How I Love Your Word
Psalm 119:89-105
This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the morning service on Sunday, January 31, 2010
We are taking an unexpected break from Ephesians this morning. I had an experience a few days ago which I found profoundly disturbing. I will not give you the details but I will tell you the result. It left me desperate for Scripture and with a desire to focus on Scripture this morning. So we are diverting from Ephesians to look at that which God has given us as our light.
The Bible ought to be our lifeblood. It ought to be said of us as Charles Spurgeon said of John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress: “Prick him anywhere, and he bleeds Bible.” The Bible ought to saturate our lives so that it flows out in everything we do. Too often our lives are more like the words of John Piper who said, “Let it not be said of the King’s heralds: ‘Prick him and he bleeds movies.’” I want my ministry at Immanuel to be one of helping people grow in their love of God and, because the Bible is God’s Word, grow in their love of Scripture and find the Bible to be a greater source of delight than anything the world has to offer. So in this service I offer a different sort of sermon. This sermon is a prayer of thanksgiving, of supplication, of confession, and of intercession.
Father, I thank you for your Word. I thank you that you have not left us blind but have shown us yourself. You are the master painter and have taken the canvas of Scripture to paint in these pages the picture of your truth. You are the great writer who has created language by which you might be known and then have used language to reveal yourself to us. You have not remained distant from us but have revealed yourself through the Bible.
In this Word we learn that you are creator. You spoke all things into existence and made man your crowning achievement. In your Word we learn that man was not content to be the shining treasure of God. We wanted to be god and so we disobeyed. In the garden we cast ourselves at the feet of your enemy and we have served him ever since. By your grace there have been some who were faithful, some who trusted you, some who abided by your Word. And it was only by your grace that they had your Word to begin with. You could have wiped us out but in love you showed us mercy and grace.
Father, it is your Word that tells us of your Son, Jesus Christ, who took on flesh and made his dwelling among us. We deserve wrath and Hell but we received the Son of God and through your Son the promise of the gospel was extended to everyone. So many have rejected. So many have turned aside. So many have despised the Words you have spoken. But again by your grace you have chosen some to be children. By your grace, they have believed. By your grace you have brought your children into your kingdom. By your grace you have given us work to do so that our lives are not meaningless and empty but are rich as we proclaim your glory throughout the earth. Oh God, by your grace you have given us your very presence! The Spirit of God to dwell within us! By you grace we know that one day your Son will return and will carry us to paradise. Not my hand but thine will lead me safely to that land.
Father, I would know none of these things if not for your Word. So many riches and treasures are found in these pages, and so many more things that I have not mentioned. I feel the passion of your servant David as he wrote these words in Psalm 119:89-105: 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 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. Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
Oh how I love your law! Make it my meditation all the day! Make me like the wise man of Psalm 1:2 who has his delight in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. Father it is to my disgrace and it is my sin that I neglect this gift of yours. I have sinned every time I sought comfort from television rather than from you. I have sinned every time I sought instruction from magazines rather than from your Word. I have sinned every time I neglected Scripture for entertainment. Lord forgive me! I am such a wicked and wayward person. Set my sights on your law. And like Psalm 119:18, open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.Your law, your Word, your precepts, your revelation is glorious. When I look into the sky the stars fill me with wonder. When I stare over the ocean I am filled with awe. When I gaze upon the mountains I am amazed. When I stand before your Word I am blown away. And yet I do not love Scripture as I ought.
Father, the world draws me! All around distractions abound! Even in your church there stand a host of those who do not uphold your Word. Give us discerning hearts! Give us the wisdom to know when we are being led astray! Make us so tuned to Scripture that the warning goes off the moment someone would lead us the wrong way. Father, you have given us the tuning fork. You have given us the warning light. Cast aside all our distractions and fill us with your Word.
Day and night, Lord, day and night, make us to meditate on this Bible. Help us to think and give us understanding. You offer this promise through Paul in 2 Timothy 2:7, Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. Father, we do not trust you enough. We do not live as though Proverbs 2:6 were true, that the Lord gives wisdom; from your mouth come knowledge and understanding. We are quick to speak highly of your Word but just as quick to turn aside and rely on the teachings of men. Lord, you have blessed the church with countless teachers and writers whose works can help us as we think about your Word but let it be your Word that they teach us. So many would give us the world’s philosophies. It is only your Word that give us light and it is you that gives us understanding.
Teach us to think deeply about the Bible. Teach us to meditate on it day and night. Stir us to memorize your Word, to keep it in our hearts, to trust that when we study, you will give understanding. And make us patient, knowing that you are the eternal wise God who knows when it is best for us to understand the things we find confusing.
And Father there are so many things in Scripture that shock us. Let us not turn aside from these difficulties. Let us not be quick to accept explanations that make us comfortable but let us wrestle with God in the tent of Jacob, for even if we are left with a limp, we will come through it having been blessed by you. Even if understanding takes us years, never let us give up on hard texts.
Father, you have not just given us Scripture. You have not just promised understanding. You have given us the Holy Spirit to lead us to understanding. In Isaiah 11:2 we learn of the Spirit that filled your Son: And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. This same Spirit is the one given to your children, the promise of 1 Corinthians 2:12 that we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
People in the world do not have this promise nor do they have understanding of your Word. You have said of them in 1 Corinthians 2:14, The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. They laugh, they scoff, they put us down. But you sustain us. Your Spirit fills us. By your Spirit you give us understanding of your Word. Apart from the Spirit, there is no understanding of your Word. But we also know, Father, that apart from your Word the Spirit gives no understanding. What will he help us understand if we do not meditate on your Word, if we do not think about these things written in the Bible? So let us have your Spirit, and stir us to study the Bible.
Father, give us understanding. Teach us how to live. Teach us how to behave as sons and daughters of God. Teach us how to serve you well and carry out the work you have for us. You told us in Ephesians 2:10 that we are your workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which you prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. We are born again in Jesus Christ, raised with him in new life, and raised to walk not in the world’s ways but in your way. You saved us to serve you, to do good works, works which you planned and prepared before the ages began.
How can we know how to live out those works? What can prepare us for every good work you have prepared? Thank you Father that here again we are brought back to your Word, for 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us that all Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
Teach us, then, to study your Word. Teach us to understand Scripture. Make us passionate to dive deep into these waters and emerge with precious jewels of truth and life. Your Word, these pages which are breathed out by you, is the means you have given us for growth and service. You equip us through Scripture. You make us competent to fulfill our calling through Scripture. You have not cast us into the world and told us to figure out your will on our own. You have given us light in your Word to train us for godliness, as we see in 1 Timothy 4:6-8: If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.
Lord, how I love your law. Make it my meditation day and night so that I might be trained for godliness, equipped to carry out the work you have called me to do.
So, Father, as Paul writes in Colossians 3:2, set our minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Set our minds on Christ and fill us with his Word. Make your Word our delight. Our souls are dry and battered. We are weak and frail. The enemy howls and rages all about us. We are so quick to grasp at anything looking like hope but let us settle for nothing but your Word.
Father, you know what it was that disturbed me so. Thank you for experiences that drive me closer to your Word. I pray for myself and for those others and for these who are here today that we would find our rest in you and in the rich waters of your Word. Open our eyes to behold wondrous things in your law. Make us to love the Bible and to read it and to study it and to talk about it and to memorize it and to dwell on it day and night and to speak it everywhere we go and to recite it back to you in prayer and to praise you for it and to never, ever find your Word a dull thing. May it be for us like the Psalmist in Psalm 40:8-10 who spread your Word wherever he went: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.
Thank you that we are your children and that you have given us such good gifts. May we never neglect your Word.