119 - Pt. 2
I. Introduction
It is long. It is lengthy. It is passed over by those who prefer brevity. It is neglected by those who prefer short and sweet. It is shunned by the Reader's Digest crowd. However, in its great length is also has great depth. Multifaceted. It is rich. It is worth the time it takes to explore. It is the 119. It is the longest chapter in the entire Bible. And before we dig into it, it is important to understand some background. It is comprised of 22 stanzas each being 8 verses long and each verse is two lines long. Each stanza sequentially begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So there was structure to David's verbosity. He wasn't just shooting off at the mouth.This is thought out and developed. In fact, there is a tradition in the Eastern Orthodox Church that King David used this psalm to teach his son Solomon both the Hebrew alphabet and the “alphabet of the spiritual life.”
I mentioned last week that the 119 has at least 3 major themes that run throughout its landscape. The first that we dug into was David's emphasis on the Word. He teaches us that without the Word you can't walk, weather, or war. The Word is absolutely essential and if you have a deficiency of Word you will stumble, surrender and find yourself surrounded.
Just as pervasive as God's Word is in 119 prayer is also unmistakably worked into the tapestry of the teaching. Yes, prayer is the most mentioned doctrine and practice in Scripture. The command to pray is found 250 times in the Bible, and praying specific prayers is mentioned another 280 times. But prayer is so apparent and front in center in 119 that you just can't afford to miss it! David, is repetitive in discussing prayer and he basically talks about three very specific prayers that we should pray. And when you read how many times he repeats these three prayers in 119 you begin to recognize that not only should we pray these these prayers once or occasionally but rather your life should be spent repeating these prayers. (Again won't read them all.)
A. Teach Me.
Psalms 119:12, 33-37, 64, 66, 68, 124-124, 144
12 - Be blessed, God; train (teach) me in your ways of wise living.
The key statement there is wise living. We must be trained. Many of us need to unlearn some unwise living. And we have to be honest enough to acknowledge our lack of wisdom. Either our parents, our friends, our counselors have trained us and taught us things that are unwise . . . buy now, pay later, spend more than you make, engage in gossip, move from one relationship to another. David teaches us to ask God to train or teach us to live wisely.
33-37 - God, teach me lessons for living so I can stay the course. Give me insight so I can do what you tell me—my whole life one long, obedient response. Guide me down the road of your commandments; I love traveling this freeway! Give me a bent for your words of wisdom, and not for piling up loot. Divert my eyes from toys and trinkets, invigorate me on the pilgrim way.
David connects our teachability to our ability to stay on course! If we aren't learning the lessons that God is teaching on living then we will detour into destruction!
In one statement, David wraps up what would be the greatest testimony any person could ever have. In fact, We should strive for this to be what they put on our tombstone. My whole life one long, obedient response!
David addresses greed and gives us the insight that there is a litmus test that can be used to show us if we are indeed being trained/taught by God. If we are not teachable we will spend our life on loot, toys and trinkets. David knew that if we are in fact being taught we will be able to stay out of that trap. It is easy to see that most of us as Americans are not teachable. We give the most valuable commodity we have (our time/life) in the pursuit of things that don't matter! David says if you are being taught you will give your life for what is important!
64 - Your love, God, fills the earth! Train me to live by your counsel.
66 - Train me in good common sense; I’m thoroughly committed to living your way.
68 - You are good, and the source of good;train me in your goodness.
124-125 - Let your love dictate how you deal with me; teach me from your textbook on life. I’m your servant—help me understand what that means, the inner meaning of your instructions.
144 - The way you tell me to live is always right; help me understand it so I can live to the fullest.
David says we need to be taught to live by His counsel. He says we should ask God on a regular basis to give us common sense! How many of us would avoid pain, trouble, disappointment if we would just allow God to give us some good old common sense? He says we need to approach God about teaching us the inner meaning of His Word. Not just relying on someone else to give us insight but to dig for ourselves. A.W. Tozer says, “One of the saddest things about our generation is that we have had our learning done for us.”
David then says our ability to live life in the fullest is directly connected to God teaching us how to live! How many of us are living at less than and calling it more than only because we haven't allowed God to teach us that there is more?
I am quickly discovering that very few of us are really teachable. We say we are teachable until someone tries to teach us something we don't like or that flies in the face of what we are comfortable with or can explain, understand, accept and then we get angry, rebellious and unwilling to learn. Our own arrogance or apathy kicks in and we dismiss teaching. I believe David recognized not only the great need to be taught but that it would also take divine assistance for us to truly embrace a posture of learning. See David knew that God's ways, His thinking are so different and on such a higher plane than our own that we must be taught!
