Our Old Testament lesson comes from Psalm 119, starting in verse 81. Psalm 119, starting in verse 81. Hear now the word of the Lord. My soul longs for your salvation. I hope in your word. My eyes long for your promise. I ask, when will you comfort me? For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke. Yet I have not forgotten your statutes. How long must your servant endure? When will you judge those who persecute me? The insolent have dug pitfalls for me. They do not live according to your law. All your commandments are sure. They persecute me with falsehood. Help me. They have almost made an end of me on earth, but I have not forsaken your precepts. In your steadfast love, give me life. that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth. Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Your faithfulness endures to all generations. You have established the earth, and it stands fast. By your appointment they stand this day, for all things are your servants. If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life. I am yours, save me, for I have sought your precepts. The wicked buy and wait to destroy me, but I consider your testimonies. I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commandment is exceedingly broad." This is the word of the Lord. My soul longs for your salvation. My eyes long for your promise. I ask, when will you comfort me? How long must your servant endure? Yesterday, Virginia and I attended the funeral of Pastor Earl Hairston, who served for 19 years as the pastor of Greater Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church. And Black Baptist funerals are a cultural experience. There was a whole lot of, a whole lot of everything. It was beautiful. Pastor Davidson preached the sermon. He told us at the beginning of the sermon that he had a 45 minute sermon, but he only had eight minutes to deliver it. And so he was gonna sit down at 1230, no matter what. It's amazing how much he packed into those nine minutes. It was 1231, but nobody was counting. because it was a eight, nine minute sermon on Job 15 that packed an incredible amount of hermeneutics, exegesis, theology, and application. It was a marvelous display of what the passage was saying. And of course, the rhetorical skill of Black Baptist preachers is legendary for a reason. They're good at this. Because Job was longing for deliverance. Job longed for God's promises, God's comfort. Indeed, the longing for Job for comfort is found at the end of Job when he says, I despise myself and am comforted in dust and ashes. Because Job's hope was that he would pass from death to life. His hope was in the resurrection of the body. And as Pastor Davidson said so well, what Job longed for, Jesus has done. Job endured a metaphorical death. And in a sense, Job's was a metaphorical resurrection because he didn't actually die. But what Job symbolizes and depicts, Jesus embodies and enacts. And as I'm listening to Pastor Davidson, I'm thinking, This is exactly what Psalm 119, 81 to 96 is saying, and it's the message of Job laid out at the center of Psalm 119. These two stanzas, Kaf and Lamed, particularly we're about to sing stanza Kaf, this is now the bottom, the nadir of the psalmist's reflections on his misery. Psalms 81 to 88, verses 81 to 88, gives us really the stanza of the cross. They have almost made an end of me on earth. Of course, in our Lord Jesus, they did make an end of him on earth. And that's why we'll get to stanza of Ahmed, because there's also a resurrection here. Our New Testament lesson comes from 1 Peter chapter one. Hear the word of the Lord from First Peter chapter one. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled and unfading kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice. Though now, for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. things into which angels long to look. Therefore, preparing your minds for action and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy. And if you call on him as father, who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you. This is the word of the Lord. In the stanzas, Ka and Lamed in Psalm 119, both stanzas start with an emphasis on God's word. My soul longs for your salvation. I hope in your word, verse 81, Forever, oh Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens, verse 89. What is it that endures forever? In our day, everything is designed to be disposable. Even things that once upon a time were made to last for 50 years, well, if it lasts for five or six, that's good. Nothing lasts forever. Forever, oh Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. I've entitled our sermon for today, Longing for Forever, because that's what we should be doing. We tend to be very present-focused in our day, which makes us rather short-sighted. We only think about the immediate future, what we will eat, what we will wear, or what we'll be doing in a few months or a few years. We buy computers that will last for two or three years. We have a disposable mentality. Things are designed to be thrown out after a few months or a few years. And in such a transient world, longing for forever may seem out of place or out of touch. What does this have to do with here and now? Now, 1 Peter helps us get into our text in Psalm 119 because Peter is writing to the elect exiles of the dispersion. He's writing to those who are citizens of a heavenly kingdom, yet living as exiles here. And in verse 17, he calls our lifetime the time of your exile. Now, Peter sees our hope as something eschatological. I don't use the word eschatological all the time, but it's worth thinking about what it means. Because usually people use the word