We're going to give you a guide sheet tonight if you would turn to Psalm 119. Once you get to Psalm 119, I will refresh you. Remember, I think we've said this every Wednesday night, every eight verses is a group. Each one's given an alphabetical letter at the very beginning. So what we're going to do, we're going to go over the alphabetical letter of those segments all the way to Teth. And I want you to notice, I'll say it out loud and you can repeat it, but I want you to notice the word as it's written out in English, though it's really in Hebrew, but you can pronounce it because it's written out if your Bible has that. But also look at the emblem that represents that particular letter. So the first one is Aleph. Repeat. Aleph. Second one is Beth. Gimel. Daleth. Hay. Wah. Zayin, Haith, Taith. Oh, that's pretty easy. you're getting the Hebrew alphabet down. That's very good. Now the psalmist in the portion of scripture we want to look at tonight is the portion called Teth. In those eight verses, what the psalmist is doing, and he's kind of gone through already portions of this psalm, and he'll go through more, where he talks about he's going through afflictions. He's going through difficult times. He's going through situations and circumstances in life where he's struggling. Is there anybody who can relate to that? It's kind of like, I had a plumber at my house last night. Boy, he had everything down, but there was a nut that was made out of plastic and he tightened it too tight and crack, crack. That was the last step that he had to do. You know, you've heard of Murphy's Law, right? Anything can go wrong. It's going to go wrong. Well, that's kind of what went wrong. Well, it's kind of what the psalmist seems like. It seems like one thing right after another thing, after another thing. I was thinking, I've talked with Sister Helen about this before. She's kind of like me. Things have to really kind of compound one thing after another thing. and it just has to bundle up before it all gets to you. You know, one thing don't usually get to you, but it's one thing after another. It's got like a big snowball effect and finally it just hits you and you just kind of feel overwhelmed at times when things keep seeming like they're going in a snowball effect. Adversities are going to come in life. Everybody's going to face adversity. You're going to have adversity. Sometimes you're going to have adversity after adversity after adversity. But what they're for and what God does, He uses those to refine us and to purify us. He is slowly molding us and making us into the image of His dear Son. And He's chinking off the chinks that need chinking off when you're going through those adversities and everything. There are many illustrations as far as in the Word of God concerning how certain ones, certain people, went through hard times. But, because we know the whole story as far as the biblical background behind certain characters, we know all is well. Because it always worked out well. And you know what? We can take comfort in that in our own lives. When we're going through adversity after adversity and problem, and it seems like nothing's working out, just remember all is well. I'll give you a simple example. You remember when David was anointed as king. And when he was anointed as king, he was going to be king. But yet he spent about 20 years on the run from King Saul. And there were times in his life where he was trapped in a cave, or right on the other side of the mountain, and Saul and his army was on the other side, and it looked like his life was going to be cut short. And David panicked. David cried out to God. But yet God had promised him. David faced adversity after adversity for 20 years. If you look at that. There's another character in the Bible over in the book of Genesis. You remember Joseph. Joseph had many dreams. And those dreams, you know, it was God giving him revelations of what's going to happen in the future. And yet he had many things going against him. You remember his dad made him a coat of many colors. And his brothers were envious. Jealous. They had hatred in their heart. So much hatred, they just assumed to murder Joseph. And you remember they threw him into a pit. And you remember, they just assumed to leave him in the pit and let a wild animal fall in there and let it kill him. But then some slave traders come by. Well, we can make money off him and get rid of him at the same time. So they sold him into slavery. You remember he went into the land of Egypt. There was one named Potiphar. Well, he was the slave to Potiphar. Potiphar was high up, but Potiphar had a very lusty wife. And you remember she lusted after Joseph. And as he's in that situation, he's an object of lust. You remember how she grabbed his robe as he fled away. And boy, does that look bad. It looked real bad. He could have used the excuse, well, everybody's doing it. But he didn't do that. He had integrity. He had morals, convictions. And what he was accused of That's the temptation that he overcame. Now isn't that ironic? And because he was accused of making advances upon Miss Potiphar, he gets thrown in jail. One thing after another thing after another thing. He's in jail approximately 12 years. Now imagine that. Joseph in jail for about 12 years. This process has been going on roughly about 20 years. That's a long time. But yet what we find in David's life, as well as in Joseph's life, all is well. I want you to notice the first verse. In verse 65, the Word of God says that you have dealt well with your servant, O Lord. according unto your word." Here's what we look at, just like with the two examples I gave you with David and Joseph. God dealt well with His servant David, with His servant Joseph, and with other servants you can find in the Word of God. We can find example after example after example, but notice how God dealt well with them according to His Word. It is the Word of God that has been tried and tested. It has been proven sound and solid and a sure foundation. In human reasoning, Joseph could have easily given up, gave in, and gave himself over to the works of the flesh. But I believe Joseph knew God had a better plan. God had promised in a dream Therefore, what Joseph did, he