We look again to the first stanza of Psalm 119, and these first eight verses comprise a study upon the blessing of the undefiled. We have noted their direction and their desire. Today we pick up upon the undefiled and their devotion. Let me read verse 1. And then we'll skip down to verses 7 and 8. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Verse 7. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. I will keep thy statutes, O forsake me not utterly. Now devotion is According to the 1828 Webster's Dictionary, the state of being dedicated, consecrated, or solemnly set apart for a particular purpose. It involves a yielding of the life to the Lord. a surrendering of the heart and affection to God and His purpose for our lives. It is giving up our goals, saying goodbye to our way, hello to God's way. It is giving your life to God for His will. Now, the undefiled, we must remember, they are those whose life is governed by a single-hearted devotion to God. They are walking in God's ways, walking in God's Word. Their lives are marked by a holy reverence for God's person and a healthy respect for God's Word. To them, God is upon His throne, and He sits in command over their lives. To them, God's way is always best, and God's Word is always right. Now their devotion is expressed in two ways. First of all, through a decision and also through a petition. Twice we read in verses 7 and 8, I will. I will." The psalmist declares what he has decided to do. He says, I will praise God with my life. To praise here means to revere God with extended hands and with uprightness of heart. So the psalmist wills to praise God with his hands and his heart. The sincere praise will happen when He says, I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. In other words, as I long to keep your ways, strive to walk according to your word, O Lord, I will begin to learn more about you. And the more I learn of you, the more I love you, and the more I love you, the more I will praise you. the righteous judgments, the formal decrees, the judicial pronouncements of God. The psalmist says, I will praise God with my life. I will please God with my life. Verse number 8, I will keep thy statutes. Through the act of his will, he determines to guard the place of God's Word in his life and thus walk in obedience to the words of the Lord, the statutes, the commandments. He wanted a life that would bring a smile to the Lord in heaven above. The Decision. The Petition. O forsake me not utterly! He comes before His Lord with a petition. He pleads with God to stay near unto Him. He has decided in His own heart that He would go with God. He has declared it with His own mouth. His heart has been made right in its direction, in its desire, in its devotion. But now Fully aware of the tendency of the heart of man to walk away from what is good and right, he pleads with the Lord, O forsake me not utterly. There must be the decision in our lives to do right. But, oh, there must also be this burning petition for God's presence and God's power to remain in our lives that we might be enabled and empowered to walk for God, to walk with God, and be one who is undefiled in the way. As you look over to Psalm 128, verse number 1, Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord, that walketh in his ways. There is a blessing for the heart. There is a blessing for the home, as you look on down into Psalm 128, for all those who fear the Lord. May we reverence and respect and respond with obedience to the Lord of glory and to the God of all grace.