Well, good evening. Welcome to West Houston Bible Church. Report from Dr. Dean is that his vitals are good, he looks good, but he has pain, as is to be expected at this point, and he asked for prayer for his pain management, and that he's going to be able to handle that. They're getting him up and starting to do rehab, things that he's got to do to get back in shape. So he's going to be in ICU probably the rest of this week. So he just asked that we continue to pray for him and pray for Pam while she's taking care of all the things that she needs to take care of with Robbie in ICU. We've come tonight to study the Word of God. What a marvelous treasure we have. We can each have his own copy and his own language. And that is a blessing. And we take it for granted, but there are billions of people in this world who have never seen a Bible. And yet we might have 20 or 30 or even more Bibles in our homes. But it's of no value if we don't study it. So we've come tonight to learn more about God and His plan and His purpose and His provision for us. So as we Come to our study. Let's prepare ourselves. Make sure that there is no sin in your life that would hinder the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit. Making sure that all sins have been confessed to the Father so that you can be cleansed and so that we can appropriate God's Word. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come to you with thankful hearts. Surely you are a God of mercy. We thank you for the surgery that Robbie was able to have, for the technology, for the skill that you give to the doctors, and we thank you that he was able to have this procedure done. We thank you that the doctors were pleased with the results and that Robbie is on the recovery road. We do pray that you'll give him some alleviation of the pain that he's suffering. Pray that he might be able to handle that without too much difficulty and that it wouldn't hinder him from doing the rehab and the other things that he needs to recover and to get back with us. I give thanks that we have freedom to assemble to study your word together. And we know that you have provided this word. You've preserved it. You've given it to us for a reason. So I pray that we might learn to appreciate this treasure that we have. And I pray that tonight as we look into your word together that your spirit will open to us understanding that we might be motivated in our own spiritual lives as we come to realize your purpose and plan for us. We would ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We continue with our study of Psalm 119 and now we have come up to the hate file and this is found in verses 57 through 64. So in the lower left we have the original form of this letter and then over the centuries it was modified until it came to the final form that we see today and that's on the right. The original pictograph was that of a wall The meaning of this word hate is outside, or to divide, or half of something. And it has the sound of a K with an H after it. Velar fricative for those of you who are linguistically apprised. And this is where we get our letter H. Let's read the file, the hate file. so that we know where we're going tonight. You are my portion, O Lord. I have said that I would keep your words. I entreated your favor with my whole heart. Be merciful to me according to your word. I thought about my ways and turned my feet to your testimonies. I made haste and did not delay to keep your commandments. The cords of the wicked have bound me, but I have not forgotten your law. At midnight I will rise to give thanks to you because of your righteous judgments. I'm a companion of all who fear you and of those who keep your precepts. The earth, O Lord, is full of your mercy. Teach me your statutes." So what do we have in these eight verses? The psalmist declares that he'll keep the Lord's commandments faithfully and enthusiastically as he prays for gracious intervention in his life-threatening situation, acknowledging that everything he has is in the Lord and everything in the world is under God's care. So that would just be a summary statement of what we find in this section. So if you were going to outline it, here's a very simple outline. One, verse 57, all he has is from the Lord, therefore he promises to keep his word. And then in verses 58 to 60, he seeks God with his whole heart and he asks for his mercy. And then the wicked have beset him, but he remembers God's judgments and praises Him. And then In the last two verses, in fellowship with believers who fear the Lord, he desires to know more of the word of the Lord because the earth is full of the Lord's loving kindness. Now the key statement is found in verse 57 when he says, the Lord is my portion. And he's saying God is everything. And everything else in this file, it just adds support to this declaration And we go along and we get more and more evidence that prove his assertion to be true. So, first of all, believers must make a commitment to obey God's Word because everything that we have comes from God. So in this stanza, the psalmist's appreciation of the Lord gives us the frame, the framework. In verse 57, he talks about the Lord as his portion. And then in verse 64, he mentions God's loyal love. And so everything in between is going to fit into that framework. So he starts out and he says, you are my portion, O Lord. I've said that I would keep your words. Now the word portion, it means a share, a part. Sometimes it means a territory. The word was commonly used for parceling out shares of land. This was seen in the distribution of the land among the twelve tribes of Israel when they entered into the promised land. Each tribe got a portion. Except for the tribe of Levi, they did not