trusted in the Word of God. And here is just validity to how true the Word of God is. Look back in Psalm 19. In Psalm 19, notice what verse 7 says. Familiar passage of Scripture, Psalm 19 verse 7 says, The law of the Lord is perfect. Converting the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." Look over. Well, keep going, verse 11, moreover by them is your servant warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. And we've seen that in David's life, in Joseph's life. We can see that in Abraham's life too. We can bring up person after person after person that fears God and show how God's word's been tried and true and proven in their life. Look over in Psalm 12. In the 12th Psalm, go back a few Psalms, And notice what it says down in verse 6. The words of the Lord are pure words. There's nothing false about them. As silver is tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times." Now he uses the word seven times because that's the number of perfection. God's Word is perfect, tried, and true, and therefore you can rely upon what God said. David did. Joseph did. The prophets of old did. God's Word is a proven sure foundation. In verse 66 and 67, the psalmist says, teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I have believed your commandments. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept your word. While we look at verse 65 and we can see God's faithfulness in his word, God's Word is true, tried, and proven. It's because God is faithful. What God said, that He will do. God's not a man. He would lie. What God says... You can stand on it. It's a sure foundation. What you find in verses 66 and 67, you find the knowledge of God. And those who believe in God, who believe the Word of God, and they are believing the Word of God, what they desire is to be taught more about God, more of His Word. Notice what he says, teach me good judgment and knowledge. for I have believed your commandments." Because I believe God's commandments. You know what? This is a good prayer that you and I can both pray. Because we believe God's commandments, His Word, we want Him to teach us. We want Him to teach us good judgment. What's good judgment? To be able to reason things out. To be able to discern. When you have believed God's Word, You want the practical aspect of it for God to teach you to where you can put it into practice. In other words, that we might be able to flesh it out. We want to see decisions acted out on biblical principles. And the more you are in the Word of God, And the more the Word of God is in you, when you have to make vital decisions, or critical decisions, or major life decisions, let me tell you, those decisions come easier the more you know the Word of God. Because you're going to try to make your decisions based upon biblical principles that come from God's Word. Putting those into practice. Notice what it says, and we've gone over this Psalm before, over in Psalm 73. In Psalm 73, down in verse 16, the Word of God says, When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me. In verse 17, Until I went into the sanctuary of God, then understood I there their end. In other words, the wicked were prospering and growing, increasing in riches. and the psalmist had a hard time understanding it, until he went into the sanctuary. And he's hearing the Word of God in the sanctuary. And then he understood the end of the wicked. As you're in God's Word, and the more you're in God's Word, the more discerning and the more understanding you have about things in life and the principles of life. over in Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11 and down in verse 33, there we read, oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. The depth of God's riches and the depth of his knowledge and wisdom It says how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways are past finding out. If you need knowledge, and we do, it comes from God. It comes from His Word. So we need God to teach us. Teach us His Word. Give us the knowledge, but also help us to be able to put it into practice as He says, give me good judgment. rationale, and reasoning, and discernment, and knowledge, because I have believed your word. Notice his experience in the very next verse. Here he comes out and he says, before I was afflicted. In other words, he'd been afflicted. He'd been having a hard time. Someone had been persecuting him. He says, before that, I went astray. I wandered. I wandered away. That was before he was afflicted. And then he says, but now have I kept your word. Notice here his experience. He makes a confession in verse 67. He's basically saying, I've wandered away from God. And the Word of God confirms that, and that in everyone's life. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've each one turned to his own way. And the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Every one of us have gone astray like sheep. We'll wander off at times. We'll go in areas we shouldn't go, as far as crossing a line, and that's wandering from God. And sometimes God uses affliction to get our feet back on the right path. And that's what the psalmist is saying here. He's confessing that he's wandered, but then there is that conversion. The affliction comes into his life, and because the affliction is in his life, it turned his feet back onto the right path. There is the confession, the conversion, and then notice the sanctification. In the latter part of that verse he says, but now, now have I kept your word. Here, his feet are back on the right path. He is walking with the Lord, and the Lord is working in his life. What he's saying, this sounds very odd, in verse 68, that it was good. No, I've jumped ahead of myself. In verse 67 he says, I've kept your word now. And the reason is because God as a parent, and God is our Father if we know Him, and He is a parent. And when our life starts wandering and going astray, if we get into sin, if God is your Father, Whom he loves, that's who he chastens. So therefore, God uses affliction for our good. It's not that he is punishing us because he's mad at us. A lot of people get that concept of God. That's not God. If he is your father, what he desires to do, he desires to bring good in your life. Therefore