Well, do you have a Bible in front of you this morning? Do you have a physical copy of a book that you brought with you? Hopefully you do. Or if you have a digital device, that's alright, but if you've got a physical copy, I'd invite you to open your Bible to the middle, right? Just whatever you think your best guess is, towards the very center of your Bible. And if you succeeded in that, you should be somewhere close to our chapter that we're going to study today. And it's Psalm 119. That is correct. Psalm 119 is going to be what we pay attention to this morning, so hopefully you can find that. And I would invite you to stand up, because we are going to read the Scriptures together. Don't get comfortable in those seats. Stand up with us, and we're going to start in verse one of Psalm 119. Please pay attention to the Word of the Lord together with me. It says,
Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways! You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes! Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous rules. I will keep your statutes; do not utterly forsake me! How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes! With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word. Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word. Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me! My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times. You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones, who wander from your commandments. Take away from me scorn and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies. Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes. Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors. My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word! When I told of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes! Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word! Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law! I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me. I cling to your testimonies, O Lord; let me not be put to shame! I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart! Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways. Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared. Turn away the reproach that I dread, for your rules are good. Behold, I long for your precepts; in your righteousness give me life!
That ends the reading of God's Word. You can have your seat. And I could tell some of you were starting to shift your weight. Some of you were starting to be like, we could be in this for a minute, right? This chapter is 176 verses long, the longest chapter in the entire Bible. As I was reading to study for this sermon, I read an account of someone back in the old days who was on their way to be executed, right? Like they would have public executions back in the day. And this person was actually expecting one of the governing officials, the duke or the king or whoever it was, to pardon him, but the word the messenger declaring the pardon hadn't arrived yet. And so here they are, like going through the steps of like they're about to execute this person, but they had this tradition that like, hey, when you're going to get executed, you get to choose if there's a song that you would want to be sung or a Scripture that you would want to be read. And the person said, Psalm 119 is the passage for me, and they don't even get halfway through it, and then the word from the messenger comes and he's pardoned, and his life is spared. I don't think this person was a righteous person. I don't think God was sparing their life for any particular reason, but it's a long Psalm. We read less than 25% of it here this morning, and for some of you, that was too much, and that's what we're here to talk about in this sermon, because you can see that this psalm is very long and even a preacher like, if you've heard of Charles Spurgeon, who was a pastor in London, back a century ago. He was pretty intimidated to preach on this passage. He was like other Psalms are like rivers or lakes, but Psalm 119 it's like the whole ocean, right? It is vast. There is so much that it has to say. So, we're not going to attempt to explore every nook and cranny of this chapter today, but we're going to paddle out. We're going to start the process of actually paying attention to this Scripture. And I hope that you caught it, that there's a lot of things that seem like they're repeated throughout this Psalm. And if we were to keep reading, we would see that this theme really goes through. All but one or two of the verses mention God's Word. They mention the Bible, right?
Look at what it says in verse 1. “Blessed are those whose ways blame us, who walk in the” what? In the “law of the Lord.” Verse 2, “Blessed are those who keep his testimonies.” Go to verse 4, it says, “You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh, that my way is maybe steadfast in keeping your statutes.” In verse 6, “Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.” Right? We’ve got all these different words to describe the same thing, which is God's Word. Sometimes when you hear the word “law,” you just think of the commandments that might be included in the Bible, but they would actually use this term, the Law, to describe the first five books of the Bible that definitely do contain commandments, but they also contain this epic account of God's way with his people and how he chose the people and how he was good to them, and how he led them out of slavery to Egypt, and how he blessed them, and how good he was to his people.
And that's the subject of this psalm. It seems fitting that almost directly in the center of the Bible would be a chapter that is just declaring how good God's Word is. And it goes on and on. And I don't know if you caught this, but maybe some of you are thinking, Pastor Bill, but you didn't even read all the words, right? What were these words? Like, what's this first thing? Life. And then, between verse 8 and 9, you're like, “Beth,” who's Beth? How did Beth get her name in the Bible? Like, what's going on here? And if you begin to really understand this Psalm, it's a little harder for us who are reading it in English, but it was originally written in Hebrew. And if you've studied the Hebrew language, you would recognize the word “aleph” because aleph is actually the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And then it's not “Beth,” it's “Bet” is the way it's pronounced in Hebrew, the second letter, so it's almost like A and then B. And then, if you were reading this in the original language, you would see that we got eight lines, eight verses in this first section. Guess what's the first letter of each of those lines? Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And then what's the first letter of the next eight verses after that? It's Bet, right? And this is like you can go through it. And as I was reading this, I'm remembering when I took a Hebrew class back in the day, and it's like, we're having to learn the Hebrew alphabet. We’ve got like the English alphabet song, and there's like a Hebrew alphabet song, and it's like, Aleph Bet, Aleph Bet, Gimel Daleth. And again, it keeps going on and on, right? And it's like, oh, okay, I remember it to this day because of that song.
