The Path to Integrity
Psalm 119:1-8
August 12, 2018
In many respects, your reputation is the only thing you can take with you throughout your life, and maintaining integrity allows you to cultivate and build that reputation. Far too many people are willing to sacrifice their integrity for a quick shot of success. Cheating your integrity will usually come back to bite you in the end.
Think of people like ~ Barry Bonds. Mark McGuire. Sammy Sosa. Lance Armstrong. Ben Johnson. Bernie Madoff and Milli Vanilli
When you read those names, what comes to mind? I'm guessing it's not that they were the greatest of all time at their professions. Instead, it's probably that they all sacrificed their reputation and integrity for success. We might even call them frauds and cheaters.
As a result, their legacy won't be that they were one of the best ever in their profession. We may even question that they were genuinely good human beings and leaders who deserve our admiration. Their legacies are associated with shame and distrust. And that's largely because they chose to sacrifice their integrity and reputation for short-term success.
What about you? What are you willing to sacrifice for success? Would you be willing to give up something in order to be successful in school? Would you cheat or lie? Would you be willing to sacrifice your career so you could get ahead, maybe get a better job by lying?
Do you remember when Notre Dame hired George O’Leary as head football coach in 2001?
Five days after he was hired he was forced to resign because he lied on his resume. He said he earned 3 varsity letters in football at the University of New Hampshire. But he never played football there. He also said he earned a Masters Degree at "NYU - Stony Brook University," which is a non-existent college and obviously he didn’t earn. He claimed the inaccuracies were due to “resume padding.”
As we continue our short series looking at integrity, today we’re looking at Psalm 119:1-8. Let’s see what the psalmist wants us to understand about integrity ~
1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord!
2 Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart,
3 who also do no wrong, but walk in His ways!
4 You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.
5 Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!
6 Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
7 I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous rules.
8 I will keep your statutes; do not utterly forsake me! – Psalm 119
If you really want to learn more about integrity and what it means to follow God, then Psalm 119 is the one to read. It’s also the longest of all the Psalms, at 176 verses. It’s an acrostic Psalm, meaning, every 9th verse starts with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet.
Integrity doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not like salvation, where you proclaim Jesus and you have eternal life, integrity is a lot like the Christian faith . . . it’s a process that hopefully grows, and multiplies and others see it in you.
If you are wanting to become a person of integrity, or you want to grow in who Christ has called you to be, then Psalm 119 is perfect.
Last week we started with Psalm 112. The first verse was crucial as we read ~
1 Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments! – Psalm 112:1
That’s a great starting point, because we are blessed if we fear, or better yet, revere the Lord, if we worship Him and if we delight in His commands. We don’t always like rules. We don’t like to listen to anyone. But if we could actually delight in God’s commands, by being obedient to Him, we will grow in our integrity.
Now let’s take a closer look at psalm 119.
1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord!
In some ways this verse is similar to the opening verse of Psalm 112. The person is blessed when they choose the blameless way of life, of walking with the Lord. At this point in history, most of the world would say this is not the right approach to life.
The picture most people have of Christians is that life is pretty gloomy and depressing. We live by a bunch of “CANT’S.” You can’t gamble, you can’t drink, you can’t smoke, you can’t dance, you have no fun. The only thing you can do is judge others, go to church to listen to boring sermons, dull music, and give your money away!
But the psalmist is telling us that the person who chooses to follow the ways of God, who tries not to sin, who tries to be blameless is going to be blessed. Now, the word for blessed is not the usual Hebrew word. This word to be blessed means you are super happy! It means you are feeling the overflow of joy in your heart and spirit and you can’t help but feel . . . BLESSED!
Remember, we tend to base our happiness on what’s happening around us. Happiness = good happenings. We equate happiness with our personal pleasure and comfort.
But understand, being happy or blessed in the Lord comes from the most basic of sources. To have overflowing joy without holiness, without the Holy Spirit and without salvation through Christ . . . really seems impossible. So, this first verse takes us back to the root of faith, belief and trust in Christ as our Lord and Savior.
Now, as we move into the second part of verse 1 (imagine if I went this slow for all 176 verses today)!!
The 2nd part of verse 1 reminds us we need to walk in the law of the Lord! The word for law in Hebrew is the word TORAH! It’s the preeminent word in the OT for law. In the OT the first 5 books of the Bible are called the Torah.
As I thought about this, it occurred to me that it is not always easy to walk in the ways of the Lord. We have our ideas, our ways of doing life, and sometimes those contradict the ways of God. Sometimes we want justice when we’ve been wronged, but our way is not God’s way.
