Psalm 119: Nurturing Passion For God
How To View God’s Commands
Psalm 119:1-8
Let’s turn to Psalm 119. If you need a Bible, go ahead and raise your hand and we will bring one to you. Psalm 119 is on page 512 in the Bibles we are passing out.
While you are turning there I want you to think about how you view God’s commands? How do you feel when you hear God say things like –
Be devoted to prayer;
Love your enemies;
Or -- forgive those who hurt you.
Too many of us, when we hear God’s commands, feel burdened, weighed down, oppressed. But in the first eight verses of Psalm 119 the psalmist gives us a picture of God’s commands that will free us from feeling burdened, weighed down, oppressed – and instead will feel energized, motivated, passionate.
But before we see what he says – I need to explain something puzzling. Right at the beginning of the psalm, there’s the word “Aleph.” And then, right before v.9, we see the word “Beth,” and so on throughout the psalm. So what’s going on with that? Well, Aleph is the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet. And when you read Psalm 119 in Hebrew you discover that the first letter in every line of the first 8 verses begins with the letter Aleph. And the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet is the letter Beth, and the first lines of verses nine through sixteen all begin with the letter Beth, and so forth throughout the psalm.
So since there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, there are 22 sections of 8 verses in Psalm 119. We don’t know why the author chose to structure his writing in this way, but I wonder if it’s because he wants to say that this psalm covers the Aleph to the Taw, or the A to Z, of what it means to have a heart for God.
So where does the author start? He starts by telling us how we can be blessed. Look at the first three words: “blessed are those…”
So what does it mean to be blessed? The Hebrew word means “happy” or “joyful.” Not pretend happy and joy. But real, heart-felt, emotional happiness and joy. So this psalm starts off talking about how we can be blessed, which means how we can find real, heart-felt emotional happiness and joy.
Now this is huge. Too many people think God wants us to stop pursuing joy and happiness. Not so. In the first verse of this psalm God tells us how to find joy and happiness.
See, God created you with the desire for happiness and joy, and God wants you to pursue happiness and joy. Our problem is not that we seek happiness and joy too much. Our problem is that we seek happiness and joy in the wrong places, and end up settling for too little.
So this psalm starts off by telling us where we can find the joy and happiness that we all seek.
So where do we find it? How can we be blessed? To answer that, read v.1 --
1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD!
So in v.1, to be blessed, to be happy, to be joyful – your way needs to be blameless. Now at this point, we could all give up, because we can think that blameless means sinless. And if blameless means sinless, then none of us qualify. Which means none of us can be blessed.
So it’s crucial that we understand – blameless does not mean sinless. We know this, because the Bible says no one is sinless. For example, in 1 John 1:8 John says that if we say we have no sin we are deceiving ourselves.
So Scripture does not say anyone is sinless. But Scripture does say people are blameless. For example, David is describes as blameless, and yet he sinned against God by committing adultery and murder.
So “blameless” cannot mean sinless. So what does it mean? Hebrew dictionaries note that the root word is has the idea of completeness. So what blameless means is complete surrender to the Lord. Not that you are sinless, but you are bringing every sin before him, confessing every sin to him, asking him to help you fight every sin, and by his grace fighting every sin. And then when you stumble, you turn back once again and start over.
Take David as an example. When David saw that he had committed murder and adultery, he turned to God and completely surrendered to him. He did not surrender part of his heart (“I’ll go to temple and offer sacrifices and pray regularly”), and hold on to his murder and adultery (“I kind of liked that”).
No – he got on his face before God and surrendered every part of his life to God. He prayed “God forgive me, God change my heart, God help me.” And he resolved, by God’s grace, not to sin again. And at that moment, because of Jesus’ death on the Cross, he was blameless. Not sinless. But he was blameless, because he was completely surrendered to the Lord.
So no matter what you did yesterday, or this morning – you can be blameless right now. How? By turning to Jesus Christ just as you are, surrendering yourself completely to him, asking him to forgive you for your sin, asking him to free you from your sin, and resolving not to commit that sin – and the moment you do that you can be assured that you are blameless.
The only way to be blessed, to be happy, to find joy – is by surrendering completely to Jesus Christ. And the rest of v.1 says that if we are blameless – surrendering completely to Jesus Christ – then we will walk in the law of the Lord.
But what does that mean? What does it mean to walk in the law of the Lord? The author tells us in v.2 – but let’s read vv.1-2 together --
1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD!
2 Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart,
Notice that walking in the law of the Lord is the same as keeping God’s testimonies (another word for God’s commands), and keeping God’s testimonies is the same as seeking God with your whole heart. So every command involves seeking God with all your heart.