And so, this is a very interesting work of poetry and literature, because it's an acrostic. It's like, hey, I'm going to start every line with this letter, which is somewhat hard to do. Like, this is an impressive work. Like, could you write a song about anything that started with the same letter? Like, if you were going to write a song about the Bible, and we're like, okay, give me eight lines that start with the letter A, you'd be like, “All the Bible, the Bible is wonderful. About the Bible, the Bible is awesome. Awesome is the whole Bible. And like, this is not just the song that you're going to take your guitar down to the beach and write in one afternoon. This is a result of a long time where the person who wrote this Psalm is like, man, I am so in love with the Scriptures. The Scriptures are having such a profound effect upon me. Over the course of my life, I have so much that I could say about it, like, hey, give me any letter of the alphabet and I'm ready to riff on how good God's Word is.
And I've got a question for you. And if you'd be willing to take out your handout, it's there in your bulletin. If you've got it, go ahead and open it up to the back. I'm going to ask you to do something a little unorthodox, but I want you to actually answer live in the room. The first question there for the Application Questions, “How would you describe your interaction with God's Word over the past couple weeks before this sermon?” Right? I'm not going to ask you to write a song. The lines don't even have to write. They don't have to start. You can pick any letter that you want. But if you were just to give me a line or two lines like, seriously, write something down. How would you describe your experience of this Scripture, your interaction with it. The writer of Psalm 119, he's given us quite a few lines describing his interaction. I'd be interested to know what your thoughts would be. How would you describe it?
Now, some of us, maybe we don't have a lot to write down, and just keep writing if you are, because I'll talk at you for a second, and maybe some of us are like, Pastor Bill, how much time do we have? There's not enough space on this note sheet for me to describe what's going on. And if you're new and you're like, I haven't really read the Bible. I haven't had much of an experience with the Bible. On the back tables, we have Bibles that if you don't have a Bible, we would love for you to have one. You can feel free to take one of those Bibles and make it your own and open it up and read it for yourself. But many of us who have a Bible, let me just stop you there, if you're right, and you'll have more time to get into that throughout the week, but would you write it down? How would you describe it? If this psalmist, they don't give us who it is, right? He doesn't put his name on it, because it's not about him, it's about the Word. It's about his experience with the Bible. Like, if you were to compare what you just wrote down to what he's writing down, would you say that your experience of it is similar, or would you say that possibly it's different? If you're being honest, like, I don't know if you have a Bible, if you say I've actually been opening it, I've been reading it, or maybe I've read it, but it kind of took someone else, my spouse, had to be like, have you read your Bible today to actually get me to open it up and read it. Or, you know, when I read it, was I just checking a box? Did it feel like a chore? Or was I finding delight in this Scripture?
Like Psalm 119 is giving us an example. It is giving us an example of the kind of experience that is possible when we really pay attention to the Scriptures. And some of you at this point, you're like, I think I know where this sermon is going. I think this is going to be one of those, you should read your Bible. More sermons. One of those Compass Bible Church sermons probably going to encourage us to memorize some things. So, get this down for point number one on your notes, you should read your Bible more. No, that's not point number one. Don't write that down. There's no slide for that. That is not point number one in this sermon. And my goal in us studying this text is not to lay a burden on you, but to bless you, right? To encourage you look at verse 1 of our Psalm. “Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the Lord.” Verse two, “Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,” who seek him with their whole heart, like there is blessing, there is joy, there is happiness that could be yours, and it could be found from you paying attention to the Scripture. And I know some of us when we look at this Psalm and we're like, wait, Pastor Bill is trying to compare myself to the person who wrote Psalm 119. That's like trying to compare myself to an Olympic athlete.
Has anybody been watching these Winter Olympics recently? And you see some of these world class athletes, and it's phenomenal. It is amazing what they could do. And I look at much of it, and I'm like, there is no way I could ever do that right? Like this downhill skiing, I would die. That would be the end of me. These ladies doing like speed skating, these ladies are booking it. There's no way I could go as fast as they're going, and the precision with which they're taking those turns, it's phenomenal. Don't even get me started on the bobsledding, right? Like you would not get me in a bobsled. There's no amount of money. Well, maybe there is, I don't know, we could see. But when I watched the Winter Olympics, you know, like I'm at the point in my life where most of my Olympic dreams have died, right? Like Summer Olympics, there is no amount of practice, no amount of time and effort I could put in where I could think I could compete at an Olympic level, except for one Olympic sport, and it's in the Winter Olympics, and it's curling. Have you watched this and you're like these people? They kind of look like normal people. This guy's got glasses, right? Like, he looks kind of like a nerd, right? But here he is. He's an Olympian. He's a world class athlete. And I think, hey, if I devoted myself, if I actually practice this, like, in four years, in eight years, when the Olympics come back to America for the Winter Olympics, like, what if I was on the team? Like, wouldn't that be awesome, and I could be the guy kind of, like, letting the stone go, and do I touch it with my finger? I do or not, right? Like, I could be the one doing that. And that's the way I want you to think about this.
