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Sermon
Bethlehem College & Seminary

God’s Word in 3D

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August 18, 2024
Psalms 119:1-16
Brian Tabb

The Bible

Worship

Suffering & Trials

Identity in Christ

Transcript

0:15Good morning everyone. I'm grateful to Pastor Steven for the invitation to preach God's word this morning as one expression of the deep partnership between Bethlehem College and Seminary and the North Church where I'm glad to call my church home. As we look together at this glorious text in Psalm one 19, my aim is to stoke our love for God and for His word. So join me in prayer, Lord, where else can we go? You have the words of life. I pray, Lord, that you would open our eyes to see wonderful things in your book. Incline our hearts to your testimonies. We want to taste and see for the first time, for the 10000th time that you are good, ask for your help.

1:20In Jesus' name, amen. This summer, my family trekked out west to see the Grand Canyon, one of our country's most spectacular national parks. The canyon is vast 277 miles long, about 18 miles wide in places and over a mile deep covering about 1900 square miles. The canyon is roughly the size of the state of Delaware. It's larger than Rhode Island. Millions of visitors flock to the canyon each year, but only a few of them see the canyon on the trail.

2:13Almost all of them just stay at the rim, get a quick selfie, hit the gift shop, hit the road. This morning we're considering Psalm one 19, which is the longest chapter in the Bible. We could call it the Grand Psalm, weighing in at 176 verses. This single Psalm is longer than some whole books of our Bible, like Ruth or James. This Psalm includes many familiar treasured verses such as verse 1 0 5. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Or verse 11, I've stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you, but studying this psalm or trying to preach it is a bit like setting off on a hike to the bottom of the canyon.

3:17As our family was hiking a steep trail this summer, one of my weary kids said something like, what's so special about this big hole in the ground? These rocks all seem to look the same. You might have similar thoughts about our text today. Nearly every verse of the grand Psalm refers to the sacred scriptures using one of eight different words, law or Torah, God's moral instruction, testimonies, enduring witnesses to God and his will, precepts what God appoints statutes, what the law giver has laid down commandments, what the holy one has ordered, rules or judgments, God's evaluation of what is right word, what God has said, promise God's commitment to the future.

4:19These words each refer in one way or another to the Old Testament scriptures which are inspired by God and which point us to our savior Jesus Christ. He perfectly obeyed God's law and fulfilled God's promises. That's why we as new covenant believers, trust and treasure Jesus' Bible. But at this point you might be thinking, okay, I get it. Law rules word. It sounds a bit like the B-I-B-L-E. Yes, that's the book for me on repeat for 45 minutes. If that's you, stay with me as I told my family in the canyon this summer. Let's keep going. Let's press on because there are wonders to behold below the rim.

5:13If your Bibles are open to Psalm one 19, you'll probably notice some headings along the way. In the first one, just above verse one says, olive, you might not know that word because it's Hebrew. That's the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which is pointing us to the structure, the intricate design of this biblical poem. It is an acrostic going through each letter of the Hebrew alphabet from A to Z, so to speak, 22 stanzas each with eight verses. Each stanza corresponds to the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, olive bait, gimel, and so forth. Now, this careful crafting is interesting and impressive, but why does it matter to us, especially if we don't read Hebrew?

6:12We consider once again the analogy of the Grand Canyon. The mighty Colorado River runs through the canyon with its sheer rock walls, and in the same way the poetic form of this beautiful psalm provides the walls, the structure through which a river of passion and praise flows. This author was so captivated by the loveliness of God's words, so confident in its truthfulness that he penned the Bible's longest, most intricate poem celebrating the scriptures that God gave us for our good. The title of this message is God's Word in 3D. I don't have special glasses to pass out this morning, but as we reflect on Psalm one 19, I hope to stoke our love for God and his word, that we might trust it and treasure it with all our hearts.

7:22We will not systematically cover every verse, but I want to explore three themes, three trails in and through this grand Psalm, devotion, dependence, and delight. That's the outline for today, devotion, dependence, and delight. These three D's will I hope, renew and deepen our personal experience with God's precious word. The first theme we'll consider is devotion, orienting our minds, hearts and lives to God and his word. The psalmist is confident that God is true and faithful and he is committed to receiving God's instruction and to letting it shape his whole life. Verses one through three provide important orientation to the Psalm and capture this emphasis on heartfelt devotion to God and his word we read.

