Our scripture reading this morning, we will read Psalm 119, 153-160, but I would also like to read first Luke chapter 10, verse 38-42. That's on page 869 of your Pew Bibles. Luke chapter 10, verse 38-42. Hear now the word of the Lord from the Gospel of Luke. Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to His teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she went up to Him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her. Now if you'll turn to Psalm 119 verse 153 that's on page 516 in your pew bibles and we'll read Psalm 119 verses 153 through 160. Here now, God's Word. Look on my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget your law. Plead my cause and redeem me. Give me life according to your promise. Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes. Great is your mercy, O Lord. Give me life according to your rules. Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, but I do not swerve from your testimonies. I look at the faithless with disgust, because they do not keep your commands. Consider how I love your precepts. Give me life according to your steadfast love. The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever." Thus we've read 119, 153 through 160. Let us now go to the Lord in prayer. Gracious Lord in heaven, Thank You for Your Holy Word that You've given to us, that You've revealed Yourself to us in it. We ask that You would hide it in our hearts and let it bear fruit in our lives. Be it with the proclamation of Your Word this morning that it would glorify Your name. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In Luke chapter 10 we get the incident where Jesus goes to Mary and Martha's house. And sometimes I think we might take God's Word like Psalm 119, which is about His Holy Word, and we end up treating it much like Martha does, where it becomes a list of do's and don'ts. Jesus is in Mary and Martha's house and He's speaking and He's teaching. He's giving them the Word, and Martha's running around serving, doing this and doing that. Not because she doesn't want to listen to Jesus, not because she's not a believer in Jesus, but because she thinks that's what she ought to do. That it ought to be a list of things to do. And she gets to the point where she even tells Jesus, Mary's just sitting there doing nothing. Tell her to get up and do some stuff. And He tells her that there's one thing that's necessary. And it's not going to be taken from Mary. That it's Mary who's doing the right thing by sitting and listening and taking in God's Word. Learning of Jesus as He expounds Himself to her. Psalm 119, which is about God's Word, about its power, about its mercy, about its grace, but it is also revealing God to us. The psalmist here in this section of eight verses, you'll remember Psalm 119 is broken into these eight verses. Each verse in the group of eight starting with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It talks to us beginning by showing us those who have rejected God, the wicked, those who don't want God's Word. And it explains to us a little bit about the wicked that salvation is far from them. Far is actually the word that starts this verse. In verse 155, salvation is far from the wicked. And it's far that's being stressed. The wicked aren't just missing salvation by a little bit. They're not just on the edges of it. No, they're far from it. And we're told why. Because they don't seek your statutes. They don't care about God's Word. Not at all. They don't want to hear His voice. They don't want to hear Him speak. They want to decide for themselves what they can and can't do. They want to decide for themselves right and wrong. That's the first temptation after all. Satan gives it to Adam and Eve. You'll be like gods. You can decide for yourself right and wrong. It's the temptation he still uses for us today. The wicked wish to fulfill their own lusts. And they don't wish to fulfill the desires of the words of God. They don't seek them. And they don't seek them because they don't want them. And in fact, they don't want them because they hate them. Which leads them to be persecutors of the godly. And adversaries to the people of God. Verse 157, many are my persecutors and my adversaries. Many is the word that starts it in the Hebrew as well. Emphasizing that this is not just some people, that the wicked are enormous in number. And they are persecuting Him and standing opposed to Him, trying to get Him to swerve away from the Word of God, to turn His back on God and His Word. And the many of them become more and more pressure, more and more pressure. Turn your back on God. Swerve from His statutes. Don't listen to His testimonies anymore. And persecution? is how they try to accomplish that. Because they hate God and they hate God's Word. They're far from His salvation. And in hating God's Word, when someone comes who is not swerving from the statue, says the psalmist, who follows after God's Word, they lash out and try to get Him to join them in being far from salvation and turning His back and turning a deaf ear to God and His Word. They can't hurt God, so they hurt the people of God. They lash out at Him by lashing out at us. And they become our adversaries. And the psalmist also tells us in verse 158 that he looks upon those faithless with disgust. The psalmist is upset and is sickened by the lawlessness and the sinfulness of others. He doesn't favor the faithless. He doesn't reward them. He doesn't look upon them as adventurous young rebels, but He sees them as they ought to be seen, as traitors to God. Those who've broken covenant with God. It's not just people who did the wrong thing on a list of do's and don'ts. The wicked are people who hate God. And it disgusts Him. We live in a world today that often tries to make wickedness into goodness. To hold up evil and says, look, this is good. And we may see it very clearly in times like