Some people, when they look at a Psalm like this, get very intimidated. But do you realize that the person who wrote this Psalm, at one point, they were exactly where you are in their relationship with the Scriptures? Like, look at verse 5 with me. You know this person, even though they can write this Psalm, they're not like, oh, I’ve got it all figured out. Oh, I can do this. It's like, oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes. They're not like, overconfident. They're not thinking, I've got this. Look at verse 7. “I will praise you with an upright heart when I” what? When I “learn your righteous rules.” The person who wrote this, they had to learn it, just like you and I would have to learn it. It's not like, hey, let me put my name on it so you can just write me off and think, oh, only that person could do it. Like some people think David wrote it. And it's like, oh, yeah, well, David could do something like this because he's in the Bible, but I'm just a normal person. No, the name's not on it because it's like, yeah, any of us could have this type of experience. If we're willing to give ourselves to the Word, we could find these things could be true of us as well, and we would have to learn it, just like this person had to learn it. It's not like, oh, they had some special skills. Like, maybe not all of us are going to have the songwriting skills or the poetry skills that this person had, but we could have the experience that they are describing. They had to learn it.
And so, what I want to do for this morning is, we're just trying to get into this here. And you can see on the back of your handout, we are going to spend the entire week reading this Psalm. There's a schedule there. We'd love for you to follow along with us, but I'd like to turn your attention to the verse that Ryan Read for us. And I did not talk about this ahead of time, but verse 18, because it's like the psalmist, yeah, there were things he had to learn, but there were also things he had to ask God to do. And even after he's writing this, while he's writing this, he is asking God to do things. And look at what he asked God to do. In verse 18, he says, open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. It's not like, hey, I can just go pick up the Bible, and I can just exert my own effort, and all of this is going to just automatically happen. You know what the psalmist realizes he needed to do? I need to ask God to do something. I need to ask God to do something that is way beyond what I could just make a choice to go and do.
So, let's get this down for the actual point number one on your notes: “Ask God to open your eyes to more wonder from the Word.” Ask God to open your eyes to more wonder from the Word. I'm going to ask you here this morning, as we embark on paddling out into the whole ocean, to pray that you and I would actually make requests of God. God, I need you to do something, and the first thing that we're seeing is, God, I need you to open my eyes. And you could do this. You could go home today, and you could pray this, you could wake up tomorrow morning, and you could ask God to do this very same thing. But then you know what you're going to need to do after you ask God to open your eyes? You're going to have to get your eyes open, and you're going to have to actually point your eyes at the Bible, at the Word of the Lord. I mean, I get very concerned that it seems like in America, we are satisfied with the thinnest slice of Scripture possible on a daily basis. It's like one verse is great. Half a verse would be better. Like that is the way a lot of people live. I get really concerned when I see people on social media be like, have you forgotten to read your Bible today? I got you. And they like, spend like two or three seconds reading like one verse, and it's like, there you go. You're good for the day, right? Open my eyes. You know we need to. It says, open my eyes that I may what? Behold that I'm going to see something. This word, “behold,” it's translated a couple different ways in our Psalms. Like, look at verse 6 with me. It says, “Then I shall not be put to shame having my” what? My eyes fixed on all your commandments. The same word for “behold” in verse 18. It's like, man, I'm going to be looking at this thing with intent. This is not describing a quick glance. Like, hey, let me just get a quick glance at the Scriptures, and then I'm good for the day. Let me just pull out some devotional book and get some positive thought for the day, and then I'm good. This is like, I’ve got to get, as pastor Bobby would say, my eyeballs in the Bible, and then you hear him say that, and you're like, that doesn't totally rhyme, but it works. How? How does it work? Right? Like, no, I need to get my eyes, and I need to get them in the text. And it says in verse 6 that my eyes fixed on just my favorite verses that I already know and like; I’ve got to get my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
Friends, there are wonders in the Scripture, but my question for us is, are we taking the time to actually look at them, to actually behold them, to get our eyes open and pointed at the Scripture with enough thought and intention that we could really see what God has to show us. I mean, I get concerned when I see people treating the Scripture like a podcast, like it's something I'm listening to while I'm driving in my car, while I'm doing the dishes or going for a jog, almost kind of like it's background music, like it's kind of giving an ambiance or setting a mood or a nice tone. We really need to pay attention to the Scripture. I mean, some of us, we read the Bible on a digital device. Do you ever get a notification that kind of takes your eyes out of the app where the Scripture is into some other app, right? Are you tempted, after you read in the Digital Bible, just to swipe back to your calendar and get on with the day? Like, no, we're going to have to get our eyes open and pay attention to the Word.
