I wanted to thank everyone again for, Matthew already thanked everyone for all their participation, all their help, and for taking care of the details related to everything related to our anniversary celebration last week. I want to thank you for all your kind words, things that were just so encouraging. some written, some spoken, just all the different ways that you communicated to us and for the offering. We just want to thank you very much for all of those things. Well, today we are going back to our study through Psalm 119. We're going to be looking at the 13th stanza, which is verses 97 to 104. This psalm, as we've noted, was written by a man who was in a tough situation. The culture he lived in was antagonistic to his faith, even to the point of being hostile. And as a result, the psalmist is regularly going to the Lord in prayer for help. He's regularly speaking of his love and commitment to the word of God because he knows that's crucial to the survival of his faith. He speaks of spending time with the law of God and meditating and thinking and seeking to understand. He asked God to help him understand better. He asked for help to not only understand but to consistently apply the word of God in his life. He knows he needs the strength, he needs strength to stay true to the Lord. And it's clear that the psalmist is deeply committed to the Lord. He's going to stay true no matter what it costs him. And that commitment is characterized by love. The stanza we're looking at this morning begins in verse 97 with the exclamation, Oh, how I love your law. And this really just seems to be an exclamation of deep affection, a deep affection for God's law tied into a deep affection for God himself. So what is it that would cause a person to love God in conjunction with loving his law? Well, there's several things. We talked about this last week. Let me just kind of remind you of a few things. God's law reveals his majesty. It reveals his righteousness. It reveals his goodness, all of which are attributes of God that are worthy of our praise, that are revealed to us through his law. God's law shows us, one thing it shows us is how we're supposed to love God. The first four commandments focus on that. We're supposed to be sure that we have no other gods before him. We're to be sure that we don't have idols. It's basically the idea of using images as tied in there. We're supposed to honor his name with our words and with our actions. We're supposed to keep the Sabbath day holy. Those are all fundamental things to anyone who is seeking to love God, and those are basics that have to be there. God's law also shows us how we're supposed to love people. He shows us that we're supposed to honor our parents, which has a bigger thing of honoring the institution of the family. We should not murder, which means we do not allow bitterness and hatred to take control in our hearts. We should not commit adultery, which includes dealing with issues of lust. We should not steal, so there's an importance there of honoring one another's property. We should not bear false witness. That's the idea that we should not live by lies. We should not embrace falsehood as if it were true when we know it's not. And no matter how much pressure the culture might give to say, we want you to bear false witness about this. That's what we accept. That's what we expect. No. To love people means you don't do that. You don't live by lies if you're really going to love according to the Ten Commandments. And we're also told not to covet, which means be content. Be content with what you have. Be content with your circumstances in life. All those things are just extremely foundational and important to loving people. And we find those things laid out very clearly for us in the Word of God, and they're so practical. You look at that and you could think, Wow, I love your law. It tells me exactly what I should do and what I shouldn't do to love people. Now we also know from what the scripture says and from our own personal experience that none of us can obey God's law perfectly the way he requires. Every one of us falls short on a regular basis. So God's law shows us that we are sinners. It exposes our sin. And therefore it directs us to the fact that we need a savior. So it directs us to Jesus Christ. And it's because Jesus Christ suffered the wrath of God on the cross that we deserve, because of our sin, that our sin will be forgiven when we have faith in him. Jesus Christ also, of course, perfectly obeyed God's holy and righteous law. So when we put our faith in him, we not only receive forgiveness of sin, we also receive Christ's own record of righteousness given to us as a gift, imputed to us. I mean, just so many glorious implications there. And all of that gives us reason as Christians to say, oh, how I love your law. It shows me all those things. And then we see from the psalmist, because of his love for the law, that he took time to meditate, to think more carefully about what the law said and make applications to his life. Oh, how I love your law, it's my meditation all the day. Well, that sets us up for the rest of the stanza. Because what it does, the rest of the stanza speaks to us of the advantages and blessings that come into the life of a person who loves God's law. So let me go ahead and read for you Psalm 119, 97 to 104. Oh, how I love your law. It's my meditation all the day. Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine. I have more insight than all my teachers. For your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, because I have observed your precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep your word. I have not turned aside from your ordinances, for you yourself have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth. From your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. In verses 98 to 100, we see three advantages that came to the psalmist because of his love for God's law. So we'll talk about those first. And then second, in verses 101 to 104, we see how his love for God's law resulted in spiritual growth in his life. So our first main point is this, a love for God's law gives one great advantages in life. I mean, a law that is so majestic and righteous and good will absolutely give advantages when it's understood and applied appropriately. And as we said, for Christians, our understanding and applications of his law should be all in the context of our faith in Jesus Christ as our savior and Lord. Well, as a Psalmist meditated on the love of God, the law of God, and the context of his love for God, he found three great advantages. The first one is this. He recognized that those who love God's law will be blessed with a wisdom that is superior to those who act as his enemies. We have seen in this psalm that the psalmist has spoken of his enemies multiple times in multiple different ways. In verse 23, he spoke of princes that were speaking out against him. In verse 51, he spoke of how arrogant people had ridiculed him. In verse 61, he spoke of how he was surrounded by wicked men who sought to do him harm. In verse 69, he spoke about the lies that arrogant men had spoken against him. In verse 84, he wrote about the fact that he was being persecuted for his faith. And in verse 95, he wrote about wicked men who were doing all they could to bring about his destruction. So he was very much aware of people who had set themselves against Him because they had set themselves against His God. So clearly these enemies would not share his love for God's law. They would not recognize the authority of God's word. They would be following some completely different kind of standard. But in spite of the serious adversity that the psalmist was facing, he remained fully committed to the Lord and to his word. In fact, he loved God's law. In verse 98, we see that the first advantage he speaks of because of that is this. He says, your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever mine. So his enemies surely felt like they had the upper hand here. And as we've seen earlier in verses, some of those were enemies who were in authority over him. They had some role in determining what was lawful in their context. They probably had some role in punishing, enforcing those laws, especially if they, if the person did not obey what they said. In fact, if they were enemies of God, then they would also be enemies of his law. So in the face of ungodly laws, the child of God is going to act in accordance with God's laws, even if that puts them in conflict with the laws of the land. It's never wise to put God's laws off to the side as if they are optional. Because the psalmist loved God's law, he would certainly keep God's law. This will probably put him in the crosshairs of his enemies. But God has given the psalmist a bold wisdom, so he stands for what he knows is right. The civil magistrates are trying to put God's law out of the picture. They may even represent it as outdated or whatever terms they might use, but the psalmist says, no, the commandments of God are ever mine. They are never out of the picture. They are ever mine. I will not compromise, in other words, what is right and just to appease one who is my enemy. That's a great advantage for those who love God, those who love his law. The second advantage was this. Those who love God's law will be blessed with insight. Insight that's beyond what unbelieving teachers possess because they meditate on the word. Verse 99, I have more insight than all my teachers for your testimonies are my meditation. So the psalmist is in the position of having teachers instruct him. I think it would be right to assume that these teachers are also enemies of the one true God. That seems to be the context here. In some sense, he had to take classes from them. But he also wanted to be discerning. And so as one who loved God's law, he used God's law to give him a clear standard of what was right and what was wrong, what was true and what was false, to be able to discern and tell the difference. And so we understood that the most important truths he needed to be studying closely really were the truths of Scripture. And he says it was the testimonies of God that he meditated on. The term for testimonies here is often used referring to things related to God's covenant with his people, reminding them, I am your God, you are my people. And therefore the words to him, their laws, his laws, his promises, his demonstrations of how he's faithful to them are the kind of things that would be considered as far as his testimonies were concerned. So to get the superior insight that he's speaking of would first require him to know what God's word said. But true insight requires more than that. He would have to make application of that insight to his life. One way you can talk about that is you use God's word and you preach it to yourself. For example, something like this, I am your God, as if God was saying this, I am your God. Are you