Psalm 119, verse 129, the psalmist says, thy testimonies are wonderful, therefore doth my soul keep them. The entrance of thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding unto the simple. I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for thy commandments. Look thou upon me and be merciful unto me, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name. Order my steps in thy word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Deliver me from the oppression of man, so will I keep thy precepts. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant, and teach me thy statutes. Rivers of water run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law. Amen. We'll finish there at verse 136. Last week, just very quickly, a very quick recap. Last week, we looked at the section before, the section titled Ion, speaking about the eyes. And while we looked at that, and that's the primary theme, we also saw another word that came up in that section three times. It was the Hebrew word Ebed, which means servant. And we noticed three things in that section. We noticed, first of all, that at the start of the section, we had the psalmist was frustrated. He was a frustrated servant. Then as you move through it, you saw that he was recognized that he was a forgiven servant, and then finally, we concluded with the thought that he was a faithful servant. At the start of that section, he was focusing upon what he had done, but by the end of that section, he had turned his eyes to the righteousness and the rightness of the word of God. He moved from frustration to faithfulness by getting sight of what God had done for him, by getting a view of what God had promised in the word of God, And the lesson for us of course was that we also need to be in that place whenever our circumstances come in against us, whenever we feel that we're struggling but we can get our sight upon what God has done and what God has promised and that will help us to press on in faithfulness to him. Now we move into this next section and this little section begins with the Hebrew letter Pe in our letters in our alphabet. It is just P-E, but it's pronounced Pe. And it sort of drops the focus. Last week we looked at the eyes. This section, the word Pe paints the picture of the mouth. That's the meaning and the picture of the word is best illustrated in this section of the psalm. When the psalmist says in verse 131, I opened my mouth, And the word mouth there is literally just this Hebrew letter, the letter peh. So whenever we think about this and the focus has moved now to the mouth, well, we think about the primary functions of the mouth and there are two main functions. And I'm very good at both of them, eating and speaking. And some of us speak more than others. And it's probably true that some of us eat more than others. And because I preach, I tend to fall into both categories, where I eat plenty and I talk plenty as well. But anyway, that's really the nature of this section. It talks about the mouth. And both of those uses of the mouth is reflected in this section as we work our way through it. I believe, as I've said all along, that Daniel is the writer of this psalm. And perhaps as he wrote this section, he was looking back to his earlier days, those days when he had just been along with those who had been brought into captivity into Babylon. And he had that trial that we read about in Daniel chapter 1, where they were presented with the king's meat. And that challenge that they had, they were being prepared for service in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. and they were being given that food that had been offered to idols. It was unclean and it was not possible to eat the food that had been offered to idols and remain faithful to God. Daniel and his three friends who all took their stand, they took their stand upon what God's word had instructed them. Because the reason that they knew that it was not right for them to eat those things was because it was in the law, and they understood the law. So they took their stand for the word of God, and God had honored them. And in later years, I think, as Daniel is reflecting upon his life, and perhaps as he's writing this psalm, I'm sure there were many times that he considered the faithfulness of God to him at that time. time when there was unrest, a time when he was going through severe upheaval in his life because he had been taken captive and brought to Babylon and everything that was going on. And then even in those times God had still been faithful to him. So as we come to think about this little section this evening, in light of that truth about the faithfulness of God, which flows through this whole psalm, this great truth that God is faithful and how his word is faithful. But in light of that this evening, I want you to notice three things about the words that are spoken here. Because if the theme is about the mouth, well really, the primary focus that it talks about here or brings us to consider is words. And the first thing that we see here is that there are words of wonder. Words of wonder. In verse 129, the psalmist says, Thy testimonies are wonderful, therefore doth my soul keep them. Thy testimonies are wonderful, therefore doth my soul keep them. In this verse, just this one verse alone, there are two components to it. There's