perfection. And as is so often the case, pop psychology, if you drink at that spring long enough, gets the wrong ideas into your head. Because to me, or I should say in my hearing, one of the dominant teachings of pop psychology is don't sweat it. Don't worry about measuring up. Take a break. You deserve a break today. We're told by the high church of the golden arches You deserve a break today, or you know that other aphorism be good to yourself because no one else will Take take it easy. Don't don't worry about being perfect But the Word of God is so often the case comes at us with a different message and Jesus says therefore I you shall be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. Now, I think it's good for us to let the Bible define its terms and to realize that when we hear that word perfect, we think of perfection in the sense of 0% error, 0% impurity, 0% failing. And that's not quite what the Bible word perfect Means although that is your destiny is to be completely purified there is a Bible definition of perfection that really is more of the idea of completion of that in which nothing is lacking, of maturity. And so that's why New King James and other translations say in 2 Timothy 3.17 that the man of God may be complete or mature, thoroughly equipped for every good work. If you think of it as in the analogy of automotive engines, Bible perfection is somebody who fires on all eight cylinders. Now, have you ever driven a car that's missing on a cylinder or two? The thing will move, but not well. It'll get you down the road in herky-jerky fashion. But that's not what you were meant for. Your life was meant to fire on all eight, or, you know, some of you are Jaguars, you have 12 cylinders. All 12 cylinders, you were meant to be complete. And when you see a standard and there's something inside of you that says, I wish, I wish I was firing on all eight cylinders like that. That's a God-given thing. That's what you were made for. And Psalm 119 comes to us loaded with this concept that there is a way of life fueled by the Word of God that could be called perfect. I want to say that you have people around you in this church whose lives fire on all eight cylinders, who are living that complete life, that mature life. And they're not perfect in the sense that they never fail. They're perfect in the sense that nothing is lacking in their lives that ought to be there. They're balanced. They're walking in the Word. And their lives show that completeness and that maturity. And it's a beautiful thing. And if the Holy Spirit has caused you to be born again and you have life that's from above, there's something in you that wants it, that says, I want to be like Him, like Her. I want to be like that person. I want my life to fire on all eight cylinders. When you saw the text this morning, you might have feared the 176 verse sermon. We're only going to cover these eight verses. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity. They walk in his ways. you have commanded us to keep your precepts diligently. Oh, that by ways were directed to keep your statutes. Then I would not be ashamed when I look into all your commandments. I will praise you with uprightness of heart when I learn your righteous judgments. I will keep your statutes. Oh, do not forsake me utterly." A perfect life. A life that fits this description in Psalm 119 is a life that has all the parts, the God-ordained segments of life, present. And so this psalm starts with this, blessed are the undefiled in the way. The Hebrew word for perfect or undefiled is a word variously. It shows up as tamim and tam. And this word is used most frequently of the sacrifices that get offered in God's temple and in God's tabernacle. These sacrifices were to be tamim animals. Animals in whom there was no blemish. They had the right coloring and the right markings and they were just right. They were unblemished. They were perfect. This word is also used in reference to the measure of years that a person gets. He got his to meme compliment of years. It was complete. He lived to the end of his days as he was supposed to. And then in the moral realm, this word that's translated in Psalm 119, 1, blessed are the undefiled in the way, undefiled, tamim, is used of Noah. Noah was tamim, as the pastor just preached. He was complete. He was perfect. He was mature. He was righteous. And it's used in the moral sense of those, sometimes translated, who walk tam, they walk uprightly, they walk blamelessly. And we get this sense that at the very first word of Psalm 119, we might think, wow, I am not too encouraged by this idea that I'll get God's blessing if I'm perfect. Do you hear what he says? Blessed are the undefiled in the way. Blessed are the perfect. Well, that leaves me out. As of about 6.01 this morning, I woke at 6, at 6.01 I no longer qualified for this blessing. Maybe you feel that way too. But you know how Hebrew poetry works? You know how Hebrew poetry, and I guess English poetry is sometimes this way too, restates in the second clause what it said in the first. In other words, what does he mean, blessed are the Tammim people, the people who are blameless. Those people who don't ever sin, well, thankfully, the second half of Psalm 119.1 spells it out for us. What kind of people are they? Blessed are the undefiled in the way who what? Who... What's the next word? Walk in the law of the Lord. You know, when I was... 15 years old in 1982, the Cardinals won the World Series behind the pitching of one tough Dominican, Joaquin Andujar, and Bob Forsh, who is a Christian man. And Bob Forsh is distinguished in St. Louis Cardinals history because he threw not one, but two no-hitters. And not only that, but his brother Ken threw a no-hitter