Well, good morning. It's good to see you here. It's good to be here. It's good to have gotten to church safely on an icy morning. Well, this is about the iciest it gets for us. We don't have icy mornings in Escondido. But first off, I want to greet you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and greet you from the brothers down in Escondido Reformed Baptist Church. Let's have another word of prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, you are the Father in the heavens. Thank you very much for life and for breath. Thank you much for your holy scriptures and for the privilege of being able to gather together as your people and hear your word. Father, grant us open hearts then. Grant us the hearts that seek you. Grant us hearts that love your word. In your name, Amen. I saw in your bulletin, let me get that real quick. I saw that it printed right in the middle fold is the Baptist Catechism question. Question number one, who is the first and best of beings? Are you guys going through the Catechism? Is that new? We've done it in the past. We are actually just plagiarizing their bulletins. Oh, okay. Well, that's just fine. Our church also has been looking at the Baptist Catechism and on Sunday evenings, sometimes some of the interns will do a sermon based on what the theme of that question is for that week. This morning then, I want to focus on Baptist Catechism questions five through seven. I probably don't have that in front of me, but I'll read it to you. Baptist Catechism question number five says, What is the word of God? That's a good doctrinal question. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are the Word of God, and the only certain rule of faith and obedience. Question 6. May all men make use of Scripture? Answer. All men are not only permitted, but are commanded and exhorted to read, hear, and understand the Holy Scriptures. Question 7. What do the Holy Scriptures principally teach? Answer. The Holy Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man. Well, with that in mind then, let's turn to where we are going to be looking today. We read the beginning of Psalm 119, Psalm 119 of course being the longest Psalm, we can't look at it all this morning, but to see the sections we will. Go ahead and turn to Psalm 119. beginning in verse 97. Actually, before we begin it, let me draw to your attention that beginning with Adam, back in Genesis, beginning with Adam, in certain successive generations, God spoke personally to chosen men to reveal himself. We just saw that in the passage just read, that God is a God who reveals himself. To Noah, it was through a rainbow that God's faithfulness was communicated, wasn't it? And it was through a series of direct appearances and visions and promises to Abraham that, for example, the burning pot in his vision, that the covenant nature of God was revealed and was further made known. To Jacob, God was revealed as the fear of Isaac and God Almighty and the God of Bethel for it was at Bethel that God revealed to him and also protected him from his enemies so going into this morning we have to keep in mind that God is a God who reveals himself and that is a very very blessed thing think of Moses too to Moses God communicated through a burning bush, didn't he? and he was revealed to Moses as the I AM again at Mount Sinai through pillars of smoke and fire and cloud God was also again revealing himself to the people as the I AM and as a just lawgiver as well as someone who is absolutely holy so these kinds of things, this whole history of God being a God who reveals himself is very very key as we look at Psalm 119 here but it was also at Mount Sinai that for the first time, God reveals himself in a little bit different way. No longer was it through rainbows and burning pots and visions only that God was going to reveal himself, but for the first time, God was going to reveal himself through a written text. He was doing something new. Exodus 32.15 tells us Moses turned and went down from the mountains and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hand the tablets were written on both sides on the one side and on the other they were written now the tablets were the work of God and the writing was the writing of God so from there on the Exodus narrative just follows up and talks about how Moses then followed God's example God wrote down Moses. After hearing all the revelation he received, Moses also wrote it all down. Thus we have the Pentateuch, the Book of the Law. Again, we have to keep these things in mind. So this being our first example, back in Exodus, our first example is also therefore one of the foundations to our doctrine of Scripture. We find other examples where later prophets were also instructed to write things down. Isaiah, for example, was told on at least two times to write down the prophecy he was given. And in Jeremiah 30 verse 8 we read, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says, write in a book all the words I have given to you. So it is very clear that God is a God who reveals himself, and it is very clear that God wanted to reveal himself through a written text. Well, it's not our intention this morning to look at the canonization process. I mean, how we got this thing called the New Testament and how we got this thing called the Old Testament is of a fascinating historical significance in its own right, but that's really a different sermon. This morning, there's just a couple of main things that I want us to understand going into Psalm 119. Firstly, God's a God who reveals Himself. Secondly, He's done so through a written text. which we call scripture. Sometimes scripture came about by telling us prophets write this down, sometimes it came about by the spirit moving an apostle more inwardly. But