Well, this evening we continue our time in the 119th Psalm. So turn there with me, if you would, to Psalm 119. This evening we'll be considering the second part, so that's verses nine to 16. Psalm 119, starting here at the ninth verse. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee. O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Blessed art thou, O Lord. Teach me thy statutes. With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate in thy precepts and have respect unto thy ways. I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will not forget thy word. Amen. And may the Lord add a blessing to the reading and hearing of his word this evening. It won't be a surprise to you for me to say that as far as the world is concerned, Christianity at its irreducible minimum, is moralism. The scriptures are simply only an ethical code to too many. They think about Christianity and they think primarily about principles, principles by which one's life is arranged and guided. But as we saw last Lord's Day evening, what you find in Psalm 119 is not a praise of moralism, though of course moral is involved. It's not a praise of an ethical code, though, of course, ethics are involved. The psalmist here, as we saw, is actually breathing out, well, he's breathing out of his own new nature. As we saw last Lord's Day evening, Psalm 119 is a primer of sorts. It's a primer on life in communion with God. And so as the psalmist relates his love for the law of God, how does he view the law of God? As we considered, he views the law of God as it comes to him through his Savior. He has the law of God as it comes to him as the law of Christ. And so this evening, as we take up this psalm, it's important for us to remember that. The psalmist here is not looking to instill moralism in anyone. The psalmist here is, as it were, breathing out, exhaling from his own new nature as he delights in the law of his Savior. As we saw last Lord's Day as well, we saw that the psalmist in that first part is really focused on this one aspect, his desire to follow the law of his Savior. He delights and earnestly endeavors to keep this law. But as you come to the second part, the one that we'll consider this evening, The psalmist moves away from just describing to us his earnestness in pursuing his God. He now moves to a question of direction. He's like a pilgrim. The man has decided he's going to go. But obviously the next and most natural question to ask is, well, what's the direction that he should take? And that's precisely what we have in this second part. The first part gives us the determination of the psalmist. The second part gives us the psalmist as he has direction. And as you look at what we've just read, you'll see that he gives the answer to that question immediately. How shall a young man cleanse his way? Well, it's only by taking heed according to thy word. The word now becomes the pilgrim's map. It becomes that guide to him as he makes his way from the city of destruction to the celestial city. I want you to notice just a few things before we move forward. The psalmist in verse nine uses that word, word. That word is actually the first time it appears in Psalm 119. And that word is not law and that word is not testimony. That word means the speeches of God. And so what the psalmist has in view here is not just any particular section of God's word, but really the entirety of God's utterances to man. He has all of the scriptures in view. But then you also notice that the psalmist in the question narrows the focus. He says, how shall a young man cleanse his way? The commentators You almost imagine with a bit of a smile, they say something to the effect of, well, they especially need it. There's no humor involved there. The psalmist's intention, as Kelvin helps us think through this, is He wants us to see that even in the heat of life, even in that moment of vitality, in that moment of most severe changes, the Word of God is sufficient. And that means that not only is it sufficient for a young man, but arguing from the greater to the lesser circumstance, it's sufficient for all. This is an able guide regardless of where you're at in your pilgrimage. This is sufficient for us. The psalmist would have us begin there. The word of God, all of the speeches of God are sufficient for the entire life of his people. Those who are walking in communion with God. You see here then that the psalmist has two things primarily in view. He has the means of God. Those means that God has established in his grace to help his people. The word, as it comes to us. He recognizes that. He makes use of it. But as the psalmist describes to us this word, you notice he doesn't do so coldly. The psalmist, his heart is warmed to it, as we'll see later on. His affections are engaged. This isn't a case where the man is simply overlooking just basic manuals for life and saying, well, these things make sense. But his heart is engaged in the work. And what this teaches us then, and this is our theme for the evening, It teaches us that the Christian desires to be taught obedience by God's word. The Christian desires to be taught obedience by God's word. And this evening we'll briefly consider this under just four headings. We'll consider this as the psalmist gives us the means, as he gives us the motive, the method, and the main end of his desire. And so this evening we'll begin first with the means. He begins here in verse 9 with that statement that it's the Word of God that will direct the young man. The Word of God that is sufficient for every Christian, every pilgrim, as they're walking with their God. You recognize though that the psalmist is not just saying that this person who he has in view, who takes up the Word of God, is doing so lightly. He's not just taking this up as a book. He's taking this up as scripture would have the man take it up. The man, in other words, has respect to the attributes of scripture. We think about God's word as it has authority, obviously. Grounded in God himself, the divine author. We think about scripture as it is a necessary word. It's necessary for us as creation couldn't point us to Christ. Couldn't point us to the means by which men could be reconciled to God. We think of the Word of God as also it is sufficient. It tells us very plainly