receive a portion of land, but rather the Lord himself was to be their portion. But this word was used for the dividing up of the land. But it can be used for the division of anything. It was used for the division of food, for the division of clothing, or the spoils of war. They get divided up among the victors. And so he says, you're my portion. Well, what does that mean to us? Well, it conveys the idea of an intimacy, a personal relationship. It's an expression of trust and devotion that's found throughout the Psalms. Numerous Psalms use this word and they say that the Lord is our portion. Now if you're going to say that, there has to be a recognition of your temporal and your eternal relationship to God. Everything that I have comes from God. Everything. There is nothing that I have that does not come to me courtesy of the grace of God. He is my portion. So there are people who think that they are self-made men. No, they are not. It is He that has made us and not we ourselves. God is the one who has created us. He is the one who has provided us the ability to think, the ability to do anything. That all comes from God. Also like it in Deuteronomy chapter 8 where it says that even our ability to make money is a gift from the Lord. Did you ever read that? He didn't give me that gift. But when we say that the Lord is my portion we recognize it's God who is the source of all that we have. And this is true not only for this life but also with regard to what we have in the future. So we have an eternal inheritance and this also is our portion. And so as we orient to God's provision and we recognize this all comes from God and this is going to create in us a sense of gratitude so that we praise the Lord for what he has done for his mercy and his wonderful works to the children of men. And so he says, you are my portion, O Lord. He recognizes this, and now he has a sense of intimacy with God as he comes to truly understand what he has in his relationship with the Lord. So this is something that every believer should acknowledge, but many do not. They just do not appreciate how much God has given to us in His grace. So he said, you are my portion, O Lord. I have said I would keep your words. The word keep, it's a word we've seen already several times up to this point. It means to guard, to keep, to observe, to pay attention to. To keep the word of God means I'm going to have to be careful about how I think and how I live and that is going to I mean, I guard his word, but I also keep it by obedience. So if the Lord is your portion, it calls for a firm resolve to obey the Lord's word. And so he says, I have said that I would keep your words. Now, this could be translated, I promise to keep. It's a resolve to obey, and this is the appropriate response to the provision of God. When I come to understand what God has given me in grace, my response should be, I'm going to keep your word. I think that each one of us, at some point, we need to come to that point where we say, I'm going to please God. That's going to be the goal of my life. That's going to be my aim, that I want to please God. Do it perfectly, but I think still we come to that point where we make that commitment. We make that decision. This is where I'm going. As for others, I don't know what course they may take, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. So I think we need to come to that point when we make this commitment. And so if we're going to do that, we have to be occupied with the Word of God And to be occupied with God's Word is to be occupied with the Lord Himself. So it's not merely a matter of learning, it's not an academic pursuit, but it's learning and doing. Why do we learn the Word of God? So that we can fulfill His purpose, so that we can bring Him glory. And so we need to keep the words. Now, how do we do that? Really, what's involved with keeping God's Word? We're going to see it throughout this psalm, where he is going to expand on this idea of keeping the Word. So, keeping the Word is something that is going to be expressed by our conduct, by our actions. And so we will see, keeping God's Word, it's going to be expressed in prayer. If you're going to keep God's Word, you have to be involved in prayer. Keeping God's Word is expressed in choices. We have to make choices every day. Am I going to please God in this, or am I going to satisfy my own lust pattern? We make choices, and we keep God's Word by making choices based upon the Word. We keep God's Word by obedience. God has given us his commandments, he has given us his judgments, and we keep God's Word as we obey. We keep God's Word as an expression of faithfulness. When we are faithful, when we don't turn away from the Word of God, the plan of God, then we keep God's Word. There's keeping God's Word as expressed in praise. If I'm going to keep the Word of God, I need to know what does it mean to praise God. And it's not simply a matter of getting up and waving your hands and saying, praise God, praise God, hallelujah. That's not what the praise is as we will see. And then keeping God's Word is expressed in your companions. Who do you spend time with? And so if I'm going to keep God's Word, I also have to keep good company. And then keeping God's Word We do it because the whole earth is full of God's loyal love. And that becomes motivation. All right, so we start out now keeping God's word expressed in prayer. This is verse 58. He said, I entreated your favor with my whole heart. Be merciful to me according to your word. It's a very interesting expression. I entreated your favor." But the word favor is the Hebrew word for face. And it's a word that always occurs in the plural, although we don't talk about somebody's faces as a rule, unless of course