Psalm 119 verse 129. Each of these lines begin with the Hebrew letter Peh. Your testimonies are wonderful, therefore my soul observes them. The unfolding of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple. I opened my mouth wide and panted. for I longed for your commandments. Turn to me and be gracious to me after your manner with those who love your name. Establish my footsteps in your word and do not let any iniquity have dominion over me. Redeem me from the oppression of men that I may keep your precepts. Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your statutes. My eyes shed streams of water because they do not keep your law. Well, as we come to this particular stanza in Psalm 119, we come to a stanza that, at least in my estimation, is the first one to lack a unifying, cohesive theme. And in fact, what you have in this stanza is basically the pulling together of a number of threads that have already been brought up in Psalm 119, and they're kind of pulled together And the first three verses deal with the word, the next four verses deal with prayer, and then the last verse deals with grief. And so there's no cohesive theme, but all of them kind of come together in a way that reminds us of the importance of the word of God and prayer. In fact, George Zemeck notes, he says, the Pei stanza is a mosaic of thematic and stylistic parts. And so as I was thinking about that and getting ready for tonight in the midst of other things going on, I thought, OK, we're going to talk about the word, which we've been talking about a lot through Psalm 119, because it's celebration. of God's Word, and we're going to talk about prayer, which, of course, the vast majority of this psalm, 99% of it, is a prayer. And so we're going to look at things that, in essence, we've already looked at before. We're going to talk about things that we've talked about before, not just in Psalm 119, but actually throughout our life together. There's not going to be anything that's new. tonight or exciting in the sense of, wow, I never thought of that before. And that brings up an interesting observation on the ministry of the Word. The ministry of the Word of God is not about coming up with new things. The ministry of the Word of God is actually reminding us of things that we already know. The ministry of the Word of God is, I think about it in different ways. In some sense, the ministry of the Word is like getting realigned week by week. Because we're fallen, because we're finite, because we live in a fallen world, because we're bombarded with the world and the flesh and the devil and the cares and the concerns of this world, it's really easy for us to get out of balance. And as we get out of balance, the longer we drive in that condition, the more astray we go. And so the ministry of the word is just like a realignment. It's like going to a spiritual Les Schwab three times a week, all right? But it's also just like eating. And I've used this illustration before, but I think that it makes the point. Throughout the years, it's not like you can think of 50 meals that just stood out in the course of a year that were just absolutely incredible and spectacular, and you look back upon them with incredible fondness, longing once again to eat such succulent delights. But the fact that you eat regularly, it sustains you. You may not remember the particular meals, but it does get you through life week by week. The ministry of the word does the same thing. There are times where you think back, I can think back, there are certain sermons that I've heard that have made a major impact on my life, and I look back, but let's face it, we've heard a vast amount more than what we actually remember, okay? God's given me a strange memory. I can tell you where I was and who preached what and all of that kind of stuff. And Ariel looks at me and says, you've got to be kidding. But my brain kind of just works like that. But for the most part, we don't remember. In fact, I forget my own preaching more than I forget the preaching of other people. And so I don't hold out much hope for you guys. But what you do is you just eat week by week. And in eating week by week, you are sustained and strengthened and nourished. And you go and sometimes, sometimes your wives actually cook the same thing. And nobody sits there and goes, you already made this. Now, when I was a kid, I absolutely despised Swiss steak and tamale pie. And I would say to my mom, mama, you just made this last week. But we had the same thing every Monday night, every Tuesday night, every Wednesday night. So it was like this calendar. And, you know, so thankfully, it's not like you're going to come on Wednesday and just hear about the same thing every single time. But it's that food that sustains you. Some are memorable, some are not. And so as we come to a text that is a mosaic of themes, We need to remember. We need to be realigned. We need to eat. We have short memories. I need to be reminded, just like we saw Sunday morning, we need to be reminded of those basic things, like God's love for us. We need to have those things preached to us. We need to have those things preached to ourselves by