Psalm 119 and verse number 41. The Bible said, let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation according to thy word. So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproaches me, for I trust in thy word. and take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I have hoped in thy judgments. So shall I keep thy law continually forever and ever, and I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts. The Bible said, I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings and will not be ashamed. And I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. My hands also will I lift up under thy commandments, which I have loved, and I will meditate in thy statutes. You may be seated. Look down at your Bible, if you will. And we're looking at this particular section, and it begins with the Hebrew letter that is pronounced vowel, almost as if we would spell it in our English language, V-O-W. But I'm preaching tonight on the way of holy resolve. Let's pray. Father, as we bow our heads and our hearts, we want to thank you for the Bible. Thank you, Lord, for the valuable book that you have given us. Thank you, Lord, for the treasure that we have in the scriptures. I pray that you'll shine upon the pages. Make the truths of God real to every heart. Help us tonight to preach on in such a way that we pace ourselves so that those that are listening might take in the truth of God and then live out the truth of God in their lives. Thank you, Lord, for not only inspiring this book but also preserving it so we could have it, Lord, in our generation. Thank you, Lord, for those who paid a tremendous price so that we could have our English Bible. I pray you'd bless it now. Help us together as we seek not only to learn the scriptures but also to live them. Lord, I pray you'd send the power of the Holy Spirit to make it real. to every heart in Jesus' name, amen and amen. As you look at our text, you look at that Hebrew letter just above the 41st verse. This Hebrew letter is pronounced vowel. This is the sixth section in this particular psalm. This is not the only chapter in the Bible that is laid out like this, even though they are not always annotated in this manner. This is an alphabetic acrostic. Now, I want to say the Hebrew letter vowel means a nail or a hook. If you look at the physical appearance of it there in your English Bible, it looks a little bit like a nail. In fact, it looks a little bit almost like a cut nail. Some of you may not recognize the terminology of a cut nail. A nail is used to fasten certain things together. oftentimes in days past. I remember being in preachers' meetings and they'd say, nail it down, preacher. Nail it tight, preacher. That is, they were encouraging us to give no doubt or no question about the preaching of God's precious Word. And the Bible said in Ecclesiastes 12, verse number 11, The words of the wise are as goads and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. And so nails are used to attach things and to bring things together. In fact, the very makeup of this section of the Bible brings some crucial facets of the Christian life together. and shows how they bring strength to the daily life of every believer. And then sometimes, and maybe some of you have never seen this, but in some places, nails are also used as a hook. Everybody didn't go down to the hardware store and buy those little fancy ones that you just screw in. A lot of people just get an old nail and nail it up on the wall and, you know, it's kind of like that old fancy latch we had on the screen door at the house. And just a little old wood screen door. And there's a nail driven in, bent over. And you could kind of turn it which way you wanted it to go. And so when the screen door came shut, they just turned the nail over. And that nail was a retainer. It was a fastener. It was a hook. And so in this particular section of the psalm, the path of prayer and holy resolve are joined together here. They're fastened together. In fact, it's difficult for me to understand how any Christian really lives the life they ought to live without going to God daily in prayer, seeking his face. Not only offering up petitions and requests of him, but also interceding on the behalf of other people, and then spending time in holy worship before God, thanking him and praising him for the blessings of life. And so it's here that the path to prayer and holy resolve are joined together in verses 41 through verse 48. And so first, the penman is driven to God in prayer. One of the greatest pitfalls I fear that a lot of Christians have adapted in their life is they put prayer at the last of their day. Or they make prayer a last resort. I wonder how it is. that you function as a Christian without going to God and getting into His presence and seeking His face. So the penman in this section is at first driven to God in prayer. And then his life is held together or hung on the very sufficiency of God's power and the principles of Scripture. And so this section of the psalm is composed of two prayers. Look in your Bible here in verse 41. The psalmist said, let thy mercies plural, come unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation according to thy word. And when he uses salvation here, he's using it of deliverance from some circumstance, because at the very heart of the word salvation is deliverance. And the Bible said, let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation according according to thy word. So the first prayer is in verse 41. And then the Psalmist makes a pronouncement after that in verse 42. And then the second prayer is in verse 43. