May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word. You may be seated. Let us once again look to the Lord. Sorry, we have done that already. Great. This evening we look to God's Word. Psalm 119. We touch upon the theme of our desire to be happy. We desire to be happy. We pursue it. We long after it. Of course, speaking broadly, Many commit themselves and spend themselves in the pursuit of happiness. And there is, of course, a deep meaning to that, but so often that it's used in that superficial way, happiness, in a modern sense, which is so fleeting. But the pursuit of happiness, the longing, the desire to be happy, to be blessed, is not a wrong desire in and of itself. But really the question is how do we really get it? How can one be happy, that is blessed, satisfied? Where is the greatest happiness or satisfaction? As we saw last week in the morning sermon, at least, I think we know the right answer. If we are a Christian, we know what is to be expected in the answer. True happiness, true blessing comes from knowing God. It comes from having God as our God and that we are His people. We saw the reality last week that God is blessed. that He is the fount of all blessing for His people, that to be happy in this life and certainly in the next is only possible truly, eternally. It's only possible by knowing God, by loving God, by being loved by this blessed God. But again, there is a question, how do we come to know Him? How does God reveal Himself to us? How can we, put it another way, be assured that we know the true God? How can we know that He is our God? We all know by nature that there is a God. Many suppress that truth and unrighteousness. But by His very creation, He has displayed His power and His wisdom. But there is needed more revelation of God, that we come to know the true God through His Word. That brings us to Psalm 119. You know that Psalm 119 is unique. It's unique in a number of ways. It is the longest chapter of the Bible, but it's also unique in that it is a poem. A poem that's composed in 22 different parts, each according to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So you look at your Bibles, your Bible might have different headings, Aleph, Bet, Dalet, Hay, Gimel, and on and on, and it goes, I got it out of order. On and on it goes. Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is a section of this psalm, so that each verse actually begins with that Hebrew letter. And this was given as a form of poetry, and there's other psalms that are like that, that each begin in order of the Hebrew alphabet. This one, there's eight verses that begin that way. But it's also thought that that was an aid to memory. And it was not uncommon for God's people, covenant children, to actually have this psalm committed to memory because of its importance, because of even this memory device. That it is a psalm, pre-eminently, that teaches, even often addressing young people in particular, as we see in verse 9. How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your Word. And it draws the people of God to the blessedness of knowing God through His Word. The joy that comes with it, but then also there is the obligation to know the Word of God. This is a psalm in which we see David and his great esteem, great affection that he has and that all God's people have for the Word of God. That there is actually here a display of how much the psalmist loves the law of God. And how striking a statement that is. Many times even Christians stumble over that kind of phraseology. Is it right to love the law of God? We all love the gospel of God. We all love the good news of the proclamation of Jesus Christ and so we should. But here we have time and again a declaration of loving the commandments of God, loving the precepts of God. That is in fact a biblical theme and one I hope that we will see this evening. He loves the law of the Lord. He loves the word of the Lord because he loves the lawgiver. He loves the one who gave his word. Of course, we must interpret the law in its proper context. But throughout the psalm, we will see he uses a variety of words to refer to this revelation of God. Ten, perhaps eleven different terms that he uses. They all refer, in general, to the Word of God. Not interchangeable per se. Each verse, each section has a slight nuance. There is variety, but the theme is God's revelation in His Word. How it is good, how it is a delight to the people of God. And so what I hope for us to see this night in these first eight verses from Psalm 119 is this simple truth that God blesses those who seek Him in His Word. that God actually blesses those who seek Him in His Word. We'll see this under a number of headings. The first is this blessedness that is promised. Blessedness is promised, and that's what we find there in verses 1-3. And the way that the psalmist presents it is really, what characterizes someone who would be blessed? What characterizes someone who follows the Word of the Lord? And so the marks of those who would be blessed, and so we see in verse 1, they are those whose way is blameless. He says it plainly, those blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. What does it mean to be blameless? To walk in the law of the Lord? Very simply, it means it's a way of life. It is a manner of living. The