8:23Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Bless are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways. The double blessing in the opening two verses reminds us of the first Psalm which begins, blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord. Blessed in the Bible means truly happy and favored by God. Our society defines the good life by our accumulation of stuff, by our achievements and our autonomy, but the grand Psalm shows us that the good life is actually found in seeking the true God, keeping his ways and being happy in him.

9:17After only three verses of speaking about God, the psalmist can't help but talk to him. Notice the shift beginning in verse four, where we see I in you. This I in you language carries through the rest of the entire Psalm. We think of this psalm as the great Psalm about God's word, but as David Palin says it, it's actually the most extensive I to you conversation in the whole Bible. This is a very personal prayer. It is passionate and it is honest, a heartfelt prayer of a believer who earnestly seeks the living God and hangs on God's every word, time and again. The psalmist rehearses precious truths about who God is and what he has done.

10:19Listen to a few examples. The Lord is my portion. The earth, oh Lord, is full of your steadfast love. You are good and you do good. Your hands have made me and fashioned me. Your faithfulness endures to all generations. You're my hiding place in my shield. Righteous are you oh Lord, right? Are your rules you are near. Oh Lord, great is your mercy. When we hear these sorts of praises, our hearts should sing. Yes. Such truths inspire our commitment to God's word and our confidence in his promises. Notice the progression in verses four through eight, he says, you've commanded your precepts to be kept diligently, and then he prays, oh, that my ways may be steadfast and keeping your statutes and then notice his resolve In verses seven and eight, I will praise you with an upright heart.

11:29When I learn your righteous rules, I will keep Your statutes. Did you hear the the progression from you? You've said, keep my rules, Lord, help me keep them. I want to keep them. I will keep them. That's the progression of faith that we see throughout this psalm. The next stanza under the heading bait reiterates this earnest devotion to God's word. The psalmist asks an all important question, how can a young man keep his way pure? Many of the young people around this congregation need to think about that question. We have an answer by guarding it according to your word and then notice the the prayer of devotion with my whole heart.

12:27I seek you. Let me not wander from your commands. In other words, I know what you've said. I'm seeking you with my whole heart and I need your help to stay on track. This psalm summons us to a life of deep devotion marked by confidence in God's word and wholehearted commitment to his ways. This first trail through the grand Psalm orients us to what is true, right and good, and it motivates us to trust God and to seek him. The word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, so the worshiper praise teach me, oh Lord, lead me, guide me. Help me. We need this sort of orientation because our lives often feel disorienting.

13:20We need light from God's word because we often face darkness. That leads us to the second theme of our Psalm dependence as we consider God's word in 3D, devotion, dependence, delight. Let's return to the analogy of hiking through the canyon. Devotion is like checking the map, choosing your route and setting off with eager expectation. Dependence is when you're hours into the hike and you're tired, hot and hurting all over. You might also feel disoriented and wonder if you're even going the right way or if you're gonna get there.

14:01Delight is the lifting of your spirits as the trail leads you to a shady spot where you can refill your empty canteen with cold water and see a spectacular waterfall not visible from the rim. By dependence, I mean trusting God. Through disorienting trials, we move from the prayer of devotion. Teach me to the desperate plea. Help me friends. This psalm is not a text for Christians whose lives are neat and tidy, but those who feel needy and tired. The psalmist identifies himself as a sojourner on the earth and we see more of this neediness in the fourth stanza under the heading Dallet, He writes, my soul clings to the dust.

14:58Gimme life according to your word. My soul melts away for sorrow. Strengthen me according to your word. I clinging to your testimony. Oh Lord, let me not be put to shame. He's clinging to the dust and clinging to God's word at the same time. That's the life of faith. Look ahead to the seventh stands as Zion, which elaborates further on the writer's troubles beginning in verse 50. This is my comfort in my affliction that your promise gives me life. The insolent utterly deride me down to verse 53. Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked who forsake your law here for the first time, the saint speaks directly about his affliction or suffering, which becomes a prominent theme in this psalm.

