Ayin - Psalm 119:121-128 Series

AYIN

March 7, 2012

Oak Park Baptist Church – Wed Bible Study Series

Psalm 119:121-128 (ESV) – 16 of 22

Ayin – 16th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet

Read/show ALL verses b4 verse by verse teaching…

When we read these 8 verses we can see the humanity of the psalmist coming through on a grand scale. This is a prayer by the psalmist, but it is prayed by one who is frail, weak and scared… one who is helpless in his situation… this is the prayer that everyone of US have prayed at one time or another in our lives…

This is the prayer of a REAL human being… this is not the prayer of SUPERCHRISTIAN… this is NOT the prayer of some super spiritual person who is immune to the attacks of the enemy…

this is a prayer from a normal man, who experiences normal things, who deals with the things of life and the pain and suffering that comes with life in this broken world.

I bet we have ALL been where this psalmist was… we have been to the point where we cried out to God… for deliverance and safety… for accomplishment and success… YOU PRAYED THAT PRAYER, RIGHT? I believe we all have…

Let’s take these verses and see if we can break them down and get inside the mind and heart of the psalmist as he opens his heart and soul to God in his prayer…look at v.121 with me…

[show verse]

121I have done what is just and right; do not leave me to my oppressors. OR Don’t leave me to the mercy of my enemies, for I have done what is just and right.

How often do we feel this vulnerable? How often do we fear that those who hate us or those who have shown a desire to hurt us… how often are we left as ‘open targets’?

I believe that we often believe we are open targets, but God is there to protect us and we just don’t see or sense Him.

Here the psalmist cries out that he has been living right, he has been following the Law of God and doing what God had commanded of His people… look what he says, “…I have done what is just and right…” [show highlighted verse here]

We need to understand that the psalmist is not merely speaking of keeping the law at this point. He understands that the letter of the law is there for him, but that there is a spirit of the law that he must also uphold.

When he says he has done what is “…just and right…”

I believe we can see this having 2 levels of meaning… 1st we can see that he is doing what the law requires of him, which he would consider to be the just thing to do… it is justice… it is the keeping of the law!

But we all know that you can be a so called ‘law abiding’ citizen and not do what is right all the time. AND understand I am not saying that you would be breaking the law when you were not doing what is right…

Do the right thing at the right time for the right reasons… THIS is what the psalmist is getting at. Having integrity and character to uphold what I would call the SPIRIT of the law or the SPIRIT of the commandments…

We know that Jesus dealt with this same thing with the Pharisees… they meticulously kept the law, to the detriment of other people. They often used the law to do things that were NOT RIGHT in the sight of God. They kept the letter of the law, but broke the spirit of the law!

But here is an example that many of us would understand… Let’s say that you’re a faithful church member and you’re doing all the things God expects of you as a faithful church member.

You attend church regularly as per Scripture…

You worship God with all your heart, mind, soul, body and strength… as per Scripture…

You give liberally to God thru your church, as per Scripture…

You study your Bible and pray daily, as per scripture…

But one day you were going to church OR to a Bible study and on the way you came across a man who was broken down on the side of the road.

You had the ability to help him, you had the means to help him, and you had a definite opportunity to help him… but you did NOT because you were headed to church and just couldn’t be late…!

You justify your actions because you did not want to MISS church, after all you are SUPPOSED to go to church… you did not want to MISS out on the blessing of worship, after all God calls us to worship Him!