ourselves. And so as we Launch into the pay stanza. We're just going to hear some of the same stuff, but it's for our spiritual nourishment, our spiritual realignment, our spiritual good. So we begin in verses 129 to 131. The psalmist says, surprise, your testimonies are wonderful. Testimonies here is the word Adote, and it is a general word for, you can look it up in Brown, Driver, and Briggs, the Hebrew lexicon, and you can see it's used throughout the Old Testament for the law, it's used for the Ten Commandments, it's used for the content of the covenant, And so the idea is decrees, instructions, statutes, rules. That is God's direction of our lives. And notice what the psalmist says. He says, your instructions, your rules, your regulations that you've given to me are wonderful. Now, if you think back, he's already used this word a couple of times. Verse 18, he says, open my eyes that I may behold what wonderful things from your law verse 27 make me understand the way of your precepts so I will meditate on your wonders. It's a wonderful thing actually to think about this word wonderful because it's used it's used only for two things in the Old Testament. God's written word, and the living word, Jesus Christ. In fact, it's used for the written word, these three examples that I just gave, verse 18, 27, and then our verse. But it is also used, for instance, in Judges 16, where the angel of the Lord appears to Manoah and his wife, and Manoah, Samson's parents, and Manoah says, what is your name? By what shall I call you? And the angel of the Lord says, why should I tell you? seeing that my name is wonderful. In the promise of Isaiah 9, 6, remember a child will be born to us, a son will be given. and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." And so, the psalmist here is rejoicing the written word is wonderful. In other words, it's just another way to say the Bible is wonderful. There's no other book like it. There's no other book that does what it does. There's no other book that is what it is. And so, when the psalmist says, your testimonies are wonderful, he is celebrating the revelation of his father's will to him in the word of God. Matthew, Henry, says it like this, he says, the Word of God gives us admirable discoveries of God and Christ and another world, admirable proofs of divine love and grace, the majesty of the style, the purity of the matter, the harmony of the parts are all wonderful. Its effects upon the consciences of men, both for conviction and comfort, are wonderful. and it is a sign that we are not acquainted with God's testimony or do not understand them if we do not admire them. Just think of the way that Henry's description goes down. What makes God's Word wonderful? It's the content that makes it wonderful. It is a revelation of God. It is a revelation of Christ. It is a revelation of the Spirit. It is a revelation of the world to come. It is a revelation of what you need to do to be made right with your Creator. You don't get that in Reader's Digest. The content is wonderful. but it's also as literature wonderful. Sometimes Some Christians kind of shrink back a little bit when they start hearing about the Bible spoken of as literature, as if what we're saying is that it is just literature. We're not saying that it's just literature. It's obviously more than literature. It is God-breathed, holy Scripture. But it does come to us as literature. And it is wonderful. The contours of redemptive history, the different shades of color. When you read the Bible, it doesn't come to us all in the same shape and form. It comes to us with variety and creativity. And the literary features of God's Word are absolutely, utterly, completely remarkable. You cannot, for instance, study the book of Hebrews without being overwhelmed by the polished style, the grand expressions of grammar and vocabulary and the way things are put together. And so God's Word is wonderful in terms of its literary beauty. It is also wonderful in its effects upon us. What other book can bring us under such conviction? What other book can give us such comfort? It is the source of life. In it, we have the words of life. And so in every conceivable way, from every possible angle, the Word of God is wonderful. And then the psalmist says, in a sense, because of that, therefore my soul observes them. And notice he uses the word soul as a reference for the whole man, and he's saying that because God's Testimonies, his precepts, his decrees, his laws, his regulations are so wonderful. Therefore, I have a whole-souled, whole-person commitment to observe them. Now, what's interesting is in this stanza, there's two words for obedience. And the one that's used here, observe, is used six times in this psalm, in Psalm 119. A little later we get to even a more common one, but that's been a theme that we've seen repeatedly over and over and over again, and that is that there is this whole-souled commitment to obey the Word of God. Now, again, it's not just his own determination to do so. He's going to rely upon God and his grace to do so. But that determination is actually there. And if there is anything that I need to be reminded of day by