conduct of their lives are marked by their following the law of God. It's speaking here, blamelessness, as that which is sincere. And to be clear, it's not speaking of that which is sinless or even perfect, but that which is sincere from the heart. That it is their desire to practice such righteousness, to devote their life to this purpose with integrity, desiring to please God. Again, not perfection. And this, I think, at this point is where many believers, they stumble and they see this language of obedience and they see the language of blamelessness and walking in the law of the Lord. And they see in their own life where they fall short and so doubts and misunderstanding creep in. Am I not a child of God? The reality is here the psalmist is speaking not as one who is perfect, one who does not stumble and fall, but one who loves God and therefore loves God's law and desires to follow. But we can speak that his life is different than those who do not know the Lord. But there is a desire to obey as opposed to those who hate God and hate His law. who do not love the law of the Lord, but hate it, despise it, and view it as merely an imposition. No, an uprightness is spoken of and even demanded of the children of God. It's not a works righteousness that's in view. No, we all must still have our sins graciously forgiven and atoned for by sacrifice of Christ. We still must take refuge in the mercy of God. Our uprightness is not whole or complete in that way, but there is a true regard for God's Word, a true desire to please the Lord and obeying Him. He speaks in this verse of the law of God Again, in the Scriptures that word is used in a variety of contexts. Sometimes it refers to the Mosaic Covenant. Sometimes it refers to the Pentateuch as a whole. Sometimes it's used generally as God's Word, His Revelation. And here the psalmist doesn't specify what he is speaking of. God's Word is a law to the people of God, not just in this or that instance, but in all of it, in its entirety. And it affects our entire course of our lives. So those whose way is blameless, He says in verse 2, those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart. And here the nuance is that this is covenant language. The testimonies of God and His revealing to us. God is our God and we are His people. He gives His revelation and we respond in faith with our whole being. That those who do not keep covenant with God do not keep the commandments of God, the testimonies of God. We must see that the focus is this goal of having communion with Him. That's what he gets at in the second half of the verse. Yes, to keep his testimonies, but he makes it personal. Who seek Him with their whole heart. The commandments, the testimonies, they're not these things that are separated from our communion and our fellowship with the Lord God. But the way in which God has revealed Himself and given us His laws, they are actually, as we obey them, as we come to know them, we come to know who He is. Our focus is communion with God. Obedience to the law for its own sake is not the goal. It's not just that we would improve ourselves, that we would be moral for morality's sake. No, but to know God, to grow closer to God. The psalmist in other places speaks of who is the one that can ascend to the mountain of the Lord. The one who has pure hands, clean hands, a pure heart. The one who is blameless. He uses the same kind of language. The one who has been cleansed from their sins. They're the ones. Because God is holy, we must also be holy. And so we seek the Lord with our whole heart. We do not seek ourselves, not our own ways, not our own conceits, but we seek God. This is our goal, our aim, that God would be glorified in our obedience, that we would be happy in God's acceptance of us, that He is, He will be the rewarder of all those who seek Him diligently from the heart. That is what God looks for and even what He requires from the heart, not mere externalities. No, if the heart is divided, the Lord knows that and is not pleased with that. When we read the Bible, this should be our goal. We desire to learn of God. It's not merely the bare words. It's not even merely those things which are good in theory. We hear and we obey. We do that, again, not to earn justification, not to earn favor with the Lord in that sense, but because we desire to know God Himself more. And then thirdly, in verse 3, who also do no wrong but walk in His ways. No iniquity in them. Some translations say, what does this mean again? They don't make a practice of iniquity. It's not their trade. They might stumble, they might commit occasionally, but it is different than before they have been redeemed by the grace of God. We're no longer servants of sin. It doesn't mark our lives the same way that it did before. Instead of loving sin, we hate it. We flee from it as quick as we can. And instead we walk in His ways, not the ways of the world, not the ways of the evil one. These are the marks of the one who would be blessed. And here we should see, of course, our own failure in this regard. But often we are inconsistent. That itself is a spur to us to flee to Christ who is gracious and forgives us, restores us though. We don't stop there. He restores us and empowers us by His Spirit to recommit ourselves to Him, to obey Him, to love