what is necessary for us to know, and it does not require another book. The Word of God itself is sufficient. And it also is what we refer to as a perspicuous book, meaning it's clear. Not that it's clear in every way in an equal degree, but as far as what is necessary to be known for salvation, the Word of God is very clear. And the psalmist then must take all of the Word of God up with these things in mind. The man who takes up the book of Scripture, he takes it up and he looks at it like it's any other book. He doesn't recognize that Scripture makes quite a few number of claims about itself that are quite profound. It claims to be the Word of God. It claims to make moral claims upon the lives of its readers. And friend, if you're going to take up the Word of God, you have to take it up acknowledging that fact. The man who simply reads it out of curiosity doesn't actually take up the Word of God correctly. Not as a guide to his life. And so, by implication, the psalmist here does take it up as the Word of God would have a man take it up. He recognizes what he holds in his hand. But he receives it also as it's in total. The man is not as it were cherry picking his text. The entirety of the scriptures are set before him and he receives all happily. That's his guide, the entirety of God's word. And friend, this is important. I think too often and practically speaking, this is precisely where often we miscarry the work. The word of God in its entirety is our guide. It entirely helps us as we are pilgrims in this life. That means then that those passages of scripture that the psalmist might find challenging, he says, I take them all. Those passages of scripture that may be a bit more complex, he says, I take them as well. All of scripture, he says, is necessary if, as he says here in the first verse, the man is to cleanse his way, to walk purely. Those are the means. The Word of God itself in its entirety is the means that the psalmist has in view. But I want you to think now about the motive. And friend, this is, if I could say anything, this is the one thing that I found recurring over and over again, Psalm 119. The psalmist reorients the man by looking back to the heart over and over again. And so demonstrating that really what he has in view is the work that comes from the new nature, the affections that flow from the new birth. Notice here he says in verse 10, with my whole heart have I sought thee. Friend, the man takes up scripture. He takes up the entirety of God's word. Why? You see, so many, so many, and Christians as well fall into this temptation. The Word of God becomes, well, it becomes for us almost like a ritual. Well, I've done the daily reading that I would expect to do. I've gone and sat under the preaching of God's Word as expected. But why does the psalmist go to the Word of God? Friend, it's because he's seeking after God. He doesn't have an impersonal faith. The psalmist locates God, as it were, by faith, and he says, for that reason, then, I turn to His Word. You see, friend, that's the very real difference between the man who goes to the Word of God like the Pharisee, who would search out these things day in and day out, just for knowledge. But why does the psalmist do so? He sees that this is a means by which communion with God is enjoyed. Friend, what the psalmist here desires, the very thing that drives him back to this word, is God himself. That's the psalmist's great preoccupation. That's the one thing that the new nature has, that it craves. It craves God. And so as the psalmist picks up the word of God, he does so seeking God. You think about how the psalmist refers to his seeking the ordinances of God in Psalm 42. There the psalmist refers to all of the depth that he's gone under. All of the difficulties that he's felt as he's been separated from the ordinances of God. But why does he want to go back to the ordinances? Why does he want to go back to the preaching of God's word, for instance? Friend, he says that my soul pants after God. As one Puritan put it, and I think powerfully, the psalmist isn't preoccupied with the ordinances of God. He's preoccupied with the God of the ordinances. And that's why the psalmist is driven back to the Word of God. It is because he longs to know his God, because he loves this God. And you'll recognize, friend, as well, that that is the only right way, then, to search out the scriptures. The psalmist in Psalm 50 refers to those who take up the covenant. They take it up with their mouth, but not with their heart. In other words, they're quite content to speak about the things of God. They're quite content to read about the things of God. But when they read about them, it's not the God of the covenant that they love. Perhaps some kind of ritual, perhaps some kind of ceremony, but not God. Our psalmist is so different than that. His heart pans for a different thing, for a different one. And that's the basis for which the pilgrim now takes up the Word of God. He longs to enjoy his communion with his God. But how does he take it up then? That brings us then to the latter portion of verses 10 and through 12. It brings us to that third point, the method. How is it that the psalmist wants the Word of God to be read. Well, he wants it to be read. He wants it to be taught to him spiritually. You notice here, there's this confession at the end of verse 10. Oh, let me not wonder from my commandments. Friend, we ought not read over that lightly. What's the psalmist saying about himself? He's saying that he's prone to wonder. He's prone to wonder from his God. And so the kind of instruction that he's aiming at is not just a mere intellectual instruction. He's aiming for an instruction, requesting a kind of instruction that will actually lead to him being kept close to his God. You see what the man is asking. He's not asking simply for a catechist. He's asking for the Spirit of God. to instruct him, and so to instruct him that these things are internalized. That the Word of God is now written and engraved in his heart. You see, that's the kind of instruction that you and I are to be craving. It's not enough just to have the book in front of us. It's not enough just to seek communion with God. But we need to recognize that it will only come, these things will only come as His