eschatology when they're debating the rapture or the millennium, but eschatology is too important to limit it to that. Eschatology has to do with the goal, the end, the purpose of history. So if I asked you, what is your eschatology, what would you say? Well, don't think about it as, What view of the millennium do you hold? That's a very tiny part of eschatology. Let me start with a few other questions that may help you understand your eschatology. What is the goal of your story? What are you doing here? What is your purpose in life? These are questions that will reveal what your real eschatology is. What are you heading toward? What are you aiming at? For a whole lot of people, their eschatology is, How can I enjoy life well before I die? And that's the point of their life. And you'll find people who, they seek to be a good person. After all, they've figured out that when you help others, you tend to be happier yourself, so they try to be a good person. And then it's all over. Which, if you think about it, is a rather depressing eschatology. Life, you're short, and then you die. So do whatever you can to make it a little better, a little happier along the way. But what if there is actually something more to life? What if there really is a God? What if he made us for something more? What if he made us for himself? Peter says you have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable. It doesn't die undefiled. It can't be corrupted and unfading. It maintains its beauty kept in heaven for you who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Peter says that your story has been united to the story of Jesus. You have been born again to a new identity, a new inheritance, a new hope. And therefore, Peter says, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. Don't live according to your old eschatology. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct since it is written you shall be holy for I am holy we sometimes think of God's holiness as that which makes him so different from us and in one sense that's true but he says you be holy as I am holy he calls you to partake in his holiness because God's holiness is actually also that which impels him to draw near and draw us near to himself and that's why Jesus came And this is what Psalm 119 is pointing towards. Our passage today in verses 81 to 96 moves from a longing for God's salvation to rejoicing in God's faithfulness. It moves from the very brink of despair to the calm and resolute confidence of one who knows that the word of the Lord endures forever. And so really, Psalm 119 teaches us how to live as exiles, as sojourners who walk by faith and not by sight. A well-designed car may last for a couple hundred thousand miles. A house could stand for a few hundred years. But Psalm 119 reminds us there is something that will endure forever. What is that? The word of the Lord will endure forever. Stanzas 11 and 12 are at the very heart of Psalm 119. There are 10 stanzas that come before it, 10 stanzas that come after. So 11 and 12, right at the center of the psalm. We've reached the turning point, and so it's perhaps not surprising that the turning point of Psalm 119, stanza 11, Kaf, is the stanza of the cross, and stanza 12, Lamed, is the stanza of the resurrection. There's a very distinct turning point that many have seen in the way that as the psalmist comes to the brink of despair, they've almost made an end of me. But then forever, your word endures in the heavens. Stanza 11, Qalaf, is all about the end. The key word in the stanza is the word Qala. It's the verb in verses 81, 82, and 87. And the root meaning of Qala is to end or to fail. It's oftentimes translated longing because the point of longing is that you are facing an end that is not very promising and so you long for a different end. The first four verses are woven together. My soul longs for your salvation. I hope in your word. My eyes long for your promise. I ask when will you comfort me for I have become like a wineskin in the smoke. Yet I have not forgotten your statutes. How long must your servant endure? When will you judge those who persecute me? This is the most desperate and depressing stanza in the whole psalm. The psalmist longs for the salvation of God. He has come to the end of his rope. Will God ever deliver me? three times in the stanza, the psalmist asks, when, when will you comfort me? Verse 82, when, or how long must your servant endure? Verse 84, when will you judge those who persecute me? Have you ever been there? How long, Lord? When will you ever get around to doing something about my situation? When, oh Lord, how long, oh Lord? Psalm 119. teaches you how to respond to the relentless assault of the world, the flesh, and the devil. And you'll notice there is no defiant shaking the fist at God. There's no screaming at the heavens. Instead, there's lament. There's the cry of an anguished heart that longs for God's promise. I have not forgotten your statutes, even though I have become like a wineskin in the smoke. We don't use wineskins so much anymore. But the image isn't hard to understand at all. If you leave a wineskin up in the rafters above a fire and there's smoke, that wineskin is gonna shrivel. That wineskin is now gonna be so smoky and dry that it'll be useless for holding wine. So if I'm like a wineskin in the smoke, I'm used up. I have no future. I'm finished. And in verses 85 to 88, the psalmist describes how this feels. The insolent have dug pitfalls for me. They do not live according to your law. All your commandments are sure. They persecute me with falsehood. Help me. They have almost made an end of me on the earth, but I have not forgotten your