Him. but it points out the need for that Holy Spirit to dwell within us, to cause us, to give us this love for His Word. The life of the Christian continues in this way. We've seen these characteristics of the one who would be blessed, but what is the nature of that blessedness? What does it mean to be blessed by God? And here, a bit more quickly, the psalmist shows us that godly people are happy people. They are, they shall be blessed. He says it plainly. But what are the blessings that come to us from God? We can speak, as the Scriptures do, of temporal blessings. That as we obey God's good and gracious commandments by His Spirit and reliance upon His grace, there are true and real, tangible blessings that often come with that. And this is because God's commandments are good. They are the way in which humanity was intended to live. God's commands are not arbitrary. They're not opposed to flourishing. They are the way to life, the way to flourishing. And so scriptures often attach promises even of temporal blessing to those who would heed the commands of God and obey them. Psalm 145, the eyes of all look expectantly to you. You give them their food in due season. You open your hand, satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him. Just think of such commands as the fifth commandment, in which children are called to honor their father and their mother, and the Lord God promises blessing, even temporal blessing. to God's people as they heed and submit and even obey those who are over them. That even in honoring our parents, there is a promise to be blessed. That it would go well with us. And even a promise of long life. Of course, we balance this with the whole revelation of God, that this is according to God's will as long as it brings Him glory and is to our good. But good things come from God, and He promises to provide for our needs to those who first seek the Kingdom of God. We're told that godliness with contentment is great gain. And that by this we are able even to enjoy small things that we have as from God's hand. So there are different ways that we can fall into error. Some would think that as a Christian my life is going to only be plenty. That it will only be a life of ease. But that's not what God promises here or elsewhere. Some think that I'm only blessed if I am absolutely rich. But other errors go the other way, that riches are sinful always. But that's not what Scripture teaches. No, there is real. I would say even tangible blessing when we walk before the Lord with sincerity, following His Word, because it contains the wise way of life, the way of flourishing, the way that is best. But, of course, preeminently there are spiritual blessings. As we sang in Psalm 1, the same language of blessedness of the one who delights in God's Word, meditates on it day and night. Matthew chapter 5 speaks of these beatitudes of those who are like God. The height of blessing is knowing God that He has given Himself to us and we are His own. Blessedness here is promised in verses 1 to 3. We see in verse 4, moving on, that obedience is commanded. He states it explicitly. You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. But there is this ordinance that's fixed, this unchanging revelation. It's not merely subjective. It's not changed by circumstances. These are God's words, His revelation, His book, in order that we would live by it and in it. This affects the way in which we read the Word of God, that we are commanded to obey His precepts and keep them diligently. One pastor just goes through and explains what does it mean to keep God's Word diligently. Well, certainly not partially, but fully. Not selectively, but completely as far as what God has revealed we will receive. We do so not doubtfully, but with confidence. Not reluctantly, but readily. Not slovenly, but carefully. Not coldly, but earnestly. Not fitfully, but regularly. This truly is what it means to keep the Word, the commandments of God, diligently. And this commandment flows from our understanding of what God's Word is. It's not the mere opinion of man. We should be diligent in keeping it because it comes from God Himself. That when the Scriptures speak, God is speaking. There is a real and lasting authority that is above humanity. His Word is inspired by God, as we read in places like 2 Peter 1, as well as what we read from 2 Timothy 3. The written Word is inspired by God Himself. And it's therefore, it's authoritative. The doctrine of salvation is the perfect and only true doctrine of salvation that's found in God's Word. The Scriptures are the supreme judge of all controversies in religion. It is the only rule of faith and of practice that we can appeal to ultimately. When we take these previous points, this is the inevitable conclusion. If it's God's Word, what the Scriptures declare itself to be, then we are to submit to it. It commands us and we obey over the opinions of men, over counsels, over even antiquity or private judgments. The Holy God speaks to us in His Holy Word. So, blessedness is promise. Obedience is commanded, as we consider it, God's Word. But then also, dear saints, we should see that help is expected. Perhaps you're being borne down with the weight of what is being said, but we should see, what is David the psalmist's attitude there in verse 