Look with me in verse 15. Because some people think, okay, I'll just open my Bible and I'll point my eyes towards it, and then things would just magically pop out at me, right? And it'll just be, I can be very passive, and it's just going to, oh, wow. This is, oh, wow. Look with me in verse 15, where it uses the same word for “behold,” or fix my eyes. It says, “I will” what? “meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.” When we use the word “meditate” today, we mean something very different than what the Bible means. We kind of think of meditation as like emptying our mind, but biblical meditation is like, I'm activating my mind. I am thinking about it. I am chewing on it over and over again. I mean, this word could even be translated “muttering,” it's like, I've heard it, I've looked at it, and now I'm kind of like rehearsing it. And it's almost like I'm talking to myself. People are like, what's wrong with this person? They're muttering, but, no, I'm not muttering; I'm meditating. I'm working it through. I'm thinking about it over and over and over again in my life. Like we need to not just read it. We need to pay attention to it. And we need to pay attention not just to what I think it says, but we’ve got to actually pay attention to it. Like, how is it actually written? Like, what are the words that are used? What's the context that it's in?
The Bible's written in a time that is not modern-day America. It's written in a time long ago, from a land far away. We’ve got to get our minds activated, to get back into the original context, so that we can really understand what God has for us to say. Now, I mean, if we just look at these first few verses again, “Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who” what? Who “walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who” what? “Keep his testimonies.” Verse 3, “who also do no wrong but walk in his ways.” The Bible is not meant to be some intellectual exercise. There are a lot of people that they're like, yeah, Bible study. Let's get some books out. Let's consult some dead guys. Let's do this and do that. And it's like, man, I can get this knowledge, and I can sound really scholarly, and I can have debates with people, and I can win those debates by a large margin. The Bible is not just meant to inform you. It's meant to transform you. It's meant to change you. It's meant to actually affect your choices in real time, in real life. And it's like, man, when you actually like take a step of faith and do what the Scripture says.
It's wondrous because it's like, man, this is actually the best way to live life when I'm living it according to God's commands. I was here at the church yesterday morning with the business ministry breakfast, and we were getting in. We had burritos, and we opened up the Bible. We got into the book of Proverbs, and we were looking at what Proverbs has to say and trying to apply that to life in the business realm. And one of the things we saw that Proverbs was saying is how God hates lying. Now God wants us to tell the truth, and how the wicked are lying and the righteous ones are speaking the truth. And there was, you know, we had one of our deacons there with me, who I have a great respect for, and he was sharing this story about how he was in a high powered meeting in his company, and how it's like all the executives are there, and it feels like there's a lot of pressure, and a question gets pointed to him, and you know what he says is his answer? I don't know, but I'm going to do the work it takes to figure it out and get back to you on that. And his coworkers after the meeting are like, that was a gutsy move. It's like one of the boldest things I've ever seen. But you know what happened is like his bosses really respected him for not just trying to fake it till you make it, and saying something that wasn't true, but actually being honest, and that kind of spread throughout his company to where it's like other people like, that's what all of us should do. We shouldn't just say that we just spout off some answer off the top of our head. We should be honest and say it's not true, and it's like this person is like, it worked.
Wait a minute, when I actually do God's commands, it's the best way to live? Like wondrous, it's awesome when we live the way that the Lord wants us to live, wondrous things. Now if we go back to verse 18, “Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law,” sometimes this word in Hebrew could also be translated, “difficult” or “hard,” “wondrous”. It could be difficult or it could be hard. Now, does the Bible have some challenging things? Some things that are a little like the degree of difficulty is moderate to severe in some cases of like this is this is challenging to understand. It doesn't just click the very first time that I read it, and let me just tell you, there is such a joy when it's like, okay, but I know, with God's help, I can understand this. I can ask God for help, and I can really apply my mind. I could even ask other believers who maybe have understood the Bible more than I have, and it's like, no, I could get to an understanding of this. I'm not going to be like, oh, that's too hard. I'm not going to go for it. I could be like, no, I could learn this. And when you do that, and when you're like, wait a minute, maybe, rather than just, like, reading something and then immediately going to someone else and trying to hear what they have to say about it, maybe I could actually do my own work in the Word. Did you ever take those like math, and back in the day when the answers were in the back of the book, but they were like, upside down. Did you ever do that right, where it's like, hey, this problem's hard. I'm just going to go consult the answer. Do your own work, friends. Right? Like, hey, it's good to have help from other people, but, man, when you discover something in the Scripture yourself, and you're like, wait, I didn't believe this because someone else said it. I saw it in the scripture for myself. Like, those are things you'll never forget for the rest of your life. Because, wow, I discovered that. And it's glorious. It's wondrous. It was hard, but now it's beautiful. Now I get it. Now it's clicking for me. And Psalm 119 is a good example of that for us.
