this evening. Psalm 119, verses 1 to 8. Let's hear the Word of God. Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart. who also do no wrong but walk in his ways. You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes. Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. I will praise you with an upright heart when I learn your righteous rules. I will keep your statutes. do not utterly forsake me." Amen. So reads God's Word. Let's pray. O Lord, our Father, draw near to us this night as we hear Your Word, as Your Word declares the glory of Your Word, and as Your Word teaches us the privilege of walking in Your ways and in Your paths. So, draw near to us with Your grace that we may hear your word, that we may understand your words, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom, that we may fear your name, and that we may give all glory to our Lord Jesus Christ. Hear our cry, because we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, as you know, on these Sunday evenings I've been working through the Psalms, and I haven't really been working through them in any particular order, just simply as the Lord leads me and directs me in my reading through the week. Sometimes I've been choosing the shortest of the Psalms that I can work through so that it's not that difficult to work through the Psalm, but I decided that I should choose the longest of the Psalms. not because I'm going to preach through it all this evening, but because I thought it's a psalm that is often neglected. So what I'm going to do this evening is to take a little time to give you a little introduction to a long psalm and then look briefly at the first eight verses of this psalm. And Lord willing, over the next several weeks, well, it would be 22 exactly to work through each section of this psalm. Now, we did this before many years ago in our prayer meeting, our Bible study, and we worked through it as a prayer meeting and a Bible study. So I've taken all that material and reshaped it into sermonic form. So I'll not be asking you questions and looking for answers as we did when we worked through this many years ago. But it's something that has laid on my heart all those years when I studied it then, because I discovered something that I didn't know about this particular SAM and the particular structure that there is to it. There is a very clear structure to it. I'll come to that in a moment. But that also is often overlooked, and as a result, People don't look at this psalm and don't study it as they should. The psalm has suffered from a long history of disdain. Many commentators just pass by it with brief comments here and there, and many critical scholars look at it in disgust and say things about it that would lead you to think that there's nothing in it, and nothing in it that can help us, that it's one long, repetitious poem. in which the psalmist just says over and over again that he loves the Bible. that he loves the law, or that he loves the testimonies, or that he loves the statutes, or that he wants to learn the statutes, or he wished he knew the law better, or something like that. And if you read it like that, if you read it verse by verse in that way, without seeing the structure that was there, it would feel monotonous, and it would feel as though he was repeating himself, and he was saying the same thing over and over to you again, and you'd be inclined to question to yourself if all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, In what way is this song, this old song, profitable for us? In what way is it profitable in terms of doctrine or reproof or correction or training in righteousness that as man and woman of God we would be thoroughly equipped for every good work? Does this song fit in that word of God that's given by inspiration? Well, of course it does. So we need to be careful not to dismiss it because it's long, nor to misunderstand it because at our first glance and our first reading at it, we think he's just saying the same thing over and over again. He's not saying the same thing over and over again. He uses the same words, but he doesn't say the same thing. And in fact, the structure is very clear. The structure is not found in terms of the verses, but in terms of the section. 22 of them, to be precise, 22 of them following the Hebrew alphabet. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, each one with 8 verses, leading to 176 verses. So, 22 sections of 8 verses each, very tightly composed and put together. So let's look a little bit this evening, introducing the whole psalm, not giving everything away all at once, and then come to the first verses, the first eight verses, which serve as an introduction. There's various ways to look at them. For example, the first three verses speak about blessing. Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways. That's an introduction. Those three verses, and then from verse four to the end of the sum, every verse, as far as I can see, is spoken directly to God. First three verses give a general statement, and then everything from there on in is a prayer. You commanded your precepts. Oh, that my ways would be steadfast in keeping your statutes. From that point onwards, everything is directed in his speech to God. Now, that's significant. And so in the first eight verses, we'll look at that a little bit and see what God is teaching us. Let me say several things just to introduce this and and then we'll begin to work through it. And I'm not I'm not I'm not proud enough to say that if we get stuck, we'll stop. So, you know, we get to like the Hebrew letter that's in the middle and we get to the 14th section and we're really there's very little for us to we'll stop. But we'll just start and see how far we get. I think that will be beneficial for us. What do we need to understand before we approach it? First of all, we need to understand that we live in a bite-size age and the Psalmist didn't. We live in a bite-size age and that's a problem for us. It's a problem for us, for example, when it comes to public discourse. It's a problem for us when it comes to politics. This is an age of bite-sized politics. It's an age of the sound bite. And it's not an age that could cope with Lincoln-Douglas debates. Isn't that right? Wasn't it Lincoln and Douglas? We just wouldn't cope with that anymore. This is the soundbite age. You get little soundbites of little things that a politician said, and nobody has any idea what his policy is, but he said this, and here it is, little snazzy phrase, it's time for change, or something like that. And nobody knows what that means. No, and nobody will know for a long time, I guess, either. You see, it's a bite-sized edge, and we live in a soundbite age, and we live in an age of soundbite policies and soundbite politics, and the same is true of theology. You know that you can buy, and interestingly, this was written by J.I. Packer, a book called Bite-Sized Theology. Now, Packard doesn't usually do that. He's normally a little bit more intense when it comes to his theology, but he's written this little book that has these little bite-sized chunks for you to chew on. We live in a bite-sized age where what you really want is a bite-sized snack to keep you going until dinner. And so when it comes to Psalm 119, it's just not going to fit. It's not a bite-sized poem, and it's not a bite-sized song. Can you imagine singing Psalm 119 in one go? It's just not the way we are. And yet, really, would it take us five minutes to read it out loud? We sometimes are so horrified of of length that we're that we're afraid, but it doesn't take that long to read it out loud. We live, you know, in a steady age and a steady diet of bite sized things. And if you live in a steady age and a steady diet of bite sized Bible study, then what that does is it will spoil our appetite for anything else that is larger and more intense and more prolonged that calls for some endurance in order to work our way through it. This psalm, this old song is going to call for some endurance to work our way through it. It's undoubtedly the largest song, the largest psalm in the book. And so it's often passed over, but it ought not to be. It is God's word. He communicates something to us in it. And so we should take time to study it in order to glorify God for giving it to us and in order to learn what it is that he wants us to learn, what doctrine there is here, what reproof there is here, what correction there is here, what training in righteousness there is here in order that we might be thoroughly equipped as men and women of God for every good work. So that's one thing that we need to grasp at the start. Let's not be afraid of its length. Another thing I think is important to begin with is something that Charles Spurgeon wrote in 1882. He wrote this as he was looking at this psalm. It is to be feared that the Psalms are by no means so prized as they were in earlier ages of the church. Time was when the Psalms were not only rehearsed in all the churches from day to day, but they were so universally sung that the common people knew them, even if they did not know the letters in which they were written. And Spurgeon is right. We do live in an age and continue to live in an age of downgrade when it comes to singing songs. I don't you know that I don't preach exclusive family but there is another phrase that people are using where they speak of inclusive family that at least we ought to include the sounds. in our singing, and I think that there are some good versions of the signs that are available to us beyond our handbook, and that perhaps it would be beneficial to us to explore that and to seek to understand something more of what it means, because we are commanded to sing sounds. Whatever else that text means when it says sing sounds, hymns and spiritual songs. It certainly includes Psalms and doesn't exclude them from being sung by the children of the Lord Jesus Christ. But certainly there is a deep precious spiritual heritage that I think is being lost. as we move away from a complete singing of the Psalter and a complete understanding of the Psalter. That's one thing that I think Spurgeon helps us with in that quote. But the other thing that he helps us with is that little phrase at the end when he says that we're losing this, but that people who used to sing the Psalms, they would sing the Psalms and he said they would sing them without being aware of the letters in which they were written. And that little reference to the letters in which they were written raises, I think, a very important point with regards to Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is, we could put it this way, an alphabet psalm. It's an acrostic psalm. It's an acrostic poem. It takes each letter of the Hebrew alphabet and begins a verse with it. structurally, but unlike many other alphabet poems, it doesn't just give one verse to that letter, it gives it verses to that letter. So