Matters of the Heart
PSALM 119: 9-11
THE PURE HEART
[Job 22:22]
The main point or argument of Psalm 119 is that a faithful man should stir up himself to meditate on God’s word so that he might establish himself in the Lord. The verses of Psalm 119 are group by eights and each set of eight verses is alphabetically arranged according to the Hebrew alphabet. In the second set of eight verses, 9-16, every verse in the section begins with b, [beth, a house]. The subject of this section is the Word of Yahweh purifies the Life. [Key word, jkz (zacah), to be pure, to make pure, to cleanse.]
Heart is a key word in Scripture and in this lesson. What is the heart? One definition of the heart is that it is the organ that DISTINGUISHES the LIVING from the DEAD. How do you experience more of the life of God in your heart?
There is a lot of MEDICINE on the market today, designed specifically for the heart, and it is suppose to prevent heart attacks or strokes. There is one heart medication advertisement which has a hospital bed following a man every where he goes. The advertizer says that if you have had one heart attack you are ripe for another...unless you take this medicine. If you take this medicine they claim it will prevent a heart attack.
Wouldn’t it be great if God could give us preventative medicine to help our “heart” or the center of our personal life; our thinking, will, and emotions? Is their anything we can take that will prevent sin from building up in our heart? Is there something we can take that will keep the center or focus of our personal life, the spring of all our desires, motives, and moral choices - indeed, of all our behavioral trends healthy and right before God?
I have good news for you. Yes there is a prescription that we can take that will prevent sin from building up in our life. The text before us declares how we can keep our heart right or pure. Keeping our life pure is done by keeping our life in line with God’s Word (CIT). Keeping our life pure or right is accomplished by hiding God’s Word in our heart. For the work of sanctification is wrought in the heart by the Spirit of God, by means of the Word.
God has given us the best thing, to put in the best place, for the best purpose. First,
I. THE YOUNG AT HEART, 9.
II. A WHOLE HEARTED SEARCH, 10.
III. THE HOLY HEART, 11.
The Bible is a book for young people. In verse 9 there is a question and an answer for young people. First the question; How can a young man keep his way pure? The question concerns a person, a young man, and his most difficult task, keeping His way pure, is proposed.
How can a young man [naar, “shaken off,” to cast off the paternal yoke or care of his parents] become pure and live a holy life? As a young man he is full of hot passions, and lacking in knowledge and experience. At that age we are often foolish, headstrong and unteachable. How can we get right, and stay right? Never was there a more important question for any person. Never was there a better time for asking it than before a young person sets out on his own. The strength, the aspirations, the unmarred expectations of youth who are ready to make their mark in the world, must be consecrated to God so they are not lead astray down that broad road that leads to destruction.
It is by no means an easy task which is here set before a young person. They are asked to choose the pure clean way and walk in it. This choice is hard for any person. How will a youth accomplish it? How can a youth overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. That unholy trinity of the world, the flesh, and the devil has spoiled and defiled so many hopeful lives. [His way, jra, orach, signifies a track, a rut, such as is made by the wheel of a cart or chariot. A young man is making a rut, beaten path, that he will most likely stay in the rest of his life.] How can he be saved from what will destroy heart, mind, body, and soul?
Though it will be difficult in the best of circumstance, let us not shrink from the glorious enterprise of living a pure and noble life. For there is no nobler ambition that can be set before a youth. Though you have energy and confidence that youth bring, do not think that you have wisdom sufficient for the task. You would do well to enquire of God the way by which all obstacles may be overcome. For you will not find or know the road to victory without God’s leadership and direction. No matter how wonderful your dreams, they will remain just dreams without following the Lord’s purpose and way for your life. You are young and unaccustomed to the road that leads to life so do not be ashamed to enquire often of this pure way from Him who is so ready and so able to instruct you in it.
Though most will not ask this most important question; How can a young man keep His way pure, I pray you will. I pray that in earnest wisdom you will ask it. For most do not receive the wisdom of God because they don’t seek it.
If you will ask this wise question you then may truly hear the wise man’s answer. How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Thy word. For God’s promised assistance you must turn to God’s instructions. Young man, the Bible must be your guide, and you must exercise great watchfulness that your way, your life, may be according to its directions. Even with the most accurate map you can still lose your way if you
don’t follow it. The narrow way was never hit upon by chance, neither did any inattentive person ever lead a holy life. We can sin without thought, but we will need all our heart, mind, soul, and strength if we are to walk in righteousness.
Let each person, whether young or old, who desires to be holy, to have a pure heart, keep his eye attentive to the Holy Bible and be schooled by the Divine Spirit. The Scriptures teach us the best way of living, the noblest way of suffering, and the most blessed way of dying.
II. A WHOLE HEARTED SEARCH, 10.
David makes a confession worthy of emulating in verse 10. He has sought God with his whole heart. For although we have a desire to go to God, yet it is often feebly because by not keeping our way according to the word sin has gained dominion over us. We are so caught up in our life habits that our pursue of God is weak. Though we know to live better, we cannot do better. So look at a better example, look at king David, who sought God with his whole heart.
Halfhearted commitment, in my opinion, was the problem with American involvement in Vietnam. The United States had no commitment to win, only a halfhearted response to a treaty obligation. American failure there led to subsequent massacres by the communists throughout Southeast Asia. America did not have total commitment; the nation was divided. Troops were sent to Vietnam to fight a war while millions demonstrated, protested, and some even burned the American flag. It was a sure recipe for ruin. [John Phillips, Exploring the Psalms, 89-150, 269]
Verse 10 states, With my whole heart have I sought Thee. His heart had gone after God Himself. He had not only desired to obey God’s word, but to commune with Him personally. He sought after God Himself by endeavoring dwell or to abide in fellowship with Him.
