My preferred way of giving a full date is to remind us that we live in the year of our Lord. January 4th, 2026, in the year of our Lord. That reminds us that That's how many years it's been since the most important person ever came to this earth and was born and lived and died and rose again and was exalted and is even now sitting at the right hand of God on high, ruling and will continue to rule until all his enemies are made his footstool and he is by every tongue confessed to be the Lord. And we are the first fruits of that power. We have been privileged to be brought into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're just participating now with hearts that are happy to do so. that which God will ensure is complete. And that time is coming. We are not given the time and the minute of it, but it is coming. And Jesus tells his disciples to watch, to wait for it, to be expecting it. Paul reiterates this multiple times in his writings. So we're living in a time when, in a way, that the end, what will be, there is complete clarity. That's amazing. That wasn't the case for the folks before Jesus came. They had some clarity, but it was mostly mystery. Jesus comes. He is the light. God manifest in the flesh. Then full clarity as to what all has been spoken of before. And also with the coming of Jesus Christ, the New Testament, being fully revealed, now we have full clarity as to the future, as to the outline and what is certainly going to come to pass. We've been given that by the revelation of God through the Lord Jesus Christ and then the written word that has come with the revelation of Christ himself being completed through the writings of what is now the New Testament. So what we have here as Christians, Christ followers, we have a complete account from God of all things, all things that he has determined it was good for us to have. So there's no doubt in our minds by the eye of faith as to what the end of our own life will be. We're confident in that because we believe the word that God has given. Now, there might have been a time in your life when you distinctly did not believe God's word. Some people have that very clear difference that they can look back on and see the time before they were converted to believe Christ and to believe his word. And some people don't have that same type experience. But the truth is, before the grace of God, working upon the heart, working upon your heart, you are without love and belief towards Christ and His Word. And upon receiving the grace of God, and being brought into a vital or a living knowledge of Him. When that happens, now your life is completely redefined. The terms of it are redefined. The instruction manual for your life has been redefined. It's been superseded by a new way. This morning, we're going to read in Psalm 119. Psalm 119. And we will begin in verse 129. Psalm 119, beginning in verse 129. This Psalm is in sections of eight, and they each provide a revelation and a commentary on God's word, his law, his testimonies, his commandments, many terms that the psalmist uses to describe the word of God and different aspects of it. My prayer is this morning that by feasting on these eight verses, 129 through 136 this morning, that in your walk with the Lord, in your being a servant of God, of being a follower of the living Lord Jesus Christ, that the Word of God and our esteem for it our value of it, and a recognition of both the correction that we need, my own correction towards the Word, and then the correction and instruction in righteousness that the Word of God provides, and how I should value that and seek after it. Thy testimonies are wonderful, therefore doth my soul keep them. The entrance of thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding unto the simple. I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for thy commandments. Look thou upon me and be merciful unto me as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name. Order my steps in thy word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Deliver me from the oppression of man, so will I keep thy precepts. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant, and teach me thy statutes. Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law. Let's pray once more and then we'll begin. Father, we commit your word into your hands and we ask that you would minister it to our hearts by the Holy Spirit that we would be restored and renewed, corrected and instructed in righteousness that we might be thoroughly furnished and to all good works. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. The opening of this passage is is an articulation of. Our posture or our heart, our deepest desire. Concerning the word of God. And then, from there, he moves on and describes some practical scenarios, situations that he is wanting to be addressed and recognizing the need to be addressed in his life by the application of God's Word, but it begins with, and this is very important for us in our own life, in our relationship with the precious Word of God, it begins with my esteem of God's Word. So let's read how he puts it. First, he writes, thy testimonies are wonderful, Therefore doth my soul keep them." Now this wonderful is the same as in Isaiah 9 that we read last week and the week before concerning the prophecy of Messiah, remember? And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor. And that word is a term that indicates something extraordinary, extraordinary, or even miraculous. In other words, completely surpassing the norm. Well, he writes here, thy testimonies are that. They are extraordinary. Now, The Bible has often and appropriately been called the book of books. Reminds me of king of kings, lord of lords. What is that saying? That's saying we understand the general