then thirdly, in light of this, in light that we have a written revelation, how are we to respond? Well, we need to realize and treat these holy scriptures as indeed holy. We ought to treat them as very, very special. And in light of that, what ought we to do? Well, we ought to receive its commands with humility, and receive its exhortations with a delight, and we ought to receive its truths with a sincere thankfulness. Indeed, we ought to bow down every time we read of it, and thank God that we have His divine self-disclosure. Perhaps no other authors have captured this quite to the extent that the psalmists have, and particularly in Psalm 119. So, turn with me now to the text. Psalm 119, beginning in verse 97. Hear the word of the Lord. O how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. You, through your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies. for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients because I keep your word. I restrain my feet from every evil way that I may keep your word. I've not departed from your judgments, for you yourself have taught me. Oh, how sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false faith. Pause right there. This section, wonderful section. Of course, as I mentioned, you can't look at the entirety of Psalm 119, but throughout the Psalm, throughout the entirety of the Psalm, we do see certain themes that are hit upon time and time and time again, including exhortations to live rightly, emotional outbursts of passion, we see exuberant praise given to God, but in spite of the fact that these themes sometimes seem arranged in kind of a hodgepodge. And as you read through Psalm 119, you see the themes, but they're kind of like this, they're kind of everywhere. But throughout all this, by far the touchstone of this psalm, by far, is the Word of God. For it's extolled consistently in almost every single verse. So let's look at Psalm is my meditation all the day. Does that strike you as incredible? The word is this guy's meditation all the day. Do you think about God's word all the day? Is that your motivation? Is that your meditation? This really is an astounding verse because it strikes us in our core and we know that we don't often value God's Word like that, don't we? But the psalmist says, I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. This is really the first insight that we get into the psalmist's mindset here. Do you love the Word of God? Sure, I'm a Christian. I love the Word of God. I read it at least three times a week. Or I read it every day. I read it Three times a day. Five times a day. I love the Word of God. Well, do you love the Word of God? The psalmist does here. Is it your heart's desire to meditate on it all day long? Is that the thing when you wake up in the morning? Do you say, oh, thank the Lord for this morning. I can't wait to meditate on your scriptures. But yet, that's what the psalmist does here. It's an astounding sort of a claim. Well, what is he meditating on? The law. When the psalmist says this, what does he mean by this? One thing we have to understand is that when he says, I love your not necessarily the thou shalt and thou shalt nots that immediately come to our mind, though it does include those, for sure. You see, there are actually about eight different terms that are used throughout the psalm that mean, well, I would argue roughly the same thing, roughly synonyms, and they're translated in our English words, things like your word, your laws, your precepts, your commandments, your judgments, and in Hebrew those are all different words. And some commentators try and say, well, look, these different words are emphasizing different parts of God's word, and that might very well be. But it's very clear that they all are referring, in a general sense, to the same thing. That is, the revealed scriptures that the psalmist has in hand up to that point in history. Of course, the psalmist doesn't have the New Testament, but he has some revealed scriptures. What does he have? The Torah, right? The Book of the Law. that Moses is so diligent to write down after he received that revelation from God. And so he has the book of the law, and this is why he exclaims, I love your law. He says, I love the book of the law. I love the divine revelation. I love the scriptures. That's what he's saying here. But do we love the scriptures like he does? Do you love the divine self-disclosure that the Word of God really is? The Old Testament and the New Testament? I must confess that sometimes it's easier for me to love the New Testament more than the Old Testament. Because there's a lot of stuff in the Old Testament that's hard to understand. It's hard to spend hours and hours reading. Hard to shuffle through. Well, the New Testament can be hard to shuffle through, too. But, they're all this divine self-revelation, aren't they? Do we love the Old and New Testament? Why does the psalmist love the Book of the Law? In a very real sense, he goes on in the very next verse and tells us. Okay, so that's our introduction that he gives us here. Oh how I love your law, it's my meditation. Okay, so let's tell us, why do you love the law so much? Look at verse 98 with me then. You, through your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. What does it mean to be wiser than your enemies? Psalmist does indeed know something about enemies. In fact, throughout the psalm, throughout just this one psalm, there's at least 24 times when he refers to things like his afflictions, his persecutions, unjust accusations are brought against him. The powers that be were constantly trying to trip him up and assail him, snare him, stop him from succeeding. And yet, in spite of these efforts, His enemies were not successful. Why? Was