the discipline comes that we might get back on the right path. Then we see in verse 68 how God is good. And notice it says, Thou art good and you do good. Teach me your statutes. God is kind and God is gracious. God is love. These things we know, but we've got to understand God is not vengeful. And God is not angry at his children. God is good. We've got to beat that into our head. God is good. Therefore, everything God does is good. the passage of Scripture I texted out this morning, Genesis 1.31. God looked upon all that He had created and you know what He said? It is good. God made everything good and everything we need to be giving thanks to God because God's made it good. Now sin's entered the world, but ultimately God is good. If you think about it, in creation, you think about how God created the heavens and the earth. Then he created the sea. After he created the sea, he created the fishes and the birds. After he created the fishes and the birds, he gave the green trees, the fruit trees, the plants. Notice what God's doing in creation. He is fixing the world and He's making it and creating it and He's doing it all by His voice. He just speaks and it's done. Then on the fourth day, you know what He did? He created the sun and the moon and the stars. In other words, God's created the heavens and the earth. He has created it and everything's fully mature. In other words, fruit trees had fruit on it. Plants had plants on them. Or, you know, what I'm talking about. Anyway, we'll move on. God had made it just like he wants it. And then God shines the light on it. It's like a spotlight. Here's what God's done. And you think about the stars that he hung up in the sky. Those are to shine down upon the earth to show what God has done. You might think, well he didn't need to create that many stars, but that just shows you how majestic and great God is. You're talking about billions and billions and billions of stars. Stars we haven't even seen all the stars. And somebody can say, well, it takes light billions of years, you know, 186,000 miles per hour. It takes light so much time to get to Earth. And so, you know what God did? God made it all mature, so when He made it, it was already shining on Earth. He didn't... at the same time. You understand what I'm saying? That shows how great God is. But when you come to man, and God creates man, you remember what God did? He took the dust of the earth and he formed man. Now, the other things were spoken into existence, but what God did, God created man. And when God created man, everything was already ready for him on earth. You see how kind and loving God is? Just in that creation, God made everything ready for man. And then God makes man. Here, the Word of God says, you are good, and you do good. Teach me your statutes. God is good all the time in all his ways. And we must ever keep our minds focused upon that. Don't let some lost person, crazy person, worldly person that don't know spiritual things accuse God of doing evil. What about the shootings? You heard over in Jessamine County there was a prank call made about somebody's going to shoot a terrorist. Prank. Poor teenage kid. He made a mistake. And it's a big mistake. Teenagers are apt to do that. In shootings and all the violence that goes on around the world, let me tell you that's here because of sin. God is good and God remains good. And God's got an ultimate purpose and plan where ultimately He's going to be glorified. And we must keep our focus upon Him. When you get to the latter part of this psalm, in Psalm 119, verse 69 through 71, what you see is the psalmist's reaction to the things that are going on around him. First off, notice his reaction to the slanderers. In verse 69, he says, the proud have forged a lie against me. In other words, they're slandering the psalmist. Now when someone slanders you, what it means is kind of like a smear campaign. They're trying to smear your name. They're trying to characterize you in a bad light. So therefore they talk about you and talk evil about you. Now you know what? If somebody were to sling mud at me, or sticks and stones at me, I could probably brush that off, but there would still be the stains of what I've been hit with. And even so, when words go flying, and even though they're false and untrue, it still leaves a stain. So what does the psalmist do when the proud are forging lies against him? Notice he says, and he's very focused throughout the psalm, he says, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. He's been lied to, but he's going to cling to the Word of God. in verse 70. He says their heart, and he's talking about those who are prideful, those who are the slanderers, those who are lying about him. He talks about the heart. He says their heart is as fat as grease. Now when you read the word fat in the Bible, it's not like how we translate fat in our day and time. If you were to go to some countries, and I've mentioned this before, if you go to some countries and they'll say, oh, you've gained some weight, oh, you're getting plump, oh, you know what that means? They're saying a compliment. I don't sound like a compliment in our culture, but in their culture they are complimenting you because it shows that you are prospering. It shows that God is blessing you. Now I'm not saying overdo it and get real plump and you understand what I'm saying. When we're talking about the word fat, it means basically in biblical terms as we read it, it's talking about prosperity and wealth. So but notice he goes on And if you think about the word fat, let me mention also the sacrifices. When the Israelites offered up sacrifices, the fat always belonged to the Lord. That was the best part given to the Lord. So here we think of fat in a different context when we mention fat, but it means basically prosperity and wealth. When you combine it with the word that he's combining here concerning the heart of the proud, he says their heart is fat. Notice he says as grease. In other words, he's talking about an overabundance. An excess amount. Let me give you an example. Look back in the book of Judges chapter 3. In Judges chapter 3, look down in verse 17. In verse 17, well we can go back to verse 15, but