So you can take the whole law and boil it down to one thing -- seeking God with your whole heart. That’s why Jesus said the first command is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And that’s why the first of the ten commandments is that we have no other gods before us. So the one thing the law is calling us to do is seek God with our whole heart.
And what this book says is that if we will seek God with our whole heart, through Jesus Christ, we will find him. Here’s how that works. Even though we have sinned against God and face his judgment, when we trust Jesus Christ we are completely forgiven, and God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit makes God real to us in our experience. And because God is infinitely glorious and valuable and holy – when we first experience God’s presence, for the first time we are filled with joy. And the joy of knowing God in Jesus Christ so surpasses everything else, that for the rest of our lives we want to seek God.
So walking in the law of the Lord means seeking God with our whole hearts. But this raises another question -- how will we live if we seek God with our whole hearts? The answer is in v. 3 --
3 who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways!
If we are seeking God with our whole hearts, then we will do no wrong and we will walk in God’s ways. Picture it like this. Here are two paths – one path is God’s ways – and the other path is other ways. And one reason this path is called God’s ways is because that’s where God is; that’s where his all-satisfying presence will be found.
So if you are seeking God with your whole heart, if you are seeking your joy and satisfaction in his presence, you will choose this path -- the path where God is, the path of God’s ways.
Let’s say you’ve had a busy day with no time with God. And there you are after dinner – with two paths before you. There is the path of God’s ways – seeking him with the Word and prayer – or there’s the path of other ways -- maybe vegging out with TV or Facebook.
So why would you want to walk the path of seeking God? It’s not because this is some duty. It’s not because this is what you are supposed to do. It’s because that’s where God is. So if you are seeking God with your whole heart you will want to walk in his ways, because that’s where God is – that’s where you will meet the living God.
So what the author has done in these first three verses is to transform our view of God’s commands. God’s commands are not heavy burdens or oppressive duties. God’s commands are an invitation to fellowship with God – to know God – to walk with God.
So, in light of that, how will we respond to God’s commands?
Start with v.4 --
4 You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.
God has commanded his precepts to be kept diligently. God wants us to be diligent in prayer, diligent in study of God’s Word, diligent in forgiving others, diligent in making disciples.
But why does God want us to be diligent in these things? It’s because God loves us. God cares about us. God wants our hearts to be full of the greatest joy and happiness. And every command is a way to experience more of him.
So you will want to keep God’s commands diligently. But there’s a danger here. You might think you by your own power can keep God’s commands diligently. But you can’t. And the psalmist knows he can’t.
Which is why he says what he does in v.5 --
5 Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!
Here the psalmist prays and asks God – make me steadfast in keeping your statutes. And the reason he does that is because he knows he himself can’t do this – but he knows that if he asks God, God will enable him to do it. Isn’t this wonderful news! God will enable us to obey the commands that will bring us full joy in him.
So take time to pray and ask God to help you walk in God’s ways – so you can enjoy more of God’s presence.
Next verse --
6 Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
When you are seeking God with all your heart, fighting to walk in his ways in every area of your life, you will feel no shame before God. Not because you’ve been sinless. But because every part of your life is surrendered to him.
Not only that, v.7 --
7 I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous rules.
He will not see God’s commands as burdensome or oppressive. Quite the contrary. Every time he learns a new command he will see it as another way to enjoy God – another way to walk with God – another way to be blessed in God.
So he finishes this section with v.8 --
8 I will keep your statutes; do not utterly forsake me!
Because he wants more of God, he is resolved to keep God’s statutes – because those are the ways of God – where God will be found.
But he also knows that he can’t do this by his own power, so he ends with a prayer – Do not utterly forsake me. He knows that if God were to forsake him, he would totally fall into disobedience. But he knows that because of God’s mercy, God won’t forsake him. So he prays with joyful confidence – do not utterly forsake me.
Questions?
Let these verses transform the way you feel about God’s commands.
If you had a book that gave you steps which would bring you a million dollars, how would you feel about those steps? Would you feel burdened, or weighed-down? Not a chance. You’d feel excited, motivated, thrilled about those steps.
But this book offers you something infinitely better than a million dollars. This book gives you steps which, by God’s grace, through Jesus Christ, will bring you more of God’s all-satisfying presence.
Every command of God is an invitation to experience more of the joy of his presence. So resolve to obey him. Pray and ask for his help. And obey for the sake of experiencing more of him. And when you sin, turn back and start over. And you will be blessed with outpourings of his presence.