it because the psalmist was just too clever for them? He's just better than they are and so they try and trick him up and boy he's right there, he's got the right answers. Was it because he's just as tricky and sly and clever as they are? No. You see, the psalmist did not need to go to the world's school of life to learn worldly ways of dealing with problems and surviving out in the world. Copying their malicious ways and so forth. Instead, what does he do? He learns from the scriptures, doesn't he? But the scriptures were not even his real teacher, were they? They were the instrument, but who was his teacher? The Lord was his teacher. The Lord was. Look what it says. You, talking to God. You, through your commandments, make me wiser than your enemy. Brothers and sisters, that's an incredible thing. That God teaches men. God reveals himself, and then he says, based on this revelation, here's the kinds of things that I want you to know. I'm going to be your teacher. That's a wonderful promise. The kind of thing that you can take to the bank with us. Or rather, we can take the Bible with us. We can go to the Bible and expect that God can teach us. So the Lord was his teacher. You, through your commands, have taught me. You see, the psalmist realized that the scriptures are not just a book of mere words. And we know that. I mean, we've grown up in church. We hear things like that said all the time. This is the word of God, right? But brothers and sisters, it's true. Did you wake up this morning thinking to yourself, we get to go to church this morning so we can hear what God has to teach us? I hope so. Or did we wake up this morning and say, we're going to church this morning, and boy, it's cold out, and there's some ice, I don't really want to go. I'll go, I'm expected. Brothers and sisters, God is our teacher. These are indeed the very words of God. So this attitude was reflected earlier in the portion of the psalm that we read in our call to worship, way back in verse 12, when the psalmist said, Blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes. He's crying out, God, teach me, here I am. I don't have what I need to know. Be my teacher. And so this is another theme that just comes time and time again throughout the psalm. You know, let's talk about our situation for a moment. When men use their wicked scheming and plotting to cast us in bad light, maybe on the job site, or to bring our name into disrepute in the community, it's very, very easy to want to utilize those same clever devices back to them, isn't it? Isn't it? who we thought was our friend comes to us and says, yeah, I, uh, I was telling the story about the time a couple of years ago when you did that really stupid thing. I didn't want that out in the public. Why did you tell them that? Oh, it was just so funny. They got a good laugh out of it. That's my reputation, though. I'm ashamed of that. Well, it's really easy to get mad at that person and to try and maybe get back at them or just, I don't know, share a bad story about them. These kinds of temptations come upon us, don't they? But is that what the psalmist does? No. It's easy to think that if you play the world's game, that we'll keep ahead of the game, isn't it? That we'll eventually come out on top of brothers and sisters. That's just not the case. If you play the game of the world, plotting and scheming and so forth, eventually someone's going to get the better of you. You know how I know that? The Word of God tells us that. Because we too have an enemy, don't we? As believers, we have a very real enemy, a great schemer and liar, one who walks around like a roaring lion trying to devour. Brothers and sisters, pitiable is the man who thinks that through his own cleverness he shall thwart the devil's schemes. It's just not the case. For the devil has been scheming since the beginning. You think that you can scheme better than him and get out from underneath his twists and turns? No, brothers, it just won't happen. The devil has been scheming from the beginning and he's going to get you if you are relying on your own ability. Adam and his prosperity and his posterity were separated from God because of the devil's scheming. How much more so leave him. But here in this verse, the psalmist really is expressing his overflowing joy because of what? Not because of his cleverness, but because of the Word of God. In the Word of God, he found sufficient wisdom to not get caught in the snares of the devil. How many of you struggle with sin? I do. That's a snare. How are we going to get out of that sin? It's the word of God. It's not going to be your own, I'm going to do this. I'm not going to sin today. It's not the, hey, I'm wise enough. I'll see temptation coming. Brothers, it's the word of God. The psalmist testifies to it. What does he say again? You through your commandments, what do they do? They make me wiser than my enemies. We need to be wiser than the devil. Wiser than our temptations. It's in the scriptures that he has discovered that which will enable him to not be conquered indefinitely. You see, for the psalmist, the scriptures are a book of hope. Dire, dire hope. That is why at the beginning of the song, which we read as I call the worship again, he says, how can a young man keep his way pure? We know the answer. By living and heeding according to your word. So, how do we live an upright life? by heeding the word of God according to the beginning of the psalm. How do we know what an upright life even looks like? That's hard enough to know sometimes. It's by listening to the word of God the psalmist told us. How shall we not be caught in the snares of the devil? by staying close to the word of God that's why he says in this verse your commands are always with me look at that see where it says that your commands are ever with me you see these scriptures gave him such a supreme confidence against his enemies that he was forever keeping them close to him now not that we have to It's not that we have to keep our Bible with us 24-7, and we go to work, and we always have it in our hand, and we have a nice little Bible holster on our side. Where's the Scriptures though? They're in our heart. Right? We memorize them, so that in our moment's notice, we can bring them back to mind, and fight off the devil's scheming. So, he's ever keeping them close to him. He held on to them. He loved them. This then is the first reason why the psalmist loves the word of God, because it protects him from his enemies. Well, let's look at the next verse then. Verse 99, and let's do 100 also. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep your word. Well, a peripheral glance at these verses might make it seem like the psalmist is very prideful. I'm wiser than my teachers. I'm wiser than everybody around me. But a closer look really reveals that there's more going on here. I laid it down at the beginning that the touchstone of this theme is the word of God. Guess what? It is in this verse too. That should help us guide how we're going to understand this. You see, in the previous verse, he was made wiser than his enemies because he had the book of the law. And kept it close to him. In verse 99 then, why does he have more understanding than his teachers? Why does he have more understanding than the men more aged than he? Look what it says. He meditates on the book of the law. Why does he have more understanding than the men of old? Because he keeps or obeys God's word. You see, the emphasis of this verse is still on scriptures. It's not about how prideful he is. It's not about how, what an intellectual giant or spiritual giant he is. Still the focus is on the word. It is the scriptures that are bringing these things about. Or actions guided by scriptures that are bringing these things about. No wonder he says, oh how I love your law. He's reaping good benefits from them. We've just seen two. He's protected from his enemies. What else? He's made wise for life. No wonder he loves the Lord. He's reaping awesome benefits. He learns from the scriptures and he obeys them. This is obedience that leads to life, isn't it? You see, I believe the bottom line that the psalmist is concerned with here is this. The scriptures, they make us wise for life. They teach us how to live, how to prosper, how to walk humbly with our God. They teach us who God is, and who we are. The Word of God teaches us what our true needs are. and how he meets those needs. It teaches us that we are sinners and not at peace with our Creator. It teaches us that we are naturally born enemies of God. And if it were not for certain restraining graces in our lives, we would be utterly rebellious, malicious haters continually. It teaches us that Christ was the only begotten of the Father, who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. crucified under Pontius Pilate, buried and rose again on the third day. He ascended into the heaven and sits at the right hand of the Almighty, for whom he will one day come and judge the living and the dead. The Scriptures teach us these things. Most importantly, the Scriptures teach us that we ought to bow the knee in humble submission to him and worship him, for he alone is worthy. Brothers and sisters, scriptures make us wise for life. All those things I just went through. Those are the things that, well to the extent that he knows about Christ, those are the things that he has in mind. Scriptures make us wise. Both spiritually and in our everyday life. But it is not a mere head knowledge either that we must know these things. Far be it from us to ever know these things with a mere intellectual ascent. No. But how was the psalmist's truth he made wise? Read it again. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. He's concentrating on the meanings. He's soaking them into his soul. He's loving them. I understand more than the ancients because I obey your word. He obeys. Brothers, do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. If any man hears the word and does not do what it says, it's like a man who looks himself in the mirror. He goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. That's from James. Furthermore, the fact that he obeys, I think, is very indicative, though, of the sort of meditation that is involved here. This is no mere head knowledge, but this is a deep-seated reflection in his soul, which results in a spiritual fruit. And I could go off on talking about what true Christian meditation is. This is not, you know, Christian meditation sitting back and zoning out on some mountaintop somewhere. That's not Christian meditation. That's not what he's talking about here. Christian meditation is when you take the Word of God and you preach to yourself. You say, what does this mean? What does this require of me? How does this censure the way I'm living my life? What do I have to do to be obedient to this? That's the kind of reflection that the psalmist is doing here. He tells us that. He says, I reflect on it, I meditate on it, and then I obey. So, the psalmist meditates on that which he loves, and he's obedient. That is how he is wiser than the learned. Obedience is the difference. Or if not the difference, at least the big key factor here for us. To use an analogy from our beloved brother Spurgeon, he says this, listen carefully. Disciples who sit quietly at the feet of Christ are often better skilled in divine things than doctors of divinity. Let me read that one more time. Disciples who sit quietly at the feet of Christ are often better skilled in divine things than