“The Lost Sheep” Psalm 119:169-176
We have been reading through Psalm 119 which describes God’s perfect character and for attributes and PRAISES Him for HIS WORD because through it we come to know that God is sufficient for the man or woman who has their trust in Him. We learn in each section of the Psalm (which is an acrostic of the Hebrew 22 letter alphabet) that God is ALL-sufficient from the first letter to the last, salvation is from Him from the beginning to the end.
There are some essential themes in pslam 119 which I have included in your notes:
The Psalmist expresses:
o His Love for God’s Law.
o His Desire to keep God’s Law.
o His Failure to keep God’s Law.
The Psalm is a faithful expression of:
o God’s Character.
o The Son’s ability to faithfully keep the law for us.
o The Redeemed to be set free from the penalty of the Law.
o The Law as our Guide to please the One who died in our place.
Today we examine the final words in Psalm 119, the 22nd section of this Psalm.
The Humble Cry of one to an audience of the ONE God
Verses169-170: “Let my cry come before You, O LORD; Give me understanding according to Your word. 170 Let my supplication come before You; Deliver (SAVE) me according to Your Word.”
This is the Humble Cry of ONE sinner to the Audience of the ONE God. The Psalmist comes to Heaven’s Door and knocks as a needy beggar before God. He approaches like a bleating sheep who has lost its way. As we saw in the plight of the ten lepers in Luke 17, they had no alternative but to CRY OUT to God because HE is the only hope for the hopeless; it is, therefore, no accident that the cry of the desolate looks for understanding, discernment and salvation from the mouth of God and by no other way. We seek the Word of God for understanding.
We need Godly discernment and scrutiny about who we are and God’s Word reveals that we indeed HAVE a deadly problem. In order to plead for deliverance “according to His Word”, we need to be able to acknowledge that He alone provides the solution. That takes Humility of heart!
God’s Word graciously supplies the news that we need to know concerning God’s saving Love supplied to us in Christ. His Word is LIFE to us. God gave us His Word to reveal His wonderful merciful. The word used in Hebrew for “word” is “Dabar” (there are eight other synonyms for “dabar” used in ps. 119) and in the Septuagint (the Old Testament translated into the Greek), theologians translated this word “logos”. God spoke His Word at Creation, demonstrating His almighty creative power; He spoke His Word to Old Testament Israel, He spoke the Law to Moses, He spoke to and through His prophets, revealing who HE IS and our sinful condition apart from Him, and in these last days, He has spoken to us with His redeeming work through THE WORD, the Lord Jesus.
The plea to God in this verse is, “SAVE ME (deliver me) ACCORDING to YOUR WORD.” Apart from your WORD, I am lost.
Penitence Leads to Salvation (Word) which Leads to Worship
Look at verses171- 172: “Let my lips utter praise, For You teach me Your statutes. 172 Let my tongue sing of Your word, For all Your commandments are righteousness.” We learn from HIM. If we are led and convicted BY the Word of God, when we are Penitent before God and confess our great NEED, we receive a new heart (we are SAVED) and a REDEEMED HEART longs for a heart of PRAISE. If God is Savior He HAS TO BE praised and worshiped for His salvation, but how do we learn how to praise such a prodigal extravagant God?
When Jacob met God, he would not let go of Him until He received God’s blessing. Moses wanted to know God’s name and he begged Him to show him more of His glory. Jeremiah went from the depths of despair to “GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS!” Isaiah went from a man of unclean lips to declaring the Salvation of our Great God. We only can worship when God teaches you of His SAVING Grace through His Word by THE WORD, THEN you have all the reason to praise Him. Those who are TRULY saved by God are TRULY taught by God, and TRULY praise and worship God. Unless you have been changed BY Him you will not have the desire to please and worship Him.
God actually teaches us lessons for acceptable forms of worship. Worship of the Holy God is not done haphazardly. In the Old Testament, people who tried to approach Him in any way outside of God’s prescribed order, met with swift judgment. (Nadab and Abihu, who offered unauthorized fire were immediately consumed in Lev. 10:1-2; Korah, who assumed priestly functions not assigned to him, was swallowed up by the earth in Num. 16; Uzziah offered incense that only the priests could offer and received leprosy in return in 2 Chron. 26:16-21.)
God prescribed acceptable forms of worship in the New Testament too. Believers do not worship in the temple in Jerusalem-it was destroyed. They now worship God in spirit and truth. “In Truth” means that they worship according to the revelation of God in the Bible. Some things are crystal clear, others are not: We don’t offer blood sacrifices because Jesus offered HIMSELF as the perfect sacrifice filling the O.T. sacrificial system. We are not to practice immorality nor are we to hold a disorderly raucous and call it worship.
WE ARE instructed to pray, sing hymns and spiritual songs to our Great God, and listen and LEARN His Words and that teaching His Word is central to Christ-centered worship. The Psalmist is aware that in order to develop a sincere, devout and worshipful heart, we lack in and of ourselves what we need. We have to humbly learn from God how to worship Him and he supplies the thankfulness and joy needed by His Grace; It is from a God-given NEW HEART that the desire to praise and serve Him alone arises. Matt 12:34: “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” The Word of God is our governor in faith, in life, and in worship, but the OBJECT of our Worship, the God of our Salvation by virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ far exceeds the ACTIONS of our Worship.