a declaration, thy testimonies are wonderful, and there's a response to that declaration, therefore doth So there's a declaration and a response. The opening four words of this section of the psalm, they're a statement of fact. They're not opinion. Daniel is not saying it and putting it out there as an option. Daniel is simply saying to the Lord what he knows is true. that God's word, the testimonies of God are wonderful. He's reflecting here on the majesty of God. He's reflecting upon the marvelous nature of God's word. The word that's translated as wonderful there, largely speaking in scripture, it speaks about wonderful or wonder, but it's also on one or two occasions translated as marvelous. So he's thinking about the wonder of God's word, what God has said. As he's considering what has gone on in life and the changeable nature of life and the ups and downs of life and the times when there have been challenges and the times when there have been blessings, the times whenever things have seemed difficult and perhaps at other times life have been good, those ups and downs we would call them. But the one thing that was certain was the wonderful Word of God. Daniel knew that, the wonderful Word of God. A few weeks ago, On Sunday morning we sang that little children's hymn that's in our hymn book, I Have a Precious Book. It's the word of God. And each of the first two verses of that hymn make this same statement at the end of the verse. It simply just says the wonderful word of God. And it's a very simple truth. It's a very simple statement to make. But in essence, that's what the psalmist here is saying when he says, thy testimonies are wonderful. He's talking about the wonderful word of God. And he's talking from personal experience. He has known how God has blessed him through his word. He has had that comfort that has come upon him. These aren't just words for the sake of words and just saying it because it's the right thing to say. He has been through so many experiences and he is able to call out to the Lord and say, your word is wonderful. Your word is wonderful. Whenever I was thinking about this yesterday in the study, I started to think about, well, Why is God's Word wonderful? I'm starting to ask myself a question. Why is God's Word wonderful? Why would any of us say your testimonies are wonderful? If I ask that question tonight, just for a moment think in your mind, why would I say that God's Word is wonderful? Ask yourself the question. Different preachers and their commentaries explain it in their words. And I looked at a few just to see what different commentators and different preachers had said. Warren Wearsby, he writes this, he says, God's word is wonderful in its harmony, its beauty, perfection, practicality, power, and revelations. St. Spurgeon, writing about this verse here, said that God's word is full of wonderful revelations, commands, and promises. Wonderful in their nature, wonderful in their effects. Jesus, the eternal word, is called wonderful, and all the other words of God are wonderful in their decree. Christopher Ashe, in his commentary, says God's word is wonderful in its origin, breathed out by the living God. They're wonderful in their nature as utterly reliable and wonderful in their effect bringing light to dark lives. And there's so many things that we could say and we could reflect upon when we come to the reason why the Word of God is a wonderful book and why God's Word is wonderful. Those are just three statements from three men. The writer here doesn't expand. At least not talking about all of the impact of the word and the depth of the word, he simply just says these in our English four words, thy testimonies are wonderful. He declares it as truth. We can examine the wonder of God's word and how without God's word we would never have heard the gospel. We would never have heard it. Yes, God had a plan of salvation, and God communicates that plan, and the primary purpose for the declaration of that plan is the preaching, but it's the preaching of what? It's the preaching of the word of God. It's the declaration of what God has said. And the preaching of the gospel, as it is that declaration, is a declaration of the wonderful word of God. So without God's word, we would never have heard the gospel. We would never have been saved. We can think about the comfort, the wonder of the comfort that the Word of God brings to us as God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, uses His Word to speak into the different circumstances of life. And sometimes we have troubles and we have difficulties, and if we turn to the Word of God and we are crying out to the Lord for the Lord to speak to us, how God's Word brings peace to our lives. Even in times when it seems like there shouldn't be peace. We have those times in life whenever we can't understand how we can ever find peace. We can't understand how we can ever find comfort and yet the Word of God gives it to us. We have those words or those verses that we all turn to or we all cling to, for example, and probably the most well-known one is Psalm 23. And so any of us can quote Psalm 23. And we can hold on to the promises of it. It's not just a matter of having a head knowledge of it, but we can actually say, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me besides still waters. Isn't there