right now, but it's always been with us. It's been with the world in every generation. It's been with the psalmist. It's been always around. Maybe they might change which wickedness they're holding up and saying this is good today, but the wicked always try to make their ways look good. They will always call evil good and good evil. And the psalmist, because he is steeped in God's Word, because he has sat and listened to the Lord expound Himself in His Word, he understands what sin really is. He reacts rightly to sin. He's repulsed by it. And he has that right reaction because He's heard the Word of God. And it's not forgotten. Verse 153, Look upon my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget your law. The psalmist is experiencing great affliction, but he doesn't forget God's Word. He looks to God by looking to the Word of God. He doesn't forget it. He mulls it around. It remains with him. It still comforts him in the midst of his suffering and trials and hardships. He turns to it over and over. I don't forget your law in verse 153. Give me life according to your promise in verse 54. I don't swear from your testimonies in verse 57. Give me life according to your rules in verse 56. Consider how I love your precepts in verse 159. The sum of your word is truth in 160. He's constantly turning to the Word of God and saying, I won't forget this. This is my comfort. It's my hope. It's my help. This is how I look unto God. I look through His Word. He will not make the mistake of forgetting the words from His Lord and God. This is where God's Word belongs in our hearts and in our minds, or as Paul tells us, It's the Word of Christ dwelling in us richly. So that it's always there. So that it's always feeding and nourishing our souls so that we can turn to it when we're in great affliction. And it's constantly teaching the psalmist as it constantly teaches us about redemption and about the life-giving God. That's what the Word of God does best. It shows us Jesus. It reveals the nature of the one true God. It's His revelation of Himself to us, after all. And so the Word of God is not primarily a list of do this and do that or don't do that. But rather, it's the self-revelation of God. This is God saying, here is who I am. It's the Lord teaching about Himself. And in sitting and listening and meditating on it, we learn about God. And in learning about God, we learn about ourselves. And we've learned that God has shown us how to reconcile ourselves with Him, because God provides a way for us to get right with God. And that's not our work. It's His and Jesus Christ on the cross. He's the one who gave us the Messiah. He's the one who sent the Son of God, which we now know to be Jesus Christ, to die on our cross. The psalmist knew that salvation came from God. He did not yet know the name because he's before the cross, because he's before Christmas, because he's before Jesus. But he knows that salvation comes from God. He knows those promises of a coming Messiah. V. 154, Give me life according to your promise. Verse 156, give me life according to your rules. Great is your mercy, O Lord. Verse 154, plead my cause and redeem me. He knows. He knows that life comes from God. He doesn't have it fully revealed. He doesn't have the New Testament. He doesn't know the name Jesus. But when we see someone saying, plead my cause and redeem me, we should think about Jesus. He is saying, give me life over and over. And it's Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life. He is asking to be saved. He is asking for Jesus. And He even tells us, the sum of your word is truth. In verse 160, in every one of your righteous rules endures forever. Just as Jesus says in John, Thy Word is truth. Just as Jesus tells us, He is the way, the truth, and the life. His Word is true. The wicked might be rebelling against His Word, But they can't destroy it. It can't be thrown away or erased. It can't be removed through persecution of His people. God has spoken. His Word is true. And when you add up everything about the Word of God, the answer is it's truth. It speaks about God. It speaks about Jesus. It is the God who cannot lie who is speaking. And therefore, it is truth. Truth about who we are. Truth about who the world is. Truth about who the wicked are. Truth about right and wrong. Truth about the creation and God Himself. The truth about salvation, redemption, and how we get back into that right relationship of God. The truth about the future. The truth about the second coming. It's all truth. The sum of the word is truth. Add it together, it's truth. And the psalmist, as he meditates on God's Word, as he sees these things, he knows it's about the mercy of God. He sees that it speaks about mercy. Plead my cause and redeem me. Both verse 153 and 159, he pleads with God to look upon him In 159, the word consider is the same word in verse 153 for look. And it starts both sentences and it is the psalmist saying, look upon me. I've looked to You in Your Word. Now I'm asking that You would look upon me in my trouble, in my trials. Look upon my heart. Look upon me in my affliction. Consider me in my affliction. My love for Your Word. Look upon my heart and my love. He is praying for God to see him, to notice him, to look upon him with that love and mercy and kindness. To see the psalmist in his need and to reach out and help. And he's asking ultimately for that redemption. Plead my cause and redeem me. Great is Your mercy, O Lord. Can we see He's calling upon Jesus to be His advocate? He's asking for redemption? He's trusting not in His works, but in the mercy of God? That salvation that He has said is so far from the wicked, He knows He needs! And He knows where to find it, or better put, in whom to find it. And so we ask God to be on His side, to redeem Him, In doing so, he's admitting he cannot redeem himself. He's confessing his sin, his shortcoming, and his need for salvation. And he's confessing that that answer is only found in God and the Messiah who will redeem. He is asking for life. Give me life according to Your promise, in verse 154. Great is Your mercy, O Lord. Give me life according to Your rules, in verse 156. 