they have more than one. But anyway, the word is always found in the plural. But it's the face that identifies the person. and it's the face that reflects an attitude. And I just had a good time going through the Old Testament and looking at how the word face is used. It talks about a hard face. It's indicative of defiance or impudence or someone who is ruthless. He has a hard face. And then we have a shamed face. Well, we can understand that. That points to defeat, frustration, humiliation. But those who trust in the Lord, their faces were not ashamed. A flaming face. Ah, interesting. This is one that's convulsed by terror. And so here's somebody who is greatly afraid, Isaiah 13 says that they have a flaming face. Then there's an evil face. This is a face that's marked by distress and anxiety. We have a fallen face that stems from very strong anger or displeasure. Remember God rejected the offering that was brought by Cain? And God said to him, why has your face fallen? If you do good, won't it be lifted up? So his face had fallen because now he is angry. He's angry at God. Now we also have an expression found numerous times to make a person's face sweet. That means to conciliate somebody or to seek his favor. So in 2 Kings 13, Ford says he pleaded with the Lord, but literally translated is he made sweet the Lord's face. So you can go from a hard face to a sweet face. There's a shining face that indicates pleasure, indicates satisfaction that results in bestowing blessings. So we find this in a familiar passage, the Aaronic Blessing in Numbers 6. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. There you see the blessing is God's face shining. Verse 26, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you. And the word countenance, same word, face, but for some reason they didn't want to have The word face in two verses in a row. So they translated it countenance, but it's the same word. So the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. And we will see coming up later in Psalm 119, in Psalm, in verse 135, it says, make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your statutes. What does that mean, make your face shine on your servant? God's gonna be happy. You know when somebody looks at you and they are really pleased with you, they're pleased with what you have done, and you can see that shining face. You know what that is. Well, that's what we're asking from God. We want God to make his face shine on us. So he said, I entreated your favor or your face with my whole heart. The word entreat means to mollify, to appease, to entreat the favor of. And so it has the idea of making the face sweet or pleasant, meaning to appeal favorably to the Lord in prayer. In Exodus 32, 11, this word entreat, it's used for the urgent appeal to God to show a favor to show mercy. Moses came down from the Mount where he had gotten the Ten Commandments and then here you have these people who have gotten involved in idolatry. God said, you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make any graven image. And in less than six weeks here they are with a different God and they have made a graven image, they have that golden calf, and Moses now prays. It says he pleaded with the Lord his God. Literally it says he entreated the face of the Lord his God. In Malachi 1.9, but now entreat God's favor that he may be gracious to us. literally translated, entreat the face of God that he may be gracious to us. So we have a figure here, figure of speech, when it comes to entreating the face, which is saying, God, I want you to look. I want you to look on us and I want you to do it with grace. And so it becomes a prayer now to God to show his mercy, to show his grace. And so the purpose of entreating the Lord's favor is to appeal for grace, for safety, for success, and prosperity. You can find all of these facets of entreating the Lord's faith face in the Old Testament. So he said, I entreated your favor with my whole heart. So it's a prayer for God to be gracious and to intervene in his life. God, I'm asking you to do something here. Now when he says, I have treated you with my whole heart, there's no false flattery here. The people that have a close personal relationship with the Lord, they may make their appeal on the basis of God's love and compassion for them because they understand what it is. A lot of people, it's You know, they forget all about God until they get into trouble and then they say, oh God, help and do it now. But that's not what he's doing here. He's going to put things in their right order. He's going to have the right priority. And on this basis, he's going to make his appeal to God. And he says, I've done this with my whole heart. Now you can't, you can't con God. you God look at all I've done for you or you Lord what you know that I'm really sincere about this and look look at all that I've done in the past and so on that basis I want you to show me grace well that's not grace and that's not how it works we will never earn or deserve anything from God sometimes it bothers me when when people start talking about, well, I need the Lord's grace, so I guess I better start reading my Bible more. Is that how you get grace? You see, you've got it backward. Well, you know, I really need God's blessing. I guess I should start going to Bible class. I need God's blessing, so I ought to start doing some spiritual things. God knows what you are. And when he says here, I've done this with my whole heart, he's making an honest statement. He recognizes he's been committed to the Lord. And he's got the right priorities in that he has set the Word of God first. So, I entreated your favor with my whole heart. It's urgent, it's sincere, and it's a prayer for God to be gracious