each section of the Psalter here, Psalm 119, each section is marked by the Hebrew alphabet. So the first section, and if you have a Bible that marks this, it will tell you that verses 1 to 8 is the section of the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and every verse in the section versus one begins with. the letter Aleph, or a word that begins with that letter. Then the next section, verses 9 to 16, is called the Bet section, the B section, and every verse begins with the letter B, or a word that begins with the letter B, all the way through to the very end of the psalm, taking the 22 letters of the Hebrew Psalter. So you have these 22 letters all divided up into eight verses and a very clear structure. We don't see the beauty of that because we don't read Hebrew and we don't see the beauty of it because we don't understand the original language. However, the author structure is there and it's very clear. And there are times when in each section. All right. So this is the Aleph section. It's helpful for us to look at the words that are repeated or sometimes the structure and the way he puts it together in that section. Sometimes the middle verse is the one that is the one around which that section turns. And so the key to the psalm is not verse by verse, but section by section. Aleph, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, the Hebrew alphabet being worked through. He teaches us something here in these first eight verses. Then he teaches us something in the next several verses and so on. And that helps us to understand what he's saying before us. It unlocks for us many of the mysteries that we see. Acrostic sounds are alphabet sounds are not uncommon. This one is unique in that it takes an eight verse structure, but there are several other sounds that are alphabet sounds or acrostic sounds. There are several sections of the Book of Lamentations that are acrostic, three or four of them that are acrostic, and that's interesting because Often it's thought that acrostic lends itself to a lamentation so that it works its way in. I don't know why that would be so. And another interesting passage that is an acrostic is Proverbs 31 verses 10 to 31. And some people feel that when you come to an acrostic like that, that it's artificial and that it because it's artificial, that it belittles the subject matter. But I haven't found anyone arguing that when it comes to Proverbs 31 verses 10 to 31, because that is the section that describes a godly wife. And what a godly wife is like a godly woman and it does it in twenty two verses versus ten to thirty one each one beginning with the Hebrew alphabet. Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet and it works the way through. Very beautiful. And nobody distends that passage of God's word because it's an acrostic. And so we need to be very careful. Here, obviously, is a method of poetry that's just different from the way that we would think about poetry. But that's OK, because it was written 3,000 years ago. Now, what should we say about that? Some people would say, oh, you can't say anything about it. It's just odd, isn't it? Wow. So each section, the eight verses, aleph, bat, gimel, daleth, good. How are you going to apply that, pastor? Well, it's, you don't, it's not, and please don't misunderstand, it's not like, you know, watch and see how I apply this. God, God inspired his word in different forms. And here is a poem, and this poem has this form, so that's the form of poetry, and then within the form of poetry, it's this form, and it has order. There is an orderliness to it. It has beauty. There is an appeal of beauty to it and I think it's C.S. Lewis who wrestled with this because in a particular sense this is the very pinnacle of acrostic poetry. Not only biblically, but there are other non-biblical texts that also have acrostic promontory. And C.S. Lewis says this is the very pinnacle. And what's it about? It's about the law of God and the Word of God. As the poet is ravished by his sense of the law of God and the beauty of God's word, he sits down and very carefully and painfully composes this detailed, orderly psalm. It doesn't just come gushing out. It has to be worked at intensely. And what that shows is that he really is ravished by the beauty of the Word of God so that he writes with this detailed form and orderliness and beauty of the Word of God. Now that teaches us something, that teaches us how to respond to God's Word with reverence and fear and delight and all of that of course is contained in this particular psalm. Another way of looking at an acrostic psalm is that it's not just showing you this in terms of The beauty of God's Word demands this beautiful response. And the order of God's Word demands this orderly response. But it also is absolutely complete. When you start at A and go to Z, there's nothing left out. Do you understand? It's like a sermon that has 26 points. Because you don't want to leave anything out. So, and so we'll work through this, because we've got 26 letters in our alphabet and we're going to make sure that we do this thoroughly. And that's what he's doing. As he meditates on God's word and turns to God in prayer, he does it thoroughly, absolutely thoroughly and complete. It's not unfinished. There are unfinished poems, but not this one. And he works it through in all of the beauty of its structure. There are some who argue that acrostic sounds and alphabet sounds like this are an aid to memory. I