day and week by week, it is, Brian, you need to be determined to obey God's word. God's word actually impinges on every aspect of life. There's not one single solitary aspect of life where the Word of God is irrelevant. And so if the Word of God is so absolutely wonderful in its regulations, in its decrees, in its directives and instruction, then there needs to be, in a sense, the commensurate response to such a wonderful Word should be obedience. Thus, Matthew Henry's point, I think, is well taken at the end. That is, you know, those that don't admire it, those that don't follow it, are simply those that don't understand it. And so here is this, therefore, it's because God's word is so wonderful that I obey. And notice, He looks at obedience in the same way that the Apostle John looks at obedience. 1 John 5, verse 3, and his commandments are not burdensome. It is not a drag to obey the Word of God if you're a child of God. It is a delight to obey the Word of God if you're a child of God. Frankly, the only people that it's a real drag to obey the Word of God for is for those that actually are doing it out of a sense of self-righteousness, or they're trying to earn their own salvation, or they're trying to please somebody or something. But when the Spirit of God actually dwells inside of us, there is an impulse to obey. That's what we get with the psalmist. It's natural. It is natural for the child of God who has the Spirit of God in him to want to obey his father's word. Then he says, verse 130, he says, the unfolding of your words gives light. Now, notice, this is fascinating. commentators are divided over the significance of the word unfolding because it literally means the opening of your word and it's the word that would be used frequently for the opening of a door. So for instance, the Jewish commentator Cohen translates this, the opening of the door of your word lets in the light. In ancient Palestinian homes, you didn't generally have windows, but you had a door. And so when the door was opened, that's where the light came in. And so the psalmist may well be saying, your word is like a door. And when it's opened, that's when the light comes in. Or the idea could be the opening of your word in the sense of the unfolding of your word, the opening up of your word in instruction in your word. These things are not mutually exclusive, but what is the psalmist ultimately talking about? He's ultimately talking about the illumination that comes to us by the Holy Spirit as we're in the word. There is a sense in which There are actually very good biblical scholars who understand the history, the grammar, the culture of the text and are no more saved than this chair. It's not as if the Bible is of such a nature that you have to be completely regenerated to understand it. It's not true. In fact, some of the most brilliant biblical scholars in terms of linguistics and exegesis and grammar and culture and background and all of that have been unbelievers. But there's one thing that they cannot do. They cannot have the Spirit of God apply the truth to God to their lives in a way that they have light. That kind of light is something that is communicated by the Word of God through the Holy Spirit, and that's what the psalmist is saying. The opening up of your word, the unfolding of your word, it gives light. And what's the idea of light? The idea is guidance and direction and blessing. Remember, in the Old Testament, oftentimes, God himself is called light. The Lord is my light and my salvation. And so the unfolding of God's word brings light in the sense of it's a light to our path, it gives us direction in life, but it also, in a sense, communicates it to us, the very blessing of God himself. There is a way to read the Bible where you miss absolutely everything, and there is a way to read the Bible in which you get God. Now, I think all of us would at least confess that we have been guilty more times than we'd like to admit of reading the Bible and not getting anything out of it. Right? In fact, sometimes new believers can get kind of discouraged. You have two phenomenon among new believers. You have those that can't get enough of the word and those that are scratching their head saying, and why is Chronicles in the Bible, right? But the fact is, is that when we depend upon God and God's spirit opens the word to us, there's light. And in that light, we receive the blessing of God himself. Because there are other times where you read and you stop right in your tracks, and you can't go any farther. And you just, as it were, just like Joshua, Moses has to leave the tent of meeting to do the business of Israel, and Joshua is so enamored with God, he just stays there in the tent. And notice, not all of God's Word is equally like that. It's just like the ministry of the Word. You know, sometimes you have a Chronicles sermon, sometimes you have an Ephesians sermon, okay? But the fact is, is it's all there to give us light. And so the then turns around and says it gives understanding to the simple. That's good, of course, because if there's anything that you that you want to acknowledge, you don't want to say, God, I am among the wise