according to his promises. And not simply because he says, hey, I gave everything. But it's that he wants God's grace to act on his behalf and to fulfill the promises that God has made. So the reason for this urgent appeal that he makes here, it's going to be seen in verse 61, where again you have the arrogant oppressors who are trying to shut him up or shut him down. So because of what he's going to say in verse 61, We can say this is a prayer for God to rescue him from the wicked who want to destroy him. And that's going to be the content of his prayer. I entreated your favor with my whole heart. So it's a sincere and it's a very earnest prayer. Be merciful to me according to your word. The word merciful, a beautiful Hebrew word, hanan. from which we get the name Hannah and dozens of other names. There are some 50 names found in the Bible that have this word as its root. So the word means to be gracious or to deal with in grace. And three times in this psalm we find this prayer, be merciful to me. And it's found in other psalms as well. It's a prayer If we look at the context in which it is offered, be merciful. I'm lonely. Here I am. I'm all alone. I don't have any support. I don't have people who can come alongside and shore me up. Be merciful to me. He's asking for God's grace during a time when he feels all alone. Or in a time of distress, We need God's mercy. Bad things happen. Sometimes horrible things. And we may be in trouble in different realms. And we can pray for God's mercy. Be merciful to me in my distress. Or in Psalm 51, David prays for God to be merciful because of his sin. He knows that he deserves judgment. He knows he deserves extreme discipline. He knows what horrible sin he has committed, and he had nowhere to go except to the Lord. And so he says, be merciful to me. And so he's going to confess his sins, acknowledge his transgression, but he recognizes that God's dealing with him. He needs mercy, and so he prays for mercy after his sin. He asked for this, mercy according to your word. Now this tells us why the prayer is justified, how it's delineated, how it's motivated. It always has to be in accordance with the word. You can't live any way you want to live and then expect God to be merciful to you. You go out and you violate God's laws and then you pray for God to be merciful. So if you appeal to God's grace according to his word, then you need to understand that it may be God is going to discipline you in grace too. But if we're going to seek God's grace according to his word, we need to know how has God shown grace to others in the word. You see, we have this word of God, and so much of it is narrative, and it tells us History, it tells us how God has dealt with his people in the past. And as we read these accounts, we can see God has kept his word. God has been faithful. God has shown his grace. And so if I'm going to ask God to show me grace, I need to understand what has he done so that I can pray, show me grace according to your word. All right, we keep God's word. through our choices. This we see in verse 59. So he said, I thought about my ways and turned my feet to your testimonies. So he begins with a time of self-examination here. I thought. The word thought, it means to use the mind to think or thinking in the sense of planning. This is the word that's found in Genesis chapter 50 verse 20. You all know that verse, don't you? you should memorize that verse because that's Romans 828 in the Old Testament. Okay, here is where you have Joseph and he is talking with his brothers and he's finally been reconciled with his brothers and of course they are very sad about what they had done to him but he said, you meant it for evil. And it's the same word. And the idea is that there was planning involved in this. They planned to do this. You meant it for evil. God meant it for good. The word is also used for making a judgment. You look at a situation and you make an evaluation. So in Isaiah 53, Talks about Israel looked at their Messiah. He was despised and we did not esteem Him. They didn't... They made a judgment. They looked at it and said, no, that can't be the Messiah. So this word is sometimes used for running thoughts through the mind, for meditating. Malachi speaks highly about those who feared the Lord and thought about His name. It's translated, Meditate, in Malachi 3.16. Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them. So a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name. You want your book, your life to be written in God's book of remembrance? Those who fear the Lord. Okay. Got a record of that. Gonna make note of that. So there's going to be reward which will be based upon this. So the psalmist now, he's going to think about his ways, his lifestyle. And I think that we need to practice self-evaluation, but we need to do it according to the Word of God. Now, there are all sorts of self-evaluation tests. You can take them on the Internet. You can find them in bookstores. And it's all human viewpoint, worldly philosophy, based upon people trying to analyze the human race. But you understand that the entire human race is abnormal. We're all corrupt. And so for them to say now this is normal, well what they're saying is this is typical behavior of a sinner, of somebody that's evil. But sometimes they also say the problem that we have is low self-esteem. And what you need to do is to lift your own self-esteem and your self-talk. You ought to be telling yourself how good you are, how great you are, how wonderful you are. And the Bible says that our problem is we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. Now this doesn't mean that we're all worthless. We are not. We all have value because we're all created in the image of