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I have hoped in thy judgments. And then he makes another pronouncement afterwards. And so the path of prayer is primary. And so he takes that path of prayer. And then after that season of prayer, what happens in his life? I want to say that when you come into God's presence and when you seek God's face, God will begin to work on you on the inside. And God will help you to begin to grow in grace and in knowledge. He'll show you things in your life you need to get out of your life. He'll show you things in your life that you need to add to your life. And show you things you need to put into firm practice in your life. So there are two prayers in verse 41 and 43. And then there's six consequent promises. You know what happens in my life when I go to God in prayer? He begins to work on my heart about things that I need to give attention to in my life. He begins to help me and show me things that I thank God for. I'm just a clay vessel on the potter's wheel. But thank God I'm still in the hands of the master. Hallelujah. Bless his holy name. And so look down at your Bible in verse 45. And the Bible said, And I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts. Notice verse 46, I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings. You notice the word will is included in every holy resolve the psalmist has. in verse 46, and will not be ashamed. Verse 47, and I will delight myself in thy commandments. Verse 48, my hands also will I lift up under thy commandments, which I have loved, and I will meditate in thy statutes. And so here are six promises. That's hard for me to understand how anybody gets where they ought to be in the Christian life if they don't really pray and seek God. One of the greatest problems, one of the greatest weaknesses of the church in this hour is the fact that we have neglected the most vital practice of the Christian life. In fact, the two very things the psalmist keeps telling us. He keeps telling us, I'm going to God in prayer. And then I'm relying upon the scriptures. I'm walking in the scriptures. I'm becoming responsible to the scriptures. And prayer and the scriptures are so very important. And so the moments he spends in the presence of God praying, leads to tremendous decisions, not only to walk with God, and to walk for God, so the way of holy resolve begins around the throne. I'm telling you, there's something about it tonight, just to get into the presence of God, and just to spend time with him. Thank God for the sweet hour of prayer. Thank God for the work of the Holy Ghost. Thank God for the power of the scriptures, and so the way of holy resolve begins before the throne of grace. And it produces in every believer certain desires. So when a person shows that they have very little desire, they seem to be saying, I really don't spend much time with God. Because if you spend time with God, he's going to work on your heart. And listen, he's not going to leave you like you were and cause you to stay stagnant in the Christian life. And there's some times I come to God and I don't know how to pray about. There's some things I've prayed for now for weeks. And I said, God, I need you to teach me how to pray about this. I need you to give me insight. I need the Holy Ghost to impart wisdom. I need the Bible to give principles. I need you to remind me of what the truth says. Thank God so I can walk in God and walk with God in prayer. And so once again the value of prayer and the scriptures are emphasized in this section. And so the Psalmist's daily life was committed to prayer and the practice of the scriptures. A lot of people want a hundred dollar blessing on a five cent commitment. They want to live in Canaan's fair and happy land, but they've not even crossed over Jordan yet. And they've decided they don't want to pay any price if there's some kind of inconvenience to it, or if it's going to include suffering. or separation or holiness, they've already decided they're just gonna go ahead and fake it, fake their way through and try to pretend that they're some kind of spiritual person. But the Psalmist's daily life was committed to prayer and the practice of the scriptures. And these two foundational practices have been discovered by every growing saint to be very vital. In fact, the story of every great Christian achievement is the history of answered prayer, setting them bounds. And listen, if we'd look back around and study our own failures and understand our own faults and our own failures. The Bible said, who can understand these areas? But that person, he starts to look, and they begin to realize that where I failed here is I failed to pray. I failed to keep that thing before God. And not only did I fail to pray, but I failed to consult God through the scriptures. I failed to look into the Bible and find out what God had to say. And so I say tonight, I'm preaching on the way of holy resolve. That's why we looked at all the phrases in verse 45 through the end of the section in verse 48 that say to us, I will or will I. And so these are words of holy resolve. First of all, the psalmist had resolve to pray. And I've already shown you there are two prayers in this section. The first prayer is a plea for God's mercies to come to him. Now you say, Preach, I don't understand. Why would I need mercy? It's because of your sins and your failures. Amen. So he prays and pleads for mercies, not just mercy, but mercies, mercies from God. Secondly, the penman prays for preservation through the scriptures. So let's address that first one. Let thy mercies come unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation according to thy word, verse 41. And so there's the mention here in this section of the mercies of God. Notice here, it's not just mercy, but it is mercies. Every single day, you're gonna need mercies. Every single day. Every day, you're gonna need His mercies. And that is because you have great needs and great failures before the Lord. The first mention of