A lot of people look at Psalm 119 and they're like, pass, this is too long, this is too hard. And Psalm 119 like, yeah, I mean, a lot of us were like, Beth, what's going on? Like, we don't understand the way it's structured. And Psalm 119 feels a little repetitive when we read it. It feels like, oh, some of the other Psalms, I can really trace the flow of it. Like, here's the circumstances this person's in, and then here's how they prayed, and then here's how the Lord answered them, or the confidence that they got to oh, okay, I can follow that. Sometimes you're like, I'm having a little bit more trouble following it. I mean, sometimes to me, it almost feels like Psalm 119 reads a little bit more like Proverbs, where it's these collections of sayings, and I can tell as I read it that it's all about the Bible, but sometimes it feels like, does this verse go with this next verse? Or do we transition and then we're back? And it can kind of feel like we're zigging and zagging, but that's like, it's like, okay, well, I have to do the work to understand this isn't written like other Psalms. I have to treat this as the unique chapter that it is. And once my eyes are opened to see, oh, it's actually written based on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It's not just a story in sequence from verses 1 to 176. It's like, oh, now my eyes are opened. Now I can see that. Yeah, this is this epic work of songwriting, of poetry, but it's like any good songwriter, there's going to be themes that weave their way in and out of the of the text, right? Like, they're like a fine piece of meat. There's going to be marbling, there's going to be ribbons that work their way through the piece of meat and give it so much flavor and richness and depth. But I'm going to have to, like, get my eyes open and pay attention to those things.
Is that something you would be willing to do with us this week, where you'd say, hey, I'm going to paddle out, I'm going to get into this ocean, and I'm going to start exploring it, and I'm going to pay attention to it. I'm going to even try to pay more attention to it than I ever have in my life, like, ask God to open your eyes and then get your eyes open and pay attention to it, meditate on it, activate your mind, right?
Like you could see, if I was going to try to learn curling, I'd be like, watching the curlers and seeing what they do and how they stand, and the guys that are using the brooms and all this kind of stuff. It's like, man, that Psalm 119 is what a great example for us to learn from. You could see themes like, what does this guy who wrote this, what does he do with the Word? Oh, wish I should do that. You could see that is a theme working its way all throughout the Psalm. What about like, what he does when things get hard in his life? How does he turn to the Word when things are challenging, when he's going through difficult situations with difficult people? Like, what does he say about the Word itself? Like you could this week as we start reading it, whether you do that today or tomorrow morning, you could just be like, okay, it seems like here's a theme. And then, like, throughout the week, you could just be like, oh, it also seems like he's talking about this here, and it also seems like he's talking about this here. Like, okay, we're looking at a request in verse 18. Does he make any other request? Does he ask God to do anything else throughout the Psalm? Like, oh, what does he say about people who don't pay attention to the Word, who don't keep the commandments of God? Whoa, that could be some spicy things I see as that works its way all throughout the Psalm. Like, I want to ask you, don't give God just the thinnest eye open where it's like, I still got the crusties in my eye. Like, let's pray for God to do this, but then let's open our eyes and really fix them on the Scriptures.
Now some of you might be like, Pastor Bill, you said you didn't want to burden us, but now you've just given us all these things to do. And you're thinking about your life this week, and you're like, this is a lot we're saying. We're going to be reading quite a few verses every day, and you're thinking to yourself, I'm busy. I don't have time for this type of interaction with the Bible. I've got work, I've got a family. I live in Southern California, where there is always something to see and do and experience. Well, can I just share with you guys? Like one of the themes that I found as I was reading this, can I just encourage you with this? Look with me in verse 25. He says, “My soul clings to the dust.” And then there's this request of, what does it say? “My soul clings to the dust. Give me life according to your word.” And as I'm reading that, I'm going back and wait a minute. Verse 17, “Deal bountifully with your servant that I may live and keep your word.” Wait a minute. Oh, it seems like this thought of like, “give me life that I may live,” seems like that's being repeated. And I got kind of nerdy, and I was like, well, let me go see what is that in the original Hebrew. And I got on this Blue Letter Bible website, and I can click on this button and it opens up this word, and I see that this word is actually used 16 times in the 176 verses. And I'm like, oh, this seems like something that's repeated often, and it's going all throughout it, right? And like, look at verse 40. “Behold, I long for your precepts in your righteousness.” What does it say? Give me life? Look at verse 50 as well. Says, “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.” And then I look at this Hebrew word, and you know, it's, I took Hebrew quite a few years ago, so it's not the strongest language. And so, I'm like, ah, how would you pronounce that? And they've got this button where this guy, who sounds like he's both from Texas and five hundred years old, will like, pronounce the word for you and it and I like, press that button, and what I hear is Haya. It's like, oh, okay. Like, Hebrew, it's got some of those sounds that aren't very comfortable sounds for us in English, like ch and stuff like that. But after I got past that, I'm like, wait a minute, Haya. Like, I didn't think that was a Hebrew word. I thought that was a Ninja word. Growing up. Like, wait a minute, the word, forgive me, life is like what all of the people when they're doing their karate chops, hi yah, right. Like, just saying that word, feels like I have more energy after I say that word than I did before. And I'm like, wait a minute, like he's asking God to give him life. Look with me in verse 77 and I'm just like, oh man, this is so good. Verse 77 where it says, “Let your mercy come to me that I may” and say it with me. Let's say it in the Hebrew that I may see you're getting it. Let's go to verse 88 where it says, “In your steadfast love.” Some of you were better the first time than you were the second time. And now go with me to verse 93, “I will never forget your precepts.” Like, there is life in the Word. Like me, remembering God's Word isn't just going to come because I did kids ministry and I memorized things. Actually, I'm never going to forget God's precepts, because they are giving life to me.