Godly Power to Obey, Follow and Persevere
Look at verse173 “Let Your hand be ready to help me, For I have chosen Your precepts. 174 I long for Your salvation, O LORD, And Your law is my delight. 175 Let my soul live that it may praise You, and let Your ordinances help me.”
God’s powerful hand must surround me in order for me to choose to follow His Word: We Need Godly Power to Obey, Follow, and Persevere. We absolutely rely on HIS HAND to Help. “Salvation” is “yĕshuw`ah”, the Savior: Salvation is the SAVIOR! This Psalmist’s heart was set on Heaven’s Savior who was to come; We HAVE the Spirit of Jesus and our hope has been realized to a greater extent than the Psalmist’s because JESUS DID come and died; He arose and ascended, but ALL of our hope has not yet been realized.
We still patiently wait for the completion of our redemption, but in the meanwhile we have life in and by His Power and Grace so that we may PRAISE God, even while on this sinful earth: “Let my soul live that it may praise You, and let Your ordinances help me.” On account of Jesus’ past DOWN payment, we know there is an even greater and more glorious future in store for believers when Jesus returns and His Kingdom comes in its fullness. We wait expectantly for Jesus to come again, longing for something better in His RECREATED world. There is an eternal salvation which all the saints are longing for, and therefore we pray that God's hand would help us to be faithful to Him on our way to it. Lord, please find us faithful.
For the Psalmist, the hope was present and yet in the future, and so to us. We who have been called to new Life in faith, implore the help of God to carry us on in obedience to Him; we who expectantly wait for the completion of God's salvation take delight in His law and knowing that our hope and help RESTS IN HIM. HE increases our delight along life’s journey because, when it’s all been said and done, Jesus IS all that we have! Praise God that Salvation is of the Lord!
Sometimes still straying like a lost sheep.
Look at Verse176: “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, For I do not forget Your commandments.” Although the Psalmist has confessed his need for understanding, for deliverance, for right worship, for an upright life, and perseverance IN that life, he nonetheless describes himself as “a lost sheep” and he asks God to “SEEK YOUR SERVANT”. Remember we looked at Luke 17:10 a few weeks ago: “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.' "He still remains an “unprofitable and unworthy servant”.
Unconverted sinners are certainly like lost sheep, sheep that are doomed to die unless they are found, but weak UNSTEADY SAINTS are like lost sheep too. Matthew 18:12-13 says: "What do you think? (Here’s a question for you.) If any man has a hundred sheep (they are in the fold.) , and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and search for the one that is straying? 13 "If it turns out that he finds it, truly I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray.” (The “Prodigal” son portrays a similar picture.)
This entire Psalm states the reality of Saints living and struggling against our own fleshly desires that are still at war within us: Sometimes we still stray like a lost sheep from the Shepherd, but we belong to the Great Shepherd of His sheep. Sometimes we want to break loose and wander away from His protection and security, only to find ourselves LOST and waiting to be found.
“O to grace how great a debtor, Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.”
Sheep are prone to wander and when they do stray, they are not apt to find the way back again on their own. By going astray they lose the comfort of the green pastures and food that the shepherd has provided, and they expose themselves to a thousand mischiefs and dangers.
We pray with the Psalmist: LORD, Seek your servant, as the Good Shepherd seeks a wandering sheep to bring it back. Ezekiel 34:12 says: "As a shepherd cares for his herd in the day when he is among his scattered sheep, so I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day.” David certainly knew about lost sheep since he was a shepherd for His Father’s sheep. He knew that sheep bore their owner’s mark so that the shepherd would always know the sheep. We have the mark of the Holy Spirit, so that we will always be in His care. Lord, seek me and care for me, deliver me.
“Seek Your servant, For I do not forget Your commandments” Wayward servants return with a penitent sense of their own sin and believing-dependence on God's grace. The Great Shepherd of His Sheep said in John 15 that he is also “the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” “NOTHING” does not mean “a little something.” It means nothing. When we stray we cease to bear fruit because we starve ourselves.
It is the character of humble and holy saints that they don’t forget God's commandments, being well convicted in their hearts by faith to follow Jesus, because they first of all have been Sought and FOUND BY HIM; The Profound reality is that Jesus has come as THE LIVING WORD from God in the Flesh, and His Spirit will NEVER LEAVE those who have been found by Him. As we continue to live and walk in the WORD and Spirit, we will Grow in our relationship with Jesus because we are living with Jesus, and for Him. We are mindful of their duty but we still often wander from Him. But when we wander from Him, we can repent with a humble confidence, and be confident, not in our ability to “do the good”, but we can be confident in the care of God's Goodness and Grace, resting in Christ’s Righteousness. Amen. So Let HIM be the final Word.
Outline:
1. The Humble Cry of one to an audience of THE ONE God (169-170):
• “Save me according to your Word.”
2. Penitence Leads to Salvation which longs for a Heart of Worship (171- 172):
• It is from a NEW HEART given from God that the desire to praise and serve Him alone arises. (Matt 12:34)
• The OBJECT of our Worship, the God of our Salvation by virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ, far exceeds the ACTIONS of our Worship.
3. We Need Godly Power to Obey, Follow, and Persevere (173-175): Salvation is of the Lord!
4. Sometimes we still stray like a lost sheep. (176) (Matt 18:12-13, Eze. 34:12, John 15:5)
• Sheep are prone to wander.
• “Seek your servant, as the Good Shepherd seeks a wandering sheep.”
• Wayward servants return with penitence and believing-dependence on God's grace.
• Jesus has come as THE WORD from God in the Flesh.