precepts. In your steadfast love, give me life that I may keep the testimonies of your mouth. The psalmist has fallen into a pit. And in the stanza all about ending, he says, they have almost made an end of me on earth. And yet, in all of his despair and anguish, the psalmist does not question God's law. He knows that God's commandments are sure. He knows that God's law has the answer. It's just, will it ever come for me? Will help ever come for me? So tell me, God, What is the point of loving your truth when their falsehood seems to be winning? Verses 81 to 88 is very much the stanza of the cross because the insolent had dug pitfalls for our Lord Jesus, preparing their trap for him, persecuting him with falsehood. And yet our Lord Jesus Christ entrusted himself to him who judges justly and he was heard because he indeed was the one righteous man who did not forget his father's precepts. Now, there's a contrast that comes in stanza 12. Stanza 11 is all about ending, but the key words in stanza 12, stanza Lamed, are forever, verses 89 and 93. Endure or stand in verse 90 and 91. end the Hebrew phrase from generation to generation or to all generations. What is it that endures? What is it that lasts forever? Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Your faithfulness endures to all generations. You have established the earth and it stands fast. By your appointment, they stand this day, for all things are your servants. If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction." Here, the psalmist is weak and near to his end. But your word, O Lord, is forever fixed in the heavens. In verse 87, the psalmist had almost perished from the earth. But in verse 90, we hear that God has established the earth and it stands fast. Now, these opening four lines of stanzas of Lamed fit neatly together. Notice how verse 89 speaks of the heavens. Forever, oh Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. The second line speaks of the earth. Your faithfulness endures to all generations. You have established the earth and it stands fast. And then stanza three, the third line, verse 91, speaks of how they stand, the heavens and the earth, by God's appointment. By your appointment, they, the heavens and the earth, stand this day, for all things are your servants. And then verse 92 applies this to me. If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. Why should you delight in God's law? Because God is the creator of heaven and earth. He created all things and all things stand fast by his word. And this very word by which God created the world is the word in which you are to delight. And only by delighting in his word can you live. Because all things perish. All things end. The only way that you can endure death is to be united to that word. There's a reason why our culture is so preoccupied with that which is disposable, that which is perishable. It's because that's all we're looking at. When all you see is things that are fading, things that are perishing, things that are disposable, all things pass away, all things perish except the living and enduring word of God. And God's word lives and endures precisely because the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word that is firmly fixed in the heavens, that's not referring to a book. It's not like the original copy of the Bible is somehow sitting up in the heavens. No, that's not what the psalmist is referring to. In fact, when the psalmist penned these lines, most of the Bible hadn't even been written yet. What is the word that endures firmly fixed in the heavens? Long before John wrote his gospel, there was a clear understanding of the divine character of the word. But John articulated it clearly when he said, in the beginning was, the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And it's equally important to emphasize the Word was God. The eternal Son of God is one with the Father. And it's equally important to say that the Word was with God. Because it's not just that the Son is God, but He's also with God, which means that from all eternity, in the beginning, God loved and communicated because in the Holy Trinity, before he created anything, there was love and communication between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God did not make the world because he was lonely. The triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit made the world because God wanted us to share in his life, to share in the love and communication that the Father had with the Son and the Holy Spirit before the world began. That's why God made us. And this is why when we talk about what is our eschatology, what is our hope, it absolutely has a lot to do with the future, but it just as much has to do with now. because the eschatological life, the eternal life that has come is the life of the Son of God who has joined us to himself that in him we might have life. This is why Psalm 119 verse 89 says, forever O Lord your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. We too quickly delight in the perishable, the transient, We start thinking that transient things can give us delight. We ironically call them consumer goods. They are consumed and are no more. But the fleeting pleasures of this age cannot endure. Everything fades, withers, dies, except the living and enduring word of God, the one who was in the beginning with the Father, the one by whom all things were made. Psalm 119 calls you to lift up your eyes beyond the transient and passing things of this age to behold the glory of the living and abiding Word of God. You see this is the answer to the near despair of the neverlasting world of stanza 11. It's only when you lift up your