A transformed heart should yearn for fellowship with God. God alone sees the heart and the heart alone sees God. Jesus said in Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
The second half of verse 10 reveals the earnestness of his whole hearted search by praying that the Lord would prevent his going astray from God’s word. Why? For it is by obedience that we follow after God. Thus, the prayer, Don’t let me not wander from Thy commandments. If we leave the ways of God we most certainly will not find God, for He is sought and found by walking in His ways.
The more a man’s whole heart is set upon holiness the more does he dreads falling into sin. He realizes that if He does not walk circumspectly he will inadvertently wander. So the man of God exerts himself to follow God, but does not trust that he can keep himself from wandering. He trust God’s word to keep him and his walk from wandering from God. For he knows that he would not be seeking God with his whole heart for long if he did not keep it according to God’s word.
The more experience a person has in the ways of God, the more we understand our own readiness to wander by ignorance, inadvertently, or by rebellion from the ways of God.
Note that Psalm 119:2 pronounces that man will be blessed who seeks the Lord with his whole heart. Verse 10 claims that blessing: With my whole heart have I sought
Thee.
III. THE HOLY HEART, 11.
When a godly man asks for a favor or grace from God he should purse the means of obtaining it. The Psalmist had just asked to be preserved from wandering. In verse 11 God reveals to him and us the precaution, or the remedy, which we should take to prevent our falling into sin. Thy word have I hid in mine heart.
His heart would be kept by the word because he kept the word in his heart. He had stored away portions of God’s word in his heart, as a treasure in treasure chest or as a choice seed buried in a fruitful soil. And what soil is more fruitful than a renewed heart, wholly seeking the Lord? The word was God’s own word, and therefore precious to God’s servant. He laid it up in the place of love and life, and it filled the chamber with sweetness and light.
We should imitate David, copying his heart work as well as his outward character. First, It is Your word or God’s word. we must determine that we believe it is truly God’s word. If we conclude it is God’s word to us, we will want to hide or treasure it. Each man laying up for himself his own treasure. And when we do it we must do so not as a mere act of the memory, but as the joyful act of love.
What is the purpose of treasuring God’s Word in our hearts. The word laid up in the heart has great effect. For our fallen thoughts, wills, and desires are enemies to God, unless God’s word is hidden in our hearts. Verse 11 continues, “That I might not sin against Thee. The best thing— "Thy word"; hidden in the best place, — "in my heart; "for the best of purposes, — "that I might not sin against Thee." This was done by the Psalmist with personal care, as a man carefully hides away his money when he fears thieves, — in this case the thief dreaded was sin. Sinning "against God" is great evil. Most people care only when they offend men. God’s word is the best preventive against offending God, for it tells us His mind and will, and tends to bring our spirit into conformity with the divine Spirit. No cure for sin in the life is equal to the word in the seat of life, which is the heart. There is no hiding from sin unless we hide the truth in our souls.
When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, He answered again and again with, "It is written. . .” He defeated Satan with the one weapon God had placed in the hands of Adam and Eve. Eve had only to say, "Thus saith the Lord," and Satan would have been defeated. But Eve tossed that weapon aside and relied on her own reasoning. Adam tossed it away too and relied on his emotions. Not so the Lord Jesus.
David tells God he loves the word because it is God’s word, and he hates sin because it is sin against God Himself. He may vex others, but he will not offend his God.
The personal way in which the man of God did this is also noteworthy. “With my whole heart have I sought Thee." Whatever others might choose to do he had already made his choice and placed the Word in his innermost soul as his dearest delight, and however others might transgress, his aim was after God, after holiness: "That I might not sin against Thee.” When the word is hidden in the heart the life shall be hidden from sin. If we would not cause God displeasure we must treasure up His own word. The more we love God, the more we will love the Word of God. It is a God’s stairway to glory.
CONCLUSION
The best thing, in the best place, for the best of purposes. Among many excellent virtues of the word of God, this is one: that if we keep it in our heart, it keeps us from sin, which is against God and against ourselves.
Sin defiles and destroys and everyone needs protection against its deadly infestation. The Bible declared that a person cleanses his way or conduct by obeying God’s Word. Those who internalize and rejoice in God’s Word become pure in heart.
There are SOME POSSESSIONS in life which are treasures to us. These are the things we place in the lock box at the bank, in the secret places of our houses, or in a jewelry box. The value of these items is determined by their cost, their giver, or their unique meaning to us.
There are Scriptures which become special jewels in our lives. Three of my favorite are Psalm 37:5, “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass.” Proverb 3: 4-5, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart & lend not on thy own understanding. In all thy way acknowledge Him and He will make thy ways straight. And 1 Peter 5:7, “Cast all your cares upon Him; because He cares for you.”
The texts which we treasure are locked into the safe keeping of our memory. They give special meaning to life. They are given to us by God and their value is beyond any earthly measurement.
They keep us in a right relationship with God. When we concentrate upon the Word of God our mind will not be filled with the garbage of sin. The Scriptures are the crown jewels of God’s message to us. When we secure their sparkling truth into our lives, there is no room for the darkness of sin.
Ask God to help you continue memorizing Scriptures and applying them to your life.