5? Oh, that my ways would be steadfast in keeping your statutes. And again, at the end of verse 8, "...do not utterly forsake Me." It might be easily missed, perhaps glanced over, but this is actually a prayer. It's a cry for God to help. Oh, that my ways would be or may be steadfast in keeping Your statutes. That's a declaration that in myself I'm not able. Lord, You must cause me to be steadfast. Verse 8, Do not utterly forsake me. It's a cry, yes, for mercy, a cry for aid. That if I am to keep your law, O Lord, you must enable me to do it. You must carry me in it and through it, before me and after me. We must look to God for wisdom. We must have God with us and for us, be gracious to us. As one pastor says, that our hearts would be so guided and influenced by the Spirit of God that we would not in anything transgress God's commandments. Not only that our eyes would be directed to behold God's commandments, but also that our hearts would be directed and even enabled to keep them. Obedience without prayer, and I would say prayer as other pastors have said, prayer without obedience are equally vain. They're equally vain. And to make headway, both oars must be applied. We must pray to the Lord. that He would enable us, and that we must obey in reliance on God's grace. We do not come to the Word in our own strength. We do not come with our own natural innate ability to obey, but we plead with God to help us, to enable us to do these things. And then this leads him in these early verses, verses 6 and 7, where joy is experienced. Joy is experienced. For two related headings here. Because of a clear conscience. That's what he's getting at in verse 6. Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments. Have you ever experienced the joy of a clean conscience? The joy that comes with it. especially in the midst of what would be false accusations. And many will oppose you and accuse you and even slander you and it's painful and it hurts, but there is still a joy knowing that they are slanderous. That your conscience is clear and so you are able to sleep well at night. There is a peace that comes from a clean conscience. Well, dear saints, we are forgiven by God's grace, but then also now we are enabled to walk before Him without shame because of His work in us. Then also His authoritative revelation, how we are to live with one another. And the beauty of this is that even when we sin, even when we fall short, this same law, this same Word of the Lord tells us, directs us, even commands us how we are to be reconciled with one another and with the Lord Himself through repentance and forgiveness so that truly we can experience the joy of a clean and a clear conscience both before the Lord and one another. We can compare our ways with the Word of God like a mirror, and confess our sins, and have assurance that there is forgiveness, but then again also that there is then grace given to obey. Those who have a sincere respect also to all of God's commandments are not ashamed. A confidence towards God, a boldness of access to the throne of grace, not in self-reliance, but as a token, as an acknowledgment that, yes, the Lord is at work in me. And here is evidence of that. So we are to obey even God's Word in this way as it directs us in the joy even of a clear conscience. And this leads then to the outpraise of joy. Verse 7, I will praise you with an upright heart when I learn your righteous rules. This flows out of the forgiveness of sins, the joy of this clear conscience that there is then praise to the Lord. A thanksgiving of His revelation and His Word, to know God's law, to walk in it, is all due to the loving kindness of God at work in that person. Thus, the Lord deserves our thanksgiving and our praise. And in vain, in vain, do those make a pretense of praising God with the mouth and the tongue if they do not live in this upright way that He speaks of. But the heart leads to actions. The reality is, in this whole context, how can you not praise God more the more you know of Him and His revelation? Again, the psalmist loves the law of God, the commandments of God, because he loves the lawgiver. But the more he learns of these righteous and upright commandments, the more he is learning of the righteous character of God, who gives such good and right laws. Moses himself makes that comparison, that observation there in Deuteronomy 4, that the surrounding nations will know the goodness and the righteousness of God because He's given the people of God such wonderful laws. that are glorious and even fair and just, all of those things. We learn to praise God more the more we know of Him in His Word, even in the revelation of things like His law and His statutes. Finally, this evening, we see the will is resolved. Verse 8, I will keep your statutes. Do not utterly forsake me. This here is the psalmist pledging himself. As it were, deciding, I will follow the Lord in this way. I will keep your statutes. Immediately followed again by this prayer that we've seen already. Do not utterly forsake me. And how much of this is the Christian life, is it not? Lord, I will follow you. I will endeavor to obey you, to please you out of my love for you. But Lord, I need you. to be near to me, to not forsake me. But even while we seek to please God, we are in need of His grace. In