too. And you know what a no-hitter is? It's not a game with no balls or not even no walks. It's a game where pitch after pitch after pitch, nobody hits the pitch. You go 27 batters without a single fair ball being hit and going for a hit. It's somebody who pounds the strike zone Pitch after pitch after pitch, they keep getting it from the shoulder to the knees over the plate. And it doesn't happen every day or even every summer, but it happens. It's pitch after pitch. And the Christian life, to quote that theological treatise, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, is just put one foot after the other and soon you'll be walking into town or however that song goes and Andy Rooney don't endorse his theology as a whole either but it's one step one biblical step after another now you know sometimes in sports they say he slows the game down what do they mean by that what they mean by slows the game down is he patiently makes one good decision after another and doesn't let the press of events panic him into making errors. And in spiritual life, you and I are called to walk in the law of the Lord one foot after the other. You and I are called to avail ourselves of the spiritual global positioning satellite that you have in your lap. You're called to, in your thoughts, be meditating on not what's a good move here, but what's the best move. Do you know anybody like this who you look at them and they make maybe better decisions than you do? And sometimes you think, oh, that just irks me. He always does the right thing. But deep down you know that he's walking in an obedient way. And you think, yeah, it irks me because I need to bring that kind of life, that kind of GPS to bear on my life. And so the psalmist says, there is a blessing, there is a happiness that comes to those who walk in the law of the Lord. Now, don't put any adverbs of time in here, because I think sometimes there's this assumption that, oh, well, if I do what God wants, I'll be happy all the time. If I do what God wants, everything I do will immediately be gratifying and successful. I know some days, even when you're walking the right path, all that you do will seem to miscarry. All that you, maybe for an hour or a day or a week, that you do will seem to go amiss. And we heard in Sunday school this morning about Naomi who said, don't call me pleasant, call me Mara, because I went out full and I've come back empty and the Almighty has made my life bitter. I'm suffering. And so when we read this blessing on the undefiled in the way, it's not to preclude real trial and real suffering. But it's the kind of happiness that's worth having. It's the kind of happiness that lasts. You know, we are so silly in the way that we think that having financial success or material possessions or career success will make us happy. And you look at the people who are on the Forbes list or the wealthiest people, or especially those who are in the media, and do they have happy lives? One person shaking his head, I guess everybody knows. Yeah, no, no, they don't. They don't have a happiness that lasts. And if having a private jet would do it, you would think there would be a better advertising for that kind of life. But the psalmist says, blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. And then he says it a second time, blessed are those who keep his testimonies. Now, Psalm 119 uses about eight synonyms for the Word of God. This word, testimonies, is basically when God has set his seal, his witness to something, God testifies that something is true and that this is the way life is. Benjamin Franklin believed that moral perfection was accomplishable through checklists. And so Benjamin Franklin's autobiography is his book of him listing 13 moral virtues and him rating himself on how he did on his project of self-improvement. Good luck with that. Because God's testimony is that no one is saved except by grace and that we cannot save ourselves and that there is none who does good. No, not one. And so this blessing is on those who say, you know what? Verse two. I'm going to keep God's testimonies. What He says is true about human nature, human history, and we can go on down the list, human government, human relationships, the environment, money, marriage, all those things. God has not been silent, and I'm going to keep His testimonies. And so, as we walk in the Word, we can say that walking in the Word brings blessing. It brings a happiness that is worth having. But there will be times when you walk that path by faith, where you're going to say, you know what? I don't see it all coming up roses in my life right now. I don't see everything I touch turning to gold right now. But my Bible says, blessed are those who do not walk in the path of the ungodly, nor who stand in the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, who brings forth his fruit in its season, whose leaf also does not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. I believe that walking in the Word will bring blessing. Now, just in case this is coming off as a word of legalism and a word of despair to you, keep reading in this psalm, because walking in the Word brings blessing, but walking in the Word also demands dependence. Verse 3 says, they also do no iniquity, they walk in His ways. That's an amazing thought. They don't sin, these people who walk in the law of the Lord. Again, this is not saying that they never fail or never sin, but their lives are characterized by obedience. Now, you may know the different terms for sin. Transgression has the idea of crossing a line. Iniquity, you can hear the word equal in it, has that idea of not rising to the standard of God's righteousness, God's standard. I'm unequal to that. I'm iniquitous. I don't measure