living your life conscious of that reality, that I'm your God? Are you believing as your God that I will never leave you or forsake you? Do you really believe that? Are you living on that? Are you living your life in such a way that your first priority is what most pleases God in this situation? You can use things that you know are true and kind of preach them to yourself, asking yourself questions, make applications to yourself about those things. And it's as we meditate on the testimonies of God that we will gain more insight than even the ablest of teachers, especially those who have rejected the one true God. The third advantage that comes from having a love for God's law is this, those who love God's law will be blessed with an understanding that is even greater than what comes with age because of regular obedience, regular obedience to God's word. Verse 100, I understand more than the aged because I have observed your precepts. Now those who were the older generation of the culture would generally be considered wise because of all they had learned and experienced over their lifetime. And there's definitely, you know, a lot of truth to that. If you have any age on you at all, you can probably look back to your younger self and you can see things and remember things that your younger self did or said and you wish, I wish I'd never done those things, I wish I'd never said those things. If I could actually go back and change that, I would. That's part of the experience of age, of learning sometimes, oftentimes the hard way, important lessons in life. Well, that's still true. Although, as I've quoted to you before, one of my favorite philosophers was this kind of crazy relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, Bill Lee. He used to say, you're only young once, but you can be immature forever. And that's true. We may not learn from those things. But we give people the benefit of the doubt because age generally is an indicator of greater maturity. So, in this verse, he actually says that his great understanding has come because he has observed God's precepts. He may not have the age factor that the people he's thinking of have, but he has observed God's precepts. In other words, because he's given priority to regularly living in obedience to the word of God, God has given him an understanding that a younger person oftentimes doesn't have. We know very well that sin makes you stupid. Those two things go together. Sin and stupidity go together. You cannot consciously continue to live in sinful ways and think you are gonna be wise and have good discernment. You won't. Sin and immorality make it really almost impossible to reason correctly. You just can't think right. There's some things that the Apostle Paul wrote, and this is back in Ephesians 4, that really speak of this problem in just some pretty graphic ways. Ephesians 4, 17 to 19, he's speaking to the Christians in Ephesus, he says, so this I say and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles, or we could say just as the unbelievers walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart. They have become callous having given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. Does that sound like a description of someone who is wise? No, it's the complete opposite. You will never find that person making a wise decision. They are not driven that way. That's what sin does to people. It makes us stupid. On the other hand, knowing God's word and regularly walking in obedience to his word gives a person real understanding in life. So these are three really impressive advantages that God grants to people who have a love for his law. Now I'm gonna show you an example of how this looks in real life. We have noted before that some say that it's possible that maybe Daniel wrote this psalm. And actually, these verses fit like a glove with Daniel. I want to point some things out to you. And of course, the reason that people say that maybe Daniel wrote it is because the circumstances that the psalmist is speaking of regularly fit very well with Daniel's situation and his own responses. Daniel, of course, was taken captive by the Babylonians. forced to go into exile in Babylon. Therefore, he was living in a culture that was hostile to his faith. It was a culture that was based on pagan idolatry. Daniel was selected to serve in the court of the king of Babylon. I want to read a few passages from Daniel chapter 1 and chapter 2. Chapter 1, verse 3 and 4, he says this, The king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, youths in whom was no defect, who were good looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king's court. And he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans." These verses fit very well with verses 98, 99, and 100 of Psalm 119. First, the Babylonians were the enemies of the Jews. Of course, they attacked and defeated them in battle. Next, we see that Daniel and his friends were required to receive instruction in the teaching and language of the Chaldeans. They were forced into do that. We are also told that Daniel and his friends were young. So certainly their instructors were gonna be older than them. Psalm 119.98 talks about being wiser than his enemies. Verse 99 speaks of having more insight than his teachers. Verse 100 says he is more understanding than the aged. Daniel was forced to learn the language and literature of his enemies, people who were steeped in idolatry. And they most certainly were not learning the Hebrew scriptures. Instead, it was the pagan literature of the Babylonians that they had to study. But they did this, they were able to do this by God's mercy. They were able to do this without compromising their own faith. Let me read you the last part of Daniel chapter one. This is 17 to 20, about how this turned out, how the Lord blessed them in this. As for these four years, this is... Daniel and the other three. God gave them knowledge and intelligence in every branch of literature and wisdom. Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams. Then at the end of the days, which the king had specified for presenting them, the commander of the officials presented them before Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them and out of them And out of them all, not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. So they entered the king's personal service. As for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all of his realm. So clearly, clearly, God made Daniel and his friends wiser than their enemies, understanding more than their teachers. And he enabled them to understand more than those who were older than them. On Daniel chapter two, this was all put to the test. The king had a dream and he called his wise men. to tell him what the dream was and what the dream meant. Well, they were unable to do that, so the king decreed that they should all be killed, which was including Daniel and his three friends. So Daniel 2, 14 to 19. Then Daniel replied with discretion and discernment to Ariok, the captain of the king's bodyguard who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon. He said to Ariok, the king's commander, for what reason is the decree from the king so urgent? And then Ariok informed Daniel about the matter. So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would be given time in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king. Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah about the matter. so that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery so that Daniel and his friends would not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision and Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Notice what Daniel and his friends did not do. They did not go back to look at their notes from their glasses. What do we do now? We've been taught to be His wise men. Let's go look at our notes. Let's go look at... Nothing like that. They knew that's not where the wisdom was. You get nothing like that. Instead, they go to the Lord. They understood that God was the God of truth. They go to Him in prayer. They knew their God was wise. They knew their God was a God of compassion. interesting Psalm 119.99 talks about that meditation on God's testimonies. I wonder if they might have considered the testimony of Scripture that would remind them of how God gave Joseph insight into the dream of the Pharaoh. I don't know, that would fit, but I don't know if they did that or not. But we most definitely see an example in these verses of how a love for God and his law gave them advantages over and a culture that did not believe in the one true God, and actually was even hostile to their faith, but they had advantages anyway. And so do we, if we love his law in this way. Well, not only did the Lord give great advantages to the psalmist, and as a result of a love for his law, we also see this additional truth. Number two, a love for God's law results in real and sustained spiritual growth. Verses 101 to 104 gives us four ways that the Lord enabled the psalmist to grow in his faith as a result of his love for God's law. First we see this, those who love God's law will be restrained by God's grace from pursuing evil ways. restrained from pursuing evil ways. Verse 101 says, I have restrained my feet from every evil way that I may keep your word. So this verse makes it clear that the wisdom that the psalmist had obtained was not just intellectual, it was practical. It affected the way he lived. It affected the decisions that he made. It affected how he dealt with temptation. And there would be lots of temptation in the culture that he was a part of. the Psalmist was in a position of being threatened by enemies. And I would think there would be some level of fear associated with that, if it was me there would be. But the Psalmist was actually more afraid of sin than he was of his enemies. Sin in the Bible is sometimes compared to leprosy, like an infection that can get a hold and spread and ultimately destroy the whole body, as far as sin can ultimately destroy a person's faith. And because of the threat of sin, the psalmist was very deliberate in restraining his feet from going in evil directions. He was conscious of not putting himself in situations where he knew he would be easily tempted. This was because he had a healthy fear of sin. and using the image of which direction his feet would go really shows us how practical this is. I mean, it's being aware of not walking toward certain situations that you know, this can be tempting if I go this direction, if I move among those group of people. It's being aware of who you spend your time with. Could there be a lot of temptation connected with there? It's being aware of what we look at with our eyes. It might be being aware of what we pick up with our hands and use with our hands. And it's interesting, the psalmist here was concerned about every evil way, every one. In other words, he didn't give himself a pass on