God. But we need to evaluate ourselves according to a divine standard and not a human standard. So you can take a look at yourself and you know in the book of James in chapter 1 he talks about looking into the mirror. The mirror of the Word of God. You look into a physical mirror you see a reflection of your physical face. And so you can see something you like or something you don't like, but you look at your own face and it's just a reflection of what's on the outside. But when you look into the Bible, that's a mirror of the soul, and there you can see what you really like. And so then you can make a correct evaluation. So if you look into the Word of God and are able to see yourself in it, then you can make good choices. And so the psalmist made two choices. He chose to evaluate himself. He's thinking about it. And he's measuring himself according to the standard of God's Word. And then he chooses to change. You see, our goal is to bring our thinking and our actions into conformity to God's standards. That's what this Christian life is all about. It's adjustment to the standard of God. We are to be conformed to the image of God's Son. So this psalmist, that's what he's doing. He's thinking about his ways and he's making evaluations according to the Word. And so he said, I thought about it and I turned my feet to your testimonies. This word turns, found hundreds and hundreds of times in the Old Testament. And it's talking about making changes so that you come to the Word of God, making changes to align yourself with God's policies. Sometimes this word is translated repent, but it's to return, to turn or to return. So his careful consideration of his lifestyle, he turns his feet to the Word of the Lord. Now the word feet here, it's a metaphor, for the believer's walk, his way of life. Here's a commitment to live in obedience to the Word of God. I turn my feet to your testimonies. The word testimonies used 23 times in this psalm. We've seen it before. It refers to God's testimonies, that is, what God has said or what he said he will do, and especially in the Mosaic Covenant. And so to obey his testimonies indicates loyalty to the terms of the covenant made between the Lord and Israel. God said, you do these things, you're going to be blessed. You do these other things, you're going to be cursed. You get to choose. You can choose life. You can choose death. You can choose blessing. You can choose cursing. And you say, well, who would choose death and cursing? Well, we do it every day. Every time we turn away from the Word of God, when we disobey, we are Choosing the way of cursing. But God's testimonies, this is what God has testified to that He will do. Then we have keeping God's words expressed in obedience. I made haste. It did not delay to keep your commandments. So I made haste. It means to hurry up. To hasten. Conveys the idea of speed. And often in the Psalms we find someone who is pleading urgently, hasten to help me, hasten to me. Psalm 71, 12, Oh God, do not be far from me. Oh my God, make haste to help me. Hurry up God, I'm in trouble. That's it, make haste. I want help and I want it now. And how often we make an urgent prayer. We want God to make haste, but notice here he's saying, I made haste. I did not delay to keep your commandments. So he's going to hurry up and keep God's commandments. He's not going to delay. As I was reading this today, I thought of an old song that I haven't heard it in years and years, probably since I was a teenager. And I don't know if any of you have ever heard this, and I'm not going to sing it, but here are the first and third stanzas. I'm resolved no longer to linger, charmed by the world's delight. Things that are higher, things that are nobler, these have allured my sight. I will hasten to Him. hasten so glad and free, Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to thee. I'm resolved and who will go with me? Come, friends, without delay, taught by the Bible, led by the Spirit, we'll walk the heavenly way." And that's what the psalmist is talking about. I'm not going to delay. I'm going to do it now. I'll hasten to Him. I'm not gonna delay. So his eagerness to keep God's commands corresponds to his urgent prayer for God to fulfill His promises. There's something really hollow about people pleading for God to fulfill the promises in His Word when they themselves have little interest in keeping His Word. God, I want you to keep your word. I'm not gonna do it, but I want you to. And oftentimes We're in no hurry to do the Word of God. But the psalmist says, I am in a hurry to do it. I'm not going to delay. I'm not going to put it off. Oh, well, I'm going to do that someday. Yeah, I know I should start doing that. Or I know I should stop doing that. But, well, yeah, pretty soon. No, we don't delay. We make haste to keep the Word of God. The word delay, it means to linger, to delay, the idea of walking slowly along, no hurry to go anywhere, nowhere to go, nothing to do when I get there, so I'm just going to amble along and smell the roses along the way, you know, without purpose. There are those who say they'll begin to live God's way someday. We must do so today while it is still called today. Psalm 96 and also in Hebrews chapter 3. Do it today while it's still called today because the time will come when there is nothing more. And oftentimes people look back over their shoulders and they have the regrets. I should have. I should have done different. I should have done more. And they have great regrets. So don't delay. Don't linger. Do it while it's still called today. Then we have keeping God's Word expressed in faithfulness in verse 61. The cords of the wicked have bound me, but I've not forgotten your law. And so now we learn something