15:56Listen to a few examples. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. It was good for me that I was afflicted. I know oh Lord, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. If your law had not been my delight, I would've perished in my affliction. I'm severely afflicted. Gimme life. Oh Lord, look on my affliction and deliver me This worshiper weeps. He lies awake at night. He longs for deliverance. He cries for help. Much of his pain evidently comes from other people. He calls them the insolent or the wicked. Hear how he speaks to God about these disorienting trials. The insolent utterly deride me.

16:58The insulate smear me with lies. The insent have dug pitfalls for me. The wicked lie and wait to destroy me. The wicked have laid a snare for me. Lord, let not the wicked oppress me. Think of King David on the run from his father-in-law Saul or later on the run from his own son, Absalom. Think of David's greater son, Jesus, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Our king who was mocked, betrayed, abandoned, accused, tortured and killed. Through it all, Christ said, I have come to do your will. Oh God, as it is written of me in the book, look now ahead at verse 81 and following, which is the dramatic center of the Psalm.

18:01Here, the believer hits rock bottom. My soul longs for your salvation. I hope in your word, my eyes long for your promise. When will you comfort me for I have become like a wine skin 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 insulin have dug pitfalls for me. They don't live according to your law. All your commandments are sure they persecute me with falsehood. Help me. They've almost made an end to me on earth, but I have not forgotten your precepts. He feels like a wine skin in the smoke. He is spent burned out, shriveled up, cast aside.

19:05Think of Joseph sold by his brothers and forgotten in an Egyptian prison or job sitting in the ashes scraping himself with a broken pot or Jeremiah at the bottom of a muddy cistern. The worshiper cries out How long? How long? When? Help me. He can't see a way out. He is almost done, and yet he holds on to God's promise and that is how light pierces through the darkness and turns his desperation to confident joy.

20:02Look at verse 89. He says, forever. Oh Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens. Your faithfulness endures to all generations. Down to verse 93, I will never forget your precepts for by them. You have given me life. What a turn. Charles Spurgeon writes After tossing about on a sea of trouble, the psalmist here leaps to shore and stands upon a rock. Yet even to the last verse of this grand psalm, the author longs for God and recognizes his need for God. Verse 1 76 reads these surprising words, I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant. For I do not forget, your commandments gone astray.

21:13Why would this biblical author end the grandest psalm, the most extended meditation on the glories of God's word by saying, I've gone astray. It feels anticlimactic. Surprising. Does this Psalm end with a whimper? Remember earlier the the poet has confidently expressed that he's seeking after the Lord. He said, I do not stray from your precepts yet here as we come to the end of the poem, and he stands before the holy God and considers God's perfect standards, he's mindful of his own sin. Those dark places in his heart prone to wander. Lord, I feel it.

22:14This is the prayer of one who is poor in spirit, one who knows need, and one who has tasted the grace of God towards sinful people. The Ps Solomon seeks God with his whole heart, but he also needs the divine shepherd to seek him. As Christians. We remember that Jesus is our good shepherd. He came to seek and to save needy sheep like us. We've considered the first two themes of devotion and dependence, and now we turn to our last trail through the grand Psalm Delight 10 times. The writer says that he delights in God's word. For example, in the way of your testimonies, I delight as much as in all riches.

23:10Your testimonies are my delight. They're my counselors. I find my delight in your commands, which I love. I long for your salvation, oh Lord, and your law is my delight. This emphasis on delight takes us back again to Psalm one. Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law. Our psalmist sings because of the supreme value he sees in God's book. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver. He says, I love your commandments above gold, above find gold. Indeed. The scriptures are a savory feast. He says in verse 1 0 3, how sweet are your words to my taste? They're sweeter than honey to my mouth.

24:10Remember that this worshiper who joyfully exalts in the in, in the Lord, in his word, has endured days of distress, sleepless nights and countless afflictions. He thought his life was done. He felt used up and worn out like a smoking wine skin cast aside, and God met him in that place of darkness and distress sustained him through the valley and brought him in to a place of abundance so he rests and revels in God's faithful word like a home cooked meal is particularly satisfying after a strenuous hike, so the word becomes even more precious to believers in and through times of trial. Friends, is that your story?