and the proud. Because God talks about people like that, and Jesus says stuff like this. I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you did not reveal yourself to the wise and the proud, but to babes. Right? That's the idea here. Simple can have two connotations. Sometimes, in fact, many times in the Proverbs, simple is the idea of the inexperienced. They're at a crux in life. And they either will become a fool or, yeah, become a fool, or they will become wise. But they're not either one yet. They're at that fork in the road. And so the idea of simple is inexperienced, untrained. And so here, though, the connotation is probably a little different, and the idea probably means the one that's humble and dependent. It's like the picture that the psalmist gives us, I think it's 121 or so, or 122, right in there, one of the ascent psalms where the psalmist says, I'm just like a weaned child reposed against the Lord's breast. I'm not out there trying to figure out all the stuff of the world. I'm just actually content just to be right here next to the Lord. That just simplicity, that humility, and so the Word of God gives understanding, that is, perception and discernment to the simple. It helps to learn as much of the Bible as you possibly can, right? And I would say that Bob Edwards has probably studied the Bible longer than anybody in this room. Anybody think they've studied the Bible longer than Bob? I think Bob probably has got the record for the longest, the longest career of studying God's word. And I can tell you that Bob would tell us what we all know. And that is even if he had 10 lifetimes, he would never plumb the depths of God's word. It is absolutely profound. You will never get to the bottom of it. You can learn Greek. You can learn Hebrew. You can learn Aramaic. You can learn all of the history. You can learn literary genre. You can learn hermeneutics. You can learn the whole nine yards. And the fact is that you could have 10 lifetimes and never plumb the depths. The marvelous thing, though, is that you don't need all of that to gain understanding from the word. because it is the unfolding of God's Word that gives light and gives understanding to those that will just simply humble themselves and depend upon God. And so, actually, understanding God's Word is not ultimately a matter of an IQ, is it? It's a matter of hunger. It's a matter of humility. It's a matter of thirst. It's a matter of dependence. And so that's what the psalmist gets to. And so verse 131 verse 131 kind of seems to me like the the natural outcome of what he said in the first two verses. Notice these three three verbs opened, panted and longed. Now, this language, by the way, this imagery of opening your mouth wide, God actually tells the Israelites in Psalm 81, open your mouth wide and I will fill it. In other words, I will satisfy you. I will give you your heart's desire. And so when the psalmist says here, I open my mouth wide, I pan it after your word, what he's saying is, My heart's desire, the craving of my soul is for your word. I have actually an eager, devoted yearning for the word. Considering what it is, it is wonderful, it gives light, it gives understanding. Considering what it does, I want it. Now, he's already told us it's more valuable to him than gold and much fine gold, that he desires it more. Remember the Psalm 19, more than the honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. There's a craving for the word of God. And that actually, I think, is the natural response of the child of God as he looks at what the word of God is and what it does. He wants it. And so like newborn babes, what long for the pure milk of the word that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. I think if we had to make any criticism of ourselves, it would be this. That our desires for the word are not too strong. They're too weak. We need to remember that there is always a a competition going on in our own hearts, isn't there? a competition of desires. And frankly, there are times where we desire to watch the news more than we desire to read the Word of God. But the heart beats there, and so you cultivate it, you fan the flame. And how do you do that? By focusing on the glory of the Word. And so the psalmist uses this wonderful imagery. I opened my mouth wide. I panted. We have an old dog. Geneva, she's almost 15 years old and she's golden retriever. She's been the best dog that, uh, that anybody could have ever had. She's just so sweet. And when I think about her, you know, dying, I just, I, I, I cry actually. But, uh, you know, she's so old now she doesn't see too good. She doesn't hear too good. And, uh, and I noticed, you know what she does a lot of. Which has a real downside because, you know, she's not just old, her insides are old too. And so when she does that, you know, it's kind of smelly, but, um, you know, and you love her and you're like, Geneva, go lay down, please. And she's, and, uh, you got this picture of just trying to get oxygen. That's all I'm trying to do, you know, or I'm trying to cool down, give me a break. And, uh, and, and here's what the Psalmist says, you know what, when it comes to