God’s Word Gives to You • Psalm 119: 97-104

50:21 Teaching begins

Notes

You face difficulties, discouragement, and suffering. These things make you think, “This isn’t working. I can’t keep going. I quit. Who cares?” You are tempted to believe what is not true, that your situation is hopeless. If you really believe there is no way forward, you surrender. You fail because you weren’t strong enough, or smart enough, or good enough.

Endurance comes from knowing your true situation.

You get strength from knowing the truth and depending on God. If you receive wisdom and insight from God and understand your situation, you can keep going. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

When you engage with God’s word you engage with God, and He gives you what you need through His word.

God’s word gives to you.

I’m reading in Psalm 119:97-104

1. God’s word gives wisdom to preserve life.

A. You notice that the psalmist had enemies.

1. 1 John 3:12-13 Cain killed Abel because his deeds were wicked and his brother’s were righteous. Don’t be surprised if the world hates you.

2. These guys hate God so they hate the psalmist. It’s a spiritual situation because the devil hated the psalmist, and the devil hates you.

B. By doing what God said, the psalmist realised that he was wiser than his enemies.

1. They tried slandering him and lying about him to make him discouraged. But because the psalmist only cared what God thought, it didn’t make him give up.

2. They made fun of him and tried to make him ashamed of following the Lord. But again, God’s word gave him confidence to not be shaken. God is going to judge the world in righteousness. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? When God comes to judge the earth gold will be worthless. Only righteousness is valuable in the day of judgment. God’s word gave the psalmist confidence to say, “I am not ashamed of trusting in God.”

3. They tried setting traps for him to get him in trouble with what he said. The chief priests did this to Jesus. But Jesus could see that it was a trap and He did not walk blindly into it. God gave Jesus wisdom and insight. God’s word gave the psalmist wisdom and insight to make him wiser than his enemies.

2. God’s word keeps giving to you so you keep growing, vv. 99-100.

A. The psalmist didn’t set out to be smarter than his teachers or the aged.

1. Life is not a competition with others. If you’re smarter than anyone, you win!

2. Life is saying to God, “Make me the person You want me to be.” He will do something through you that He won’t do through somebody else. As you pursue being what God wants you to be you will do things that others won’t do.

B. Some people stop growing in knowing the Lord. Maybe they figure they have arrived. “I’m a teacher, I know this stuff, taught it many times.” “I’m an old guy, I’ve been around, seen a lot of things. I think I know what I’m doing.”

C. This is a trap, to think that you’re done learning. If you stop growing, you start dying.

1. Everything in life is like this. If you play an instrument you always keep learning. If you stop playing, you lose the ability. If you learn Bible verses and don’t keep remembering them you will forget them.

2. It can be fatal to stop growing. David decided he had arrived at being king. He didn’t have to keep growing. Nobody noticed at first, not even David. But David found he was not satisfied. That hunger made him weak when he was tempted to satisfy himself with another man’s wife. He ended up doing things he thought he would never do: adultery, murder, and avoiding God for over a year.

D. Age is not a barrier in your relationship with the Lord. Teachers are there to give you the tools so that you can grow on your own. But after a certain point you must learn God for yourself. Would you ever hire somebody to kiss your girlfriend for you? You don’t want to miss all the fun.

3. One of the fun things about following God’s word is, it gives a pure life, vv. 101, 104.

A. The psalmist found you can’t follow the Lord and keep sinning against Him. They are two different directions. It’s one way or the other, but not both.

B. If you keep sinning you live a polluted life. There is no joy in being polluted. Pollution is poison, it doesn’t give life, it takes life. You can’t drink dirty water. You can’t breathe dirty air. You can’t be satisfied living a polluted life.

C. Israel proves that this is true.

1. They would continually quit seeking the Lord for their life and go after other gods. They would seek the good things, expecting things to give life like God. And they ignored God.

2. Whenever you leave God you become a slave of pollution. Israel would always become slaves of a brutal nation that would take all they had and make them helpless, without exception.

3. They would try everything to get out of their slavery and nothing worked. Finally they would cry out to God. And God would save them.

4. Israel would know the difference between following God and doing their own thing. It’s satisfying and joyful to be pure. Pollution is death.

D. The psalmist loved living a pure life. He loved being free from guilt and shame. He loved having a clean conscience. And he hated every false way. Those ways are deceitful, lying, cheating. They promise life but bring death. I love understanding goodness. I hate being polluted.

4. When you follow what God says, you know God and that brings joy and endurance, vv. 102, 103.

A. The psalmist found that God Himself taught him. The Most High God has time to teach me? He looks upon me? God is your teacher.

B. He found that the word of God is alive and it speaks. Have you ever experienced this? You read along and suddenly what you read is speaking to you! You understand it. It relates to what you’re experiencing. God is speaking directly to you.

C. The Holy Spirit revealed things to him. Jesus said He would lead you into all truth. And He is given to us to be with us forever. That means we can continually grow. It means there is always more to learn. We can continually grow.

D. Being taught by God gives joy and satisfaction. How sweet are Your words to me! Isaiah 54:13 “All your sons will be taught of the LORD; and the well-being of your sons will be great.” That’s shalom, the peace of God. When you have peace in your heart you can endure hardship. Notice that because God taught, the psalmist did not depart from God’s judgments.

E. That’s why the psalmist says, “O how I love Your law!” I love that You teach me. I love that you make me pure. I love that you give me wisdom and insight and understanding. I love that You make me endure to the end.

F. He says in verse 111, “Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.” A heritage is a possession, something that belongs to you. It’s not your life, but it’s something that makes your life better. Think about your possessions: they make your life better. The writer wants to own God’s word because it makes his life infinitely better in every way. It’s the most valuable thing he owns.

5. So what?

A. You want to develop your relationship with God through His word. You want to be continually receiving and growing in God. You want to own the word of God for yourself.

B. To do that you have to receive the word.

1. Read it to become familiar with it. That’s a goal for the rest of your life.

2. You study it closely to grow in knowledge and answers to your questions. This is not boring or something that kills your fun. Knowing God is eternal life.

3. You receive inwardly the word of God. You meditate on the word just like the psalmist says, “It is my meditation all day long.” God writes His word on your heart. He makes it part of you.

C. Next week I’m going to do a workshop on how to meditate. I invite everyone to come.

Let’s pray.