If you guys, if any of you guys, I know some of you guys were here when I was going through Psalm 119. I do like the little introduction. I've been whittling down some of the slides out of the introduction, but I think it's important for us to understand how critical this Psalm is, Psalm 119. So once we get this going. Do you guys have in your, while we're waiting for that, oh, there we go. Do you guys have in your Psalms, like in the eight sections, right, do you have the Aleph, and the Beth, and the Gimel, and the Daleth, and the He, okay. Yeah, so that's what we're doing. We're doing those different sections. And you'll see in a minute, I have just some acrostics that kind of go through, that kind of go through that. So Psalm 119, right? The scope of the psalm is to magnify the word of God, right? As you can see, all throughout, the psalmist is constantly just magnifying the word. He's in prayer the entire time, right? The author is not named, right? We go through, as we read through this, we don't know who the author is, but there's guesses at who it is because of how it was written, similar to other passages. So many people believe it was David. I do also believe it was David. It's very similar to a lot of his other teachings in Psalms. So it's believed to be a gathering together of years of writings that made into alphabetical or acrostic. So what that means is, Psalmist is reading through and remember he only has the first five books. I believe at the time So Genesis Exodus the biggest numbers and Deuteronomy and as he's going through there. He's writing down prayers Right just little prayers each verse is like a prayer to God so he's writing these down and he's he's He's gathering them together, these writings, right? And that's how they came up with this Psalm 119. That's how he made this psalm. So the structure and composition of this psalm, the Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters, right? That's what the aleph is, and the beth, and the gimel, and the daleth. That's what they are. So there's 22 sections for each letter of the alphabet, each consisting of eight verses for a total of 176 verses in this psalm. So it's considered an octonary. Octo means eight, right? So because of the structure of the eight successive verses with the initial letter of each eight verses beginning with the same letter. OK. Let me try to explain that real quick. So if you look at Psalm 119, 1 through 8, In the Hebrew, when it was written, they used that, right here, they used aleph as the first letter for each of those eight verses. That's how they did it. So it was alphabetical acrostic. We do not experience that, the alphabetical, because it's been translated into English. So it was possibly made, this is a possibility, this is just a guess, that it was made to teach the young the alphabet, right? What better way to teach the young the alphabet than using God's word or this song, right? So they were able to teach the alphabet to youngsters and how to read the word of God at the same time. Singing songs, we use songs to memorize a lot of things, right? It's a great way to learn. Using the songs to memorize is one of the easiest ways to accomplish that. It's twice as long as any other psalm, more than twice as long as most of the psalms, right? With it being 176 verses. Many of them are, you know, 5, 10, 15, maybe 25 verses. And it's considered to excel them all, okay? It's like the crown of the psalms. Only four verses are not spoken directly to God. Okay, the first three, Then some I think it's 115 right some the verse 115 119 115 all the other ones are spoken directly to God as a prayer The verses seem to be a collection of prayers written down I already I already said this right as Experienced while reading and meditating on the Word of God, so this is a great practice for all of us If we're going through the Word of God, right, we're doing our devotions for a day or whatever, we're studying something, and if we see something, you know, we should have a notebook next to us or a piece of paper or something, and we should write down, you know, as God's speaking to us, write it down. You know, that's exactly what this psalmist did or David did. David, you know, he was considered a man after God's own heart. That's what he thrived on that, obviously. He loved God. He loved his word. He speaks about it. You just read this one psalm of 176 verses. It's amazing his heart. You can get his heart out of this. You can understand his heart. It is much like the Proverbs in structure by being quick verses of truth, not necessarily related to any other verses, right? So actually, they believe the Proverbs, a lot of that was probably David's writings that was compiled by Solomon, right? It says that the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, right? King of Israel. He compiled, I believe, his father's writings, a lot of his writings, and brought them together. But I'll be lost without that. the psalmist more than likely only had a portion of god's word compared to what to what we have right every said that they only probably only have five books and look these five books genesis exodus of it is numbers deuteronomy their tough books They're not pouring God's heart out like we see in some other books, you know. Although he is pouring his heart out in there trying to get our attention. So scriptures are for our learning. And you think about David, or the psalmist, whoever we know that this might be, he's getting his understanding from these five books mainly. So Psalm 1 and 19 are similar to 119, right? And David wrote both of them. And I remember I pointed out last time, I just happened to notice that 1 and 19, they come off to be 119. Like I said, I don't think that has anything to do with anything. There's well-known verses in Psalm 119, right? We'll just go through them real quick. I'm not even gonna read them all, because I did before. Psalm 119, nine, wherewithal shall a young man clothe his way. We talked about this last time, right? When we look at the first eight verses, you know, God is talking about, blessed are the undefiled on the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies. When he gets down past those first eight, the first thing he does is he goes right after the youth. He says, wherewithal shall the young man cleanse his way. The youth are critical. You young guys, get it in your head how critical God's word is for your lives, and be in it. Don't just follow your parents. Make sure it's something that's real to you. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, right? We're going to be, I think we did that, yeah, we did that the last time. Open thou mine eyes, we're gonna cover this one tonight, that I might behold wondrous things out of light of the law, Psalm, that's verse 18. Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path. The entrance of your word gives light, right? Gives understanding to the simple. Your word is very pure, thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loves it. So there's words that are used multiple times, and I'll just cover these real quick, right? These words are used throughout Psalm 119. Diligently meditate, hope, keep, teach, love, delight, seek. They all express his heart to God. So in the psalm, there are eight basic words used to describe the scriptures. You'll constantly see testimonies, or statutes, or commandments. And so law is used 25 times. It means to teach or direct. Word, there's two different Hebrew words for word. The bar is used 24 times. It's the idea of God's spoken word, right? Judgments, mispatim, if that's how you pronounce it in Hebrew, is used 23 times. Testimonies, edat, is used 23 times. Commandments, mishwa, is used 22 times. Statutes is used 21 times. Precepts is used 21 times and word the second Imrah is used 19 times other words used multiple times to denote God's directing of our lives through his word is the word way or ways and path or paths So this psalm shows our need for constant communion with God as we interact with his word. Like I was saying a couple minutes ago, when we do our devotions, we should want to have a piece of paper next to us and write down the things that God is speaking to us about, maybe. And in a prayerful sense, like we see in this psalm. So feeding on the Word of God is critical. Eating food satisfies. Eating from the Word of God causes more hunger. I think Ray this morning, he talked pretty extensively on this, right? And I was saying, Ray, you're stealing my thunder for tonight, you know? But so. Like Ray said, we don't have something telling us, hey, we need to eat. We need to eat spiritually. We do have that physically. We know when it's time to eat. But know for a fact, this pointer doesn't work, know for a fact that if we're not in God's word and we're not in prayer, we are going to be spiritually sick. We're hungering, right? Feeding on the Word of God is critical. Eating from the Word of God causes more hunger, right? Do you understand what that means? The more we eat from God's Word, the more hungry we get for it. All right, Job 23, 12. He says, neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Job said, His word is more important than food to me. And David probably was thinking the same way, the way we see his heart poured out in Scripture. So the Bible will keep you from sin, and sin will keep you from the Bible. I mean, that's what we heard this morning with pastor's message. That was a great message, just like that, what it's saying there. If we're not in God's Word, we're going to be carnal. We're going to be flailing, we're not going to be walking with the Lord, and we're going to be in trouble. All right, let me go back. All right, I'm gonna pray and then we're gonna go into Psalm 119, 17 through 24. So let's pray. Lord God, we're grateful and thankful for your word. We thank you that... how this word has been revealed to us. Lord, we thank you for this Psalm 119, and we see the heart of the psalmist and how his constant communion with you as you interact through your word. We thank you for that. Help us to do the same, Lord. We need you. We need your understanding this night, and we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, if you don't mind, I'll have us all stand. We'll read Psalm 119 and 17 through 24. all right, so Princes also did sit and speak against me, but thy servant did meditate and thy statutes Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselors. Okay. Thank you All right, you can see every one of those verses is a prayer. I Meant to point these out, right? remember I talked about olive right and and Beth and tonight we're doing gimel and Found these what was that while I was looking up for the meanings of what does olive mean and you know Beth and Gimel I found these literal cross six and they kind of give like olive this one Right it says the blame is walking God's law they obey and praise God with all their heart if you that kind of sums up those first verse eight verses right and then verses 9 through 16 the next the next section Beth and Become pure, recount God's word with your mouth. So recounting meaning, if we go back to verse 11, thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee, like one of the main verses. So that kind of sums up what the section of Beth is talking about. And then you have Gimel. Give me insight. Open my eyes to learn your law. And we're going to talk about that now. All right. So verse 17, it says, deal bountifully with thy servant that I may live and keep thy word. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 4. And the reason I tried to go into Deuteronomy and Genesis is because that's the scripture that David was dealing with when he wrote this. So I'm picturing David. He's sitting there, and he's got the scriptures or a scroll laid out, and he's got whatever he's writing on his parchment. As he's reading through these things. He's writing down these these these Prayers basically right deal bountifully what thy servant that I may live and keep thy word so I'm going to read Deuteronomy 4 1 through 9 and I'm just picturing him reading through this and then he's writing this verse out and Therefore hearken Oh Israel unto the statutes and unto the judgments which I teach you For to do them that ye may live and go in and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you ye shall not add unto the words which I command you neither shall you diminish art from it that ye may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you your eyes have Seen what the Lord did because of Baal pure for all the men that follow Baal pure the Lord thy God hath destroyed them from among you. But ye that did cleave unto the Lord your God are alive, every one of you this day. Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them, for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations. We shall hear all these statutes and say, surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great that has statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day? Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life. But teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons. So I'm picturing this verse, this verse 17 written out, deal bountifully with thy servant that I may live and keep thy word. After he reads like a passage similar to what we just read. I don't know if that's the exact passage he read, but that's what I believe he is basing his verses on, right? So that's the title of our message tonight, Open Thou Mine Eyes, right? So this verse, it emphasizes the enormous extent of God's goodness to us. God's bounty towards us is according to his goodness, not according to our merit. We don't earn his goodness. It's according to, excuse me, we don't earn his bounty. It's according to his goodness, how he decides to bless us. Without God's abundant mercy, none of us could live. God pours his mercy out upon all of us. Life itself is a gift of divine bounty to undeserving sinners as we are, right? So even life itself comes from a gracious God. He gives us life that we might live and move and have our being, and that's in Christ. We cannot serve the Lord on our own strength, for we cannot even live unless his grace abounds towards us. So this should be our rule, right, for our life, to keep his word. That should be our rule. Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live and keep thy word, right? Truly, life is only worth keeping while we can keep God's word. Proverbs 30 verses 8 through 9 says remove far from me vanity and lies give me neither poverty nor riches feed me with food convenient for me lest I be full and Deny thee and say who is the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain, so What is saying is we don't want to be poor where we're going to be we're gonna have to go out and steal, right? We're we're resting on God's bounty and it's not necessarily talking about his His riches towards us either okay could be spirit just spiritual bounty that he applies to us so verse 18 It says open down mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law So turn to Exodus chapter 4 We're going to start reading in verse 10 10 through 17. Moses said unto the Lord oh my God I am not eloquent neither hitherto for nor since thou has spoken unto thy servant But I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue and the Lord said unto him who hath made man's mouth or who make it the dumb or deaf or the seeing or the blind have not I the Lord now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say and he said oh my Lord send I pray thee By the hand of him whom thou wilt send and he angered the Lord was kindled against Moses And he said is not Aaron Levite the Levite my brother I know that he can speak well and also behold he cometh forth to meet thee and When he see it thee he will be glad in his heart and thou shalt speak unto him and put words in his mouth and I will put my I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth and I will and will teach you what you shall do and he shall be thy spokesman unto the people and he shall be even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth and now shall be to him instead of a of God and thou shalt take this rod in thine hand wherewith wherewith thou shalt do signs and So we are not able to know the secret and hidden things of God, right? We're not able to know these things, but God reveals them to us in the scriptures, right? God opens our eyes to that fact. So in verse 18 when it says, open thou mine eyes, God is the one that has to open our eyes. He is the one who made man's mouth. He's the one who made man's eyes. He's the one that gives us understanding. We cannot approach God's word with our own understanding, right? We, you know, what's that? Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, you know, trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on our own understanding. We have to lean on God's understanding to understand His word, to understand life, right? The words of God cannot be kept except they be known. Neither can they be known unless the eye shall be opened, right? So we can't keep God's word We're not going to be able to study this book without Him opening our eyes to the truth to understand what it's talking about. So, the Word of God is a light that shines in a dark place, right? We live in a dark world. It's not the lack of light in God's Word that is a problem. There's plenty of light in God's Word, okay? It's revealed all throughout scripture, page after page after page. It is the veil of darkness that's upon our hearts, right? It veils the light of God's Word, which causes a lack of understanding of the wondrous things in God's law, right? So this is to be our prayer. Every time we open the Bible that we might behold wondrous things out of God's law, right? I'm going to read Ephesians chapter 1 verses 18 through 20 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints and What is the exceeding greatness of his power to us word who believe according to the working of his mighty power? Which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him as his own right hand in the heavenly places. I So in verse 19, it's back to Psalm 119 verse 19. It says I am a stranger in the earth Hide not thy commandments from me. So we're going to be in Genesis. We're going to read a few verses there Again, I'm trying to look at this from a historical perspective, how David was sitting there, and historically there's this time when he was sitting there and he wrote this down. And then we can also apply it doctrinally and devotionally to our lives. So Genesis chapter 4, verses 1 through 9. Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bear Cain and said I have gotten a man from the from the Lord and she bear His brother Abel and Abel was a sheep keeper of sheep But Cain was a tiller of the ground and in the process of time he came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground and the offering unto the Lord and Abel he also brought of the first things of his flock and of the fat thereof and the Lord had respect on the able to his offering but unto Cain and to his Offering he had not respect and Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell and the Lord said unto him Cain Where art why art thou wroth and why is that countenance fallen? And if thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou doest not well sin lieth at the door And unto thee shall be his desire and now shalt rule over him and Cain talked with Abel his brother and came to pass They were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him and the Lord said unto Cain where is Abel thy brother? And he said I know not am I my brother's keeper, and I'm going to tell you now that that was not the passage I was supposed to read I don't know what I got it must have got the mixed up. I think it might have been supposed to be just Exodus, but anyway, let's go to Genesis 47 and We're going to read verse 7 through 10. Hopefully this is the right book. Joseph brought in Jacob his father and set him before Pharaoh and Jacob blessed Pharaoh and Pharaoh said unto Jacob How old art thou and Jacob said unto Pharaoh? The days of the years of my pilgrimage are in hundred and thirty years few and evil have been had the days of the years of my life been and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage and Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from before Pharaoh so Back to verse 19 and Psalm in 119 He says I am a stranger in the earth and we see here what Jacob said he said I am a pilgrim I'm walking through this land. I don't belong here right none of us all of us are in that same boot We are all sojourners in the earth we have we have renounced the world by our allegiance to Christ okay, therefore we basically have become the world's enemy and So we are all wanderers in this life, just passing through. We should not have our roots overly deep in this world. So I'm going to read Hebrews. I'm going to go to Hebrews 11. I'm just going to read 8 through 10. So by faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance Obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went by faith He sojourned in a land of promise as in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise for he looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker was God right so we're all strangers in this in this earth and And then he says, hide not thy commandments from me. That way I know he wants direction in this life, right? He wants direction since he's a stranger. So, let me go back there real quick, sorry about that. So verse 19 actually ties together 18, right? I'm a stranger, hide not your commandments from me. But he says in verse 18, you know, open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things that I law. Verse 20. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times. We're going to read Deuteronomy 33, verses 26 through 29. So David writes here in verse 20, my soul breaketh for the longing that it has unto thy judgments at all times. And in Deuteronomy 33, 26 through 29, David read, or read something similar to this, there is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rioteth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, destroy them. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine Also his heaven shall drop down do happy art thou o Israel who was like unto thee o people saved by the Lord the shields of thy help and Who is the sword of thy excellency and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee and now shall tread upon their high places okay, so The psalmist is completing his reading in the book in the book of Deuteronomy I'll tell you what Yeah, he's completing his reading in the book of Deuteronomy And his heart is overflowing with rejoicing right and I think I didn't have the right passage there either, but anyway sorry about that so true godliness lies very much in the desires of the heart and The heart and soul is so enraptured in its desire to obtain some something it is ready to break in pieces Under the crush of its own longings, right? so What that means is when when David said for my soul break it for the longing that it has under my judgments Our heart if we desire to obtain something, it is ready to break in pieces under the crush of his longings, like I said. So the psalmist had this kind of desire towards the word of God at all times, continuously longing after God's judgment. So does our heart break as it longs after and desires to understand God's judgments? We need to pray that our cold hearts are turned towards pursuing after God in his word Isaiah 26 9 says with my soul have I desired thee in the night yay with my spirit within me I will seek thee early For when thy judgments are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness In verse 21 it goes on to