wonder and comfort and peace in those simple words that we know and we learn as children? There's those words in Isaiah 26, verses three and four, particularly where Isaiah says, thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed upon thee because he trusteth in thee. Over in the New Testament, we can think of the words in Philippians chapter four, and Paul's writing there, and he talks about how we can experience the peace of God. which passeth all understanding. And we think about that peace that comes from God and it's a peace that we can't explain. And so often we just stop there. We stop at that point and yet in that chapter, in Philippians chapter four, if you read on two verses after that where it's talking about the peace of God which passeth all understanding, we find that a key part of the path to that peace is this. In those things which ye have both learned and received and heard And the things that Paul is talking about there as he's writing about peace, those are things that he has learned, that he has received, that he has heard, and it's the word of God. And he has communicated them and demonstrated them, but it's the word of God that is that source of peace. So we can think about how God's word brings us comfort. And we can think about how God's word is wonderful because without it we would never be saved. We can think about the wonderful promises of God that we hold on to. Scripture outlines them for us, the promise of security in Christ. The promise of the presence, the sending of the Holy Spirit that the Lord Jesus spoke about himself. He says, if I go, he talked about how he would send the comforter. who will guide you into all truth. Now where is the truth that the Comforter is guiding us into? He's guiding us into the truth of the Word of God. He enlightens the pages of Scripture. Do we see how all of these things tie back to the Word of God? We think about the promise of direction that we have. And have we looked to the Lord and we follow his word, how he is the one who will guide us. But what does it tell us? And we've already noted this in this psalm. In verse 105, that well-known verse, thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. We see the wonder of God's word. And as we begin to delve into the depths of the Word of God, and we begin to see how it unpacks and how it opens up and how there's so much blessing in it for us, we should have an appetite for it. We should be a people who desire to explore the Word of God, to see the wonder of the Word of God. And you see here how the psalmist talks about that. He says, thy testimonies are wonderful. There's that declaration. And then there's the response. Therefore doth my soul keep them. Now you can't keep something you don't know. I can't keep something that I don't know. I was talking to a friend recently. And he was talking about driving up to the north coast. And he was going up that road where it's a 60 mile an hour if there's no central reservation, but if there's a central reservation, it's a 70 mile an hour road. And I don't know if everybody knows that. Some people will, some people won't. I got caught speeding on that road because I thought it was a 70. But the little section that I was on, it was a 60 because there was no central reservation. I didn't know that. So I didn't think, I couldn't have kept it because I didn't know it. I thought it was all right the speed it was doing. If we don't know God's word, we can't keep it. We can't follow it unless we know it. And the psalmist here says, thy testimonies are wonderful. He can only say that because he knows it. Therefore doth my soul keep them. It's not an option. It's not just a simple, well, maybe I'll keep it. This is instructive. It shows us that because it's God's Word, it's not simply the thoughts or the ideas or the musings of the psalmist. He says that we should respond to the wonder of God's Word by keeping it. And we think about God's Word, we think about how true it is. We think about how wonderful it is. The prophet reminds us that God's ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And even more than that, God then went on and he said, The word where the psalmist says here, therefore does my soul keep them, is the same word that we've already had eight times in Psalm 119. It's about guarding or observing. If you're gonna guard something, if you're gonna personally guard something, you're gonna have to have your eyes on it. You're gonna have to have it close. God's word should always be read and considered and thought about and delved into as the purpose, as promises and commands of our sovereign God. Not one who simply demands. Sometimes people think, well, I have to obey because God demands it. It's not simply that. It's because he deserves it. It's because of who he is. He deserves our allegiance. He deserves our obedience because of all he is, of all he has done, because of all he has said. Not an obedience driven by fear, not an obedience by some sort of unwilling obligation. We see the heart of the psalmist here in this verse he links obedience to the truth of the wonder of the Word of God. We obey because we see the greatness of what God has said. We see the majesty and the wonder of the God of the Word as we meditate upon the Word of God. Sometimes there's a a sense that service should be done out of