terminology of this word and what it represents, but there is one that is heads and tails or heads and shoulders above everything in that category. And it really is in its own category. It's the book of books. We this is so well understood in our culture, historically speaking, that this is true of the scriptures, the Holy Bible, that the term Bible is used in non Bible related contexts such as I did a quick search this morning and you could buy off Amazon this morning if you wanted to, you could buy the cooking Bible, the survival Bible, and just go on down the list. The DIY Bible, what does that mean? What's the purpose of that kind of title? It's because Bible, the Bible is recognized historically as being the authoritative one, the book of books. If you have the Bible, that indicates that you don't need to go anywhere else. That's why they give that title to the cooking Bible. The idea is it's the ultimate one-stop shop. If you have the Bible of cooking, you've got everything you need. You've got the highest authority, no need for another book. That's the idea of applying that word to these different scenarios. So that's a historical appreciation from a standpoint of literature. But we have here a confession that is much greater, far surpassing even a cultural appreciation for the wonderful nature of this literary book called the Bible, historically speaking. Thy testimonies are wonderful. They are extraordinary and It is because of this, that this is the esteem that I place on God's Word, appropriately so, it's warranted, that my soul keeps thy testimonies. So these go hand in hand. We often use these kinds of words with our children, and indeed, our Heavenly Father has done the same with us. Well, I know you heard me, but it's obvious that you don't believe me or you would have followed my word. You would have obeyed my word. You might have said that you do, but then you didn't do it. The action speaks louder or the action describes the truth of the heart. Even Jesus taught that out of a corrupt heart, comes forth corrupt fruit. Out of a good heart will come good fruit. So the question for us this morning is, the corrective action where needed for us this morning is to recalibrate our posture towards the Word of God. That it's not a book a piece of literature that's one of many on the shelf, one of many philosophies with good ideas. Or, as we've been in the Gospels, just another biography of another great man. No, the Word of God is so surpassing in its excellence that it stands all by itself to the point of being, indeed, alone in its value. There isn't anything comparable. Now, the reason for that is because it's God's Word. What do we learn from the fact that it's God's Word? Well, there's three terms that we get from, that we are taught from the scriptures about the character of God's Word, which go into why it is extraordinary. It is inspired of God. God is the author through men. Because it's God's Word, it's also inerrant or without error. Is that true of any book in your house? Well, of course not. There is no book written by man that is without error. But there is one book that we have that is without error, and it's because it's written of God. May God grant us to lay hold of that. and to be transformed in our delight, our estimation, our valuing of the Word of God on that basis. When we are looking for the dictionary, the best dictionary or the best researched book of any particular subject, we want we will inevitably look for the most authoritative one. Maybe it's the one written by the person who's spent the most time in the field, done the most research, has had the most experience in that particular area. The most authoritative publication we can find on the subject. Well, indeed, the most authoritative author on the subject of all things, of course, is God himself. And he has given us his word on the subject. The third one is that the word of God is sufficient. This, Paul writes of this in his letters when he says that the word of God is a thorough furnisher unto all good works. This should come to us intuitively because it's written by God, and he's revealed to us all things that he would have us know, and he's given it to us in his word. If God was here in the flesh, and I love Him, and I trust Him, and I want to obey Him, I know that I wouldn't suggest to Him that the revelation that He's given to me and which it has been said that is sufficient for all things. I know that I would not suggest to him that his word is not sufficient. Obviously, I wouldn't do that. Yet, my actions betray me sometimes, do they not? And so, what we want when we go to a word, a passage like this, that makes such a... wonderful statement about His wonder, the wonder of His Word, is to be willing to let it recalibrate our hearts toward His Word. And this results in, then, that my soul is keeping His Word. Thy testimonies are wonderful, therefore doth my soul keep them. The entrance of thy words giveth light, it giveth understanding unto thee simple. Now this description is a wonderful revelation of the goodness of God towards man. because this is exactly what He's given us in His Word. You have here the light of God's wisdom here. It's given to us. And then He's given us a belief in that light. You know, John wrote that the light that is Jesus incarnate light, came into the world and the light of the world was in the world and they didn't see him as light. Talk about blindness. Talk about darkness. So it's a blessing of God's grace that he has given us the light of his revelation and we recognize it as such. We have ears to hear. We have eyes to see. the light of God's word. And so he writes that the entrance of thy words giveth light. This really means the unfolding of the words, the unveiling of its meaning. And so as