I want you to think that the main thing in this sermon is not, am I checking the box of reading my Bible? The main question I have for us is, where are you going to for your life? We’ve got a whole lot of people that they’ve got physical life, but there's not much life in their life. There's not much vitality to their life. They're living a half-life at best. And the psalmist here is saying, you know, where I'm getting my life? I'm getting it from the Word. I'm getting it from the Lord. Go back with me to verse 25 where I noticed this first, and it says, “My soul clings to the dust.” Does that sound like a positive state for your soul? Like I've been kicked down into the dirt, and it's not just my body. I feel like that's happening in my soul. My soul clings to the dust, and what's the request? Chaiya, give me life according to your Word. You know, how you can tell a lot of times what you're going to for your life? It's what you run to when things get hard. Hey, this is tough. Where am I going to find life? And I just want to ask you here this morning, when things get tough for you, where do you go? Do you go to the scroll social media? Do you go to Netflix? Do you go to another person, your career, or just fun? And let me just kind of escape from the challenge that I'm facing in my life. I mean, go to verse 37 and this is going to be kind of the second request that we're going to key in on, that we're going to actually ask God to do ourself. And it says, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things, and Chaiya, give me life in your ways.”
Let's get this down for point number two on our notes: “Ask God to turn your eyes from worthless things.” Ask God to turn your eyes from worthless things. Now this word “worthless,” it's not necessarily like evil or sinful. You could also translate this word “empty” or “vain, that like these things are not worthless, or are they just worth less. Like there are a great many things in our life that aren't necessarily sinful, but are they going to give you the life that going to God in this Scripture will give you? And if you were to compare the two, the answer is no, they will not give me as much life as finding life in God's word, in him will give me. And this is the way that the psalmist, even kind of works this out for us. Go to verse 72 with me. It says in verse 72, “The law of your mouth is better,” a comparison, right? It is better to me than what? Thousands of gold and silver pieces. I remember, it was maybe a little over a year ago that, you know, the finance team here at the church was given an encouraging report that, like, in response to one of the needs that had been made known, someone was very generous, and actually, like, gave gold coins, like a number of gold coins to the church. And it's like this, like, wait a minute, we’ve got to figure out how to sell gold coins or something like that. No gold coin slot at the bank, you know, to deposit those. And it's like, I can't remember the exact amount of it, but it's like somewhere around hundred of these coins, and the value is, like, in the tens of thousands of dollars. And it was this, like, whoa, I mean, we don't know who it was, but it was like, man, this person was so generous to give in that type of way. And I'm looking at this verse, and I'm like, Okay, well, if like, hundred gold and silver pieces is, like, tens of thousands of dollars. What are thousands of gold and silver pieces? I mean, this is like, Scrooge McDuck style, right? This is like, fill the swimming pool with your thousands of gold and silver pieces and do the backstroke through them and spit gold and silver pieces out of your mouth. It's just like, wow. This is a lot of money. This is a lot of wealth. I mean, if you just got thousands of gold and silver pieces given to you here today, how would you feel about that? Awesome, right? Oh, you're just like, oh, what could I do with thousands of gold and silver pieces? That car that I've been looking at purchasing, Toyota Corolla. Come on, yes, let's go. Right? Like, oh, you know that the house with the more square footage for the family, for the kids, or that trip that seems like it'd be really fun to take that, that way I could be generous to these other people, like having gold and silver pieces might seem like that be a lot of fun. I'd be really living. But money, does it really give life? right? Or does Mo Money mean Mo Problems to a lot of people. I mean, the amount of very wealthy people killing themselves because they're not happy is an astonishing amount of people. Money is not going to give you life, but you know what is going to give you life? The Word of the Lord can give you life. It's better. It's better than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
Maybe you're not a money person. Maybe you're more of a food person. Maybe you're a foodie. Go to verse 103. It says, “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter,” comparison” sweeter than honey to my mouth,” right? Like, back in the day. I mean, honey was the sweet, right? That was the thing that actually gave you the sweetness. You're not just going down to Costco and buying your big old bag of sugar and keeping it in your pantry, like, and honey is not like, oh, we got this, like, nice little beekeeping thing with the spigot on it. And we can get all these different colors of honey out of it whenever we want. It's like, man, I've stumbled upon some honey that there's this beehive that actually has honey in it, and for some reason, all the bees are gone. Eureka. That's like one of the best days of your life. Like, I'm eating honey. Like, this stuff is amazing. This stuff is awesome. How does it taste so good? Right? Like, we live in such a sweet culture that we're like, yeah, honey, it's not sweet enough for me. I need something even sweeter than honey. But this person is saying, man, the Word of the Lord is so sweet, it's sweeter than the sweetest thing I could talk about. Like there is a comparison. Like, if we are going to have our eyes open to actually point them at the Scripture and meditate on the law of the Lord like he wants us to, you know what we're going to have to ask God to do, turn our eyes from whatever else we're looking at right now, from things that maybe they're not bad, but they're worth less. They're worth less than the Scripture. You're not going to get life in God's word when you're looking to something else for your life, whatever it might be me right now, in your life, when it gets rough, what do you turn to? What do you look to for your life?
