Let's turn in our Bibles to Psalm 119. As we continue in our summer study, and we find ourselves coming now to the 11th stanza, Psalm 119, verses 81 through 88. This is the middle point of Psalm 119, which is the longest chapter in the Bible. divided up in 22 stanzas, each representing a letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and therefore every line of the eight lines under each stanza begins with its appropriate Hebrew letter of that stanza. And this wonderful symmetry has led us now to the middle point of the chapter. It's like the summit over this mountain range of the longest chapter in the Bible. This is the peak from this point forward beginning in verse 89. There's a notable shift. where the psalmist then declares, forever, O Lord, your word is settled in the heavens as he begins the descent back down this mountain range of Psalm 119. And so we find ourselves really at the heart of this man's lament and this man's prayer in Psalm 119 here in the middle stanza. And this is why we will see he's very brutally honest in his prayer as he is culminating his heart's prayer unto the Lord in this chapter now to the 11th stanza. And this is why we will see how to keep God's word while prayerfully groaning and hoping for our final salvation. So let's notice it together. Set it before us beginning in verse 81. The psalmist writes by inspiration of the spirit. My soul fails with longing for your salvation. I wait for your word. My eyes fail with longing for your word, saying, when will you comfort me? For I am like a wineskin in the smoke, but I do not forget your statutes. How many are the days of your slaves? When will you execute judgment on those who persecute me? The arrogant have dug pits for me, men who are not in accord with your law. All your commandments are faithful. They have persecuted me with lying. Help me. They almost made an end of me on the earth, but as for me, I did not forsake your precepts. Revive me according to your loving kindness. so that I may keep the testimony of your mouth. May the Lord bless the reading of his word and its exposition today as we together see groaning for salvation. When was the last time you felt the weight of the presence and effects of sin? Perhaps it was last week. getting updates of the effects of natural disasters taking the lives of young people and old. Perhaps it was at a recent funeral. Perhaps it was at a recent doctor's appointment. Perhaps it was the ongoing, once again, physical pain or sickness. Perhaps it was just hearing news reports of wars and rumors of wars. It seems that if we're not careful in this day and age, especially with social media aplenty, we would be crushed. We could be crushed with the heaviness of all the way evil affects the world. And then we'll creep in and affect our heart and life. Romans 8.22 says that the whole creation groans and suffers. The whole creation groans and suffers, longing, it says, to be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. So every natural disaster is evidence that all creation is groaning. under the futility of sin and its slavery under evil. Even in the book of Job, one of the ways Satan afflicted Job, yes, under the permittance of God, was Satan's use of natural elements like lightning and windstorms that brought destruction to Job's life in Job 1, 13 through 29. And so we see all creation is groaning under a slavery of evil and of sin and its heavy affliction under its effects. And we, in fact, have a glimpse of creation's groaning when we just read the story of Jesus. And there's several moments where the groaning of creation grew so loudly Jesus had to say, silence, be still. And the wind and the waves quieted. Or the groaning of creation became so loud and the cacophony of boys and girls and men and women crowding around him with sickness and pain and just trying to touch the edge of his garment. And he had to stop and say, who touched me? Even the groaning of death was so deafening to his eternal ears at the tomb of Lazarus, where then he wept before saying, Lazarus, come forth. All creation is groaning under a weight and futility of its bondage to sin and evil and its longing for a final day of reckoning and a final day of salvation when Christ returns in ultimate and final victory, salvation, making all things new. And we confess, we feel the groaning today too, don't we? I'm not meaning necessarily our bones and joints, but that could be one way. We feel the groaning. Physically, but we also feel it emotionally too, don't we? You can feel the heaviness. Sometimes it's just singing a song and a memory is sparked of singing it with your loved one. And there's an absence there. There's a groaning there. Sometimes it's through just the silence of a day. Sometimes it's through the news and hearing of a natural disaster. And like me, having a flashback to where I was almost drowned as a child, and yet the Lord saved me through my older brother rescuing my life. There's different moments, whether physically we feel it, emotionally we feel the groaning, but we battle it spiritually all the time. through just the waging of the war with our own sinful flesh. All creation groans under the weight of sin, and that includes you and me as we're created. We long for our final salvation. And