119 - Pt. 5
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.”
When we started I mentioned 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. Then in week 2 we dealt with David's instructions on prayer. So I am praying that you have been praying the 3 prayers he said to pray. Teach me! Has He taught you anything this week? Bless me! I don't need to ask you if prayed that because we all have no problem praying that. Protect me! I need God to watch over me and protect me from me and my enemy! I don't want to squander my blessing so I need knowledge and protection! Then we dealt with the theme of praise found in the 119. We discussed the "when" of our praise and said that even if it is midnight we should be praising. We need to get the ratio right 7 to 1! We talked about the "why" of praise. We praise because it is what we are created to do. We praise as an overflow of our life. Your mouth will not overflow with praise if your life doesn't overflow with praise. Finally we dealt with the "how" we praise. We should be willing praisers. Then last week we dealt with affliction. David had suffered much and yet he teaches us that it is affliction that causes us to obey. So affliction is part of discipline. He stated that affliction was good for us. We must learn that all things work together for our good. He says that affliction is an indication of God’s faithfulness. He promised that we would have many afflictions but the Lord would deliver us out of everyone and that they would not break us!
So let’s try to wrap this thing up this morning.
As I have spent time reading and rereading the 119 I have noticed a particularly poignant section that gives us a glimpse into a situation that many of us can either relate to or currently find ourselves.
Psalms 119:81-84
81My soul faints with longing for your salvation, but I have put my hope in your word. 82 My eyes fail, looking for your promise; I say, “When will you comfort me?” 83 Though I am like a wineskin in the smoke, I do not forget your decrees.
My eyes grow heavy watching for some sign of your promise; how long must I wait for your comfort? How long do I have to put up with all this?
Psalms 119:84
84 How long must your servant wait? When will you punish my persecutors?
How long till you haul my tormentors into court?
The stanza of verses 81-88 has been called “The Midnight” of this Psalm. The depth of his midnight is revealed in verse 83. He uses a metaphor to show how dark it is. He says, “I am like a wineskin in the smoke.” He uses the practice of the day was to hang empty wineskins in their tents to reveal how dismal it is. They would hang the empty wineskins in their tents and since they had large wood fires and no chimneys, the wineskins became smoke-dried, shriveled, and unfit for use. They became soot covered and blackened. He is saying I have waited until the all the moisture, all hope, all joy, all the life is burned out of me. I am covered with the ash of yesterday. I am covered with the soot of sorrow.
It is from this dark place that we see that David struggles with the “When” question. The “how long” question. He is battling the “I have a promise, I have stood for right, I have done what you have asked . . . now when are you going to come through, when is your Word going to work, where are you when I need you God, I am tired of waiting” feeling. David is right in the middle of a waiting game. Ever been there? Are you there right now?
Out of this midnight section of the Psalm David teaches us that:
Waiting can cause you to grow weary.
David is honest enough to express his sincere and heartfelt exhaustion with waiting for God to come through while the wicked around him seem to prosper and go unpunished. He is shaking his fist and saying, “When! How long is too long to wait!”
What do you do when promises seem to go unfulfilled? What do you do when all you seem to do is wait for justice? What do you do when you have tithed faithfully and yet the windows of heaven seem to be shut tight?
David was growing weary. Some of you are exhausted . . how long will be before my husband/wife comes back? How long will I have to wait for my kids to respect me? How long before I healed?
Some of you are tired of waiting. David understood!
Waiting can cause you to grow whiny.
David seems to resist the temptation better than we do. It is apparent by the number of times he comes back to this lament that he is on the verge of becoming consumed or at least distracted by the waiting game. Too many of us go beyond the weary stage to the whiny stage. We allow the time to cause us to become a victim. We stagnate in the wait.
Waiting/silence doesn’t give us permission to go to war!
Too many of us want to march on a word that wasn’t for us or hasn’t come to the fullness of time yet. Go back and learn from the account in Exodus! Ask Pharaoh what happens when you try to operate on a word that isn’t for you.
Look around and you and see what happens when we go to war on our own based on a promise that has yet to be unfulfilled. We see people who have promises about certain relationships that in His timing would have turned out right, but because they grew weary in waiting they went to war and took matters into their own hands. They ended up ahead of God and the instead of healing all they did was deepen the hurt. They ended up married before the time is right. They ended up out of a relationship because they wouldn’t wait on God to turn it.
You see folks with promises about their future that if they would have waited they would found themselves blessed but they got in a hurry and they become cursed. They made financial decisions based on promises that had yet to come to past and since they were ahead of God they are now in over their heads! They forced their way onto a stage and it destroyed them because they weren’t ready and they weren’t willing to wait.
Every time it seems like David has grown so tired of waiting that he will take matters into his own hands he circles back to an “I will trust you . . . I will obey your instructions . . . I will honor your decrees” posture. He lays down his weapon and waits.
I think we need to learn from David because it seems to me that most of us after a prolonged season of waiting begin to take up weapons of sarcasm, bitterness, sharp words, anger and we strike out at those who we think are against us or those who we think should be for us that are not!
Some of you need lay your weapons down. Quit pulling the strings. Quit working the angles. Quit maneuvering and go back to waiting!
David shows us that waiting doesn’t have to cause us to grow weak.
Although he grew weary David didn’t grow weak. When David is at the breaking point it seems that he comes back to the strength of God’s Word and finds endurance and stamina to continue waiting. In fact, immediately following “The Midnight” of this Psalm David pens one of the greatest testimonies about God ever penned.
89Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. 90 Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures.
After expressing his disgust with waiting he turns and says God your Word is eternal. It is firm. It is solid. He comes to a place where “If God said it . . . even if time passes with no glimpse of fulfillment . . . I will believe it”. Then out of a prolonged season of waiting he brags on the prolonged length of God’s faithfulness! Your faithfulness continues not just to me but to all generations! Yes I am tired of waiting but I realize God that you aren’t just God enough to be faithful to me but to everyone in every generation to come! David rallies and becomes stronger and more resolute in his trust in God.
Isaiah chimes in on this fact . . . Isaiah 40:27-31.
Why do you say, O Jacob and assert, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord" and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though the youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength: they will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary.
We refuse to wait and so we grow weaker. Wait and we gain strength.
David shows us that although it is acceptable to question God’s timing but we never have to question His faithfulness!
Delay doesn’t mean deny. Wait doesn’t mean no. Wait means not now. Wait means I will hold on until you give me different instructions. Wait means I will become even more careful to check with you before I do anything! Wait doesn’t mean settle.
What promises have you given up on? What is waiting do to you? Are you making silly decisions because you are tired of waiting? Have you given up on God?