doctors of divinity. Brothers, we're not all called to be doctors of divinity, are we? But we are all called to be disciples of Christ. And to sit at his feet, be very humble, with patience, and to learn from him. Right? Christ says, come unto me, learn of me. You need to learn of Christ. And the scriptures are how we learn from Him. Well, this then is the second reason why the psalmist loves the Word of God. Because it makes him wiser. It makes him wise for life. Next two verses then. 101 and 102. Read it with me. I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep your word. I have not departed from your judgments, for you yourself have taught me. In these verses we get a second insight into the psalmist. He did not only love the scriptures, but they've become for him now a driving motivation. But this really just picks up on the theme of obedience in the previous verse, doesn't it? He's already told us that he's been made wise for obedience, and that's a good motivation in its own right. It really is. But wisdom in the common sense is not what's primarily at stake here. Look what he says, I have restrained my feet from every evil way. Why? Not to be wise, not to be clever, not to be puffed up, but that I may keep your word. You see, it's adherence to the scriptures in and of itself that seems to be a big value for the psalmist. Not because we receive some special privileges as a result. We don't strive after righteousness merely to get good stuff for ourselves. Though obedience does have intrinsic blessing, doesn't it? Obedience brings blessing. But the psalmist is strenuously pushing through the tedious work of avoiding What does he call it? Every evil way. Simply to attain some exalted status? No. His motivation for striving after the righteous life is to fulfill the word of God. It's his motivation. Now the question is, I'll put to you, why does he do that? Think about that. Why would he put all of his life energies, every day, it's on his mind, he wakes up, today I'm going to keep my feet from every evil path. I mean, it's a great, nice mindset to have, right? The obedience of the Lord. But why is he doing this? What's his motivation here? Well, I believe the answer comes from the context of our situation. For he started off telling us that he loves the word. He went on further to tell us that he loved the word explicitly because it was the word of God. God himself was his teacher, remember? And in this we really discover that it was not the words that he loved. The utterances, the mutterings, the syllables, the meanings, that's all just extra stuff. It wasn't the words that he loved so much, as it was the one from whom those words came. Wasn't it? You yourself have taught me. He loved the source of those words. He loved God. And this love was going to work itself out in really the only way that true biblical love can work itself out. Obedience. Right? By submitting to him. By obeying his commandments. He says, it's by restraining my feet from every evil way. The Apostle John, in 1 John, he tells us, for this is love of God, that we keep his commandments. Restraining your feet from every evil way is good, why? Because it's the natural expression of our love for God. That's why it's good. That's why he's motivated to do that. Because he loves his creator. Indeed, Christ... Brothers, I want you to hear this. Christ does not know a disciple that does not want to keep his commands. Christ does not know a disciple that does not try and restrain his feet from every evil way. But this is the kind of thing that Christ teaches us to do. Teaches us true godliness. Why? Why does the psalmist do this? Why do we do this? As believers in Christ? Because we want to keep his word. Why? Because we love his word. Why? Because we love him. And the one who is taught by God himself is not easily led astray. This is a great thing. As the psalmist attests to saying, I have not departed from your judgments, for you yourself have taught me. And it's so wonderful when a young Christian begins to grow in their faith and he starts to submit himself to the Word and get really serious about studying God's Word. He says, wow, all these wonderful new doctrines I'm learning. I want to submit myself to them. I want to be like Christ. Why is he so excited? Because he loves Christ. He wants to be like Him. And somebody who is taught from Christ finds it very much easier to do that sort of thing, to keep yourself from every evil path. So, the psalmist's love for God, then, is the third reason why the psalmist loves the Word of God. And we see this love in actions of obedience and an attentiveness to His Word. Let's look at our last two verses, then. 103. Oh, how sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Through your precepts I get understanding, therefore I hate every false link. Well, our final two verses, in many ways, is a summing up of what has already been said. in our previous six verses, we again get another very emotional acclamation. Right? His first one was, Oh, how I love your law. Now he's saying, Oh, it's like honey to my lips. I can't wait to get this stuff. Okay? He's passionate. We should feel the passion here. And this is passionate language. This is language that it almost conjures up images out of Song of Songs. Right? We love when our beloved comes to us and whispers things in our ear at night. Darling, I love you. We eat that kind of stuff up. We want more of it. It is sweet to us. Oh, how sweet is your word. Well, apparently, the psalmist is not content to merely just say that he loves it. Oh, how I love your law. Now, he searches for some analogy that will capture the feeling. Honey. It's like sweetness to us. Such an analogy, you know, I just can't help, my mind goes to song of songs. That's the