about the crisis of the psalmist. He said, the cords of the wicked have bound him. And the wicked are no doubt the arrogant scorners that he has referenced earlier. So the cords of the wicked have bound me. The word cords, interesting word. The basic meaning is for a rope or a cord. For example, Rahab, when she is going to deliver the spies who had been hiding in her house. She lowered them from her window with a rope. That's this word. In other words, in other cases, this word is translated as a band or a group, sometimes a company. And so in 1 Samuel 10 and verses 5 and 10, it talks about a band of prophets or a group of prophets. And there are some who want to apply that meaning here in Psalm 119.61. And so it says the cords of the wicked and they wanted bands of wicked men. It's possible, but I think we have a better understanding here if we talk about cords in the sense of a snare or something that ties us up. Because we find this word is used as a symbol for captivity or subjection. It's used for the snares set by the wicked, the traps that they might lay to get a believer in one way or another, either to exploit you in the material realm or to seduce you in one way or another, or to take you captive. In Proverbs 5.22, we find this word used for the enslavement of sin. His own iniquities entrap the wicked man and he is caught in the cords of sin. So the cords of the wicked can describe a trap. They want to capture him. They want to keep him from his godly lifestyle. They don't like what he's doing. They don't like his testimony. But the psalmist remains focused on the Word of God And so he has hostility, but it's not going to disturb his concentration on fulfilling the Word of God, and that is hard to do. People make us angry, people hurt us, people take advantage of us, people in some way damage us. And it is hard to remember why we are here, because we want to get even. You pull my hair, I'm going to pull your hair harder. And that's how we think. But that is not the way of God. We've got to keep our focus on the Word of God. Why am I here? I am not here to gratify myself. I am not here to simply make my own way. I am here to please God. And so we have to ask the question, how can I please God in this situation? And this takes work. But you do it a little at a time, and a little at a time, and you can grow stronger as you do this. So he says, I have not forgotten your law. It means he's going to continue to act on the word that he already knows. You take in the word, don't forget it, which means you need to use it in time of trouble. There's going to be a test, and you're going to have to remember what you have already learned. Because if you fail the test and you let your own sin nature take over, then you see that's forgetting the Word. It's not that it's gone from your memory, it's just that you haven't applied it. But how often we forget the Word of God when people hurt us or when we become angry. I've not forgotten your law." The word to forget means to forget or to ignore. Sometimes it's used as the antonym of remember, as in Deuteronomy 9-7, remember, never forget. So you see in juxtaposition here, remember, never forget how you provoked Yahweh your God in the wilderness. And forget may also be used as a synonym of rejection. to indicate that God will not bless or that He will bring discipline. What happens if we forget the law of God? See, the psalmist says, I will not forget your word. I'm not going to forget it, which means I'm going to use it. But what happens if we forget the law of God or if we ignore the law of God? Hosea 13.6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. And God says, because you've rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for me. Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. Now He's not saying that this is something that's going to be erased from His memory. Just as we have previously seen, the word remember is not something just something you call to mind, but it is something that you call to mind and then act on. It means to remember and do something. And here we have forgetting. It's saying, I'm not going to do something. I'm going to withhold certain blessings. And so the psalmist will not forget the Word, the Law of God, or We can put this in a positive statement. Remember, I've told you when you find a negative statement, state it in a positive way and you'll be able to get the true significance here. So, I won't forget it means I'll remember it. I will do it. I will not forget the law. Then we have keeping God's Word as expressed in praise. In verse 62, at midnight I will rise to give thanks to you because of your righteous judgments." Now, midnight doesn't mean 12 o'clock. It means that darkest hour of the night. And he says, so it's that darkest time, the darkest hour of the night, I will rise and give thanks. Now, this word give thanks, very interesting. It's the word that means to confess or to praise And often it's translated, give thanks, which is probably not going to convey to us the real significance of the word. The word is used for confession of sins. David, after his great sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, in Psalm 32.5, he says, I acknowledged my sin to you. That's the word confess. and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said I will confess." Same word again. I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. So that's this word here where it's translated give thanks. So the word means primarily to confess something. It was used to express one's public proclamation or declaration. That's a confession. It's a public declaration. And here, when we confess something about God, we're talking about God's attributes, about His works. And so the concept has