up to that. But when we walk in the law of the Lord, again, there is this ability to fire on all eight cylinders, to keep pounding the strike zone with the pitches that I throw. And just in case you're feeling overburdened and you're thinking, I'm feeling a heavy burden to be born, that maybe the preacher isn't going to touch with one finger in that pharisaical mode, notice what he says next. You have commanded us to keep your precepts diligently. Oh, that my ways, verse five, were directed to keep your statutes. What's he expressing there? With that word, oh, that's a six syllable word if you read it properly. Oh, oh, oh. It's an expression of, you know what? I sometimes do commit iniquity. I'm not equal to what God wants me to be. Oh, I don't always pound the strike zone. Sometimes I'm missing, not on one cylinder, but on three. and I'm limping down the road. Oh, that my ways, my paths, my footsteps that I'm putting one in front of the other were directed. That's passive voice verb. In other words, I need someone to operate on me. I need a force. I need a power. I need a strength. Psalm 119 is anonymous and it is without a superscription. We're not given any circumstance or any author. I think from the vocabulary and from the circumstances and from the attitude, it's the same author as Psalm 19, which we know to be written by King David. And so you can imagine that as a godly king of Israel, As Deuteronomy 17 requires, King David had written out a copy of the Torah. He'd written out a copy of the law the way the king of Israel was supposed to, and this is his reflection, and he is recognizing that I need help. I'm dependent on Christ for this work of firing on all eight cylinders in my life. If you'll grant that, that this is written by David, we can look at some of his reflections in other places about this matter of perfection. Turn with me to Psalm 18. Psalm 18 and verse 32. Psalm 18 is repeated in 2 Samuel 22, so you get it in the midst of the action in David's life. And as you may remember, 2 Samuel 22 is written about the time that David is coming into his throne, his power, first over Judah and then over all Israel. And Psalm 18 is an expanded form of what he utters in 2 Samuel 22. And what does he say in Psalm 18 verse 32? He says, It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way, what? Blameless. And makes my way complete. And makes my way perfect. It's God who arms me with strength. I'm dependent in this matter of putting one foot in front of the other and making biblical, godly decisions. I'm dependent on Him to make my way perfect, to make my way blameless. Because unless He operates, unless He works, I am without hope in this matter. Now, you probably are familiar with that interesting little turn in Philippians chapter 2 where Paul is writing the church in Philippi and he says, inasmuch as you have obeyed in my absence, now much more, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, but keep reading. Why? For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. In other words, I am going to live to have this blessing. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with the whole heart. But I am going to live in a dependent way. I'm going to live in a way where I recognize that unless the Lord builds this house, I'm laboring in vain. He says that as we walk in the law of the Lord, it'll bring blessing. He tells us that as we walk in the law of the Lord, it demands dependence. And lastly, he tells us that as we walk in the word, in the law of the Lord, it will produce praise. You've heard this quotation from Winston Churchill about his political opponent. He said of one of the guys running against him, he's a humble man with a lot to be humble about. Well, that's your testimony, too, if things were known for what they are and mine. As a matter of fact, when it comes to salvation, humility becomes us because we have a lot to be humble about. And notice what he says here. that when God's word has guided my footsteps, he says in verse six, then I would not be ashamed when I look into all your commandments. In other words, sometimes I do feel ashamed when I look at God's word and here's what God's word says and here's where I am. But you know what? When by the enabling of the Holy Spirit and the GPS of the Word of God that's in my heart, in my thoughts, I put one foot in front of the other, I look in God's Word and I see things coming true in my life and I can praise you with a right heart The word tamim, tam, perfect, is the word that's used in Psalm 84.11. For the Lord God is the sun and shield, the Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk tamim, those who walk blamelessly. Does anybody qualify for that? Or is that just kind of one of those unattainable ideals? No, you qualify for it when you put one foot in front of the other, when the Holy Spirit enables you to walk in the Word. I will praise you with a brightness of heart. Have you ever reached a point in your life where you say, I don't want to keep blowing it? I don't want to keep sinning. I remember one time hearing a young man say, I don't want to sin ever again. And I thought, you know, I laughed inwardly, maybe maybe outwardly when he said that, because I thought, oh, my, that's an amazing statement. But what a wonderful thing that he had reached that point. I don't want to sin ever again. and that hunger for holiness, that's the sign of somebody who is born again. One of the signs of somebody who is born again had come to be born. Well, the psalmist says, I will praise you with an upright heart when I learn your righteous judgments, or when I look into all your commandments. And then in verse 7, I will praise you with uprightness of heart when I learn your righteous judgments. So, walking