TAV
May 02, 2012
Oak Park Baptist Church – Wed Bible Study Series
Psalm 119:169-176 (ESV) – 22 of 22
Tav – 22nd letter of the Hebrew Alphabet
Read/show ALL verses b4 verse by verse teaching…
[ESV] [show verses here]
169Let my cry come before You, O Lord; give me understanding according to Your word! 170Let my plea come before You; deliver me according to Your word.171My lips will pour forth praise, for You teach me Your statutes. 172My tongue will sing of Your word, for all Your commandments are right. 173Let Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts. 174I long for Your salvation, O Lord, and Your law is my delight. 175Let my soul live and praise You, and let Your rules help me. 176I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments.
[ESV] [show verses here]
169Let my cry come before You, O Lord; give me understanding according to Your word!
[NLT]
169O Lord, listen to my cry; give me the discerning mind you promised.
Here the psalmist cries out for God to hear him… this is a cry we ALL utter in our own lives! The psalmist wants to know that God is listening to his prayer.
[show highlighted verse] But look what the psalmist says… ‘give me understanding according to your word…’ What this means is that the psalmist knew what God had promised in His covenant with His people… and he wants to know that God is honoring that promise!
The discerning mind he is crying out for is a mind that sees God at work… and that discerns God’s presence in the situations of life.
How often do we look at a situation and think to ourselves or even cry out to God because we don’t see God ‘in it’… only to realize at a later time that God was there all the time, and we just did not SEE him…
The psalmist wants a discerning mind so that he can be comforted in the knowledge of God’s presence in his life, regardless of what is happening…
Wouldn’t YOU like that? To KNOW that God is there, even when it ‘seems’ as if he is NOT. That you will have both a knowledge of His presence and a peace about His involvement in your life… no matter what the world throws your way!
But here is another aspect we may overlook… this ‘discerning mind’ the psalmist is praying for not only desires to be in tune with God and God’s will… but it is a mind that is in tune with our own human nature!
So many times we lift up prayer to God based on our sinful desires… we may not see it as sinful desire, but with a discerning mind in Christ, we will be able to make that distinction! So are you willing to pray for a discerning mind…
so that you will know both YOUR own motives for praying and then you will be comfortable that God will move in His timing… in His perfect plan… to that prayer you have lifted up?
[show verse here]
[ESV]
170Let my plea come before You; deliver me according to Your word.
[NLT]
170Listen to my prayer; rescue me as you promised.
In v.169 we find the psalmist crying out for the affirmation of God’s presence by giving him a discerning mind to know that God is there…
Here the psalmist gets a bit more specific… not only does He seek God’s presence, but he desires MORE than anything that God hear his request…that God would listen to his prayer AND then move in his life!
The prayer here is a prayer of confidence… The psalmist lifts up his prayer to a God he BELIEVES will keep him and love him…
The psalmist claims a promise that comes from God to deliver His people… he says, [show highlighted verse]
“rescue me as YOU have promised…”
In other words, is not really wondering IF God will rescue him, but this is an expression of faith that God WILL rescue him at the right time!
This is God’s promise to us… that He will take care of us… not that he will meet our desires and wants, but care for our needs.
When we look at BOTH of these verses [v160-170] we can see this is a running theme not only throughout this chapter, but all of Psalms as well… that theme of a requested audience with God…seeking deliverance!
With these 2 verses we can see that this is passionate prayer, but also we can see the humility of his heart in his constant submission to the lordship of God in his life…as well as the high regard he expounds for the Law of God.
[show verses now]
[ESV]
171My lips will pour forth praise, for You teach me Your statutes. 172My tongue will sing of Your word, for all Your commandments are right.
[NLT]
171Let praise flow from my lips, for you have taught me your decrees. 172Let my tongue sing about your word, for all your commands are right.
Another repeating theme throughout this chapter, and quite frankly throughout the entire book of psalms… is that of “teach me your word” or “teach me your statutes”
Once again here we find the psalmist calling to God to instill within him the knowledge and wisdom of God’s law! He does so in 2 ways…
First he says he will REJOICE because of all God has already shared and taught him, and then he lifts up his voice in song about how he knows that all God has taught him to this point has been true and faithful!
Now I want us to think about our own lives… do we lift up in praise… do we break out in song… simply BECAUSE of the word of God? I know that I am guilty of reading God’s word… and simply glossing over passages OR I hear God’s voice and I can be a bit disappointed or frustrated that God’s word is showing me THIS… especially when I wanted THAT…
Here the psalmist reveals his humility and submission to God’s plan by proclaiming that he will sing and praise in accordance with the Word of God! Meaning that regardless of what and where… God’s word is the focus of his praise!
For us today… I am not saying that we worship the Bible. The Bible is our guide… but our worship needs to go to the true WORD of God and that is Jesus Christ! Do we lift up praise and song BECAUSE of Jesus! If you don’t… you should!
When is the last time you teared up when you read Scripture or sang a worship song about Jesus? I am not saying that we HAVE to cry to worship, but what I mean is when is the last time you got emotional about your worship?
I believe emotion has gotten a bad rap in Baptist circles in that many believers in the Baptist church feel that they can’t get emotional for fear that it is somehow not real or somehow not valid worship…
I believe we have been so afraid of our emotions that we have stifled them to a point… I want us to understand that EMOTION is NOT worship… but true worship MUST be emotional… does that make sense?
