Psalm 119: Nurturing Passion For God
Store Up God’s Word In Your Heart
Psalm 119:9-16
Let’s turn to Psalm 119. If you need a Bible, please 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 to give you a picture of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Following Jesus Christ is like being behind enemy lines during a war, working on making your way to the safety of heaven, while bringing as many people as you can with you.
But there’s some bad news -- on the way to heaven we will face ruthless, well-armed enemies – Satan with all his temptations – seeking to harm us, to wound us, to keep us from our mission. But there’s also good news -- we have been given a powerful weapon which – if we will use it – will enable us to overcome these enemies.
But even though God has given us this weapon, many of us never use it. And so when Satan tempts us, instead of using this weapon, we get harmed, wounded, and weakened on our mission.
So what is this weapon? And how can we use it? The answer is in Psalm 119:9-16. Look at what he says --
9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.
10 With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!
11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
12 Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes!
13 With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth.
14 In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.
16 I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.
Notice that in v.9 the author talks about how young men can keep their way pure. Why talk about young men? I think the simplest explanation is that he himself was a young man. And what he says here about young men applies to all of us – young, old, men, and women. So this passage explains how all of us can keep our way pure from sin.
And why is that so important? Here’s why --
Our highest joy as human beings is not in achievements, or wealth, or entertainment. None of those will come close to satisfying us. We will only be fully satisfied by knowing God, worshiping God, glorifying God.
But there’s a problem. All of us have turned our backs on God. And because God is perfectly just, he has to punish us. But God is so kind, so loving, so caring, that he made a way for us to be completely forgiven – by sending his own Son, Jesus Christ, to be punished in our place for our sins.
So when we turn and trust Jesus Christ to forgive us, change us, and satisfy us – we are completely forgiven, and for the first time we taste the all-satisfying joy of knowing and worshiping and glorifying God.
And as we saw last week, from that point on we have two paths in front of us. There’s the path of walking in God’s ways – being pure from sin. And there’s the path of walking in sin’s ways -- sinning.
And last week we saw one reason it’s crucial to walk in God’s ways. It’s because God is on this path, and it’s only on this path that we will experience fellowship with God. When we obey God for the joy of knowing him, and pray, read God’s Word, forgive others, make disciples -- we will feel God’s presence, and taste his goodness.
But if we turn from this path, and gossip, or covet, we will lose our fellowship with God, because God’s presence is not on this path. And so our assurance of salvation weakens, our joy in God disappears, and we are left empty.
That’s what we saw last week about why it’s crucial to be pure from sin. So how can we do that? In vv.9-16 the author gives us seven steps --
First, v.10, ask God to keep you from wandering.
Second, v.11, store up God’s word in your heart.
Third, v.12, ask God to teach you his Word.
Fourth, v.13, share God’s Word with those around you.
Fifth, v.14, delight in God’s testimonies.
Sixth, v.15, meditate on God’s precepts.
And seventh, v.16, don’t forget God’s Word.
All of these will help us keep our way pure from sin. But this morning I am going to focus just on the second step – storing up God’s Word in your heart. So why focus on this one? One reason is because of the astonishing promise attached to it – if we will store up God’s Word in our hearts then we will not sin against God. The second reason is because this is the clearest place in Psalm 119 where we read about storing God’s Word in our hearts. And the third reason is because many Christians today are weak in this step.
So with that in mind, let’s read v.11 again --
11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
So what does it mean to store up God’s Word in our hearts? If you were going to store up food in your cupboard, what would you do? You’d go to the store and get oatmeal, peanut butter, soup -- and then you would put it into your cupboard so it would be there when you needed it.
Same with storing up God’s Word in your heart. It’s like God’s Word is in the grocery store of the Bible. But we want to have it in our hearts so it will be there when we need it. So we go to the Bible and take verses which we then store in our hearts.
So how do we do that? There’s only one way -- by memorizing God’s Word. When you memorize a verse, it’s now no longer just in the Bible – now it’s also in the cupboard of your heart – ready to be used whenever you need it.
And the author says that storing up God’s Word in our hearts will keep us from sinning. To see that, read v.11 again --
11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
But how does storing up God’s Word keep us from sinning?
One way is that when you’ve got God’s Word stored in your heart, sin’s deceptions will be exposed. Say someone hurts you and you feel how unjust it was and how much it’s cost you. At that moment it just feels so right to nurse a grudge and seek revenge, doesn’t it?
But if you’ve stored up God’s Word, then you can quote to yourself Ephesians 4:29 --
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
And when you quote that truth – you will see that you have been mercifully forgiven, you will see all that you have in Christ, and you will see how wrong it would be to seek revenge. So, because God’s Word was stored in your heart, sin’s deceptions were exposed.