we study, as we preach, as we read and meditate and mull over, and seek out the treasures of God's Word, which we are promised we will find the fruit of it if we seek them diligently. As the words of God are unfolded to us, it produces light for us. And so this means that without the giving of light from the word, what are we walking in? If we do not have the light of God's word upon our steps, then we're walking in the dark. Well, we know how that goes, whether it's waking up in the middle of the night, walking around the house, if it's pitch black or out on a new moon when there's no you want a flashlight, you want something. It's not very wise to walk around in the dark, but this is what we're doing when we're living, when we're walking out our life, not illuminated by the wisdom, the knowledge of God's Word. It gives understanding unto the simple. The simple means naive. having not learned, having not grown in discernment, naive. So the entrance of thy words give light. This gives understanding to the simple. What is this? This is maturation. This is growing up. Just like a child grows from being naive to learning discernment as he enters the world, the real world, and that is aided by his parents. And it's important for him to come humbly under their teaching, to grow in understanding, to grow out of naivety, to discernment. Well, the entrance of the light of God's word brings every single one of us from a place where we're naturally naive in being able to understand and interpret and dissect the world that's around us. Because doing so by our own wisdom is not wise. And by the entrance of the light of God's word, we grow up or mature from a position of being naive in the world towards the world and understanding it to a place of discerning the world that we are in. And we can discern it because of the light of God's word. What a blessing. I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for thy commandments. The panting happens when your system has undergone such a practice or effort that it becomes instinctively conscious of a need. I don't think I'm going to start panting because I've been playing Steven in basketball. and I'm tired now and I need some water, I think I'll start painting. No, it just happens because my system needs the water and it knows what it needs, if we can say it that way. This is a wonderful description, and this is where we want to be in our relationship with God and His Word, is that I have an instinctive, earnest desire for God's Word. And when I have a hole, when I have lack of that discerning that I need, the instinctive panting is for God's Word. When there's darkness that I'm cognizant of in my life, where sin might be creeping in, I'm instinctively panting for God's Word because I know The light of God's word, the illumination of God's word is what is needed to obscure or destroy the darkness. I opened my mouth and panted for I longed for thy commandments. Excuse me. Verse 132. Look thou upon me and be merciful unto me as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name. Pardon. So here he says, to those that love thy name, that is the name of God is a representation of his character. There are many examples of that. So here in this context, the name of God is saying the God whom I know from the word. The word of God has revealed, or let's put it this way, God has revealed himself and his character and his wonderful, mighty person through his word. And now he's beseeching God. Lord, I know that those who love Your Word, those who are seeking after You, those who honor that name of God, and how have we learned that name of God? How have we learned that character of God? From Your Word. I know that those who are like me, who delight in Your Word, who want to know You more fully, They are recipients of your favor and of your goodness. I see that and I want to have that too. I want to be a partaker of that. Look upon me and be merciful unto me, be favorable toward me as you do to those that love you. That is a desire that's going to grow within you as you are fellowshipping with your God through his word. Isn't that how we fellowship with each other? Isn't that how children and parents fellowship with each other? It's through communication, through word, through the revelation of the mind and the will by word. And so as we are growing, in our knowledge and delight of the word of God. The whole purpose of God revealing his word is so that we will delight in him. In other words, it's not an abstract book over here that we just grow in knowledge about, but the word of God is leading us to a knowledge and relationship with God. Same with our our own words in our own relationships. Isn't that good? Verse 33, order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. This is to say to fix my walk in your word, oh God. This is so good and so important. strong desire should be, and as our estimation and delight in the Word of God and in the God of this Word, as that grows, this will also grow, that I recognize a need in my own life, for my own life, that I would become fixed, set, founded, established, in God's Word, because the alternative is that, as Jesus said at the end of his sermon on the mount, the life that's built on sinking, shifting sand, on sand, it's sure to fall. But the life that's being built up on a solid foundation, which is Jesus, His Word, then it is going to last. It's going to withstand the wiles of Satan, the ruler of the kingdom of darkness, the prince of the power of the air, the one whom the scriptures reveal to us, as I alluded to earlier, is prowling about in your life, seeking whom he may devour. How will you withstand that? How will you guard against the dominating influence of sin in your life? There's only one way, brothers and sisters, and this is