when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised them up a deliverer, Ehud the son of Gerah, a Benjaminite. A man left-handed, and by him the children of Israel sent a present unto Eglon, who is the king of Moab. But Ehud made him a dagger, which had two edges of a cubit length. He did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh. So he's got a big old half sword under his clothing on his right thigh. And notice the Word of God says, "...and he brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab." And Eglon was what? a very fat man. Eglon is very fat. And when he had made an end of the present, he sent away the people that bear the present. But he himself turned again from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand unto you, O king, who said, keep silence. And all they that stood by him went out from him. And Ehud came unto him, and he was sitting in a summer parlor, which he had for himself alone. And Ehud said, I have a message from God unto you. And he rose out of his seat, and he had put forth his left hand, and took that dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into the belly of the king. And the haft, that's the handle, also went in after the blade, and the fat closed up on the blade, so that he could not draw the dagger out of his belly, and the dirt came out." Now, here is a man who is called very fat. Eglon, very fat. He's over excessive in the blessings that God's given him. He has much, much carnal flesh that he is feeding. In other words, his carnal flesh has run wild. Because he's not just fat, he is very fat, is what the Word of God is saying. The psalmist, what does he do? When we hear this about these prideful people, and their hearts are as fat as grease, in other words, they excel and exceed in fleshly appetites, in the lust of the flesh. The psalmist says, and he's very focused, but I delight in your law. The psalmist goes deeper into the Word. You're going to indulge in the fleshly appetites. I'm going to indulge in the Word of God. I'm going to go deeper into the Word of God. I'm going to meditate more upon the Word of God. Notice he goes on to say, in verse 71, it is good for me that I've been afflicted. Now I don't know many people who said that. It's good for me that I've had some persecution. It's good for me that I've had some sickness in my life. Do you hear many people talk like that? It is good for me that I've been sick. It's good for me that I've got surgery coming up. And I got another surgery after that surgery and another surgery after that surgery. It is good. Well the psalmist is saying it's good for me that I have been afflicted. How do you react to persecution or afflictions? Here we see afflictions are good. Because what's happened in the psalmist's life, when he was afflicted, he learned God's statutes. He learned God's Word. In other words, the afflictions were like the teacher. In other words, a lesson learned. Have you ever learned from being afflicted? I think we all have, if we if we think and ponder good enough, that our afflictions have been good for us. Before I was afflicted, I went astray. Now I've kept your word. It's good for me that I've been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. Those afflictions are for our good, and one of the things we must not do is rebel against those afflictions. What the afflictions usually do You know what, when you get so yucky, bad off, sick, or persecuted, or undergoing so much pressure, you know what it ought to do to every child of God? Every child of God, it ought to drive them to the Word of God. And it ought to drive you to the knees and praying to God, crying out to God. Now, if something makes you dig deeper in God's Word, isn't that good for you? If something makes you pray more diligently, isn't that good for you? Now I'm not telling you to go out and do somebody good and start persecuting and inflicting them to make them pray and make them get into Word. You understand what I'm saying? But I'm saying when that comes into our life, it makes us seek the Lord. Think about the Lord Himself while He was here upon the earth. How often He went off to Himself and prayed. And how often when someone attacked him or the Pharisees or scribes, what did he do? He preached the Word of God to them. He'd speak the Word. He'd speak the Word. Give them the Word. In the closing verse of this little section of Taith, in verse 72, what we see is how rich the psalmist is. The Word of God says, the law of your mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. More than all the wealth of this world, is God's Word. Let me ask you a question. Where do your priorities lie in life? The psalmist here is saying, it's not in the wealth all the world can give me. It's not in all the gold and silver. It is God's law that is better than all that. So let me ask you, are you living for the world, or are you living for the word? Are you living for the carnal things of life, the fleshly things, or the spiritual things? Are you living for that which is temporal, and it's fading away, or that which is eternal? Are you living for that which is a vapor? Our life is like a vapor, and you're just living for this life only. Are you investing for that which is eternal? You remember what Jesus said, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where that moth doesn't come in, and where the rust doesn't corrupt. More than all the wealth of this world, is God's Word what it should be to us. Where are your priorities? I pray they're in those things which are eternal. The psalmist is much less sincere as he goes through many afflictions in life. May we glean bits and pieces and may we treasure it more than the wealth of this world. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your Word. And Lord, we ask that you would be glorified in our lives by what we prioritize, that others can see Christ in us, that we value your Word above all things this world has to offer. So we ask that you continue to guide us in truth, open up our eyes of understanding, give us wisdom and knowledge of You, that we might grow in Your grace and knowledge and glorify You all the more. We'll give You the thanks and the praise, the honor and glory for You alone are worthy for Christ's sake. Amen.