25:10Have you tasted this sweet comfort and joy in the Lord through tough times? I pray you have for that you will. For many years, this church and the school that I lead have emphasized the biblical calls to delight ourselves in the Lord, to treasure Christ in all of life. Even as we remember that in this life we are sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. This Psalms, deep delight in God's word, invites us to taste and see for the first time or for the 10000th time that the Lord is good, that we were made to be happy in him. We've considered three themes, three trails through the alm devotion, dependence, and delight.

26:09Devotion is orienting our minds and hearts and lives to God. Who is faithful and true. Dependence is trusting God's promises. Through disorienting trials, delight is resting and reveling in the goodness of God. Devotion says, teach me. Dependence cries. Help me. Delight says, satisfy me. Throughout this psalm, we have a personal prayer of a humble worshiper whose heart is captured by the living God and his life-giving word. As I've said, my aim is to encourage each of us to love God and his word more. Most of us would quickly affirm that the Bible is true inspired by God in errand. It's in our member affirmation of faith.

27:18We might even affirm the importance of regular Bible intake, but our actual experience of reading the Bible sometimes feels dull or distracted or disappointing. It's a bit of a letdown. What keeps us from consistent, meaningful, joyful times of communion with God over his word. From reading the Bible in 3D, I wanna consider two obstacles to devotional, to dependent, delightful communion with God through his word. First distraction. According to a recent survey, 89% of Americans say that they check their smartphones within 10 minutes of waking up. That was you this morning. Don't need to show of hands.

28:19That's the stat. 89%. The average adult spends over four hours a day on their smartphone, some many more social media, breaking news notification, sports scores, games, streaming videos. All these and more can easily distract our minds and hearts and make it difficult to focus on our work, on our relationships and on our God. Do you know how long it takes to read through the whole Bible? It's about 75 hours, which adds up to about 12 minutes per day. Psalm one 19, the longest chapter in the Bible takes about 16 minutes to read. I listened to it several times this week just driving back and forth to work.

29:17If your Bible reading has been distracted, then you have the opportunity to start a new pattern. Scripture before smartphone, power down your device, set aside regular time each day to commune with God over his word. It will be worth It. Your devotions can begin with that simple decision. Scripture before smartphone and prayers from this psalm can help prepare your heart to hear from God. Can pray, open my eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of your law. Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things. Give me life according to your ways. That's distraction. Now, let's think about discouragement.

30:09Perhaps that's your, your main difficulty in your devotional life. You read your Bible most days. You might even attend Bible studies, but you just don't seem to get much out of it. What you're reading doesn't stir your tired heart. It doesn't seem to connect with the challenges that you're facing this week. If that's your situation, if take heart, remember that the worshiper who penned this grand Psalm experienced suffering and sleeplessness and sorrow, and he's again and again crying out for God to help him.

30:52He knows what to do, but needs help, needs fresh reminders, fresh, fresh promptings, fresh grace, and remember that our savior sympathizes with us in our weakness. May the words of Psalm one 19 be your words. I'm severely afflicted, so gimme life. Oh Lord, according to your words, I rise before dawn. I'm crying for help. I hope in your words, I've gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek your servant. You are my good shepherd. If you are feeling distracted or discouraged today, if you are feeling anxious or afflicted, the grand Psalm holds out a fresh vision for you of the God who is strong and kind, who has graciously given us his precious word.

31:55I pray that the Lord will meet each of us in powerful ways as we trust God and treasure his life-giving word. Let's pray. Lord, we do need you to turn our eyes from worthless things. We want to fix our eyes on Jesus, our good shepherd, our merciful and faithful high priest. The word made flesh, we believe, Lord, help our unbelief. Many of us have tasted and seen in the past that you are good. We have been stirred by your word, and I pray that you would take your word and and and plant it deep in us and cause it to bear lasting fruit in our lives. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Jump to live

Jump to live

Sermon Text

Psalms 119:1-16

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