this is what we see the psalmist doing in our text today. As he cries out to the Lord from under the weight of his groanings and of his longing for salvation, So let's unpack the stanza so that we can learn how to keep God's Word while prayerfully groaning and hoping for our final salvation. Let's observe the first two verses together, which gives us the first main thought of the psalmist, which is our soul's desire for salvation. our soul's desire for salvation. Notice the opening line of verse 81. My soul fails with longing for your salvation. This is the opening statement and the opening truth of the stanza that the child of God longs for final and ultimate salvation from the Lord. So let's observe, first of all, the child of God's longing the child of God's longing. He speaks here of his soul. My soul fails with longing. My soul longs for your salvation. And he speaks here of his soul, which is a word that is speaking of him as a living creature whom God has made. Genesis 2-7. Yahweh God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and so the man became a living being. That's the word. A living soul. And he refers to his soul, in verse 81, failing, as my legacy standard puts it. The ESV would render it, my soul longs. New King James, my soul faints. Nasby, my soul languishes. When was the last time you used that word, right? My soul longs. It's weary. It is languishing. This is a word that is speaking of exhaustion. of being tired to the point of spent. I'm just wasted. I'm just spent. I am used up. It's the same wording used by another psalmist, Psalm 73, 26, which says, my flesh and my heart fail. There's the word. My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever. So the psalmist here in our text is speaking of his inner soul weariness, his soul's exhaustion. He is tired of living in a fallen and broken world. And his eternal living soul is longing for God's salvation to finally come, to finally make all things right, and to deliver him into the bliss of the joys of eternity in heaven yet to come. My soul fails with longing for your salvation. And notice, the parallel line is almost identical, verse 82, and its opening line. My soul fails with longing for your salvation, says verse 81. Verse 82, my eyes fail with longing for your word. Notice how similar these two phrases are. Technically, he's switching out a couple of words. He's switching out the word soul for the word eyes. My soul fails with longing, verse 81, whereas verse 82, my eyes fail with longing. This is just a vivid, poetical way to talk about the looking of his soul forward. The looking of his soul that is the central part of who he is that God has made that will last forever. though his body will waste away, but his soul that is ever looking forward is picturing now the coming of God's salvation, but it is failing with longing. The eyes of his soul is growing weary. Weary, it's growing dim. It's as if the more he stares off to that horizon where the celestial city awaits him, The more weary his eyes are becoming, the longer he's looking and gazing, and he's ready to be weak and faint. He's describing his soul's groanings. That's a New Testament way we could put it. his soul's groanings under the burden of living in a broken, sinful world. So we notice the child of God's longing, his desire. He longs for, verse 81, your salvation, verse 82, longing for your word. He switches out the word salvation for the word promise, or word. Because truly every genuine child of God is looking forward with the eyes of their soul, you could say faith, to look for God's final deliverance. So we desire the ultimate fulfillment of our salvation. We do desire that. And we long for the deliverance of being away from even just the presence of sin itself. This is very similar to the end of the Bible and the martyr's cry. In Revelation 6.10, where the martyrs cry out to God, how long? How long, O Lord, holy and true? Will you not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Because there's this ache within every saint's soul that is enduring still the effects of an injustice and an evil in the world and longing for justice and rightness. for all things to be made well, for all sad things to be made untrue. And as we've already noticed in Romans 8, that all creation is groaning, indeed longing for the freedom to come of a new heavens and a new earth that shines with the glory of God. Romans 8 continues into verse 23 that says, also we ourselves, Christians, We ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, the first fruit of the new fruit, of the new creation to come, the Spirit of God who lives in us, we have the first fruits of the Spirit, but it says, even we ourselves grown. Even we ourselves grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. This is what the psalmist is doing here in this 11th stanza as well. His soul is groaning, it's longing, it's languishing with these eyes of faith that is seeking the glory of salvation that is yet to come. And so we see the child of God's longing, but we also see the child of God's hoping. Hoping. Verse 81, says my eyes fail my soul fails with longing for your salvation I wait literally I hope I hope for your word I wait for your word he concludes verse 82 of the question my eyes fail with