your word, I'm like, I'm panting after your word. I want it so much. Would to God that we wake up tomorrow morning, panting after the word of God. So yearning for the word because of what it is and what it does leads to, Increased desire to obey the word, but it also leads to prayer. Remember in the Bible, word and prayer always go hand in hand. And so in 132 to 135, we have a series of petitions. Verse 132, he says, turn to me and be gracious. Turn and be gracious is the idea. He's pleading to God for attention and affection. Now, there's something there's something that's incredibly audacious. Sometimes people will come by the church and they'll they'll they'll poke their head in my door and say, hi, how are you doing? And I'm like, hey, fine. And how are you? I don't want to bother you. I know you're really busy. I don't want to you know, I don't want to distract you. And and and then they'll they'll politely kind of leave. And the psalmist actually says to the God of the universe, Look at me. Turn your attention to me. Be gracious to me. That is have really warm affections towards me. The great thing about God is that he's never too busy. To turn to us. And be gracious to us. And so the psalmist is making a plea, turn to me, that is, focus on me. I need you right now. Be gracious to me. There is this wonderful sense where this particular word, be gracious, has the idea of I have certain genuine needs and you can meet those needs and so show me the kind of favor that takes care of me. By the way, there's nothing that's disrespectful. There's nothing that is not God-centered about praying like that very thing. God, I am a needy, weak person. Everything that I need, you are. So turn to me and grant to me yourself and fill everything that I need. Actually, that is a very God-glorifying prayer. That's not a me-glorifying prayer. That's a God-glorifying prayer. If I were to say, well, God, I'm reporting in for service, and I'm here to meet your needs and take care of your business today, and so just give me the list and I will get it done. That would be a me-centered prayer. But when I come to God and I say, turn to me, be gracious to me, fill me up, give me your fullness, meet my needs, meet what I need today, and you're the only one that can do it, what I'm actually doing is I am exalting God as the only one who can satisfy my deepest longings. And so the psalmist said, here's his first petition. After all of this extolling the word of God, be gracious to me, turn to me. And then he says this, this is really neat. He says, after the manner with those who love your name, or the idea after the habit or the custom that you have with those who love your name. The ESV puts it like this, as is your way. New English translation, as you typically do with those who follow you. As is your practice. Turn to me, be gracious to me, as you do with all the other people who love your name. Turn to me, be gracious to me, as is your custom, your habit, your practice. Those who love your name, by the way, this is a phrase that you see in the Psalms a handful of times, and the idea is those who are devoted to you. Those who are your followers, those who worship you. Now, you can't really demand grace, can you? You can't say, God, give me grace, turn to me and be gracious to me because I said so. You can't do that. You actually really can't even say, God, give me grace because I need it. But you can say something like this, God, give me grace because that's the kind of God you are. Give me grace because that's the consistent pattern of how you deal with people who love you. Um, in other words, you can, you can appeal to God's consistency. You can appeal to the faithfulness of his character. God turned to me and be gracious to me as is your habit. Lord. And if you do it with these people, I mean, I, I, I pretty much consider myself among these people. And so I'm just asking you to do it for me, your proven ways. God, I'm calling upon you to act in ways that are consistent with the way that you've always treated your people. Every once in a while, I'll talk to somebody that will think that they cannot receive God's grace and mercy. They'll think, years and years ago, when they used to play my sermons on family radio before Harold Campion went nuts, I get a call at a quarter to six in the morning from someone in New Jersey and don't even know how they got my phone number. And I still remember his name to this day. Dolwyn Welcome. Now, obviously, I remember his name for good reason. Never met anybody named Dolwyn. And as I talked to Dolwyn, Dolwyn said, I was listening to your sermon and I thought maybe you could help me. And I said, well, what do you need help with? And he said, I want to repent and receive God's mercy, but I can't. And I said, oh, so after talking to him for a while, I realized that just like the man in the iron cage in interpreter's house, he couldn't receive mercy because he didn't think he could receive mercy. Do you know the only thing that would get a person past that idea, I've sinned so bad, I can't get God's grace anymore, is to realize that the dispensing of his grace does not depend upon you and your character, it