On the Fourth of July we went to Washington, D.C., and while there, we watched the fireworks. I love fireworks anywhere, but I especially loved these because the finale was spectacular!
This section of Psalm 119 is the finale! It is a veritable fireworks of blessings that come to us through the Word of God, the Bible.
Taw Let my cry come before you, O Lord;
give me understanding according to your word!
Let my plea come before you;
deliver me according to your word.
My lips will pour forth praise,
for you teach me your statutes.
My tongue will sing of your word,
for all your commandments are right.
Let your hand be ready to help me,
for I have chosen your precepts.
I long for your salvation, O Lord,
and your law is my delight.
Let my soul live and praise you,
and let your rules help me.
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant,
for I do not forget your commandments (Psalm 119:169-176).
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God (Colossians 3:16).
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 (1 Peter 1:22-25).
Sustenance for the Journey
It is important to have sustenance for your journey. I was reminded of one form of sustenance on a recent trip with my son. We rode up to the SmokeyMountains and went fly fishing. While on this trip, I came across a big sign that advertised cat-head biscuits. Some of you know how much I love cat-heads. A cat-head biscuit is just a really big biscuit. The thought of a big, hot, fluffy, cat-head biscuit, with a slight brown crust on the top and creamy white on the interior and a large smear of real butter melting in the middle, was just too much for me to bear. We stopped and I went in to get two. I ate mine, but my son had just had breakfast somewhere else, so I said, “Just save it for Momma.” But the first one was so good that I announced that I thought the other biscuit wouldn’t be any good by the time we would get home to Momma, and I ate it, too. Now cat-head biscuits are important to me because when I was about to take a long trip, my Aunt Eva would take these big biscuits and wrap them up in aluminum foil and I would put them in my jacket to be eaten later in the trip.
We all need sustenance for our journey. The journey of life is getting more hazardous and complicated. I don’t know if things are changing or if it is the reality of twenty-four-hour news shows and the Internet showing us what was always there anyway, but my heart has been greatly alarmed.
I cannot remember a time when there were more shootings in schools. In the span of one week, we have been shocked by the shooting of ten Amish girls in a one-room school, five of whom died; the shooting of a principle in a rural Wisconsin school; and a drifter killing his hostage, a sixteen-year-old girl, in Colorado.
I have to tell you, I need help. I think of our children and the post-Christian, increasingly violent society they will have to face. They are going to need food for their journey.
The psalmist concludes the longest Psalm with a seven-fold blessing for those who will open their hearts to believe in His Word. We are going to explore these seven blessing of the Word.
The Word Brings Understanding in Times of Trouble
Let my cry come before you, O Lord;
give me understanding according to your word! (Psalm 119:169).
The psalmist cries for understanding according to God’s Word. God’s Word gives insight into the plight of man and the power of God. It gives understanding that transcends the wisdom of this world, not only to see your situation, but to see through it.
Jesus gave understanding to disciples on the Road to Emmaus:
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:45-47).
This shows that we not only need to study the Scriptures, but we need to add prayer to our study that we may understand. M’Cheyne tells us,
When you have a question about the Scriptures, take it to Jesus. He is the answer.
Embrace the life of our Lord, and you will be given the light of understanding that will help you along your way.
The Word Brings Deliverance in Places of Bondage
Let my plea come before you;
deliver me according to your word (Psalm 119:170).
The psalmist cries for deliverance for he was surely in bondage. If this was David writing, as I believe it was, he was surely one who had sought God’s deliverance—from lions and bears as a boy in the fields with his sheep; as a young man facing Goliath; as a young man facing Saul, a madman jealous of his kingdom. But the greatest bondage David faced was the bondage of his own sin. Someone told me recently that they did not like David because his sins were so many. And it is true. But God shows us David and Peter and others that we may see ourselves in the Word and see that we need deliverance—from ourselves, our unbelief, our fears, our grudges. The Word made flesh brings that deliverance.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, (Luke 4:18, kjv).
The word brings deliverance by pointing to the Deliverer, Jesus Christ.
The Word Brings Singing
My lips will pour forth praise,
for you teach me your statutes.
My tongue will sing of your word,
for all your commandments are right (Psalm 119:171-172).
The psalmist’s tongue cannot keep quiet about what God has done. I think of Wesley’s hymn of the Great Awakening:
O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!
If there is anything we need in our world today it is to sing—not for just anything but for the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
The other day I was listening to the CD recording from the award winning PBS series by Ken Burns, The Civil War. One of the songs from that era is a song of slaves called:
We are climbing Jacob’s ladder,
We are climbing Jacob’s ladder,
We are climbing Jacob’s ladder,
Soldiers of the cross
Every round goes higher and higher,
Every round goes higher and higher,
Every round goes higher and higher,
Soldiers of the cross
As I listened to the tremendous recording in the Spiritual genre that conjures up images of that time, I was amazed that they could sing about climbing higher and higher while they lived under bondage. They were, to me, like caged songbirds singing for the love of the Lord.
Christianity is a religion of singing. For though we have been slaves of sin, slaves of our own passions; yet, there is, through faith in Jesus, a dramatic snapping of the chain, an unshackling of the manacles, and in Jesus we see our freedom, our future, our righteousness.
The Word Brings Help in Our Time of Need
Let your hand be ready to help me,
for I have chosen your precepts (Psalm 119:173).
The psalmist seeks the help of the Lord because He has chosen the precepts of the Lord. When you receive God’s Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, into your life, you have help. You have help for your wounds, help for your questions.
When Paul’s journey, directed by God Himself, led him to Rome and to chains for the gospel, Paul sought to encourage others. And he reminded them,
for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, (Philippians 1:19).