longing for your words saying when will you comfort me So this man is not only longing for the glory of salvation to come, but he is waiting in hope. A confident expectation. Hope. He is confidently expecting the glory of salvation that is to finally come. So we contrast what he says, verse 81, longing for Your salvation, again, you contrast it with verse 82, longing for your word, which is literally the word promise. What is he doing? He's clinging to God's promises. He is holding to the scriptures. The promises of God that is revealed in the word of God is giving this man of God the vision for him to see the final fulfillment of God's salvation. How does he know this? Just by Walking around in the forest for a little while and hearing the birds? No. Reading scripture and it's orienting the eyes of his soul to see God promises he will make all things new. Therefore that's what my hope is in. This is what I am confidently expecting. So with eyes of faith he hopes, he confidently expects the celestial city of heaven above that is promised by God for all who come to him in faith. So this man is gazing at the promises of God in his word and thereby it's giving him hope. It's giving him an expectation that the God who cannot lie will fulfill his promises of making all things new one day. What do we see? We see the child of God desires final salvation. And therefore the child of God has a living and abiding hope, even while living in a weary, groaning world. 1 Thessalonians 4.13 says we even can grieve with hope as Christians. We can grieve with hope. Galatians 5.5 says that we walk by the Spirit eagerly waiting for the hope of righteousness. Because Romans 15.13 says our God is the God of hope. He is the God of hope, so thus the children of God are filled, infused, as he shares his hope with us through the promises of his word, and we cling to them, even though we continue groaning in the present reality of our weary life. And so we know that this psalmist's hope is seen in his faithful waiting, verse 81, I wait for your word and his faithful, I should say, faith-filled saying, verse 82, saying, when will you come for me? You see the two concluding lines of the verses, don't you? They parallel each other. How so? What is he doing? He's reading scripture patiently, and then he's praying trustingly. You see, right? I wait for your word. He's reading scripture to reorient his thinking, to see the promises of God, the God who cannot lie. Then he's saying, when will you comfort me? Very important, he does not say, will you comfort me? He's not doubting. When will you? He's trusting. This is living by faith, not by sight. Whatever groanings of your soul that you have been dealing with, maybe even you've brought these groanings with you today, take heart, oh Christian, in the hope of God's promises. He is returning with final, ultimate salvation. He will make all things new. And so in the meantime, as a child of God, we long for, we desire salvation. Secondly, we see, beginning in verse 83, our life's days of suffering, our life's days of suffering. Notice what the psalmist then describes his feelings, his current days. Verse 83, for the reason, I am like a wineskin in the smoke. You ever come home from work, guys, and your wife says, how are you feeling? And you're like, I feel like a wineskin in the smoke. We don't talk this way, do we? We don't talk this way. What is he saying? He's giving a picture of a leather bag aging and cracking in the heat of smoke. And as was the custom of his day, leather bags were typically used to contain wine, fermenting grape juice, which was basically the way that they purified their water system, right, by doing mixtures of the grape juice, letting it ferment in order to eliminate the contamination of, of the water. And so as this leather bag would age, it would become more brittle, being leather, and it would wear and tear, especially if one left it near the fire. and that the heat of, let's say, a campfire and its smoke would age that wineskin faster, whether it's filled with the wine or it's already empty. Either way, it would result in a more brittle leather that then is tearable, meaning tear-able, got it? And spills and spoils the wine. This is the picture. Notice he says this is how he feels. I am like a wineskin in the smoke. He's giving this analogy for the groaning of his own soul in the heat and smoke of his sufferings. And so from verse 83 to verse 87, he speaks of three groanings that he's feeling from the heat and smoke of his sufferings. Firstly, we see that he is aging, but not forgetting. He is aging, but not forgetting. Verse 83, for I am like a wineskin in the smoke, but I do not forget your statutes. So as he ages in this present evil world and experiences the heat and the smoke of one suffering after another, he certainly feels the cracking of his soul. And the more brittle his soul is becoming, he feels the pain deeper, the memories linger, and the scars act as reminders. of the sufferings he's endured as he's aged. And though he's aging, he says, yet I do not forget. Notice how quickly he follows this analogy of aging, this worn out leather by reaffirming, but I do not forget your statutes. He's not neglecting the promises of God in his word. Rather, God's word is growing