depends upon him and his character. We can be people that talk ourselves out of receiving mercy, but the psalmist is not one of them. God, be gracious to me just like you always are. Be gracious to me because that's who you are. Again, we appeal to God and our security doesn't come by our performance. Our security comes simply in the fact of who he is. He says then in the next petition, first part of 133, he says, establish my footsteps in your word. And so, again, he views himself as what? As one who's kind of tottering. And he needs to be stabilized and he needs to be stabilized in the reliability of God's word. And so he asks him, he says, you know what? I realize that I need your grace. I need you to minister to me. I need you to meet my needs. And here's one of my needs. My footsteps, my feet are not all that stable. I am not nearly as stable as I ought to be. I'm kind of shaky. One of the things that I can't say that I really, really thoroughly enjoy is hunting with Matt Berilage. And the reason is, is because somewhere in Matt's gene pool, there's a mountain goat. And there's this thing that happens when you're eight, 9,000 feet up and you're walking on on rocks that are just on top of other rocks. And then you start kind of going down. I, I kind of start getting this, this jiggly feeling in my knees. Anybody else experienced this? You get this jiggly feeling in your knees and the more you go, the more you're absolutely convinced you're going to die. because you feel so unstable. Well, that's us spiritually. Left to ourselves, we look like, you know, some little fawn that just came out of its mama's womb and doesn't have its legs under them. That's us spiritually, and so the psalmist very naturally prays, you need to establish my footsteps, make me secure in your word. Your word is reliable, your word is firm, and that's where my feet need to be planted, and so I'm asking you to plant my feet there. The second part of 133 says, don't let iniquity have dominion over me. The question, of course, is the iniquity of his oppressors or his own iniquity. And I would suggest that he's probably praying both. Don't let the iniquity of my oppressors have dominion over me, but certainly don't let my own iniquity have dominion over me. In other words, free me from the terrible tyranny of the sin of others and my own sin. The psalmist David in Psalm 19. Praise acquit me of hidden faults. And keep your servant back. From presumptuous sin. Acquit me of hidden faults and keep me back from presumptuous sin. The psalmist here is Lord. Don't let sin tyrannize me. The sin of others, for sure, but you know what? My biggest problem at the end of the day is not the sin of others. My biggest problem is my own sin. By the way, that's true in marriage. At the end of the day, my biggest problem is not the sin of my spouse. My biggest problem is my own sin. God, don't let that sin tyrannize me. Don't let it reign over me. He's praying for God's restraining grace. How often do we need that? Well, we need it like every nanosecond. How often do we realize that we need it? Well, unfortunately, we don't realize we need it nearly as much as we actually need it. But for the psalmist here, he just simply says, don't let iniquity have dominion over me. Don't don't let me screw up. Notice it's not, I'm not gonna screw up, it's please save me from screwing up. You know, when you start to realize actually how weak you are, delusions of strength will sink your ship every time. You start to realize how weak you are, you start to realize how unstable you are, you start to realize, you know, like Pogo, we've met the enemy, it's us. You start to realize that, then you start praying differently. God saved me from me. That's what the psalmist does now. He also make no mistake. He wants to be saved from the rotten people around him. Do verse 134. Redeem me from my oppressors. Once again, we see this connection. Notice that in 134, redeem me from the oppression of man that I may keep your precepts. And so remember, again, he sees those that are oppressing him and trying to trip him up as actually being an impediment for him to run freely in obedience to God. And so he's praying God, in a sense, kind of take them out of the way. Verse 135 a and make your face shine on me, your servant. Where do you think you heard that? Make your face shine upon your servant. You think you'd ever heard anything like that before? Every time he went to church growing up as a kid. The Lord bless you and keep you. May he make his face to shine upon you. May he lift up his countenance and give you peace. To have God's face shine upon us, that is the place of comfort and favor and blessing and happiness. In fact, the idea of God's face shining upon us, if you think of, it's more than just God not frowning at us. for God's face to shine upon us is actually for us to be in that place where we are consciously experiencing his comfort, his assurance, his nearness. And that's what he prays for. And so, you know what Kalper said behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face. So sometimes the smile is hidden. But the psalmist is praying, let me soak in the full rays of