the idea, praise God, because I'm going to tell of His wonderful works. Who is God? His marvelous perfections. And so praise What is praise? It's a confession or a declaration of who God is and what He does. Now, it's often translated to thank in our English versions, but this is really not the proper rendering of the word. In the Old Testament, it's interesting that there is no word that just means to thank. They don't have that word. Our concept of thank, thank you, they don't have it in the Old Testament. And we have it in the New Testament, not in the Old Testament. And for them, it was a declaration. It's a confession. It's an acknowledgment, verbally. Here's my God. This is what my God is like. This is what my God has done. And when you do that, you see, you acknowledge who God is, what God has done, and that is going to then lead into our concept of giving thanks. So the best rendering of the term is confession because we confess or declare his attributes, works, and we find this over and over again in the Psalms and elsewhere as in 1 Chronicles 29-13. Now therefore our God we thank you and we praise you. when it says we thank you, we confess you, we acknowledge you, we talk about your glories. So this is one of the key words for praise. So he says we're going to praise you because of your righteous judgments. Judgments comes from the word to judge, to determine, to regulate something. God's judgments Show the rules by which our deeds and words should be regulated. You're going to evaluate yourself. You need to have rules. And these are God's judgments. And because God has given us His judgments, now we can discern what is right and wrong and make decisions accordingly. How do you know something's right? You say, that's just common knowledge. or everyone knows. No, they don't. It's what God has said. He is the one who has set up the rules, and we think we're smarter than God because we want to change the rules. God has given us His judgments. Do you praise God for His righteous judgments? We probably haven't thought about that, that God has given us these rules, but we need to praise God because He's told us what to do. We need to praise God because he has set the boundaries. So we have these guardrails. That's God's judgments. And we need to operate within them. And he's praising God that God has told him how to think, how to live, how to act, how to speak. So he praises God for these. Then we have keeping God's words expressed in companions. He says, I'm a companion of all who fear you and of those who keep your precepts. So his loyalty to the Lord also finds expression in his association with other believers who are his companions, all who fear the Lord, meaning those who keep God's commandments. The fear of the Lord is something that we learn. And it becomes an obedience to the Word of God because we have learned who He is and we have reverence and respect for who God is, but also for His judgments. And so the tie that binds faithful believers together is a commitment to keep God's commands. Not just is somebody a believer, but do they fear the Lord? Do they really have respect for God and His Word? What are their standards? Is it the Word of God? And so here is a criterion for the selection of friends. He was a friend to those who had a respect for God, those who were desiring to know and to live by God's words. And so we have to remember 1 Corinthians 15.33, which says, bad company corrupts good behavior. Bad company here refers to those who have a perverted view of Scripture. and its attitude toward the Word of God that should be the criterion in selecting your companions. My father-in-law liked poetry. Most of it was doggerel, but he had a lot of poems that he had memorized, and he had a poem about companions, and it went like this. It was early last December, as near as I remember. I was walking down the streets in tipsy pride. No one was eye-disturbing as I lay down by the curbing. And a pig came up and lay down by my side. As I lay there in the gutter, thinking thoughts I shall not utter, a lady passing by was heard to say, you can tell a man who boozes by the company he chooses. And the pig got up and slowly walked away." Our companions need to be people who have a regard for the Word of God. That needs to be a standard. I mean, we meet a lot of people. We may do things with many people, but our friends need to be those who have that fear of the Lord and regard for God's Word. And then in the last verse of this file, keeping God's Word because the whole earth is full of God's loyal love. The earth, O Lord, is full of your mercy. Teach me your statutes. So the first half of the verse describes our rich resources in God. The second half recognizes our need to tap into those riches. So he declares that the earth is full of God's loyal love. The word mercy here is chesed, God's loyal love. And God has love in which he is going to keep his word. You see, love is a decision that we make. that we are going to provide for others, what is good for them, what is in their best interest. And we need God's standards to be able to determine what is in the best interest of others. I may think I know what you need, but that may not be according to the Word of God, so I have to have that standard again. But this word means loyal love. It means God has promised to do certain things that will bless, that will benefit, And God's going to keep that because He's loyal to the word that He has given. Now this says that the whole world benefits from the Lord's loving care. And if the whole world benefits, then how much more His children? God causes it to rain on the just and the unjust alike. And that is a statement of God's grace. God provides even for the unbeliever. You look at unbelievers