more sweeter to him. This is what he says in the following stanza, verse 103, two stanzas later. Verse 103, he says, how sweet is your word to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. And this sweetness of the word of God, he says in verse 100, makes him perceive no more than the aged. So as he's aging, He's feeling like a wineskin in the smoke through his sufferings, but what is he doing? He's finding the sweetness from the honey of God's Word. As he's aging, he's not forgetting. Secondly, we see him groaning by questioning but not doubting. We see him questioning but not doubting. Verse 84, how many are the days of your slave? When will you execute judgment on those who persecute me? The ESV translates that first question, how long must your servant endure? But truly the literal text here is how many days? How many are the days of your slave? Why? Because he knows the first psalm written by Moses. Psalm chapter 90 says that the Lord has already numbered our days. The Lord has numbered our days. So the psalmist here is questioning how many days? Have you numbered for me? Essentially, how long of a life do I have? How many days are left? I feel like a wineskin in the smoke as I'm aging. How many days do I have left? So this is quite a question of trust in a God whom he's acknowledging his already numbered days. How many are those days left, Lord? He understands he can't prolong them. He understands that there will come an end and he will have a final day, though he might not know what that day is right now, but he knows the Lord who has numbered his days. So then he asks, secondly, when will you execute judgment on those who persecute me? Here's the pain. Here's his intense pain. It's the echoing, as we already read from Revelation 6, from the martyred saints. How long, O Lord, until you avenge our blood, right? How long? This is the question. This is a repeated refrain in Scripture from beginning to end of God's people. From century after century, while living in a sin-cursed and broken world, as the Israelites are in bondage in Egypt, their groanings reach the ear of God and he raises up a Moses to deliver them, right? We know this. This is all from the beginning to the end of scripture to its ultimate final Moses of Jesus returning to finally and fully bring a new heavens, a new promised land to everybody. How long, oh Lord, is the question now? We're between the bookends. How long? How many days have you numbered for me? But not only that, when will you actually bring rightness back? When will you execute judgment? So observe, he's questioning, but he's not doubting. He's not doubting what the Lord has promised, neither is he doubting who the Lord is as being faithful. He asks, when will you execute judgment? He does not ask, will you execute judgment? When will you? This is a very, very important difference. This is why observation is so key to understanding who God is, because I see the psalmist is speaking to the faithfulness of God. When will you execute judgment? He's not doubting that the Lord might or might not be faithful to fulfill his promises. He is trusting, and he's taking in that trust a complete, honest, raw heart that is still questioning, how many days do I have left? And he's taking that honesty to the Lord, and he's casting his cares upon the Lord because he knows the Lord cares for him. I think this is a wonderful example of what Romans 8, 26 through 28 talks about. Where there, it speaks of the Spirit of God helping us as Christians in our weaknesses. Even interceding for us in groanings beyond what we're able to verbalize. And he can intercede the perfect will of God, being God, that is for us so that God works all things together for the good of those who love him, to those who are called according to his purpose. Certainly this psalmist didn't know the answer to these questions and observe, we are not given a response from God in verse 85. The questions are unanswered. He's laying before the Lord his open-ended questions, but he does not have an immediate response from the Lord. This is how many days you have, Mr. Psalmist? This is when I will execute judgment on those who persecute you, Mr. Psalmist? No. No, he is going to the Lord in prayer, and he's casting his burdens on the Lord, and he's trusting in who the Lord is. that the Lord will fulfill his promises. The Lord will hear and the Lord will answer according to the will of God who is working all things together for good. Though the psalmist still feels like a wineskin in the smoke. This man is questioning but he's not doubting. Thirdly, we see him groaning by lamenting but not forsaking. Lamenting but not forsaking. Verse 85 to 87, is a lament. He says, the arrogant have dug pits for me. Men who are not in accord with your law, all your commandments are faithful. They have persecuted me with lying. Help me. They almost made an end of me on the earth, but as for me, I did not forsake your precepts. Lament is the Christian response to suffering. One author puts it very well, to cry is human, but to lament is Christian. To cry is human, but to lament is Christian. And the Psalms are filled with lament. The major and minor prophets, meaning how long of books they are in the Old Testament, are filled with moments of lament. In