obligation. And that's not right. The more I study God's word, and the more I dig into the word of God, I have come to the belief, the absolute belief that service must always be given out of love for who God is. Not because somebody else tells us we should be doing it, but because we love the Lord. And we love what he has done. Our service should always be out of obedience to God as a response to who God is, not because of guilt, not because of obligation. And the psalmist here sees the wonder of God's word. And it's a wonder that he declares, and it's a wonder that declares who God is. And then he responds by saying, therefore doth my soul keep them. See, first of all, there's words. But secondly, I want you to see there's words of satisfaction. Verse 130 and 131, and we're gonna have to run through this quite quickly, particularly the last section. But at verse 130, we have another one of those verses that's quite often quoted and very often referred to. The entrance of thy words giveth light, that giveth understanding unto the simple. And I think there's perhaps a sense that it can be slightly misunderstood. We know that God's word speaks into our lives. And we know the Holy Spirit can take the word of God and can apply it how he wills because it's his word. And he can use it how he chooses, we know that. But the word of God has one pure meaning. It can be applied in different ways, but it has one pure purpose and meaning. God, the author, has an intent for his word. And while the Spirit of God can take a verse or can take a passage and can speak into our circumstances and we bless God for that and we love the fact that he does that because it brings that peace and that comfort in our circumstances, we have to make sure that we avoid the idea that simply reading the Word of God in an ad hoc way or reading it just to get our reading over with replaces the purpose of seeking to know God's Word. Because it's easy just to get up and follow a reading plan, and I'm not against reading plans at all. I think it's good to provide structure. But if all we're doing is following a reading plan and not considering what God is saying through his word, or not really following through on what God is saying through his word, then we're just going through a process. Psalmist here says, the entrance of thy words giveth light. We should take time to read God's word, that's absolutely true and absolutely vital. But the idea that we take that time to read but we're not really looking and hearing and listening for God to speak through it or God revealing himself through his word, that reading just alone without any desire for God to enlighten his word, that's not what God has purposed for us in giving us his word. There's a deeper purpose to reading the word of God. It's maybe best defined by that opening phrase in verse 130, the entrance of thy words giveth light. The word entrance there is a Hebrew word, the word pita. It's only found this one time in all of scripture. It's not used at all. It's a noun. So it's not about what it does. It's about what it is. And what it is is a doorway. A doorway, literally an unfolding or an opening up. And if you think about it like this, if you think about this idea of a doorway, an entrance or an unfolding, something that opens, if you're in a completely dark room and there's no light at all, there's no light coming around the edges of the blinds or around the edges of the curtains, there's no light coming in under the door and it's complete darkness, but there's a door into the room. And then the doors open just a little bit and there's a light outside. Once that door opens a little bit, the light begins to creep around the edges of the door. And it's no longer completely dark. There's a little bit of light. But the further the door is open, the more the light gets in. That's the picture here. the entrance, the doorway, the unfolding or the opening up of thy word giveth light. The more we expose ourselves to the word of God, the more we seek that God will speak through it, the more the light comes in. And the more the light comes in, the more we see, and the more we understand, and the more God's word has an impact upon our lives. And if we truly have a heart for the Lord, the more desire for the word of God we're going to have, the more we get, the more we'll want. There's a lovely illustration of this over in Luke chapter 24. And we have the story there. It's resurrection day. The Lord Jesus has risen from the dead. Two of his disciples, they don't know that the Savior has risen. They're making their way along the road to Emmaus on their way home, and Jesus comes and joins himself with them. They don't know it's him. He doesn't reveal himself to them. And as they travel on their way home, and then they make it to their home, and they invite him to stay with them for a meal, and he comes in for the meal, and then just as he's about to leave, he makes himself known to them. And then he leaves. And it tells us there that in verse 27 of Luke 24, that he taught them, not a direct quote, but really what it says is that he taught them all the scriptures concerning himself. Right, so he taught them the scriptures. In verse 32, here's what it says. It says, they said one to another, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? He opened to us the Scriptures. It's the