say thou has rebuked the proud that are cursed which do err from thy commandments We don't need to look any further, right, than what Pastor's lessons were in Exodus with the proud heart of Pharaoh. Pastor had incredible lessons on that. We saw how Pharaoh reacted, how he was, and how he hardened his heart. Over and over again, he hardened his heart, right? So just think of the histories of these guys, right? You got, you got Cain. He said, I'm gonna do things my way. I don't care, you know, God prescribed a way to present yourself to him. He said, I'm gonna do it my way. I'm gonna bring the best of the fruit of the ground. Okay, but that's not what God wanted. So he was proud in heart. Pharaoh, we already know what, we heard many lessons on that. Pharaoh refused to let his people go. He refused to listen. Haman if you remember the story of Haman he had Mordecai right Haman wanted to be somebody great. He was lifted up with pride. He wanted to be someone great He wanted this the praises of men right, but he was brought low right these men were these men were full of pride Nebuchadnezzar we know the story of him Maybe Kinez was a man full of pride. He wanted to do what he wanted he and God brought him low right seven years in the wilderness and And then we, Herod. Remember when the people were calling him a god, and he sucked it up. Yeah, I'm a god, right? And God struck him dead right there on the spot because of his pride. And then the Pharisees. What did Jesus say to the Pharisees? He said, when you make a proselyte, he said, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are. That's an amazing statement right there. We don't have to look very very far when we think of this verse thou has rebuked the proud that are cursed Which do err from my commandments, right? So they have all heard from God's commandments When Jesus said that the Pharisees you do greatly or he said you do greatly or not knowing the scriptures error means they abused or neglected the scriptures and Isaiah 2 11 through 12 it says the lofty Looks of man shall be humbled and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one That is proud and lofty and upon everyone that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low so We move on to verse 22 It says, remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept thy testimonies. Remove means to roll away, right? Remove from me reproach. Reproach is rebuke or shame, right? Contempt is despised or ashamed. So he says, remove from me reproach and contempt is probably referring to the eyes of those around us. And if this is David right because and he said because I have kept because I keep the word I may be despised by others therefore the psalmist is saying remove from me reproach and contempt In verse 23 it says princes also did sit and speak against me, but thy servant did meditate in my statutes and The psalmist was more than likely referring to himself holding a high position, okay? And we're thinking of David as the king, right? He said, princes also did speak against me, but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. So the psalmist was more than likely referring to himself holding a high position, likely referring to himself being king. He was ridiculed by princes and put down for being a servant of the Most High God. May not have to deal with the princess right we on the other hand we can apply this to our lives in Ephesians 6 verses 5 through 8 it says Servants be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh With fear and trembling in singleness of heart as unto Christ not with thy service as men pleases But as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart with goodwill doing service as to the Lord and not to men Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. God wants us to be blameless in the eyes of the princes, right? Like I said in that verse. Back here, where is it? Princes did speak against me but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes. We ought to meditate in God's statutes, right? Like just Ephesians 6, 5 through 8, servants be obedient to your masters. How do we do that? By being in God's word, by not being carnal, right? But we think of this verse, right, where David said princes did speak against me but thy servant did meditate. He's he the next thing he says I'm sorry after They did speak against me says, but right he uses the word, but but thy servant did meditate He did not let being spoken against bother him because he meditated on God's statutes, right? verse 24 That testimony is also on my diet and my counselors so I'm going to read turn of Psalm 119 97 and I'm going to read 97 through 100. Oh, how loved by thy law is my meditation all the day. Thou, through thy commandments, hast made me wiser than mine enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. So verse 24, back to verse 24, it says, thy testimonies are my delight and my counselors. What do we delight in? Do we delight in the Word of God? Is that our delight daily? Right? That's what we should be delighting in. That's what we should be feeding on. Colossians 3.16, or we got 2 Timothy 3.16, right? All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, freely furnished unto all good works. And then we have Colossians 3.16, right? Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. So this is the last verse I'm gonna use. This is the conclusion of the whole matter, right? In Ecclesiastes, David's son, let us hear the whole conclusion of the whole matter, fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. That is our duty, to fear God, keep his commandments. The only way we can keep it is if we're in it. Are you in God's word? Is this our delight? Is this our love like David's? when he, you know, we can see his heart poured out in this as he's praying, as he's writing down his prayers to God. That's a good practice for us to do. So hopefully you guys got something out of this. I appreciate you guys listening. Thank you.