fact, one whole book of the Bible is lamentations, right? Lamentations. It's a whole lament from Jeremiah the prophet. To lament is Christian. And in lamenting, the child of God is pulsating between the magnetic poles of the presence and pain of evil with the reality of a sovereign good God. And there is a tug of war, and there's a give and take, and an ebb and a flow. between these pulsating poles of the reality of evil with the reality of God's good sovereignty. And typically a lament is addressing God, speaking to God with an honest complaint about an acute pain or suffering, but then asking God to fulfill a certain promise that the person remembers from the word of God. And it concludes then with an expression of trust and praise. Come what may. That's a lament. A lament is where the child of God has an honest, raw soul groaning. A complaining. Not a complaining to people, but to the Lord in prayer. And taking this complaint, and not just complaining, complaining in Jesus' name, amen. But taking that complaint and then saying, but Lord, your word says this. I ask you to fulfill your word and you conclude with, And I trust you. Like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Sound familiar? Not my will be done, but yours be done. Jesus modeled lament for us in the garden. And there's three stages to this psalmist's lament that we can model. The first stage is a cry of pain. A cry of pain, verse 85, the arrogant have dug pits for me. Men who are not in accord with your law, verse 86, they have persecuted me with lying. Help me, verse 87, they almost made an end of me on the earth. You hear his pain, don't you? You hear his pain. I mean, this is a desperate cry. I mean, it is sharp in the Hebrew. Help me here in this line is very abnormal. just a sudden, help me, as a cry, as if he's fallen into a deep dark pit and he needs help right away. Help me. And that's the picture he's giving. This idea of persecutors, of hunters, who are chasing him down. And he feels the pain of the persecution that he presently is enduring. This is a word picture of being chased. of being chased, being hunted, being pursued by bloodhounds who are getting their evil owners ever closer to then finding you and killing you. This is the language he's using. So he's picturing himself as being hunted. He's the bird of prey who's being hunted and the traps have been set for him to fall into. And these arrogant persecutors are the evil callous bounty hunters that's seeking his death. It says, to make an end of me on the earth. They are seeking to kill me. This is why some people think Psalm 119 is written by Daniel, because you can channel a lot of what happened to Daniel right on through Psalm 119. Probably the key moment you would think of from this would be Daniel in the lion's den, where there's people who are out to kill him. They will do what they can to silence him. And so here, the psalmist we see has this cry of pain, which leads, though, to a stage two of lament, which is a prayer of truth, a prayer of truth. Verse 86, all your commandments are faithful. Notice how he just states this matter-of-factly in the middle of his pain, in the middle of how he's complaining about his real raw pain. What's he doing? All your commandments are faithful. He's praying truth. He's still speaking to the Lord, but he's stating, he's stating truth. Maybe if someone in the back could grab some water for Jeanette, that'd be helpful, thank you. She's got, yeah, but Micah, bring some water, please. We'll be attentive, just water, thank you. We wanna take care of you, Jeanette. So what's he doing here in the midst of his pain? He is stating truth. Thank you. All your commandments are faithful. And by stating the commandments of God, he's speaking to not just what God has said, what God has commanded, but then the God who has done it. Therefore, what he has said is faithful, right? Commandments are faithful, so that shows what of God. He's trustworthy. Right? So God, who is trustworthy, commands things that are faithful. So what is he speaking here? He's reminding, he's reorienting himself in the complaint of his pain to the reality of who God is, and therefore what God has said, I can trust. God himself and his promise is true and is steadfast. As we just sang, he will not let his child's soul be lost, for his promises shall last. This is stage two of the lament, which leads into the third stage of lament, which is a path to trust. A cry of pain should lead to a prayer of truth, stating truth, and it leads my heart forwards in the path of trust. Verse 87, but as for me, I did not forsake your precepts, revive me according to your loving kindness. Here is his honest cry of pain that has led him to then praying truth about who God is and how he can trust the Lord, which leads him in a pathway of trust, of trusting this God who is faithful. And he praises the Lord. for helping him not forsake, but I did not forsake. He's not taking some boast there. This is because of the faithful commandments of the Lord. So because of the Lord's faithfulness to him, he has not forsaken the Lord. And so thus to lament is Christian. Okay, to lament is Christian. This is the child of God's soulful response to the reality of pain and to the reality of suffering and the