same thought. In the same way that the Holy Spirit today, as the one who enlightens the Word of God, will open up the Word to us, will put that light upon it. And while the word there for entrance is a noun, the word here for light is a verb. If I was to point at that light up there, I'm talking about the thing. That's the name. But it's not a name here, it's a verb. It's about what the light does in this verse. The entrance of thy words giveth light. It's when the door is open to the light that we then begin to gain the understanding of our circumstances at that given time as the word of God is revealed to us. Maybe this evening there's something that's on your mind, something that's going on in your life, something that's troubling you. Just as there were things that troubled the psalmist, just as there were things in his life that came at times and they unsettled him and they troubled him and his circumstances, things seemed maybe dark. And just as it's the same for the people sitting around you tonight, where sometimes things for them seem dark, but yet you have the assurance of the word of God. You have the promises of the Word of God that can bring light to the circumstance, can bring light to the situation. That's not to say that you will know exactly what's going on all the time, that you'll have all the information and all the detail, but what it tells us is that we can live in light of all that God has assured us in his Word. We can hold on to his promises and the assurances of it and the comfort of it and the goodness of it, the goodness of who God is. the power of God revealed and spoken through his word. When the psalmist here speaks about understanding under the simple here, he's speaking there about how God gives direction and how it's God that gives discernment as his word is opened and as the light shines in. And then verse 131. And this is, I believe, the key phrase in this whole section of the psalm because it goes to the heart of what the title of the psalm is. I opened my mouth and panted for I longed for thy commandments. That's not a verse. We think about that section of the psalm. Verse 129, thy testimonies are wonderful or thy word is wonderful. We hear that said. Verse 130, the entrance of thy words giveth light. It giveth understanding to the simple. It's often quoted. We don't often hear this verse quoted. And yet it provides to us and for us in the context what our response should be. to the word of God because this defines spiritual hunger and how we can be spiritually satisfied. You see the picture in the text here, I opened my mouth and panted as I began to look at this and try to unpack this verse and looking at it in the original, the text reminds me of spoon feeding an infant, a baby that's being weaned. The literal translation here is, I opened my mouth wide and swallowed up because I desired thy commandments. And you know the picture that I'm talking about where you have a child who's just being weaned onto certain foods, and they're tasting different foods that are being reduced, and there's something that they really like the taste of. And when they get the taste of it, maybe for that first time, they've never had it before, and they've got the taste, and they take it then quickly. And then instinctively, because they want more of it, they open the mouth wide. And maybe they lean their head forward, looking for more, and they're in a hurry to get it. And then they take it and they swallow it up, and they come looking for more. They have their mouth open wide. Well, that's the picture here. I opened my mouth, literally, and swallowed up. The word that's translated as panted, it's also found over in Job chapter 5 and verse 5, but it's used in a slightly different context there. And there, Job writes, Now, while it's a different context there, it's about a robber coming in and taking something. It talks about how the robber swallows up their substance, but the picture of what the word means is the same. Because what it's saying is the things that are valuable, the things that are desired, are the things that are swallowed up. That's the picture of the word. The psalmist here is saying, I opened my mouth and panted for I longed for thy commandments. I opened my mouth and I swallow because I love your commandments. It's only used, the word translated as longed for in verse 131, again it's only used this once in the whole Bible. And the implication of this little verse is that this desire in the life of the follower of God is only truly satisfied by the word of God. Nothing else will satisfy the Christian who wants to walk with the Lord like what it is that God gives to us, how he feeds us. God's word satisfies like nothing else for the spiritually hungry Christian. We can look here, there, and everywhere, and we can try all sorts of things, and we can look for experiences, and we can look for emotional responses, and all of those things, and we'll keep going back for more. But when we get this desire, this appetite for the word of God, where we're opening our mouth, and we're opening our mouth wide for it, because we long for it, nothing else will fill that. The only thing that we'll find if we forsake God and his word, it's like the prophet Jeremiah, when he spoke about the apostasy of Judah. And he said that those who forsake, they are like broken