And I'm asking you, as the psalmist is asking the Lord to do for himself. Would you ask God to turn your eyes away from those things? Would you ask God, maybe, Lord, I need to reframe my thought right. In the old days, as I was reading about this, it seems like more than a few people had actually committed Psalm 119 to memory. They had memorized the entire thing. When I say that word, does that sound like you're like, I couldn't do that. You couldn't do that. Really, right? Like, I don't know, I mean, maybe if we were less up on our shows and more up on our Scriptures, maybe we could right. Maybe if we were less up on our songs and more up on our Psalms, we could do that right. I mean, you're saying you can't memorize a song, right? If I just start singing a song, right, don't stop. Uh oh, so you can memorize a song? Oh, actually, if you think about it, you have quite a few songs memorized that you could sing every word at the top of your lungs. Maybe, the problem isn't that this is too hard to look at. Maybe the problem is I'm looking at something else, and I need to ask God to turn my eyes away from that and turn it to the Scriptures. Like, what is that for you? Like, I'm going to ask you this week and I would say, do that every day this week. Think of something that is capturing your attention, that's actually got your focus on it, and ask you to turn your eyes away from it. Like, hey, some of us it's like, hey, I'm home from work. I don't have to be focused on work right now, but work is rolling rent free in my mind. And I need to get the Scriptures rolling rent free in my mind. I need to get my thoughts focused on God and his Word. And then, what's the second part of verse 37? Go back to it with me, right. Turn my eyes. So this is kind of like a two-part request. “Turn my eyes from worthless things” and Chaiya and give me life in your way.
So, let's get this down for point number three: “Ask God to give you life in his Word.” Give you life in his Word. Now, it was about twenty-one years ago where I was at a church, and I was getting to know this young lady at this church, and her name is Cory. I ended up marrying her, and I remember, you know, we're at this spot. We're just, you know, here and there at church, we're having these really pleasant conversations, and she seems like this awesome gal, and loves the Lord and you're like, I would like to spend more time with this person. I would like to get to know her even better. But I had this big problem that I'm like, a wuss, right? Like I'm not smooth in any way, shape, or form, right? Like it is the work of God that I am married this day, you know? And I thought, you know, okay, well, I want to communicate with her more. But like, back in those days, like asking someone for their phone number, that sounds intimidating to me. And so, you know what I did? Instead, I asked her for her email, and I sent her an email like the nerd that I was, and then, you know, so send out the email and no push notifications back. Then, how often do you think I was checking to see if there was a response? Like every five minutes. And then lo and behold, there comes a response. How do you think I read that email? Do you think I paid attention to the email? Boy, howdy. I did. I paid attention to every single word, right? The grammar, the syntax, right? Like, all of it. I'm just, like, pouring over this. Does it suffice to read it one time? No, it does not suffice to read it one time, right? Like, how do you think I would have been if I'm just like, oh, she sent me an email, but I'm just not an email person, right? That's what some of us do with the Word. I'm not a book person, right? The point isn't about the book. The point is about who the book is written by, who it's from, who wrote it. Right? Bible says that every word of the Scripture is literally God-breathed. It's God's Word, right? Like, give me life in studying a book.
No, the life is not just going to come from the book. The life is going to come from the one who wrote the book. Right? That’s the reason we get so excited and there's so much life that can come from the Word is because he wrote it for us. He wrote the Bible. God wrote the Bible so that you could know him, so that you could have a relationship with him. I mean, it seems very unlikely that almost twenty-year marriage could start with an email, but the Lord works wonders, right? I was so excited because it's like, man, I want to know this person. I want to spend more time with this person, right? If you're just reading a book that's not going to change your life, but if you're wanting to know God that will give you life each and every day of your life and all throughout your days, you could have life because it's flowing from him.
Go with me to John, chapter 6. Ryan Read for us from John, chapter 5 that the Pharisees, they were people that they got all intellectual about the law, but it wasn't relational. It wasn't about a person. They were just like, this book gives us life, and Jesus is like, well, the book is really all about me because I'm the giver of life. I'm the one that you're going to be getting life in your life from. And Jesus, you know he would say some hard things, right? He would say some things that are wondrous, that are difficult, a little bit challenging, to understand. Look with me in John 6:60, “When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’” This is a wondrous saying. Who can listen to it and then even go back down to verse 66. It says, “After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ And Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go?’” It's like that song that we sang before we started preaching this sermon. Where else can we go? And look what he says, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” And later on, in John 17, Jesus is going to say, hey, eternal life, you know what that is? It's knowing God and Jesus Christ, whom he sent. It's having a relationship with him. That's where the life comes from. It comes from a relationship with God. And how do we build that relationship? How do we enjoy that relationship? Is it through some mystical experience and our feelings all throughout the day?