your smile. Let it just shine on your servant. And then teach me your statues. What's interesting, I looked up the word that's used, teach, because he uses it so much. It's all throughout the book of Deuteronomy, just dozens and dozens of times, frequently found in the Psalms, dozens of times. But in Psalm 119, it's used one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine times in Psalm 119, where he actually tells God in the imperative, teach me. Isn't it interesting that that's where he constantly goes back to? Teach me your statutes. And then he concludes the stanza with a note of grief. He says, my eyes shed streams of water. Some of the translations capture it probably a little better. Rivers of tears gush from my eyes. This probably comes right from Jeremiah in Lamentations 3.48, my eyes run down with streams of water because of the destruction of the daughter of my people. The picture is extreme grief. So here you have a person who knows his own weakness. He knows that his feet are tottering. He knows that he needs God to actually turn to him, be gracious to him, give him what he needs. He is totally dependent, but he's also totally determined. And then as he looks around, he sees people who are doing what who are actually not keeping God's law. That is, they're living in flagrant covenant disobedience. And he is grieved over that. You know, the more you love God and the more you are committed to keep his word, the more breaking his law grieves our hearts. Because at the end of the day, God's law is not an abstraction. When people break God's law, they're not breaking some ethereal principle out in the netherworld. They are actually doing something that's very personal, and the psalmist feels that. Just as he feels the pull and the compulsion to obey God as a person, not just precepts, but to obey a person, he sees disobedience to the law of God as something incredibly personal. It is not just simply they're breaking some abstract law out there. For the psalmist, people that are walking in covenant infidelity are actually robbing God of His glory that's due His name. They're robbing God of the faithfulness that's due his name. And then on top of that, those who are doing such a thing are accruing to themselves an awful, awful penalty. And as he looks at that, he's broken hearted over it. Sometimes what we do is we see people who, and I think the psalmist is talking about people that should know better. I don't think he's just talking about the run-of-the-mill Babylonian. I think he's talking about people that should know better. You know what we do is we see people who should know better, and we pray for them for a while, and then there's no change, and then we kind of get to the point where we kind of just write them off. I'm done. And what we do is we we lose that sense of a God were broken heartedness. As elders, we have to be on guard against this all the time. Because weeks turn into months and months turn into more months, and. You're you almost feel just relieved when somebody just goes away. Just go away. And the psalmist says, I am so brokenhearted when they break your law. As we look at people that are living in disobedience to God who should know better, we should first of all think, you know what? There's God who's given them so much, so many resources, so many blessings, so much kindness, and His name's being trampled. That unfaithfulness to Him, is robbing him of the glory that's due his name. And the one doing it, they're compounding, building up, storing up for themselves more and more of a penalty. For the sake of that person and for the sake of God's name, our hearts ought to break. Matthew Henry commonly, where there is a gracious heart, there's a weeping eye in conformity to Christ, who was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. So as we finish pay, the staple diet of God's people is what? The word and prayer. The word and prayer. Guess what? You'll never outgrow that. You'll never get to a place where you go, wow, I'm so mature, I don't even need to need the Bible anymore. You'll never come to a place where you say, I, I have such incredible communion with God, I don't even need to pray anymore. It's just not true. Word and prayer will be our staple diet until God calls us home and faith is turned to sight. Right. And so thanks be to God for his wonderful word. May we long for it, and may it drive us to the throne of grace, making petitions like this. God, save me from me. Break my heart from what breaks yours. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this stanza. We thank you for the truth of it. And Father, we ask that you would open your word to each one of us and shine the light of your word and your face right into our hearts. We pray that you would transform us by your word. We pray that you would realign us by your word, that you would feed us on your word. Father, we thank you that you are the one who was able to keep us from stumbling and to present us in the presence of your glory, blameless on that day. We pray that not only would you keep us safe until that day, but we pray that we would grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.