully wedded wife.

And you know, I promise to love sacrificially as Christ of the church, I'll protect, provide, you know, the whole thing, for better or for worse, sickness and in health, you know what I mean? That is a serious vow, right? You're listing off things you're going to do from your will, not by feeling, but volitionally by your will.

I will protect you, I'll take care of you, I will love you sacrificially. Are those not commitments and promises? Absolutely, they are commitments and promises of the most solemn kind. But at your wedding, to your wife, you better make those promises, right? Likewise, I think if we are too afraid of making commitments, I don't think it's healthy, why?

Because I think we should make commitments in appropriate places to our God. To say, God, I will obey you. God, I will surrender to follow your commandments. Those are things I think we need to subjectively, and subjectively meaning me, I need to say it. I can't wait for the pastor to be like, hey, you need to commit to God's ways and his word, and be like, mm-hmm, you know?

I need to go pray that to the Lord. God, I will delight in your word. You know, by the way, just kind of a way to wrap this up. When I think about something that he says here, which I think is pretty profound. (inhales) I think I left it out.

All right. Well, if you look at the passage, and he talks about that idea of wandering, in verse 10, he says, "With all my heart I have sought you. "Do not let me wander from your commandments." And he says, "Your word I have treasured in my heart, "that I may not sense against you.

"Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes." Okay? So, kind of wrapping this all up, think about this for a moment, okay? The scenario looks like this. The psalmist, King David, has to seek God with all his might and strength in his heart. What kind of scenario do you think he's in?

Something easy? Something nice and slow going? Something good pace? Something that everybody can handle? No. He's probably in a lot of distress. He's probably under persecution, which he was throughout most of his life. He's probably in even personal angst. So, he has to seek God with all his heart.

What's more, he's wandering. There is a place for us that we need to be, but for some reason we always blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, wander, right? Like the nation of Israel. And if I think about myself, my mind wanders so much. My mind wanders. I could be studying and an email will pop up and then down low there'll be like, men's schools from Wayfair.

And I'm like, oh, look at that, power tool. 30 minutes go by, like what am I doing? Go back to studying, you know? We wander because of materialism, just like that. We wander because someone says something and now we're angry and our minds are completely gone. We wander because of personal lust.

We wander because sometimes we're just afraid. You can sit there thinking about the future. What's gonna happen next year? What should I do with my job? What should I do with this? And then blah, your mind is distracted. We wander all over the place. And you know what's been interesting?

Just, this has been like on my head so I'm just gonna share it. My mind has been not all together for the last entire week and it's been weird. I haven't slept well at all. Like I've been waking up at like two in the morning with nightmares and I haven't been able to go back to sleep.

This is a silly nightmare. Silly nightmare is I'm on the top of a water slide, like a big one, and as the water is rushing, you know the water is all rushing down like this and then there's like a little wave that's created artificially by the water. And I see these little shorts.

It's Emmett. He's upside down and his shorts are up. And I'm going, oh my God, somebody go help him, you know? And I look over at the lifeguard and he's on his phone like dillydallying, I'm like, what are you doing? Look at my baby. And then he throws his phone and he jumps but he doesn't clear the edge of the pool and he snaps his leg in half.

It's like, goosh, and I'm saying, ah. So I run down the slide and then I go grab him and then thankfully he's like, ooh, he's still alive. And then I'm looking for Bia and I'm like, what are you doing, where are you, you know? And then, you know, Bia jumps into action so she jumps.

I'm like, no, no, you have to stay out because I have to pass you, Emmett. I can't get out of the pool with him in my hand. And then she jumps in and I'm like, what are you doing? So I woke up going, what are you doing? (laughing) Yeah, and I just haven't been able to go back to sleep.

But my mind has just been distracted so bad. So bad that if I try to go back to sleep, the next thing is Bia's there and I pass Emmett but I look over there and Yoshi's drowning out the other end. I'm like, no, I can't sleep, right? Well, what's really interesting is I shared with some of my close friends and they're all like, let's interpret this stream.

(laughing) And then I'm just like, yeah, I'm just not going to pools for a while. But, you know, I read through all of Psalm 119 and it actually quieted my heart. Psalm 19 says things like, if I devote my ways to the Lord, God will enlarge my heart. If I devote my ways to the Lord, God will give me what?

Security. To be established by God is actually security. Once I started thinking of what's the most frightening thing in all the universe? It's, again, losing your children, it's hurt that's caused to the people you love and the fear that could devastate you, literally crush you. And once in a while, I just have this morbid fear of stuff like that.

I don't know if you guys can relate but, and I know people who've struggled with that. And I'm gonna say, the way to overcome those things is like, you idiot, it's not gonna happen. No, kids can actually drown at pools really easily, you know, if you ever read the stories.

The way to think about that is have a different perspective. The Lord God is in control, he is sovereign. Who can protect me? Who can protect my children? Who cares more for my children than I do? Who is ever watching, unlike the lifeguard, but who is ever watching? My God.

Where do I learn that stuff? The scriptures. That's what I'm saying is like, we really need to be in the word to fight every wandering thought, fear, distraction, temptation, and lust, amen? And the word of God is proven to suffice, it's proven to lead us the right way. Let's bow our heads in prayer.

Father God, we wanna thank you for your truth. God, without it, we would have no lamp to our feet. God, without it, we wouldn't have the refreshing waters, and we would be thirsty. God, without your word, we won't know you. So Lord, help us to open up our eyes, open up our ears, that God, we might see wonderful things from your word.

And God, help us not to simply be people of wanting knowledge to be prideful, but God, help us to realize the words are yours. And so if we revere you, we should have to respect what you say. And God, if we don't want to sin against you, then we should respect and listen to your command.

And I pray, Father God, again, that as we develop and grow in our faith and our hearts to please you, help us then to be people who thoroughly, thoroughly rest and dwell upon your words. God, I wanna thank you for our time. It's in Christ's name, amen. Okay. For homework, if you guys can do the next section, two sections, two stanzas, Psalm 119, verses 17 through 32, and there's gonna be a lot of repetition.

I hope you guys circle or, I don't know, do something to mark the repetition stuff, okay? So note down every synonyms for the word of God in this section. You notice that it says stuff like the testimonies, the statutes, ordinances, and think about what that kind of reflects. What are the main concepts?

Learning about the psalmist's perspective about the Bible, what can we learn from that perspective? So we're seeing through his eyes, right? What can we deduce and then have as our own? And then also, are there any actions that the psalmist asked God to take on his behalf? Please complete this chart also for objective and subjective descriptions about God's word from verse one to 32.

So objective is like your commands are true or faithful, okay, it's just objectively saying a description, a character trait of the Bible. But then to say your word is to my delight, it tastes sweet like the honeycomb, that's like an experiential subjective thing, right? So if you guys can write that in just for homework, and then we'll come next week and discuss some of that.

All right?