mercies is in Genesis chapter 32 and verse number 10. Jacob is about to go back and meet his brother Esau. and Jacob had not treated Esau the best. And you know the background. I won't preach it all out, but in Genesis 32, verse 10, he said, to God, I'm not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth, which thou hast showed under thy servant. For with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I'm become two bands. So Jacob begins to plead with God for his mercy. Thank God not just for his mercy, but for his mercies. So the first mention of mercies in this chapter is right here in verse 41. The mention of mercy singular is found twice, verse 64 and verse 124. And so in the opening verse of this section, the Psalmist pleads with God for his mercies. He said, God, I need your mercies to come unto me. And every one of us need God's mercies to come to us. And two times in this chapter when he prays for God's mercies, he asks God for his mercies to come to him. His needs were great. In fact, you and I are even failing God in areas that we don't even realize it at the moment. And God, the Holy Spirit points it out when we get before him and he begins to show us our failings and our failures. And so the mention of mercy here is found in the text at the opening of this section. Now, what is the meaning of mercy? The word mercy means to treat an offender better than he deserves. God has treated every one of us better than we deserve. It means to forbear punishment. It means to inflict less than law or justice will warrant. Now, the Bible said, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. Now, you and I have already received much mercy. In fact, before we came to Christ, it's no telling how high the heaps of sins between us and God were. How many of us took God's name in vain. And I'm talking about used it as a curse word. And many today use the name of Jesus Christ as a curse word. How many of us, my friend, blasphemed God? How many of us rebelled against His will? How many of us cast His law behind our back? And God had every right because of His justice. You see, because of God's justice, His holiness said, that sin must be punished. His holiness said, the soul that sinneth it shall die. But thank God when justice calls, I'm glad mercy steps in. And thank God God stepped in on our behalf. There have been many times that I was out there drunk out of my mind. And boy, I could have went to hell. Brother Mark, I would have went screaming into the realms of the damned. I would have heard everybody else moaning and screaming and clawing and suffering. I would have went to hell out of my mind. Oh, but thank God mercy stepped in. God sent protective angels around the vehicle I was in. God stopped somebody from killing me or something bad from happening because he allowed me to come to a place where I'd hear the gospel and take Christ, hallelujah, and accept his marvelous mercy. I say hallelujah for the mercy of God, amen. Years ago, a lady came to Napoleon, the great emperor, and sought a pardon for her son. And she pleaded with the emperor over the impending death sentence that hung over his head. The emperor replied to her that the young man had committed a certain crime, not once, but twice. And because of that, justice called for his death. She said to the emperor, but I don't ask for justice. I plead for mercy. He said, your son does not deserve mercy. She said, sir, it would not be mercy if he deserved it. And mercy is all I ask for. Well, then he said, I will have mercy. Aren't you glad that God has granted mercy? How has he done it? God has granted mercy in the person of Christ. You see, our sins were not passed over in clemency. It was not just a singular part. Thank God Christ died in our place. He tasted death for every man. And thank God the red, rich, royal blood of Christ was given as the ransom payment for my sins. And now God grants mercy for Christ's sake. Hallelujah. It's God's mercy that has spared us. In fact, the Bible said, for great is thy mercy toward me, for thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. Think about it, it's God's mercy that spared us from our sure fate. It's God's mercy that kept us out of hell. I'm telling you, there's a whole lot of us that are sitting here tonight that could have went to hell without God. And some of us could have got our brains blowed out, and we could have got run down by a drunk driver, or we could have shot up and overdosed at a very moment when we were vulnerable. Oh, but hallelujah, there's a God that stepped in by his mercy, and God delivered us from our sure fate. He saved us from justice. He exercised his mercy, and hallelujah tonight, our sure fate became sure mercy, hallelujah. Not only that, but mercy also has kept us and prevented us from getting what we deserve, even in our failings. I noticed this in the penitential Psalms or in the Psalms where the Psalmist is crying out to God in confession of his sins. In Psalm chapter 32, here's what the Psalmist said in Psalm 32 and verse number 10. Psalm 32 and verse number 10. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall come past him about. Psalm 57 and verse number 10. For thy mercy is great unto the heavens and thy truth unto the clouds. In fact, there is a text in Psalm 51. Have mercy upon me, O God. Have mercy upon me according to thy loving kindness. blot out all my transgressions and forgive all my sins. Oh, I'm telling you, you and I have failed God even since we've been saved. And thank God not only did He save us from hell, but He's also spared us from some horrible situations. I'm telling you, I'm preaching tonight about God's amazing mercy, amen. Now listen carefully tonight. God allows us to have His sacred mercy and a special supply of it every day. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Lamentations 3, 22 and 23. Psalm 90, verse 4. Oh, satisfy us early with thy mercy that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Listen, every day that you get up, God has already Hallelujah. I said every day that you get up before the silver sun peeks through the trees, before the sunrise takes place, God has already prepared a special amount of mercy. He knows exactly how much mercy we need. I bless his name. And so there's the mention of mercy. There's the meaning of mercy. And there's the ministry of mercy. He said, even thy salvation. Let thy mercies come unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation. Now, the two words in the New Testament that are sent into the New Testament record by God so we can understand His dealing somewhat are grace and mercy. Grace grants us what we do not deserve. That is, grace grants us the gift of Christ and the gift of eternal life. And then mercy keeps us from getting what we rightfully deserve. Mercy grants salvation and deliverance from God, even in the midst of desperate situations. So the psalmist requests that mercies be granted according to thy word, amen. By the way, there's so many promises of mercy, we don't have time to page through them tonight, but the psalmist is reminding us that he desires God's mercy as it has been sent and stated in God's Word. Eight times he asked God in his petitions about how he needs things and desires them according to the Word of God. Now that tells us how dependent he was upon the scriptures. Now today's Christians live on a smattering of human philosophy and a verse every once in a while. When we really need to be living on verse by verse and maybe a little bit of wisdom from God as we ask him and seek it from him. You say, well, I think, well, just throw that out. Because what we need to do is get our mind settled in this book and say, Lord, I want it according to your word. In fact, that's the way we operate in the Christian life. We want to walk by the scriptures. We want to live by the scriptures. Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone. Thank God, but by every word. that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. This is reminder of how dependent he was on the scriptures and how I desire direction from them by the statement that he makes. You and I learn of God's mercies through the scriptures and we pray for them to come to us according to his word. I like this term in Psalm 119 and I learned these principles of study as I went to Bible college about context and near context. And in this chapter, the Psalmist uses another phrase and it's called tender mercies. Tender mercies. God still has some tender mercies. Now, the psalmist says here, verse 42, Now, the sheer mercies of God and His delivering power would aid the psalmist in answering those who are scornful. who are objectionable or who question the things of God. And there are those that reproach us because we are Christians. It really doesn't matter if you're a conservative Republican or if there ever would be such a one as a conservative Democrat, which I never have met one. It'd be like finding an albino snake. But I believe it's more important that we underscore the fact that we are Bible believing Christians. I remember one day I had been out knocking doors and I went to the food line. I said to my wife, I had someone with me and actually I had to drop them off and then I had to go by the store and get her some things from the store, bring them back and I had to make several other visits and contacts. And I said, I'll go to the store and I'll get this taken care of and I'll be back and I got to go down here and here and here. And so when I got out of the car, I saw these Mormon elders, all of them elders with their little tags on. And so when I saw them, they do what they call a survey, and they ask you questions. And so when I saw them out in the parking lot, I went over two rows of cars, and I said, Lord, I don't have time for this today. I gotta get this stuff, and I gotta go here, here, and here. So I went over two rows of cars, and I was really trying to avoid them. And I could hear the little fella saying, hey, hey, sir, hey. And I just tried to ignore him because I knew the conversation was going to go long. And finally he ran me down before I got to the sidewalk to get into the door. He said, sir, he said, could I ask you a few questions? I said, well, I guess so. I said, I don't have much time. I said, can you make it quick? He said, I'll do the best I can. And the first question he asked me was something about life and eternal life or something like that. And the second question he asked me, I think was, if you knew that the church of Jesus Christ was on this earth today, he said, would you want to know about it? So I said yes to the first two questions. He said, thirdly, he said, if you knew there was another Testament, would you want to find out about that? I said, I said, I'm sorry. I said, I don't understand this question. I said, another Testament. I said, there's an old Testament and a new Testament. I said in the Old Testament that was given by God to Moses, he took the implements of the tabernacle and even the tables and sprinkled them all with blood and ratified that with the blood of a sacrifice. I said, in the New Testament, in Hebrews 8, he said, where a testament is, there must of necessity be the death of a testator. I said, the animal sacrifices died in that old covenant arrangement. In the New Testament, Christ lifted the glass at the last Passover. And then he said, this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many. He went out on Calvary and died for that testament. I said, who died for this one you're talking about? He said, could you tell me again where that verse is? I said, it looks like you haven't been to enough