David makes some statements in verses 98-100 that almost sound arrogant and unteachable. He says that he is wiser than his enemies, wiser than his teachers, and wiser than the elders. However, it is only after time and time again asking God to teach him. Too many of us live our life like we are smarter than everyone and we haven't allowed God to teach us and we end up looking like a fool!
b. Bless Me
Psalms 119:17, 65, 135 (favor)
17 - Be good to your servant while I live, that I may obey your word.
65 - Do good to your servant according to your word, Lord.
135 - Make your face shine on your servant (smile on me) and teach me your decrees.
Notice order . . . teach me so I can handle your blessings. We get order wrong. We squander blessing because we haven't learned to steward favor! We spend the bulk of our prayer life asking for blessing. In comparison to praying to be taught and the third prayer the amount of time David affords to "bless me" prayers is minimal. Don't get me wrong David prays for God to respond as you will see in a moment. However, I think the contrast in volume of blessing requests compared to the other elements of prayer is a great lesson for us and a real challenge for us to change how we currently spend our time with God. Should we make our needs known to God? Absolutely . . . Philippians 4:6 - Do not worry [be anxious] about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need [or make your requests known to God], always giving thanks. However, I think in our consumeristic mentality we have not only changed the order that David prayed but that Jesus prayed. We start, fill, and end our prayers with needs and requests for blessing! The 119 says pray to be taught and then ask for what you need but don't make that the bulk of your prayer life!
c. Protect Me
Psalms 119:25, 86-88, 94, 107, 122, 134, 146-147, 153-154
25 - I am laid low in the dust; preserve my life according to your word. (Another version - get me on my feet.)
Seven times David specifically requests that God preserve him! Vs. 107 - I have suffered much preserve me.
86-88 - Everything you command is a sure thing, but they harass me with lies. Help! They’ve pushed and pushed—they never let up—but I haven’t relaxed my grip on your counsel.In your great love revive me so I can alertly obey your every word.
All your commands are trustworthy; help me, for I am being persecuted without cause.
If you will remember one of the most basic and best prayers we can pray and the one God always responds to is "Help!"
94 - Save me, for I am yours;I have sought out your precepts.
122 - Ensure your servant’s well-being; do not let the arrogant oppress me.
134 - Rescue me from the grip of bad men and women so I can live life your way.
News flash there are bad men and bad women out there. Some of you know this first hand. We need to take them to God!
146-147 - I call out to you; save me and I will keep your statutes. I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word.
Long before the enemies job description was made public in John 10:10 (steal, kill and destroy) David understood that the enemy desires to destroy you, those connected to you, and your testimony. Therefore he fills the 119 with instruction on the concept of constantly and consistently asking God to HELP! In 13 of the 22 stanzas David says save, help, rescue, defend my cause, deliver, sustain me.
Here is a man that has armies at his call. Here is a man that has at his disposal thousands of chariots and horses. Armed guards 24 hours a day. Unlimited resources. He should have been able to rest easy. He should have been able to trust his well being. And yet, he knew that only God can truly protect and preserve. He knew that only God can defend us adequately. He knew only God is truly on guard constantly.
So many of us run to everyone but God for help. We communicate our need consistently to friends, to facebook, and to anyone who will listen. We trust people to guard us, we trust others to fight for us, we trust our own defense mechanism and what David is trying to get through to us is that we should seek protection and preservation from God! He is able to guard us! He is able to cover us. He is able to sustain us and keep us going when we feel like giving up and giving in! Those of you under attack begin to pray Lord protect me from attacks seen and unseen, expected and unexpected.
Instead of filling your prayer life with all types of requests, lists, wanderings I believe that the 119 gives us a much clearer path for prayer. Our prayers on a daily basis should simply be Teach Me, Bless Me, Protect Me!
Today I want to give you an opportunity to pray like David says to pray. Many of us are facing choices and decisions . . . ask God to teach you. Many of us have a need but before we ask for the need to be met teach me to handle, steward your blessings. Many of us need to ask God to preserve and protect. You are in a fight for your life. Bad men, bad women, arrogant people are working to destroy and devastate you. Why not allow the One who is undefeated and unrivaled, who needs no sleep, never takes a moment off, has no weakness rise up and come to your rescue?