What are you facing? Today is a day to turn to God for help.
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:16).
This is a great blessing of the Word. The Word of Christ brings help in your time of need.
The Word Brings Salvation in Our Seasons of Longing
I long for your salvation, O Lord,
and your law is my delight. Psalms 119:174 (ESV)
One of the paradoxical things about being a true believer in Jesus is that you begin to know longing like you have never known it before. You never longed for God before you knew Him. But afterward, you long for Him and for His salvation The psalmist is not saying that you long to be saved over and over again, but that you long for the sanctifying virtues of Christ to reach every part of your life and your world. You long for God to be known in your family. You long for God’s salvation to come to your workplace, your school, and your friends. Jesus said those who long are happy and favored by God:
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6).
The Word gives us hope that in Jesus our longing will be filled. Salvation is on its way in every area of life. This world is under the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.
The Word Brings Life in the Presence of Death
Let my soul live and praise you,
and let your rules help me (Psalm 119:175).
The Word brings life to the human soul, a life that will never end, and therefore, because we praise Him with our lives, our praise goes on forever.
“For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40).
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life (John 6:47).
I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand (John 10:28).
And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (John 17:3).
John gives us the reason for the writing of his gospel:
but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20:31).
The Word, which brought a world out of nothing, can bring a new life out of an old dead soul. God’s Word can bring life to relationships. God’s Word can bring life to broken dreams. God’s Word can bring new life to your faith.
The Word Brings God’s Seeking Us When We Go Astray
I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant,
for I do not forget your commandments (Psalms 119:176).
The psalmist has just written the greatest treatise of the Word of God and its blessings and benefits. He ends it by saying, “Lord, I have gone astray.” Can you know the Word of God and yet go astray? Yes. Many of you may be in that condition. You grew up hearing the Word of God but you have left the Word.
The psalmist says that he has gone astray like a lost sheep, but then there is an imperative, “Seek your servant.” He knows the nature of God is to seek us when we go astray.
One of my favorite blue grass songs is by Ron Block says, “I’m not holding on to Jesus, He’s holding on to me.”[1]
Maybe you are that lost lamb. Maybe grief has made you loosen you grip. Maybe confusion about God or His will in your life has made you stop holding on. Maybe there is a child who feels like an outsider, who feels different, lonely, and you are losing your grip.
My beloved, if you have trusted in Him by faith, you are His and He will never lose his grip on you and He will seek you.
One time I heard Aunt Eva calling. I had done something wrong and I didn’t know if she knew, but when she called I thought I had had it. I finally responded and confessed what I had done. But she had just called to see if I was all right because she hadn’t seen me. She had missed me.
Don’t let your guilt over your sin, your remorse, and your sense of unworthiness make you think that He is not looking for you. He is calling you, not to scold you, but to welcome you home again. He has been seeking you,
Conclusion
The Word of God makes a difference. We have seen the seven-fold blessings in this last section of Psalm 119—Understanding, Deliverance, Singing, Help, Salvation, Life, and Seeking. We talked about food for the journey and about how hard the journey is getting in this post-Christian culture.
But maybe there is something to learn. Maybe in the midst of the increasing complexity and hazards of this journey, the Word of God causes us to be a “peculiar people,” as Peter puts it; not weird peculiar, but distinctive, different—in a word, holy. And what if the difference brings attention to God’s love?
Differences in theology and our understanding of God’s grace not withstanding, you cannot but be amazed as you read the reports of the Amish families who lost their daughters and of the communities who are bearing this horrific tragedy. The cousin of Mary Liz and Lena Zook, sisters who were killed in the schoolhouse, said this to a reporter:
We don’t understand why this happened…and it’s hard to accept. But God has a plan because he allowed this to happen. His ways are so much higher than ours. We try to accept his will and just keep on going. That is why we are able to forgive....
Mrs. Rita Rhoads, a midwife in the community who delivered two of the slain girls said this:
...if you don’t live in Jesus, and you suffer the loss of a child...you would be in utter despair, without hope, because you would think of your dead child as a pile of dust.
But these...children who were killed have gone to heaven. Their families know this. So there may be quiet sobbing at the funerals. But God’s peace filled the girls at the time of their death. And God’s peace fills their families now. That is why they can forgive. And that is why they will heal.[2]
The truth of Jesus, the power of the Word, brings forgiveness and works healing. The difference that transfixes the world is not in your clothes or your austere lifestyle. It is the Word of Jesus Christ lived. This is the difference.
One of the girls, thirteen-year-old Marian Fisher asked the killer, Charles Carl Roberts IV, to shoot her first and let the younger children live. He shot her and she died. Then her sister, eleven-year-old Barbie, asked the murderer to shoot her next but she lived.[3]
The woman who brought these girls into the world made one of the most amazing statements:
God was really present....
In a one-room Amish schoolhouse that became a human slaughterhouse, of little girls no less, God was really present.
In the hearts of brokenhearted parents, God was really present. On a Friday afternoon, when the Son of God was abandoned to take the sins of the world on the cross, Jesus spoke, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” and the One who spoke the universe into being out of nothing, spoke a new way of life into being.
When there is no other place to go, only the Word will do.
You have a journey to make and a life to live. God has given you sustenance. Take it and eat it joyfully. It is life for you.
[1] Online: http://www.ronblock.com/music/holdingon.html.
[2] Dan Geringer, A Day of Mourning and Forgiveness (Phillynews.com, 2006 [cited October 7 2006]); Online: http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/15692297.htm.
[3] Reuters, Family Friend: Amish Girl Asked to Be Shot to Save Others (Reuters, 2006 [cited October 7 2006]); Online: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/06/amish.girls.reut/index.html.