don't think that stands up. I used to think, yes, that's a good way to talk about alphabetic sounds, but I don't think that stands up. It was written. It wasn't spoken. It was a written composition. It was to be read and sung. And it might it might be you might be able to memorize it. And, you know, when you read the lives of older saints, older Christians, older Christians used to memorize Psalm 119. Younger Christians don't. I don't know, maybe it's just that our memories are getting smaller, but I don't think that it's about our memory. It's about our awe for God. Our awe for God. So I want you to see that in terms of the structure of the poem, the form and the order and the completeness of it, working through these 22 sections of eight verses, all eight verses having the same Hebrew letter to begin them. And that helps us to understand what he's teaching us. One more thing that I want to say. and introducing this before I come to apply the first eight verses to ourselves this evening. The other thing that stands out in this particular psalm is that there are several words that are used for the word. several words that are used for the law of God, and they all appear in various different forms throughout this particular psalm. There are some who argue that there are ten different words, but I think most of the commentators are agreed that there are eight that are used specifically over and over again, and that some of them, the ten, one of them is way, or your ways, and I don't think that that really means the same thing as laws and statutes and judgments. You'll see in a moment why. And so I think that that's a significant factor, that it's it words that are used to refer to God's law or to refer to God's word. And those it, I think, show that that's the structure you see. That's the structure that he gave himself. It verses with this letter 8 verses with this letter and taking it through 22 letters. But he has 8 words for God's law that he's going to use and think about as he helps us to meditate on the word of God. The words are law, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, ordinances, word and promise. And those words are used throughout this psalm interchangeably, some of them much more than others. But each one of them has a very distinct meaning. They don't they don't they overlap, but they all have very distinct meanings. When he uses the word law, it's the word Torah, which means instruction or teaching. And it is the most complete word that is used to describe God's revealing of himself. and that he gives instruction and he says, I want you to live this way. This is his teaching, his Torah, his law. And so it's the revelation of God's mind and of God's heart. The word testimony is a word that shows that this is God speaking this forth. and that God himself is outspoken. He's not silent. He's not hidden. He's not whispering. He speaks his testimony, and in his testimony he testifies to his truth and to his character. It's revelatory. He reveals himself. The word precepts is a word that points to very particular instructions that God gives, because it teaches us that he doesn't just give broad instructions, but that he gives very detailed and specific instructions on how he wants us to live. The word statutes speak in a sense of law, in the sense of he speaks this, this has binding force, this is permanent, this is laid down upon your conscience. The word commandments points back to his authority and the fact that when he does speak he speaks with authority and all of the authority of God comes down to bear upon us in the word of God. When he speaks of ordinances sometimes that word is translated as judgments which means these are the decisions that God makes as he looks at the various situations that people find themselves in and he makes this judgment about this and he declares it to us. In other words, guiding us and giving us clear instruction again. His word is the most general of those words for law, the word of God, and it points us back to his revealing his power. He makes the world by the word of his mouth and by the words that proceed from him. The Lord Jesus Christ is called the word of God incarnate, the revelation of God. And then the other word is promise, the promise of God, giving us a balance of God binding himself to us and saying that he will do certain things for us. Now, these eight words are used throughout this, Sam, and we read them, you know, we just we just we just clip on by them. Law, statutes, promises, sure, they all mean the same thing. But what we fail to grasp is what God is doing. He's saying, I have spoken, and I have revealed myself." He's saying, I am not silent. And when you look at it carefully, each time the psalmist picks up these words, it is not simply or even that he is exalting the law. He's not, although he has reverence for it, but he is exalting the God who has spoken. It's God's law. It's God's testimony. It's God's promise over and over again. He is bringing us to this reverence for God's word because he wants us to have this reverence for God in all of his glory, in all of his exaltation. Here's how Kidner puts this. This untiring emphasis on the word has led some to accuse the psalmist of worshiping the word rather than the law. But it has been well remarked that every reference here to Scripture, without exception, relates it explicitly to its author. Indeed, every verse from verse 4 to the end is a prayer or an affirmation addressed