really an area where Satan loves to deceive us. He wants to distract us by deception and lies, is that we will be successful. in withstanding the dominating influence of sin in our lives by some other strategy than ordering our steps in God's Word. It's one of those areas that's, it's so simple. That couldn't possibly be the answer. It's like the king in the Old Testament, who the prophet said, okay, if you want to be healed, dip yourself in the river seven times and you'll be healed. I'm not going to listen to you. I want to hear something difficult, something amazing. That's how we can be. Almost always, our problem with fighting sin and withstanding, standing up against the sin in our lives and having victory over sin. The problem is not that it's complicated. That's the law of Satan. The problem is obeying God's Word. And so our prayer is this developing from this posture and love for God's word and desire that it would have that it would have a dominating influence over my life. Our prayer is that the word of God would be the foundation practically in my life as I walk. and not sin, having that dominating influence. He sees another difficulty. Deliver me from the oppression of man, so will I keep thy precepts. deliver me from the oppression of man, so will I keep thy precepts. He's not articulating an excuse for how he can't keep obeying God's Word. We can do that sometimes. Oh, I wasn't able to obey you, God, because of this difficult situation that I'm in. Because of these, because of the influences of evil that are keeping me from being able to do your will. we can be caught, let ourselves lie about such things. That's not what he's doing here. What he is doing is recognizing that in the providence of God, there are practical obstacles for me being able to do, to fulfill the will of God like I would like to be able to. in every possible way to do all good works that I see before me. And God understands those situations. So, for example, it might be practical matters like there's a war on. We can't do normal things that we would like to do when there's a war on, or when there's disease that's plaguing the community. Practical matters like this. but it is a recognition that what I greatly desire is that the Word of God would have the greatest possible fruit born in my life, in every aspect of it. And my prayer is that God would remove every obstacle from that being the case and would open up the way for as much fruit from the word of God being born as possible. That's a good desire. And I am sure that God hears and answers those prayers in his own time. We don't want any hindrances at all. And then we leave it up to the Lord to work those things out. Then the last two verses, make thy face to shine upon thy servant and teach me thy statutes. Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because they keep not, because they keep not thy law. Here we have opposites, a contrast. Make thy face to shine upon thy servant, this is to say, He's asking for the favor of God upon his life. Make your face to shine upon me and teach me thy statutes. So there is a, there is a natural cycle in our life. We see it in the scriptures and we see it in our own life, if we're honest. And that is that when things are most comfortable, we get lax. When things are most urgent and the fire's really turned up, suddenly my prayer life just goes out the roof, doesn't it? When there's that urgent need. But when everything is calm, it's 75, 78 degrees, depending on your preference, it's sunny, everything's going well, there's no sickness, money's coming in, bills aren't overwhelming, Everything, sunshine, we have a tendency to get lax and forget God. Isn't that true? But this prayer is that I desire God's favor. I strongly want his blessing upon me in these ways. but I desire that so that I might be able to use that time, use those blessings, use maybe that comfortable time of life, if that's what the Lord blesses me with, to dig further into His word, not to forget God, but to remember Him, to draw closer to Him in the famine and in the feast. seasons. That's his desire. And see, this is the kind of thing that that he becomes conscious of. The temptation to not do it, but the conscious desire to do it. To remain close and seeking after God in a time where I have a sense of his favor. He's conscious of this because of what came before. It didn't just come out of the blue. It is a indication of our maturity in the word and growing from it. So the contrast then is rivers of waters run down mine eyes. He's crying tears of grief. because they keep not thy law. He sees the opposite happening. He sees the word of God not being reverenced in the lives of the people around him. He sees that the word of God is not honored, is not obeyed, is not revered, is not deemed extraordinary. All about him. And it causes him grief. Why? because he so adores God's word and cherishes it and sees that it's the ultimate treasure from God, that it grieves him, that it's being disreputed, that it's being ignored even, and worst of all, that it is being scorned. It grieves him to the point of tears. That's remarkable. That's a testimony of how strong his delight and his desire and his love for God's word is. That's quite a line of fruit coming forth from a place that started with What is my estimation of God's Word? Not from an abstract standpoint, but because of my own relationship with it, because it's personal with me, because the God of this Word has revealed Himself to me, and He has brought me into a vital relationship with Him. And so His Word such high value because of it, so much so that I order my life in every possible way according to his word. May that bless you as we begin with a new beginning, an opportunity for a new beginning with the turn of the year.