in the Word, brings blessing. It brings happiness that's worth having. Walking in the Word demands dependence, moment by moment dependence on, Lord, unless you enable me, I will fall. And walking in the Word also produces praise. Some of you know that Psalm 119 is an acrostic poem of 22 stanzas that all begin with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. These eight verses all begin with the Hebrew letter Aleph. And the next stanza, they all begin with the Hebrew letter Beit, and Gimel, and Dalet, and so on through the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. And it's almost like David was carefully doing, and C.S. Lewis said, it's almost like a cross stitch, almost like an embroidery where he's stitching the wonderful things that the Word of God will do in our hearts and in our lives. And he says, oh, as long as I'm talking about A, he says something like, and this is not inspired, this is my very faulty imitation, Oh, he'll say, A, assuredly blessed are the blameless, assuredly blessed are those who guard his testimonies. A, abstaining from iniquity. A, absolutely commanded is your word. A, always I'm longing for you. A, ashamed no longer will I be. A, an upright heart you'll give me. A, attentive guard am I of your statutes. A, A, A, and then he's going to go B, B, B, and you can tell that it was made to be memorized. You heard of the preacher who, no matter what his text was, he always found a way to make his text preach baptism by immersion. Whatever the text was, he could get that out of a genealogy. You should be immersed. Well, you might think, well, I always want to talk about memorizing scripture. But it's here. It's right here. that this is such a beautiful passage and such a beautiful thought that David thought it worth making an acrostic out of it. And I would suggest to you that this week you could do nothing better with this passage than to wrap it up in your memory. Capture it and let it capture you with this wonderful thought. There was a boy kicked out of public school in England. You know, you have to be bad to get kicked out of public school, but some have attained to it. He was kicked out of public school in England because, not for behavior, but because he was so unteachable. His teachers, and this was before the day of political correctness, said, Robert is a dunce, and we don't want him in school. Now, you know, mothers, George W. Bush talked about that soft racism of low expectations. Well, mothers won't have any of that, typically. Mothers will say, oh, no, no, you can do so much better than that. And Robert's mother said, he's not a dunce. I'm going to teach him Psalm 119. And Robert Morrison memorized it. and compiled the first Chinese English dictionary as an adult. And the dunce was teaching everyone else how to translate things into Chinese. And this psalm was what his mother worked into the crevices of his mind and used as therapy for him. The English art critic John Ruskin said that he was sure he would especially despise Psalm 119 because his mother made him memorize it, and yet in adult life he learned to just revel in it. And that short guy who got slavery outlawed in the British Empire, who was saved as an adult, he took his licks for 20 years, where year after year in Parliament he kept introducing a bill for the abolition of slavery. And William Wilberforce wrote in his diary about 1820, walked home from Parliament through Hyde Park, repeating the 119th Psalm with great comfort. Blessed. are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with the whole heart. They also do no inequity. They walk in his ways. When you have God's word in your thoughts, when you depend on the Holy Spirit, you will be putting one foot in front of the other. Your life will fire in all eight cylinders. Pitch after pitch that you throw will pound the strike zone. And one decision after another, you'll be walking in a way that brings God's blessing. This is not legalism. It's what you were made for. This is why Jesus says, therefore, you shall be perfect. Your life should have all the parts that a fully-fledged human being should have, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. We walk by faith, not by sight, trusting that as we say, oh Lord, and look at the last verse of this stanza, I will keep your statutes. Oh, there's that eight-syllable word again. It's getting longer. Do not forsake me utterly. You hear his attitude there. It's almost like a feeble raising of a sail on a sailboat. I'll walk your way, Lord, but oh, please, you've got to show up or I will fail. I'm going to walk in your ways, but I'm depending on you. And if there's any doubt, that's his attitude in this psalm. Skip all the way to the end. Verse 176. Is there a triumphant shout of, I am all that. I am the Christian your mother warned you about. No. What does he say on the very last verse? He says, I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Verse 176. Seek your servant. For I do not forget your commandments. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the lives around us that we see, the people that you blessed us with as friends, as brothers and sisters who walk in your ways, whose decisions, decision by decision, are guided by your word. Father, thank you for, Lord, the perfect wedding that took place yesterday where one thing after another honored Christ. Father, thank you for your word. Because 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. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward. Help us to trust you for that reward, even when we don't see it. Help us to patiently put one foot in front of the other, guided by your word, strengthened by your spirit. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.