cisterns that can hold no water. That's all they find. Broken cisterns that hold no water. There's words of wonder in this psalm. There's words of satisfaction to be found in the Word of God. And then I want you to see verse 132 to verse 136, and we really will be running through this, but we see here words of supplication. Because now the psalmist turns away from the wonder of the Word of God, and he's calling out in response These are the words of his mouth in light of who God is and how God satisfies him by his word. And because of all of that he responds with this supplication. And really from verse 132 on this is a prayer. It's a prayer that's making requests of God and he's making these requests of God because God has satisfied him because he knows who God is, he knows what God gives and he knows he needs God's help in so many different aspects of life. John Phillips writes this, he says, moments of exaltation as we revel in some delightful truth from God's word that has gripped our soul are followed by a swing of the pendulum and we can give way to defeat. But in order to avoid that here, there are six requests in these five verses, and then it finishes with a humble response. And as I say, we don't have time to go into them in detail. I'm gonna overview them very quickly. In verse 132, there's two requests. The psalmist cries out, look I upon me, look upon me and be merciful unto me. Look upon me and be merciful unto me. So really what's being asked here is that the Lord would turn towards him and deal graciously with him. And that's dependent upon our recognition and acknowledgement of who God is. Look upon me and be merciful unto me as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name. He's a just God. He's a God who cares for his people. He's a God who will, as Samuel, or we read in 1 Samuel 2 and verse 30, he's a God who will honor those who honor him. The little phrase here at the end of the verse, as thou usest to do, it's not suggesting that God had stopped doing this. The translation's perhaps not particularly clear about what's being said. Those five words, as thou usest to do, is one Hebrew word. It's translated as judgment almost 300 times in the Old Testament. And really the picture that the psalmist is putting across whenever you get into the original language here is that because God is just, he will be merciful to the servant who loves him. And we love God, don't we? We love the Lord, can we say that tonight? We depend upon him. And yet he wants us to call upon him for help. And there's so many different places that we can see this over in Psalm 50 verse 15, Psalm 91 verse 15. Speaking of a captive Israel in Jeremiah 29 and verse 12. And we could turn very quickly to any one of those three verses. I'm just gonna flick back to Psalm 91 and verse 15. He shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. And why is that? Because God, who we love, is faithful and he's merciful. So there's this call to look upon us and to be merciful to us, but then in verse 133, the psalmist goes on, and there's a call here that God would direct him. Look at the words of verse 133. It's the same pattern that we have seen throughout the psalm. A call to fix his path, to order his days, according to the lamp of God's word, as we have thought about in verse 105 previously. The word translated here in verse 133 is word, is a very specific word. It's the word emrah, and it refers to the words of the mouth, a speech. utterance. It's really what has come from the mouth of God and that of course sets it perfectly in this section of the psalm which is focused around words and upon the mouth. The psalmist says, order my steps in thy word and that's set in a contrast isn't it in the verse. There's this contrast between calling on to the Lord to order our steps and is set in a contrast against iniquity. Let not any iniquity have dominion over me. And what that's really saying, the psalmist is saying, Lord, if you don't set my path, then the world will set my path. My nature will set my path. Iniquity will set my path. So Lord, you set my path. Because one or the other is going to dominate. God's word tells us over in Romans, I think it's Romans chapter six and the verse 12, Romans chapter six and the verse 12. And what we read there is that there's two options. And as those who are under God's grace, we can call on to the Lord to lead us, to direct us, to guide us. But if we don't look for that, we don't look for that, iniquity or nature will rule within us. It doesn't take away our salvation if we're saved, but it means we're not living for the Lord and not obeying his word. There's so much emphasis in this whole psalm placed upon the power of God's word and how it is what directs us in the right path. And maybe at times it seems a little bit repetitive. It comes back to the same theme. And as we've got now two thirds of the way, maybe a little bit more than two thirds of the way through the psalm, maybe it does feel repetitive. But that's actually the point. That's the point of the psalmist here. We need to continually be reminded to look to God's word to keep us on track as the Holy Spirit speaks through it. Because it's so easy to get off the track. It's so easy to take our eyes off the truth. It's so easy to get caught up with other things. So we need God to direct us to order