reality of evil. Without lament, I really think you bury it, and it produces sprouts of bitterness in your heart. Without lament, lament is taking that pain to the Lord, crying out to Him in the raw pain, holding one truth of His Word that you know, or you read, or someone is speaking to you, and you hold fast to it, and you trust God. And you journey on. You still have to face the pain. But it's the truth of it, isn't it? It's the humility of it. It's the honesty of it. So that the child of God ultimately rests in the person of God. He who is their refuge and strength. He who is the present help in their time of trouble, as Psalm 46.1 says. I already hinted that Christ set this example in the Garden of Gethsemane. Just remember that because he sets the model for you, where he goes inward to the garden and cries out to the Father in real, honest pain, sweating drops of blood, which is a true medical condition of anxiety. Jesus had so much anxiety in his human body that his sweat was turning to droplets of blood. He was crying out in real raw pain about what was coming of his death and his enduring of the wrath of the Father. But then he chose to speak truth and he trusted in the Father's good and perfect will, not my will but yours be done. To cry is human, but to lament is Christian. Which leads us thirdly to conclude the stanza by seeing our heart's delight in steadfastness. Our hearts delight in steadfastness. Here in verse 88, the psalmist identifies the divine enablement from God for his personal perseverance under the weight of still groaning. Verse 88, revive me, enliven me, quicken me, strengthen me according to your loving kindness, God's grace, his loyal covenant with his people. so that I may keep the testimony of your mouth. The Lord's divine enablement for this man's perseverance is by his revival in loving kindness. And so there's two concluding requests here for the trusting psalmist as he's asking the Lord. Request one, ask for God's enabling grace to sustain you, to sustain you, revive me according to your loving kindness, and then secondly, ask for your enablement to persevere. To persevere, verse 88 concludes, so that I may keep the testimony of your mouth. So this isn't a let go and let God as if somehow he's just going to miraculously heal me from my cancer, so I don't need to do anything about it. And then I suffer and I suffer and I suffer and I die. I might still suffer and suffer and die, but what can I do in the responsibility that I have to bear the image of God as a Christian enduring cancer? How can I show Christ through cancer? I'm just giving an illustration. It's not him letting go and, well, I'm trusting the Lord, so he's gonna take care of it. No, he has responsibility. So he's asking the Lord that the Lord would sustain him because he can't persevere unless the Lord shows him loving kindness, unless the Lord revives his heart. So God's preservation of us enables our perseverance. God's preservation of us enables our perseverance. Because God is the beginning, the middle, and the end of our salvation. God is our Savior for past, present, and future. And it is by His grace, His loving kindness, right here in verse 88, that begins our salvation. by regeneration, justification, adoption as children of God by our faith in Christ alone. He begins it by his grace. It is by his grace that he keeps us saved by sanctification, by renewal, by revival, as children of God walking in the spirit. And it's by his grace that completes our salvation in glorification and final transformation as children of God revealed in the glory of God. Charles Spurgeon said it so well, between here and heaven, every minute that the Christian lives is a minute of grace, is a minute of grace. Therefore, God's preservation of his people by his grace is effective in that they persevere. Thus, our perseverance is a fruit of God's preservation of us. So whether it is God holding us fast or us holding fast to him, all of our boast is in him because from him and through him and to him are all things. So unto him be the glory forever, Romans 11, 36. So what we've learned today is how to keep God's word while prayerfully groaning and hoping for our final salvation. Where is your soul's desire in the midst of your days? Is it in the delight of holding fast to God as he holds fast to you? What a glorious day it will be when he comes and makes all things new, amen? Amen. May the Lord strengthen us to persevere until then. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we look to you and we ask, Lord, that you would set our soul's eyes to look above and beyond the hills and to ask, where does our help come from? And to see that the answer in your word is our help comes from you, the maker of the heavens and the earth. Lord, would you warm our hearts to trust and love you more? And would you cause our feet to walk in the paths of your grace more? And Lord, would you cause our voices to sing the melodies of your peace more? And Lord, I pray that you would then wean us more and more from the groanings of this life to taste more and more the sweetness of the glories in our celestial city waiting above. Lead us onwards, lead us upwards, lead us heavenwards. Keep us faithful, Lord, by your faithfulness we ask. In Jesus' name, amen.