Another way is that as we store God’s Word in our hearts, our hearts will be satisfied. A while back I was praying on the creek path, and feeling pretty empty. That’s dangerous, because when we are empty, anything looks like it will satisfy us, even sin. So I was in a dangerous place.
But as I walked and prayed I reviewed some memory verses, and came to Exodus 15:11 –
Who is like you among the gods, O Lord? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?
And as I reviewed the verse, the Holy Spirit helped me see and feel that God really is majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders. And my heart was so filled that I had no interest in sin – all I wanted was more of God.
Another way is that when God’s Word is stored in our hearts, our faith will be strengthened. The day after I came home from the hospital, after I had my minor stroke, I was out walking and praying and feeling pretty low about what had happened. But as I walked, God brought into my mind a verse I had memorized from Job – Job 1:21 –
The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
And I saw that even though the Lord takes things from us, it’s still right to bless him. Why? Because he only takes things from us in order to bring us even more nearness to him, joy in his glory, pleasure in worshiping him. And that powerfully strengthened my faith and transformed my heart.
So can you see how important it is to store up God’s word in our hearts? Picture it like this. The Bible says that Satan is a prowling lion, seeking to devour us with temptations. But the good news is that the Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. Which means that when we pull out the sword, and think and pray over actual verses of Scripture, the Spirit will use his Word like a sword to fend off Satan when he comes at us with temptations.
Let’s say you get an unexpected bill in the mail – and suddenly are overwhelmed with fear about finances. You are worried about how you can pay that bill, and that makes you wonder if you might lose your job, and how you will pay the bills if you become disabled. At that moment Satan is coming after you to devour you. But what if you’ve got Philippians 4:19 memorized –
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
As you quote that to yourself, the Spirit will use his sword to show you God’s riches, and God’s commitment to supplying all of your needs. As a result, your faith will strengthen and Satan’s attack will be thwarted.
But what if you have not stored up God’s Word in your heart? It’s not going to work to quote vague generalities. “Let’s see, the Bible says something about God providing, or supplying, or something.” That’s no sword. That’s maybe a rubber dagger – and Satan will just laugh and start devouring you.
Thursday night I was talking to my dad about this. He wanted me to tell you that he is so glad he had memorized over a thousand verses in his early years. Because he’s lost his ability to read the Bible now. But he told me how often, when he’s being tempted, he’s had the Holy Spirit bring a verse into his mind which he’d memorized years ago – and how those verses he had stored in his heart have exposed sin, satisfied his heart in God, and strengthened his faith.
So how do you go about memorizing Scripture? Memorizing is not easy. So I would start by praying and asking God to help you. Don’t say “I’m just not a good memorizer. I was never good in school.” He will help you. I promise, he will help you. So ask him, earnestly and regularly.
Then get a 3 by 5 card, and write out on it one verse that has been meaningful to you. Start with the reference, repeating it over and over to get it into your brain. Then quote the reference, and the first phrase of a couple words. Repeat the reference and then the first phrase slowly and prayerfully to yourself. Think about each word. So often God has powerfully met me as I have been working on memorizing God’s Word. So repeat the reference and that first phrase over and over, thoughtfully and prayerfully.
Then quote the reference, and the first phrase, and add the second phrase, repeating the whole thing over and over thoughtfully and prayerfully. And then add the third phrase, and the fourth phrase -- until you are done.
Then for a week or so review it every day, quoting the reference at the beginning and the end. And then when you’ve got that one down, start on a second verse. And every couple days be sure to review the first verse.
But again, don’t just memorize. Enjoy God in his Word. Meet God in his Word. I have gotten to the point where I absolutely love memorizing Scripture, because the process of memorizing is so encouraging!
Questions?
Think about Jesus. He’s baptized, the Holy Spirit comes upon him and leads him to fast and pray in the wilderness. And Satan comes and seeks to devour him with four specific temptations.
And what did Jesus do? He quoted four different Old Testament Scriptures – which exposed Satan’s lies, strengthened his faith, and satisfied his heart. So how did Jesus get these four different Old Testament Scriptures in his heart? He had memorized them. Jesus spent time memorizing Scripture – because he knew Psalm 119:11 --
11 I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.
So can you see – both from Psalm 119:11, and from the example of Jesus, that God calls you to memorize Scripture?
This afternoon, this week, in the years ahead you will meet up with a lion – Satan -- who will seek to devour you. But God has given you a sword which will slay that dragon – the verses in this book.
But the only way you will be able to whip out that sword and use it is if you’ve memorized God’s Word. So this week, start memorizing God’s Word. And you will always have the sword with you.