our steps. And then verse 134. We see a call for deliverance, he says, deliver me from the oppression of man so will I keep my precepts. It reminds us of how man's nature is wicked because of the fall. The word oppression there, deliver me from the oppression of man, it implies cruelty, it can sometimes be translated as distress and really the thought is that sin against us brings oppression, sin within us brings distress or brings guilt. And what we need is God's hand to deliver us from both. The word deliver there, the word exactly or literally means redeemed. He says, redeem me from the oppression of man, so will I keep thy precepts. We have been redeemed, haven't we? Been redeemed by what Christ has done. We've been delivered. And because we have been delivered, so as the psalmist says, we have a response here. Again out of love. I will keep thy precepts. Verse 135, there's two requests. The psalmist asks the Lord to bless me and to teach me. He says, make thy face to shine upon thy servants and teach me thy statutes. The request at the start of this verse is something that he has heard in the word of God, something that he has learned because it's part of the Aaronic blessing. You read about it back in Numbers chapter six in verse 25. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. We have it again in Psalm 31 in verse 16 where the Psalmist David uses it. He says there, make thy face shine upon thy servant. Daniel himself in Daniel chapter nine in verse 17 uses the very same words. Make thy face to shine upon me. What is that? It's a cry for God's blessing. We should ask the Lord for his blessing upon our lives as we seek to live for him. That doesn't mean everything's going to be perfect and rosy in the garden. But we are his servants. Comes back to that thought of servanthood again in verse 135 with that word servant, ebed. But there's this acknowledgement here, there's this association that the acknowledgement is that part of God's blessing is that God will teach us to live according to his word. He will guide us by his word because we have the indwelling Holy Spirit, we have the presence of God with us at all times, we have the word of God before us. And how is God going to bless us? Well, he's going to bless us by speaking to us through his word. This is a wonderful pattern for prayer. It's a humble prayer, a prayer acknowledging the inadequacy of who the writer is. And if we look at this prayer and put ourselves into it, we have to acknowledge our inadequacy, our weakness, and how we need the Lord. It's a submissive prayer, a prayer for God's hand to be seen in his life as he seeks to live according to the word of God. We have to submit ourselves to the Lord. Submit ourselves to his word. And when all of that comes together, whenever we consider all of this, then verse 136 brings us that when all of this is in place, we'll be humbled. Not only will we be humbled, but we will have a heart for those who don't know this blessing. for those who haven't experienced the blessings of God. That's what the psalmist says at the end. The response to being satisfied in the Lord, the response to having that experience of his salvation, to knowing his blessing, to knowing his peace, to knowing that he is ordering our steps and how he's guarding us and he's guiding us and he's keeping us and his word is for us, and how blessing only comes from him. The response to that in our hearts should be a sadness when we see wickedness in the world, but should be a burden on our hearts for the lost. Both of those things should be there. We should have this desire that as we're satisfied in the Lord and in his salvation, that others will find that same satisfaction. There's words of wonder in this psalm. Thy testimonies are wonderful. There's words of satisfaction. I opened my mouth and swallowed up for I longed for thy commandments. And there's words of supplication. And we can sum that up in verse 135. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant. Teach me thy statutes. There's a lot that we can take from this section. A lot that could be applied to our own lives. A lot that could be applied even to our prayer lives. and how we follow the Lord. Let's take it to heart tonight. Let's take the Word of God to heart and really see it worked out, desire to see it worked out in our lives for the glory of God. Amen. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank you again tonight for your Word. We thank you, O God, that your Word is wonderful. Lord, that it is something that brings us joy, that brings us peace, that gives us understanding as your Spirit speaks to us, leads us and guides us and directs us. Father, we pray that we would have a desire for the Word of God, a desire for more of your Word. And Father, we pray, O God, that we would be a people who see ourselves in light of who you are and come to you and supplicate you. Lord, that you would bless us, that you would direct us, that you would deliver us, that you would guide us. Lord, we just look to you for all of these things. Father, we pray you'll bless us now as we come to our time of prayer together, that we will know your hand upon us and your presence with us. And Father, we pray, Lord, that you will be even in our midst tonight and that you will undertake for each one. Bless us now, we ask in our Savior's name. Amen.