This is what we see from the psalmist in these verses…
[show/read verses here]
[ESV]
173Let Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts. 174I long for Your salvation, O Lord, and Your law is my delight.
[NLT]
173Give me a helping hand, for I have chosen to follow your commandments. 174O Lord, I have longed for your rescue, and your instructions are my delight.
When I read these verses I can see the psalmist prostrate… face down before God! I see the picture of Isaiah 6 when I read this… Do you remember that passage?
1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, and His robe filled the temple. 2Seraphim were standing above Him; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3And one called to another: Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts; His glory fills the whole earth. 4The foundations of the doorways shook at the sound of their voices, and the temple was filled with smoke. 5Then I said: Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips,and because my eyes have seen the King,the LORD of Hosts.
Isaiah cried out for help… WOE is me… HELP ME!! Here the psalmist cries out for God’s strong hand of deliverance! He does this knowing that God has promised those who submit in obedience to Him will be delivered…
He says… BECAUSE I have read or heeded your word, I call on your hand. In this passage is don’t particularly like the ‘helping hand’ imagery that the NLT projects… No doubt that a ‘helping hand’ is a good thing…
BUT a hand of deliverance… now that is a picture of God coming through for us huh? Maybe it’s just me, but I want that STRONG hand of deliverance from God!
The psalmist again proclaims his longing for God’s presence and companionship… in the form of God’s deliverance!
We can see that the psalmist understands that God delivers those who are obedient… because he continually uses phrases like that of v.174
[show highlighted verse]where he says, “...Your law is my delight…” This is his affirmation of his submission and obedience to God’s law and calling on his life…
[show verses here]
ESV
175Let my soul live and praise You, and let Your rules help me.
NLT
175Let me live so I can praise you, and may your regulations help me.
Now when I read this verse I thought of Paul in his letter to the Philippian church where he says:
21For me, living is Christ and dying is gain. 22Now if I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me; and I don’t know which one I should choose. 23I am pressured by both. I have the desire to depart and be with Christ—which is far better 24but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you. 25Since I am persuaded of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, 26so that, because of me, your confidence may grow in Christ Jesus…
In these verses Paul was saying that him living would result in his praise of Jesus through his service FOR Jesus… specifically his service in equipping and teaching the churches he had planted and others…
Here the psalmist cries out for deliverance and says, if I live… I will praise God! I want you to notice what the psalmist does NOT say here… he does NOT say that he will praise God if he is blessed… he says he will praise God if he lives!
WOW! What a testimony! This takes us to Paul’s teaching where he said, “In EVERYTHING give thanks…” Sometimes in life we come to a point where we are struggling and our ‘praise’ to God suffers because of our circumstance, but here we find that our praise to God should be active at ALL times REGARDLESS of our circumstance or situation!
Give thanks… give praise… let our soul rejoice because we have the WORD… we have Jesus! We have the grace, mercy and forgiveness that comes through Jesus… we know salvation because of Jesus! We have eternal life THRU Jesus! So we can LIVE and rejoice, even when life is difficult!
Today I heard the news that former NFL superstar and sure Hall of Famer, Junior Seau was found dead in his home of an apparent self inflicted gunshot wound…
Can you imagine… he had ALL the money he could ever want… all the fame… all the notoriety… all the popularity… he was beloved by the fans… and yet after all that, he was still EMPTY!
Now, I don’t know what his issues were, and I don’t know his spiritual condition, but WHEN we have Jesus… ours is NOT a hopeless condition… even in our darkest hour we know we have God!
[show verses here]
ESV
176I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments.
NLT
176I have wandered away like a lost sheep; come and find me, for I have not forgotten your commands.
Here is yet another cry out by the psalmist for God’s presence in his life! It is a cry to God for God’s guidance and leadership in his life!
He is saying… God I can’t do it on my own… God when I am left to my own I get lost… I go astray… I need YOU to come and guide me!
And this final verse of chapter 119 is a stark reminder to any believer that no matter how long we have been serving God… when we try to do things on our own we fail miserably… we find ourselves straying from the path and going in a direction from which we have to cry out to God to come and save us from ourselves!
Peter experienced this when he got out of the boat and began to walk on the water… at first he listened to the Savior and looked to the Savior, but it wasn’t long he took his eyes and mind OFF the Savior, and what was the result? Would you say he had ‘gone astray’?
We must focus on God… the psalmist understood this… for 176 verses the psalmist gives us a focal point to where our lives should be aimed… God’s Law… God’s Word! For believers today that translates to THE WORD… the Logos… the Christ… Jesus, our Savior and Redeemer!
Where is your focus today? Is it on the Living and Risen Lord… is it the incarnate WORD of God? If not, you will go astray! We must focus on Him… submit in surrender TO him…
How does that translate to our lives today? It translates to our lives by us listening to that still small voice when we read our Bibles and when we pray… hearing the voice of God that calls us to ministry!
Listening for God’s calling in worship… through the songs, through the message of the pastor… thru the conversation among fellow believers!
It is NOT a matter of IF God is calling you… it is a matter of WHERE God is calling you and whether or not you are willing to listen, hear and obey! Are you willing today? If so, submit to God’s Word as the psalmist has shared with us in this wonderful chapter of Psalm 119… Let’s pray!
PRAY!