anything. And it was his love of the Lord and of his law that enabled him to restrain himself. This was God's grace. Now, these can be really hard choices to make. And this was the Lord giving him the strength he needed, even though he knew he would be weak, just like we all are. We also see in this verse that he restrained his feet from every evil way for a particular purpose. He very much wanted to keep God's word. So he was convinced of its rightness, of its advantages, of how vital it was to his Christian life. God had changed his heart and therefore given him a love and a desire for God's law. So in order to continue in his application of God's word to his life, he knew he had to turn away from things that he knew were sinful and wrong. So he grew in his spiritual life because of his love for God's law. He restrained his feet from every evil way. A second example of spiritual growth is this. Those who love God's law will be given a disposition to learn and continue in his ordinances. Verse 102, I have not turned aside from your ordinances for you yourself have taught me. This verse is really something of a parallel to verse 101, the one right before it. In the previous verse, the psalmist is very careful not to go after evil ways, not to go down a wrong path, in other words. When this verse, he's focused on staying on the right path. He knows what God's ordinances require of him. He knows what they forbid him to do from doing. He's focused on staying on the path and resisting all the bypass that are gonna be there, that can be tempting for him. We are all prone to wander. You know that phrase in that hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing? The hymn that says, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. So the hymn writer asks, and in that song, he asks God to bind his wandering heart with grace. Well, God has definitely been gracious to this psalmist. He can say confidently before the Lord, I have restrained my feet from every evil way. I have not turned aside from your ordinances. So he's done a work in his heart and his life. And we also need to take note. This is not a matter just like of strong self-discipline. God has given the psalmist a disposition to learn and continue in his ordinances. He's been motivated. He has a motivation to keep God's word. And he expresses gratitude for the fact that he knows God has taught him. Matter of fact, he almost seems in awe of that. He says, you yourself have taught me. I mean, He's almost, I mean, there's something of an all that he knows that God is the one who has taught him, who has actually given him understanding of what his word said. This is the sovereign, majestic, eternal God who is teaching me, granting his word, and also granting me understanding of what it's about. Well, this is consistent with the promises that God has made in his new covenant. Let me read for you several verses here from Jeremiah chapter 31st in Jeremiah 32 40, which says, I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good. I will put the fear of me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me. So in other words, God is the one who enables that to happen. Back in Jeremiah 31. Verse 33, this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days. I will put my law within them and on their heart, I will write it. I will be their God and they shall be my people. So if you're a Christian, God himself has written his law on your heart. He's done that. If you're a Christian, he has done that. So in the psalmist words, he himself has taught you. I mean, that's really kind of a marvel, just to behold that. So if you have a desire to read God's word, God put it there. If you have a desire to understand God's word and try to apply it to your life, it's because God put that there. When you get insight into the truth of what the word says, God is teaching you. This is just such an important part of our growth in our Christian life. I mean, we should just be very constantly grateful for God doing this. Now, I should also say here, this doesn't mean that every thought that comes into our head about the scriptures is infallibly correct. We know that's not true. Our mind is not perfectly renewed at this point. we can misunderstand things. That's one of the main reasons we need fellow believers, one of the reasons we need the church, one of the reasons we need to be clear on how God has worked in the church even over the centuries. But what a great blessing it is to be given a disposition to learn and to continue in what God's word is teaching us. The third thing communicated here about spiritual growth is this. Those who love God's law will be given a taste for the pleasing sweetness of his word. Verse 103 is kind of an amazing verse. How sweet are your words to my taste? Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth. I mean, in some ways here, it's like the psalmist's great love for God's law has also given him pleasure. And in some ways, this verse is something of a summary of what he has said before. Remember, he started this whole stanza with another exclamation, exclaiming, oh, how I love your law. And then he lays out those three advantages that have come into his life in conjunction with his love for God's law. And then he lays out ways that love for God's law has enabled him to have a consistent growth, consistent walk with the Lord. And then after saying after that, we get another exclamation. How sweet are your words to my taste? That's another exclamation. So the word of God has not only proved to be profitable to him, it has, but it's also given him pleasure. He compares the sweetness of the word of God to honey. When I think of honey, I think one thing we can compare that to is dessert. I mean, it's something sweet, often to top off a meal, maybe even between meals. My favorite part, my favorite kind of food to eat is actually dessert. which isn't healthy, but it's the reality. When I think of the word of God, I generally think more of the main course. I mean, the food that really gives you what you need to be healthy, you know, the main course, you know, a healthy diet, all those kind of things. And God's word is that, but it's also dessert. It's that too. And in fact, he says his word is sweeter than honey. So whatever your favorite dessert is, the scripture is sweeter than that. And the good thing about this is you don't have to worry about getting too much. You can't, you know, a second helping of Romans isn't gonna hurt you. Another helping of Isaiah is not really gonna put you in a bad place. It's just not. But his word is sweeter. how good of God to not only give us what we need as far as knowledge and real substance, but also what is truly pleasing and satisfying in life. And it seems like probably the more we grow in our Christian life, the more we're aware, I think, of that sweetness of God's word. There's a growing appreciation, I think, of the sweetness of God's word. The last thing the psalmist shares that's related to his spiritual growth is this. Those who love God's law will be able to discern and have a holy hatred for every false way. A holy hatred for every false way, 104. From your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. So for a true and accurate understanding of things, we need to look to God's precepts. Let me just list some of what some of his precepts, his foundational truths are. Precepts of God were to tell us who God is, that he's eternal, sovereign, the triune God, created all things by the word of his power. His precepts tell us that man is made in the image of God, but that sin came into the world through the sin of Adam and Eve, and as a result, we are all born spiritually dead in our trespasses and our sins. His precepts tell us that God the Father, in his great mercy, sent God the Son to accomplish salvation for sinners. And it was by, of course, by the life, death, and resurrection of God the Son that we can be saved. His precepts tell us that we are saved by grace, through faith in Christ, and that the Lord has also prepared good works for us beforehand, that we are to walk in them. His precepts talk about the central role of the church in our life and in his work in the world. His precepts guarantee that all of his children are going to spend eternity with him in the new heavens and new earth, and we could add many more. But these precepts are laid out for us in the scripture, and it's by these precepts that we get understanding of what is true. They mold our worldview. They also, therefore, give us the ability to discern false ways, things that don't fit with that worldview, with those precepts. And he enables us then to flee, to recognize those false ways, to turn away from those false ways, and to stand firm for what is right and true in ways that are still loving and biblically and God exalting. The false ways are always unprofitable. They lead to shame, they lead to deception, and they can lead to eternal death if they are embraced. As believers, we should have a love for people, even those who are our enemies, with a holy hatred for every false way, but still loving our enemies, loving all people. That's a sign, really, of Christian growth and maturity, I think. Well, the psalmist has laid out for us then great advantages. and true spiritual growth for all who love the Lord and therefore love his law." Lord, we do thank you for your word. We thank you just for these expressions here. The psalmist really doesn't even ask for anything. He doesn't have any requests in this stanza like he does in some of the other ones. He's just exclaiming of his great love for you, for your word, of just the sweetness of your word, just the benefit of your word. And really it's a stanza of thanksgiving. So Lord, we thank you too for your word. We thank you for your law. We thank you for every aspect of your word that you have given to us. Lord, we thank you for the advantages that it gives us in life, especially in a culture that for the most part rejects these words. but you enable us to stand firm. We thank you for the spiritual growth that it brings about in our life. And so we thank you so much for that. And I do ask that you would help us to grow. I ask this for myself and ask for all of us. Help us to grow in our understanding and appreciation of your word as something sweet and pleasurable and desirable. Help with that continue to be something that's just very special and precious to each of us. If you're one who's never put your faith in Jesus Christ, we need to do that. And a prayer like this would be a way to start. Lord, I realize that I have not honored your word, that I'm guilty before you, but I thank you that Jesus Christ came into the world to pay for my sin. So I receive him as my savior. I commit my life to him as the absolute Lord and king of my life. If somebody wants to talk in more detail about that, you can make a note in your tear off or those who are watching online can reach out to us through the