out there, does God take care of them? Yes. And the whole earth is full of God's loyal love. And we can see this in many respects. But we, as His children, we can expect much more than the most. Because the Lord is our portion. He's our everything. Everything we have is because of Him. And because of that, we know that we have God's loyal love. And then he says, teach me your statutes. I think this is one of the greatest prayers that anybody can ever pray. Teach me. It's submission to God. It's a recognition of His right to rule over us. It's a recognition of God's mercy to us, His loyal love, His benefit, His grace. I realize these things and I say, teach me. Teach me what it is. Teach me what you have done so that I can appreciate you more, love you more. I want to grow in this area. So he wants to know more and more about God's revelation. He wants to know more And he's going to be able to see how God is fulfilling his word. The more we know about God, the more we recognize God's work in our lives and God's work in the world. And then, teach me so that I can obey your word. And this is why he's prompted to offer up this prayer. He wants to be taught more so that he can glorify God to a greater extent. So what's the message and application of this file? This emphasizes the Lord's portion and loyal love. We have the urgent prayer for grace in the light of difficulties. People are coming against Him, trying to shut Him down. But we see His commitment to live in obedience to God's Word. And so while we are praying for God to deliver us from danger by His grace, we need to demonstrate our faithfulness by acknowledging His loving care and renewing our resolve to obey his word. So scripture warns us that the world will hate those who believe in the Lord. They will try to destroy their faith with false teaching, with persecution. But believers know that the Lord has made provision. God has promised us many wonderful things for this life as well as the one to come. And it's because of this hope that we persevere in our commitment to do the will of God and keep His commandments. So we must first decide to be obedient to the Word of God and then we can rightly pray for God's deliverance. Don't turn this upside down and say, hey God, answer this prayer and then I promise I'll do this. Do people do that? So don't bargain with God. If you get me out of this jam, I will serve you. You need to focus on pleasing God no matter the circumstances. So I want to play you just a very short clip from a movie made, I don't know, 40 years ago. It's a guy bargaining with God. Okay, and it just sort of illustrates what people do when they have the whole thing turned upside down, when they don't put God and His Word first, but they say, hey God, give me what I want, and then I'll do what you want. So I'll see if this will play. I can never make it. Help me, Lord. Please. I promise not to try and kill myself anymore. Save me and I swear I'll be a better father. I'll be a better man. I'll be a better everything. All I ask is, make me a better swimmer. Oh God, I can't do this to Julie. We can't do this to Julie. Oh God, let me live and I promise to obey every one of the Ten Commandments. I shall not kill. I shall not commit adultery. I shall not. I'll learn the Ten Commandments and then I'll obey every one of them. Just get me back to the beach. I'll be honest in business. I promise not to sell lakeside lots unless there's a lake around. I want to see another sunrise. I want to see another sunset. It was a mistake, God. I never really wanted to kill myself. I just wanted to get your attention. Help me make it. I'll give you 50% of everything I make. 50%, God. I want to point out that nobody gives 50%. I'm talking gross, God. I think I'm gonna make it! You won't regret this, Lord! I'll obey every commandment! I'll see my parents more often! No more cheating business! Once I get rid of those nine acres in the desert. And I'm gonna start donating that 10% right away! I know I said 50%, Lord! But 10% to start! If you don't want your 10%, then don't take it! I know it was you that saved me, but it was also you that made me sick! Are we like that? All the time. We need to say, God, I'm going to obey your word even if you don't give me what I want. I'm going to put your word first. I'm going to obey. And we're going to praise God that he has given us this word. And then when we do that, the father will be pleased with his children and the father will be glorified So let's not turn things upside down. Let's look at this Kate file and see how he has the right priorities. We're going to keep his word. Let's pray. Father in heaven, I give thanks that we have this file in Psalm 119 and it has so much to say to us and it speaks to who we are. and how we ought to be. I pray that we might evaluate ourselves and that the standard will be your word and that we'll be honest with ourselves and be willing to make those changes that are necessary to bring our lives into conformity with the perfect standard that you have established and that you've revealed to us. So I pray that this word might ring in our ears. We'll be reminded that we need to live according to this word. Again, Father, we pray for Pastor Dean that you're going to lift him up. I pray that you're going to give him peace of mind. I pray that he might have a good night's sleep tonight. I pray that you'll alleviate the pain. And I pray that he's gonna be strong enough to do the rehab so that he can recover and return to serving you in this place. I pray now for your mercy that you'll protect us as we go to our homes and give us grace that we can come back again to once again fellowship with you through the word. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.