to him. This is true piety, a love of God, not decided by study and worked out by study, but refreshed and informed and nourished by study. It's a love of God that is rooted and grounded in a love of the word. He reveals himself and all these different words that are used to describe the law of God. They show us that it's God himself who's here revealed God's mind with all the permanency and the force of his power and that his word endures and that his word is authoritative and that his word gives us details for living. It's not some abstract code over here. It's about how you're going to live every day and all the things that you have to do every day. Loving God's word because you love God focuses everything. That's what this time is all about. And I will have much more to say about that as we work our way through each of the each of the sections. He'll bring us to that over and over again. And there's Much, much, much more than I could say by way of introduction, but I better not. What I want to do today now is to turn and say, well, let's see how he introduces this. Because I think in the structure of the psalm, the first part and the second part serve as an introduction. Then part three, the gimel part, which starts at verse 17, it moves us right on. And then there's a turning point. And this is true of all acrostic psalms. There's a turning point at the letter L. at the Hebrew letter Lamed, because it's the middle of the Hebrew alphabet. And we'll find that there's a turning point in this psalm at that point as well. But I want to begin to introduce it for us. I think as we read it, let's read it now, these first eight verses, knowing what we know. Blast are those whose way is blameless. And the Hebrew word for blast is a Hebrew word that begins with the letter Aleph. Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in His ways. You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh, that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes. Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments, I will praise you with an upright heart when I learn your righteous rules. I will keep your statutes. Do not utterly forsake me." What's he saying? Verses 1 to 3 make a statement, and in that statement he says clearly that there is a blessing upon all those who obey your word. And then in the light of that, verse 4 makes a statement, and the statement is very clear. Clearly, this is God's will. that we should obey His Word. Verses 1 to 3, blessing on those who keep God's Word. Verse 4, that's what God wants. And then there's a change. Verses 5, 6 and 7, following, you see, the same structure. But I fail to do this. Oh, I wish I could, but I fail. And then verse 8, He makes a statement. I will keep your statutes. Do not utterly forsake me. See, so there's a structure even here in the introduction. And the structure is that there's a blessing on those who keep God's word, and that's God's command. But I utterly feel, and so I look to Him to help me to do this. So what's He saying? Well, let's look at each of these. First of all, clearly, there is blessing to those who follow God. Clearly, There is blessing to those who live by God's Word. Look at the phrases that he used. Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the way of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways. Now, there's a pretty comprehensive list. of what it means to obey God, of what it means to follow God. It's not just about outward actions. There are outward actions clearly spoken of here, but it's also about inner attitudes and the state of our heart. And it's also not just about doing things now and then, but it's also about the habitual nature of the way that we do things. The way is blameless. Walking in the law of the Lord. Walking means living as our habit, just what we do day by day. Keeping his testimonies, seeking with a whole heart, an undivided heart, a single eye. You know, what that picture gives to us is just an all round character of the Christian. An all round character of the God-fearer. That an all round character of the God-fearer is that the way he lives the way he consistently and continually lives, and the way he thinks and feels and reacts, that there is consistency, that there is constancy, and that there is a giving of self to love God's words and God's ways. And he says, the person who does that will be blessed. It's not a good translation to say happy. I've said that before, as we've looked at the word blessed, but happy describes a subjective feeling. And blessed describes an objective state. Happy is how you feel about it. I'm happy. And there are sometimes obeying God's word doesn't really make you feel happy because you choose the suffering part. Although there's a certain happiness to that, but not in the way we would use the word. But when we speak of blessing, well, that's a different thing. That is that God himself draws near to strengthen and garrison your heart. that God himself draws near to say, I see I'm with you. I'll strengthen you. I will watch over you. I will guard you. I will guide you. I will not forsake you. It's an objective state, the state of enjoying God's favor, not simply the state of enjoying something, but the state of enjoying God and God's favor to us. That's what he's saying. And the Psalms teach us that. That's what Psalm 1 teaches as an introduction to the whole book of Psalms. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. Blessed is he who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scorners. The Scottish madrigal version nearly came out of my lips. That's what I learned to sing. I learned the King James Version, learned to sing the Scottish Matricle Version, and now I use the ESV. Blessed is the man who walks not on the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scorn, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding fruit in season. Its leaf does not wither, and all that he does prospers. Not so the wicked. Not so the wicked. Clearly, there's blessing to those who follow God. The second thing this first section is teaching us is clearly this is what God wants. Verse four, you have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. You don't need me to comment on that. It's right there. It just says what it says. It's like our shorter catechism. What do the scriptures principally teach? The scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God and the duty God requires of man. It's all so straightforward and so simple. What does God want? God wants us to follow Him by obeying what He has given to us and revealed to us and written in His words. And he says, clearly, you'll be blessed if you do that. But now listen to this song. Because the third thing is that clearly, we mess it up. Clearly. Oh, that my ways may be steadfast. This is exactly what the psalmist is saying. Here's the dose of reality now. Okay, we've got all the theory. We understand the ideal. There's blessing to those who follow God. This is what God wants. Oh boy, don't I mess it up. That's what he says. Oh, that my ways may be steadfast. He knows himself to be unsteadfast. That he weavers. That he weavers apart from one thing to the other. Oh, he said if my ways were steadfast in keeping your statutes, then I wouldn't be put to sham. But he knows times of sham. Why? Because he's in. Because he doesn't do what God says. Then I wouldn't be put to shame because I'd be able to keep my eyes fixed on your commands. But what's he saying? My eyes wander. My eyes wander. God says there's blessing on the one whose heart is undivided, whose eye is single and looks. But we're like people that can look in two different directions. I was going to try and do it, to illustrate it, but I can't. It's like people who have a turn in their eye and one eye is looking at you and the other eye is looking for you. And it's kind of strange. And when you're talking to them, you're not sure which eye to look at. When you're trying to make eye contact and you're not sure. When you sing, you see spiritually, there's our struggle. We're like a person that has a turn in their eye and one eye is looking at God's law and says, oh, I want to do that. Otherwise, looking at breaking God's law because we're tempted to do that. So I wish that I could keep your law. Clearly, we can't and we don't. All that I could keep my eyes fixed on all your commandments, and I would I would praise you then with an upright heart when I learn your righteous laws. Wilcox, as he's commenting on these verses, is the He says, you know, it's right that God expects diligent obedience from me, but He doesn't always get it. I do what Shem is. I know, I do know what Shem is. I'm only a learner in the school of righteousness, and I could not blame Him for giving up on me. Well, that's where we are. See, we all start out with great intentions on Psalm 119 and know that he eventually gets to saying things like, oh, I love thy law. And we say, oh, yeah, me too, me too. But right at the start, he says, no, we don't. We say we do, but we don't. We struggle. So then he says a fourth thing. So we have these three verses, 5, 6, 7. And then, like the first half, he gives us this one verse. I will keep your statutes. Do not utterly forsake me." What's that mean? Well, clearly, it means God is gracious. Clearly, it means that He says, I will do this, help me. Isn't that what He's saying? I will obey your law. Oh, don't forsake me, because I can't do it without you. That's a cry for grace. It's not like Augustine when he prayed, Lord, give me chastity, but not yet. We're like that because we have divided eyes and divided hearts. This prayer is, Lord, I will. I will. Oh, but don't forsake me, because if you forsake me, then I won't. I'll fall and I'll utterly fail. what he's getting to. That's what he's getting at. We need grace to enjoy the blessing. But there's grace for sinners and the grace of God brings us into that blessing. That's the blessing of this introduction to this great and glorious psalm that's full of the law of God. The law of God ought not to terrify us and the love of the law of God ought not to terrify us. But it does often terrify us as Christians. But it only terrifies us if we've forgotten to cry for grace. Let us always cry for grace and stand only upon the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, it brings us to Jesus, that He would not forsake us and leave us. That's the gate that opens up the psalm. That's the way into the law through the grace of God that comes to us in Jesus Christ. May God grant us His grace. that we love his law and therefore enjoy his blessing. Oh, be gracious to us. Let's pray. Gracious Father, make this our prayer. I will obey, but do not forsake us, for then we cannot obey. Give us Your grace in Jesus Christ, that we may know You and love You with our whole heart, and that we may love Your law with our whole heart, because we pray this in Jesus' blessed name, Amen.