Go to John 15, and let's see what Jesus himself had to say about it. In John 15, he said he started using this analogy. In verse 1, “I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser.” And it says in verse 4, “Abide in me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches.” So, he's using this example of like a grapevine, where there is the vine that's growing, and then there are branches coming off of that, and the branches, if they're not plugged into the vine, do they have life in and of themselves? No, they do not. They need to stay connected to the vine, and that's when they are going to have life in themselves. That's when they are going to bear much fruit. And you might be like, Okay, well, how do I abide in the vine? What does that mean to remain or stay or abide in the vine? Look at what Jesus says in verse 7, “If you abide in me and my” what? My “words, abide in you. Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this, My Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples,” like I want there to be life flowing into you, and to get that life, you’ve got to abide in me and my words got to abide in you, and you’ve got to pray in verse 9, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my Love.”
Does it seem like in the Psalm, the Psalmist seems pretty stoked about the commandments of God? Jesus, in John 14, says, “If you love me, you'll keep my commandments.” There's this relationship where it's like he's now the person that I love, and so it really matters to me what he likes and doesn't like, right? Like when I get to know my wife and we end up getting married, there's things I realize my wife doesn't like and those things matter to me, because she matters to me and I love her. It's the same way with the Lord. If he matters to me, if he's what my life is all about, then what he, what he says to do and not do, is going to be very, very important. I'm going to take great delight in it, because I want to please him, because my life is all about him. He says, “Abide. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his loves. And these things I have spoken to you,” verse 11, “that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full, that there would be life in your life, my life in your life, and that you would be living life to the full, that you'll be living life abundantly. That's what the psalmist got. That's what he realized, is that there is such life in the Lord. And so, I'm going to pay attention to his Word more than anything else. I'm going to be going to that day after day, year after year, from my life. And you know what I can do after I've done that? I can write about it. I could I could riff on it. I could talk about it so much, you and I could get the same experience. If it's like I'm going to go to the Lord for my life when I wake up tomorrow morning, what am I going to turn to for my life? Is it going to be my phone? Is it going to be my calendar, or am I going to turn to the words of the living God that can give me life, that can refresh me, that can bless me, that can fill up my joy to the fullest?
There's a whole ocean of joy in Psalm 119 that we get to explore this week, right? Like, I mean, don't think of this like if you were to go jump in the Pacific Ocean, I talked about that, and someone's like, oh, that'd be really cold, like, I wouldn't want to do that. Don't think of it like, as a Huntington Beach ocean. Let's think of it as, like a Hawaii ocean, right where, like, the moment you jump in, you're like, oh, this feels good. And it's like, there's a whole world in it to explore. And you're like, wait a minute, there are awesome things over here. And, wait a minute, there are also awesome things over here. And you're like, I want to paddle out. I want to get the snorkel gear on. I want to dive deep. I want to get in the helicopter. I want to look at it from above. I want to explore it in every way it's possible. To explore it because I want to know it, because it's so good. That's what you and I get to do this week. We get to explore the whole ocean of Psalm 119; we get to paddle out. And I'm asking you, are you willing to paddle out with me? Are you willing to ask God to open your eyes that you could behold things that are richer and sweeter and deeper than you've ever known them to be so far? Are you willing to ask God to actually turn your eyes away from maybe some of the things that you've been paying such close attention to so far in your life, and not just God, give me understanding of a book. Give me life. Give me life in your ways as I'm understanding who you are and how you operate. That's what I want from my life. That's where I know life can be found, and it's in you.
Are you willing to take this journey with me this week? It's going to be so exciting. We get to talk about it with one another at our groups. I really hope that you'll join us. Let's pray and ask God for help.
Father, we lift this up to you, and God, this psalmist has given us such an exciting example. God, I pray for my friends in the room that we would not look at this experience and think that couldn't happen to us. God, I pray that we would think that could happen to us. If I'm willing to ask you to do the same things that this psalmist is willing to ask you to do, I could have this same experience. And so, God now together, we come to you, and God calls us to ask you these things all throughout this week, as we go to your Word, we're going to need you. We can't do it on our own, God. And so, God, open our eyes, get us give us more understanding. Give us more wisdom of your Word. God, we want to pay closer attention to it than we ever have before. And God, we really need you. God, it seems like we have been so successful at multiplying vanities in America, God, there are an endless amount of things that are worth less Lord, that call for our attention, that call for our headspace and our time. God, turn us away from those things. God, help us to see that the life we can get from you and your Word is so much better than anything that this world has to offer. God, we pray that you would be our vision. God, that you would be our focus. God, we want it to be that way for the rest of today and tomorrow and the next day. God, we don't just want to live, God, we want to have life in our life. And God, you're saying it comes from you. God, let us believe you. Let us take you at your word. Give us life. We pray so that we would praise you forever, God, so that we could join our song to this one of how good you are and how good your Word is, how it's changing us, how it's showing us your glory. Day after day, be our vision. We pray. And all God's people said, Amen.