grace, as His grace brings it to us. You see, the psalmist, as he did in the first section, recognizes his absolute dependence upon God in this. He's no Pharisee. He's no self-righteous man. He knows that if he is going to keep his way pure, if he's going to make use of the means that God has established, it will only be by the grace of God that those things are effectual to him, and only by his grace. He then comes as a dependent man. saying, Lord, instruct me in your own way and instruct me effectually that I might be changed more by what I hear, more by what I read. And fourthly, you have here the main end. Why is the psalmist taking himself to God's word ultimately? Why is it that he's craving these things from God's word, such as the experience of communion with God and this internal instruction? You see it at the end of the psalm. The psalmist has again and again resolved to obedience. He's engaged himself to obey. And you see, friend, he's not merely then wanting to be a hearer of the word. He longs to be a doer of it as well. He recognizes that it's insufficient. It is an insufficient use of God's Word simply to hear these truths and not for them to be applied so as to lead him to obedience. And friend, this is the breathing out again of the new nature. As the man, as the woman who has been born again takes hold of God's Word, why do they do so? They long that God would take up this Word in their own hearts to conform them more to the image of Christ. They long for that. Why? Because that is what will bring glory to the one whom they love. They long to be conformed to the image of Christ because that will be the way that the world sees that there is yet power in the gospel. They long then, they long that they might be made obedient. This evening I want us to apply briefly just this text then. I want you to see first of all that this informs us that there's a certain order concerning God's Word that prevents hypocrisy. There's an order that must be kept here. Notice that it's the psalmist's desire for God, his seeking after God, that leads him to a diligent use of God's Word, that then leads him to an earnest desire for obedience. I want you to recognize, friend, that reverse that order in any way and you have a Pharisee. If I simply want to obey, but I have no desire for God, my desire to obey must be out of a principle of self-righteousness. And if I take myself to God's word out of that principle of self-righteousness, then friend, I'm nothing better than, as Christ described the Pharisees, a whitewashed sepulcher. I haven't begun to obey. But you see friend, as the psalmist pants after God, Then he moves to the means that God has appointed. And then from the means that God has appointed, he learns that it is obedience that will bring glory to the one whom he loves. And so he craves it. That order must be kept. And secondly, I want you to notice also that, and this is hard, but the psalmist joins affection for God with love for God's word. You see that the psalmist says that there's no hard break that we can put between those two. He says very plainly that it's because of my love for God that I love his word. And friend, that means then this evening, the psalmist is telling us very plainly, whatever our affections are for the word of God, that's reflective for our love for God himself. The two are inseparable, they go hand in hand. Maybe an illustration might be helpful here. There are a number of illustrations that have been used, but this one I found most helpful. You think of a man who's gone off to war. He's gone off to war and he's promised that he will leave letters behind to the one whom he intends to marry. And so as he's off in a far country, he writes. to this one whom he loves. He writes again and again and again. And finally he comes home safe from the war. But as he enters into his home, he finds that his wife, she hasn't opened a single letter. She hasn't read one of them. Now is it right for the man to suspect that perhaps the woman's love for him is cold, that she actually doesn't love him as much as she says that she does. You see, friend, our God has given us his word. He's given us his word that testifies to us of his love, as well as of our obligations to him as our redeemer and as our creator. And if we don't take it up, then friends, certainly that has to lead us to a question. Well, then where is my heart with God? Has it grown cold? Does it need to be stoked again? Friend, the Christian has to go through this. The Christian will go through this cycle. You think about the Song of Solomon. There are times whenever the bride, as she's there in her bed, as she's resting and in leisure, Christ comes and knocks on the door and she refuses to open. And the reason why she refuses to open, she tells us, is because she's quite at rest. Friend, the psalmist is telling us we can't be that way. The psalmist tells us very plainly that when the word of God comes, whenever it's in either through private reading, through family worship, or through corporate worship, our delight should be in this because our delight and desire is for God himself. And so if our love for the word of God has cold, then friend, that's an indicator that our love for God has also grown cold and needs to be stoked. There's a word of comfort here then too. The psalmist, throughout the entirety of the Psalter, confesses his dependence upon the grace of God. He takes himself to God, to the God of the covenant, and he says, I'm only resting in your gracious promises. Why does he do so? Calvin, I think very helpfully, guides us through thinking through that. What is God doing in the book of Psalms? It's almost like he's training his people how to talk. You think about how you would teach a child, what's proper to say. You get down on your knee and you have them repeat after you. And you lead them through what's proper to say and what isn't. In the Psalter, God has given to his people this manual. These are the things God not only expects, but he welcomes his people to say back to him, to sing back to him, to pray back to him. And so as the psalmist says here, that he prays, Lord, let me not wonder from you. As he prays, Lord, let me not sin against you. Recognizing his dependence. Those are the very things that God welcomes from his people. He