159, give me life according to your steadfast love. He knows that the life is not based upon His works or His deeds. And don't misread verse 156 where it says, give me life according to your rules. Don't think that He's saying there, I've done this and I've kept that and I've made all the check boxes and I did it, therefore give me the reward. He's not saying I ran the race and I won, hand me the crown of life. Now we've started that very verse with, great is Your mercy, O God. He knows He hasn't done it. I think we can put 154 and 156 and 159 together and see what He's saying. Give me life according to Your promise, according to Your rules, according to Your steadfast love. He's not asking God to save Him because He's done the rules. He's saying, give me life according to the rule of how You, God, O work. You're the God of steadfast love. You're the God whose mercy is great. And I'm asking, and I know that you have said, if I ask for your mercy, if I ask for forgiveness, you are faithful and just in forgiving my sins. That's the rules He's talking about here. Not the law of God and you have to keep all ten commandments perfectly and then you get life. No, He's saying, your way, that way of steadfast love, that way of mercy, that way that you have promised, Give me life. I ask. And I trust in Your mercy. I trust in Your love. Because God is love. Jesus is the full revelation of that love of God. And so the psalmist is asking for the salvation of God that is shown to us when God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. 156 is not a plea to respect the law and to earn salvation, but it's a plea for mercy and grace, saying, I believe. Help my unbelief. I believe. Give me life, as you have said you will. The Word of God, the Law of God, teaches us this very truth. It shows us who God is. God is love, and God is mercy, and God will save. just as He has in Jesus Christ. So in this psalm, these eight verses of Psalm 119, it should lead us into prayer. Do you see how these eight verses really are a prayer? That they're calling upon God, look upon Me, consider Me, plead, give. He is asking things from the Lord in this. This is a prayer. God's statutes and His law and His Word has taught the psalmist everything he needs to know for prayer. It showed him that he needs to go to God for forgiveness. It shows him that he needs forgiveness. And it drove him to pray. He's asking God for that merciful glance. Look upon me in affliction. Look at how I love your precepts. He is asking to be redeemed. And so when we read God's Word, it should drive us to the Lord in prayer. We should ask for such things. And then God's Word in turn comforts us, saying, God has heard your prayer. And you can know He will give. Because He has told you in His Word that if you ask, He shall answer. That whosoever believes will be forgiven. that if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to restore to you righteousness, so that He can pray, the psalmist here, give me life according to your promise. What a prayer that is! Where he both has been taught to pray by the Word and comforted by the Word, because he knows the promise. The promise that the Lord will give it. We've been going through the book of Romans and we've read that great promise that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. We've heard the promise in His Word that nothing shall separate you from the love of God. Meditating on God's Word comforts us. And we also need to understand that God's Word reveals God Himself. It's His Word. He's telling us about Himself. Jesus has told us that if you've seen Me, you've seen the Father. He's saying if you read, if you understand, if you know Jesus, then you know God the Father. That we can know Him. He has revealed Himself. You don't have to live this world wondering about God. He has shown you. who He is. He's told you His great grace and His great mercy. He's shown you His very heart in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's shown you how much He loves you when He died upon the cross for you. Hebrews 1-1 tells us, in these last days, God has revealed Himself in His well-beloved Son. And Christ, we can know God. Because Christ is God. reveals to us Jesus. We can know these things. We can know Him. So we must resist the danger to turn God's Word into a list of do's and don'ts and see it for what it is, the revelation of God Himself. God speaking and sharing Himself with us. It's always the temptation to be Martha. to say, I'm going to do this rule and this rule and this precept and this precept, and that's all there is, and to miss the fact that Jesus Christ Himself is sitting in the room revealing Himself to us. If Jesus tells Martha, this is the necessary thing, that she know Me, I'm not going to take that away. I'm not going to send Mary out to go busy herself. She is doing the right thing. by sitting and listening to Jesus. And we now have His Word. Anytime you want to sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, He is here. Pick it up and read. He will never send you away. He will not say, today I won't reveal Myself to you. No. Always. Show us Himself. He always hears our prayers. He is always there. Just as He has promised. Let us go to Him now in prayer. Gracious Lord in Heaven, we do thank You for Your Holy Word. We thank You that You revealed Yourself to us in it. Make us people of Your Word. Give us a heart that longs for Your Word so that we can love Your Word, Your precepts, Your commands, Your testimonies, so that we will love You. Help us sit at Your feet and learn. In Jesus Christ's name we pray, Amen.