classes. He said, well, you Baptist. I said, who said I was a Baptist? He said, well, what are you? I said, I'm a Christian that believes the Bible and there's only one way to heaven. And that is through the Lord Jesus Christ and his shed blood at Calvary. And I want to say tonight, you and I ought to stay with the Bible. But there's times that we may have to answer someone that reproaches us. The Bible said in Proverbs 26, 4 and 5, some words of wisdom. See, we don't always know when we're supposed to answer a fool. The Bible said, answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou be like unto him. The next verse says, answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit. You say, when do I know? You're going to have to ask God about that. You're going to have to ask the Lord about when to answer and when to not answer. Sometimes you have to let a fool be a fool. by not saying a word. And sometimes that's necessary. But then sometimes you have to let a fool know what a fool he really is. Only God can direct you as to when, because sadly our old fallen nature may want to make all of them look like fools, when in reality we may not need to answer them at the time. So the penman's faith in the Lord through the scriptures and his confidence in God's direction would bring him through the conflicts and challenges of life. He said, for I trust in thy word. Now the first plea is a plea for mercy, right? The second plea in verse 43, he said, So the penman uttered this prayer when it seemed like his mind was troubled, his heart was overshadowed with the clouds of doubt. His earnest desire now is for the truth to remain in his mouth. Now, for it to be in the mouth, it also must be in the mind. For it to be in the mind, it also must be in the heart. So he's asking God to help him to keep the scriptures in him and to keep him in the scriptures. Does that make sense? He's asking God, Lord, keep me in the Bible, and then keep the Bible in me. Keep it in my heart so I can keep it on my lips. Let me hide it, Lord, in my heart. See, he desired for the evidence of God's word dwelling richly in his heart and upon his lips before everyone. Now, there's no doubt that the scriptures meant so much to this penman. In fact, I really believe tonight that if you have this Bible, you have the most valuable book on planet Earth. You've got the most valuable book on planet Earth. Now, you may not think about your Bible that way, but you need to think about it. So I begin to look and think about what is the most valuable secular book monetarily or manuscript in the world today. The most valuable secular book in the world in terms of the highest price paid at auction is the Codex Lester by Leonardo da Vinci. It's a 72-page manuscript of Vinci's scientific journal that contains his thoughts and theories, observations on topics like astronomy and the movement of the water. It was sold at Auxin in 1994. It was sold for $30.8 million in 1994 to Bill Gates. With inflation and the increase of value today, its present value has over doubled the price. Now in 2025, it's worth $63.3 million. Now that manual from Leonardo da Vinci will not hold a candle to the book you have in front of you tonight. "'The law of thy mouth is better unto me "'than thousands of gold and silver.'" Psalm 119, verse 72. So the psalmist evidently says he needs the scripture in every way in this section. In verse 47 and 48, he confesses the love that he has for it. In verse 42, he mentions that he had trusted it. He hoped in it, verse 43. And now he prays that the word of truth will not be missing from his lips. I often think about my family members that have died before me. My mom and dad had significant memory challenges before they left this world. I often wonder how it's all gonna happen for me. as I get older. There was a time, if you read a verse from the Bible, I could just about tell you what book and what chapter it was in. My memory's not that sharp today, but the Bible is still very valuable. The Word of Truth is the scriptural answer that he would offer the scoffer in verse 42. It's the biblical truths he needed, not only for his own heart, but also to answer sinners and saints throughout his life. And I found out if the truth of God is hidden in the heart, it can also be heralded with the lips. Verse number 46 says, I will speak of our testimonies also before kings and will not be ashamed. His final resolve is for his lips and his life to say the same thing. He wants to have it on his lips, but also he wants it to be seen in his life. Verse 44, so shall I keep thy law continually forever and ever. You see, I said to you before, as we preach from this section, he's a lifelong learner. You stop learning, you stop living. He's a lifelong liver of the scriptures. And so he's praying now, Lord, please don't let me get to the point where it's not in my mouth. You know, the amazing thing is I've visited so many people in the nursing home and you'd be surprised at how much they remember. Sometimes their eyesight is failing. Well, I had one dear saint tell me, I mean, probably one of the most godly older men I ever met. He said, preacher, I've got cataracts on my eyes, I'm supposed to have surgery. He said, but I got to admit, I'm misreading my Bible. He said, I can't see it. But I remember sitting with him time after time in that room, in that little place where I preached. And oftentimes he would quote over a dozen verses in our conversations. And I said in my mind as a young man, I said, Lord, he hid that in his heart before he lost his sight and kept it there all these years. God used that seasoned saint to encourage me as a young man to do the very same thing. To get God's Word in my mind, in my heart, and to pray that I can live it out in my life. Let's stand together tonight with our heads bowed.