welcomes that kind of request, that kind of prayer. A Christian is, as you think about the Word of God, what do you have in front of you? As you're in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it may be this evening that the Word of God doesn't thrill you as much as it ought to, but what are the incentives then as a believer to go back to this Word? Here, friend, you have your inheritance spelled out. Here you have your portion given to you. Here you have God saying to you, I will be your exceeding great reward. Here you have God saying, I am your portion and your lot. I am the one. I am the greatest gift that I'll give to you. And so friend, this book is filled with gracious promises to you. As you stand in the Lord Jesus Christ, these promises can be appropriated. There's one Puritan minister who went through the scriptures and he found every gospel promise that he could find. And then every evening what he did was he would spend about a half hour on his bed before he went to sleep, meditating and praying for faith to believe in that promise. Friend, that's the word of God to you if you're in the Lord Jesus Christ. Promises held out to you in Christ. Let that be an incentive to take up the book again. That's a proper use of God's word. But I also want you to know that friend, as you mine the depths of God's word, you'll find that by experience, the things that are contained in there will be confirmed. There was an American preacher from the 19th century He was going to visit a woman on her deathbed. And as he was visiting this woman, he realized he had forgotten his Bible. And so he asks if he could use hers. And as he was flipping through the pages, he notices in the margin that there are these two letters, letters T and P, just scrawled across the margins. The woman you see had been a saint for quite some time. She was converted at early age and now had walked with the Lord for some 60 years. And this had been her Bible for the majority of that time. The minister reads from the text of scripture that he was intending to, but finally curiosity overcame him and he asked, ma'am, what do these letters mean? And she said, oh, sir, that letter T means tried. And the letter P means proven. You see, the woman had taken hold of the promises that she found in God's word. And in a humble way, in a godly way, she said, by faith I put them to the test. Would God be faithful? And beside every letter T, there was the letter P. She found by experience that he had proven that he would be faithful. Friend, that's the word of God. As you stand in Christ, every promise will be tried and it will be proven to be true. Every one of them. But there is also, of course, that question of examination. Are we like the psalmist this evening? Are we diligent or are we negligent to be under the word of God, either in our private reading or under the preaching of it? You see, friend, it poses a question to us. Actually, it poses to us the very question that we began with. If I'm negligent of the word of God, My question has to be, well then, by what means shall my way be directed? By what means will I be kept pure? And I really only have two options at that point. I either believe the word of God, or I'm not concerned about purity. Because the psalmist here says very plainly, it is only by keeping close to this word that the man, the pilgrim, is directed. And so if I'm not keeping close to it, I either don't believe the text or I'm not concerned about purity. But the other question too, of course, is how are we preparing? Especially how are we preparing to be under the preached word of God? How are we preparing to receive God's word as it comes to us, especially in the ordinances? Manton, I think, has a searching quote here. He says, those that hear a sermon and do not pray for a blessing, See nothing of God in His ordinances, nothing but what is of man's oratory and argument. Friend, like the psalmist, did you come this evening not seeking any great address, not seeking just a ritual, but seeking God? You see, the question is, if we're really seeking God, we'll do so by prayer. When you take up your scriptures in the morning and in the evening, either in private or in family worship, are you going to God first earnestly for a blessing? Do you expect that God may do something great even in that small, small amount of time under his word? Well, friend, how prayerful we are in those moments will tell us how honestly we are expecting something good from him and how earnestly we hold ourselves to this word. But finally, friend, this is a psalm that holds out a single exhortation to us. The psalmist recognizes that he's prone to wonder. He's a pilgrim. Yes, he's a pilgrim, but he's a pilgrim who'll go on a bypass in a moment. He's a pilgrim, but he needs God. He needs God to keep his way. And so where does he go? He goes back to his God. Friend, too often I've found not only by my own experience, but through conversation. When we find ourselves negligent of God's Word, what is the first thing that we do? Well, we say, oh, I need to be a bit more disciplined. I just need to be a bit more chaste in my time, and I need to be a bit more determined. Friend, you and I both know that's never done us any good. We can be as determined as the day is long, but what really needs to change first is our affection for God. And the psalmist recognizes that, and so what does he do? He cries out to God. You see, the directing comes first from the heart and leads to the life. And so this evening, God invites us, calls us to call out to Him, call out to Him for aid, even for the correcting of our hearts that we might not stray. And friend, we can only do so as we look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Only is it in the Lord Jesus Christ that we have aid. And this evening, as we've considered the psalm, as God has set forth his son in the gospel through his word, and even this evening by the preaching of it, he calls you, find in me your aid. If you would walk as you ought to walk, if you would keep your way pure, that your life might read down to the glory of God, then friend, take yourself back to this God. who offers to lead you. And as the psalm of saving knowledge puts it, to be the one upon whom you can lean throughout your pilgrim journey. Amen.