kind of language he uses here. Well, this then brings us back to the question I asked at the beginning of this morning. Do you love the Word of God? Is it your meditation all the day? Is the Bible a sweetness to your tongue, and a joy to your ears? Are you enraptured with the Scriptures, and filled with a sweet affection toward your God, whom the Scriptures actually reveal? Remember, God is a God who reveals Himself. Do you love the divine self-revelation which God gives to us in His Word? Well, indeed. The words of your own beloved are very sweet in your ear. But likewise, every true follower of Christ receives the words of Christ as a sweetness. As a wonderful sweetness that wells up in you. And you want it. You want more of it. And the sweetness causes a craving. And you want more of it. And we love it. And we want more of it because we love it. And we love it because it's sweet. And it's sweet to us, because we love our Lord. And it's sweet to us, why? Because we love the One from whom those words came. And because they make us wise for life. And because as often as they are kept close to us, they protect us from our enemies. Those are the reasons that the psalmist gave us. Do you love the Word of God? Well, in the last verse, his summary comes to an end by pointing us, once again, toward obedience. God's precepts gave him an understanding, and those precepts were, again, a driving motivation to hate false ways, and love only true ones. And this is really the capstone of the psalmist's thought here, so I want you to catch it. It is through the scriptures that we gain understanding. What kind of understanding? I've already said it. It's an understanding for life. For all of life. An understanding of how to overcome our enemies. An understanding of what true wisdom says. What true knowledge is. What even counts as wisdom. Pastor Uros mentioned there are some smart guys on campus. In my undergrad there were some smart guys on that campus. And they were smart. But I couldn't help wonder Do these people know what true knowledge is? Do they know what true wisdom is? Or are they puffed up in their vain understanding of life? So, the scriptures give us an understanding of what even counts as wisdom. And it gives us an understanding that if we love God, we will restrain our feet from every evil way and hate every false path. Not only this, but that understanding is also an understanding of what is evil. Do you ever have a problem where you had a hard time discerning what was the right thing to do? And you think that if you do the wrong thing, there might be a sin involved. If you go do this, it looks kind of wise, but we don't want to sin ourselves, we don't want to cause anyone else to sin. We could do this over here, but that, ah, boy, that, someone, boy, it could be sinful, I don't, I just don't know. Brothers and sisters, look to the scriptures. The scriptures make us wise for life and wise for discerning good and evil. Brothers, if we do not use the Bible to define what paths are okay to walk on, we will constantly be lost in a maze of life, a maze of worldly thinking and of vain pursuits. That's why the final verse of the next stanza, which we're technically not covering this morning, but look at what it says. Your worry is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Well-known verse we like to memorize. Brothers, the catechism questions that I read this morning were asking the question, what are the scriptures? Seems like a pretty good answer. Truly, that's what they are, a light unto our feet. Something that's going to guide us through every single question that we have in life. Maybe not directly, completely, as specifically as we want answered, but remember what the catechism question said? It said they are sufficient. Okay? God gives us what we need for our time. So truly, that's what they are, a lamp unto our feet. They are a light which guides us in every aspect of life. And in them is revealed the power to overcome the evil one. In them is revealed an understanding which yields obedience. In them is revealed Christ, through whom we attain to the kingdom everlasting. Truly, because of these things, may we each come to love the Scriptures more. May we each and every one of us learn to say in our own heart of hearts, Oh Lord, I love your scriptures. They are sweetness to me. I want to meditate on them today. I want to memorize them. I want to learn of them. I'm going to sit at your feet humbly. May that be a truth for each one of us. Now, a last word. It's easy to get discouraged. I'm just Joe Blow. I just sit over on the side of the church, and I'm not like all those other spiritual people. Brothers and sisters, we're all pretty unspiritual, aren't we? And so Christ does something in our hearts. And then we're still sinners. We're saved sinners. But that's what the Christian life is. Christian life says, I love Christ, and I'm going to strive after Christ, not by my power, but by His. I'm going to love him, I'm going to put my faith in him. By God's grace, I'm going to love him. May that be true for each of us in our hearts. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, oh, that we would love your law. Oh, that we would love your scriptures. Oh, that we would love you as we are. So often we don't. We ask for your forgiveness. This week, oh Lord, may we have a humble heart that wants to submit to You. A humble heart that cries out, Abba Father. A humble heart that wants to lay ourselves at the feet of Christ and learn of Him. Take on His yoke, not our own. Make this true in our hearts this day, Lord. May we love Christ as we are. Thank you for your divine self-disclosure, your scriptures. Thank you for being a God who reveals, and a God who has revealed our Savior. In your name, Amen.