closing this evening, just a few words of application as we consider these first eight verses of Psalm 119. The first is this, I want us to be pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, the psalmist had a love for God's Word, but how much more so the Lord Jesus Christ, that He loved the Law of God. He, the Lawgiver, we're told that He gave the Law, but He even submitted Himself under the Law for our own sake, but He sought daily to please His Heavenly Father. He did this as our Savior. He obeyed perfectly where we disobeyed with imperfection. that He made up for that which was lacking in us. He loves the Law of God, for He perfectly loves God, who is the Lawgiver. He did this as our Savior, but He also did it as our example. We must never get those confused. It's not our example first, so that then we can be saved. No, He has graciously saved us as our Savior, but then also He is our example. That we, like Christ, must also search the Scriptures, know them, and even love them, and certainly, in reliance upon the Spirit, endeavor to obey them. Because that is the way in which God has ordained that we show our love to Him. Our thanksgiving to Him for His redemption of us. And if we love Him, we will keep His commandments. And I want us to see, even from this psalm throughout Scripture, that we should trust that there is true blessing that comes from obedience. Again, we must not lose the order here. We don't earn blessing by obeying. But having been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, our gracious Savior, the law of God is still our treasure. It is still for us to study, to meditate on, because it comes with blessing for those who hear it and love it because they love God who gave it. If you just think of the commandment that we must first obey to repent and believe the gospel. What a gracious command that is. It is a command that if we obey leads to eternal life. But also, in continued loving obedience to God and all that He has revealed in God's grace, He has attached blessings promised to those who walk before Him with sincerity. So that, dear saint, we must have it fixed in our mind that holiness is indeed a path to happiness, a path to blessedness, Holiness is not mere drudgery. It does not rob us of joy. And harping on this is because this is so in contrast to the message of the world around us. That the world who does not know God seeks to convince God's people that you're missing out on true joy because God is mean to you and is prohibiting you from doing that which is happy and satisfying. But God reminds us time and time again that blessedness belongs to those who love God, who fear God, who submit to God, because God is good and He gives good things, including His good law. But then from this flows the obligation that we must apply ourselves to the Word of God. Sometimes we don't love the Word of God, we don't love the commands of God, the statutes of God, the precepts of God, because we don't know them. We hear the voice of the world and we don't recognize and see, yes, God's Word is good. His commandments are not burdensome. We must know the Word of God and apply ourselves to it, so we must read it. We must seek to understand it. We must even seek to memorize it and meditate upon it, that it would fill our minds, fill our hearts with love for God. And of course, we must be careful then to obey it. We must not be like that foolish man who built his house on the sand. No, we must hear the Word of God and obey it to be doers, not hearers only. To apply it in our own lives, to practice it from the heart. Only those who are in Christ can truly follow these exhortations. It's not mere formalism, not outward conformity only to a standard, but it is a heartfelt, loving service to God as our Creator, but also as our Savior. So dear saints, do you love the Word of God? Do you love it? Do you desire to follow it? Do you see from this psalm the blessedness that comes, promised to you as you seek to follow the Lord, even diligently? Let us be like the psalmist, O that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes, remembering that God blesses those who seek him in his word. Let us pray. Our great Heavenly Father, we pray, O Lord, that you would help us this night to rightly understand what you have to say to us here. Lord, there are so many ditches that we may fall into on the left and the right. Lord, remove from our hearts any sense of legalism that we can obtain your favor by our obedience. We are saved by grace. Lord, also remove from our hearts any form of antinomianism in which we think it does not matter what we do in this life. Lord, fill us with a love for your word generally. But even, Lord, fill us with a love for Your law, Your commandments. Lord, they are good for us and good to us. But Lord, we acknowledge freely that we need Your Spirit to fill us with that love, to go before us and to go behind us, Lord, to help us, to enable us to obey in reliance upon Christ our Savior. We pray that You would help us in these things, that we would think rightly of the blessedness that comes to Your children. It is not a deserved blessedness in any sense of ourselves, but it all is of grace from You. Lord, help us to think rightly, even of Your commandments, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.