eyes and see the everlasting Word of God that you can see what it means to live in the midst of this ever-changing world. Now, notice what happens by connecting the meditation on creation in verses 89 to 91. Your word is fixed in the heavens. You have established the earth. With the emphatically personal statement in verse 92, if your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. The psalmist links his own survival not merely to the truth of God's word, but also to his delight in God's word, in God's law. After all, God's Word is true whether you like it or not. The difference between life and death is the difference between loving and delighting in God's Word or not. I recently had a conversation with a young man who realized, yeah, I was I was seeking after my ways and I was refusing to do what God said, His ways, and now He's given me what I wanted. And here I am. Do you really want what you think you want? His ways are better. Delighting in His law, delighting in His truth, is the only way to life. The second half of the stanza also then begins with the same word forever that the first half of the stanza did. In English it sounds, I will never forget your precepts. The Hebrew would be forever, I will not forget your precepts. Well, how do you say that in English? Well, I will never. Forget your precepts. But forever is the key theme in the stanza. Even as God's word is firmly fixed in the heavens, even as God's faithfulness endures throughout all the earth, so also forever I will not forget your precepts because your precepts have given me life. The word here is olam, forever. A word that is used only twice in the first 10 stanzas, but will be used many more times than the last 10 stanzas, but here's where it kicks off. Forever, Olam, will be an important theme in the rest of the psalm. I'm living in the middle of suffering and affliction, and my hope is in something that I cannot yet see. Peter's point of, though you do not yet see him, you love him. There's a tension in Psalm 119 between the promised blessing and the experience of suffering, in spite of the fact that I've been faithful to God's law. Have you ever heard somebody complain that God owes me? After all I've endured, God owes me. It's remarkable that Psalm 119 makes it through 176 verses of struggling with affliction, protesting innocence, and declaring how much he loves God's law, and yet never says, you owe me. And the reason for that is simple. The psalmist really does love God's law. And he knows he would be incredibly arrogant for the servant to say to his master, you owe me. He loves God's law. He delights in God's law. He keeps God's law. And therefore he humbles himself before God and waits upon the Lord, trusting that God will do what is right. The previous stanza, verse 87, had pled with God for life. Here, the psalmist rejoices that God has done what he promised. By your precepts, you have given me life. Now, I realize sometimes that sounds odd to people who are used to some of Paul's ways of saying things. What do you mean, God has given us life by his precepts? Remember that Torah, in Psalm 119 encompasses the whole Word of God. So, for instance, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved? That's one of God's precepts. Our Lord Jesus himself said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That would be another one of his precepts. Truly, God gives us life by his precepts, by the Word that is forever firmly fixed in the heavens. You are faithful. Your faithfulness endures to all generations. But this doesn't mean that my problems have just gone away. The wicked lie in wait to destroy me. But I consider your testimonies. I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commandment is exceedingly broad. It's an interesting way to conclude such a triumphant stanza. But the reality is my enemies didn't go away just because I saw the glory of God's word firmly fixed in the heavens. The wicked still lie in wait to destroy me. But I consider your testimonies. Please hear this. My hope is not that my enemies will simply go away. My hope is that God's word will endure longer than my enemies. As we continue through the rest of Psalm 119, we'll continue to hear about enemies, trouble, anguish, oppressors. Yeah, this is life in this age. But how do you respond to this? When you pray, when you pour out your heart to God in the midst of trouble, what do you pray for? Psalm 119, does ask God to deal with them at some point, but also Psalm 119 focuses on, hear me, by your word, save me, please change me, make me, all of those, this was the theme of, stanza five hey teach me give me lead me incline my heart turn my eyes. Is your heart focused on the transient on things that are coming to an end or is your heart drawn to the living and abiding word of God our Lord Jesus Christ. because Psalm 119 is where we hear the word himself, our Lord Jesus, singing about his word in the scriptures. And Jesus draws us into his song because he has delighted in God's law. Truly, God has delivered him from his affliction. And therefore, those who hope in Jesus and delight in him, the word who became flesh, will be delivered from all their sins and sorrow. And so as Peter says, having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. Lord have mercy and may your word go forth. May your word accomplish the purpose for which you have sent it that those who hear would believe and that by your grace you would shine your light upon those who dwell in darkness, that you would bring life and hope and comfort and peace, that you would draw our hearts more and more to your son who sits at your right hand. And we pray in his name, amen.