So, the image of walking in the way of the Lord is like being an infant. As they grow and mature, they realize there’s more to life than lying on their back and suddenly they roll over, and there’s a new perspective on life. Then they learn to use their hands and feet together and are crawling everywhere. Finally, they see all these big people walking around and try to do the same. They struggle to their feet, balance themselves, and finally take a few steps. Before you know it, they’re running all over the place.
It’s kind of that way with God’s word and following the law. When we first begin to read it, and learn the law and what God expects from us, we kind of stumble and fall. We tend to lose our balance, because we’re not oriented to life that way. As we study and grow, it becomes easier at times, yet difficult because we know the law of the Lord, but in some situations, we prefer our law over God’s. Ultimately, we find that good balance as we grow and we find ourselves blessed, filled with God’s happiness because of the joy within our heart and spirit.
This leads us to the next verses as we seek integrity
2 Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart,
3 who also do no wrong, but walk in His ways!
The image we have in these verses is the person with integrity seeks to honor God in their daily lives. That person is filled with that great happiness or joy because of the Spirit of God at work in their lives. They hold to the witness or testimony of God. They proclaim God’s goodness wherever they go.
And here is what’s so important. That person is blessed in my opinion, because they are seeking God with their heart! What word did I leave out? It’s really important. The person of integrity is seeking after God with their WHOLE heart. We just don’t say “I’ll give God a small portion of myself today - - - OR I really don’t want to know what God wants me to do, that way I can do my own thing, so I’m only going to seek God with 30% of my heart.”
That’s not what God wants from us. He wants us to seek Him, to be diligent in moving toward God by seeking after Him with our whole heart. We don’t worship God with ½ of our heart, we are called to worship Him, to serve Him, to give to Him with our whole heart.
As we do that we strive to do no wrong. We strive to walk in His ways. We will not always succeed, which is why we need a Savior. Yet, we try to follow the Spirit of God and His laws, so that we can be obedient and the world would know who we are in a positive way because we are following the Lord.
In some ways, I see this verse linked with verse 8, when the psalmist states ~
8 I will keep your statutes; do not utterly forsake me!
The psalmist wants to keep the statutes of God. It’s like he’s saying to God, “I’m doing my best to follow your laws, but Lord, I’m a sinner and in need of your grace when I mess up and miss the mark. So, Lord, be patient, don’t let me go. Trust that I’m working out my salvation, so don’t forsake me.”
Again, this is why we need Jesus. The person of integrity can admit their limitations, they can admit when they are wrong. They know they don’t have all the answers. You know how God responds to us when we make those statements?
He says things like ~
It's like he's saying, "Lord, this may take a little longer than I originally projected. I'm worse than I originally thought. I've got a longer way to go than I realized. Please, don't give up on me. Don't forsake me."
And what does God say in response to that?
5 I will never leave you nor forsake you. – Hebrews 13:5
God understands more than any of us will ever understand that we are on this journey to integrity. We were sinful and selfish and rebellious towards God, and we turned to Him in repentance and He forgave us of our sins and gave us the gift of salvation, eternal life is now ours.
The goal in moving towards integrity is an everyday decision we make. It’s a life long process as we become more Christ like in the process.
There will be times of frustration, times of disappointment. Times when you don't understand your actions, times when you don't understand why God doesn't just change you all at once - - and times when you ask God why His plan is different than yours. And there very well may be times when you say, "God, I'm still learning, please don't give up on me."
He never will - - - so don't ever give up on yourself. Instead, we need to do as the author of Hebrews tells us ~
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. – Hebrews 4:16
I want to end with a short look at the middle 4 verses, because they all flow together ~
4 You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently.
5 Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!
6 Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
7 I will praise you with an upright heart, when I learn your righteous rules.
Notice the psalmist has spoken about God’s
precepts or commands to be diligently kept
that he would be constant in keeping God’s laws.
And because he is seeking to follow God he would not be put to shame, because all he does is to bring glory to God.
I just want to comment on this, that too many people hide behind God’s law to do what is not right. That’s what made the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 so powerful. The supposedly religious people used the law to do what was not right.
Often times when you don’t agree with someone who is speaking something which is not the truth, you may be told you’re intolerant, you’re prejudiced. In our world you very well may be put to shame. You need to remember you are talking to a person who does not believe as you do. Sometimes to argue is going to get you nowhere. You can simply agree to disagree. Make your point, know your Bible so you can explain, speak with gentleness and kindness, doing it all with compassion. Don’t beat someone up with the Bible. That will never advance the kingdom of God. It will take away from the kingdom.
But you must have your eyes and your heart fixed on God’s commandments, not the world’s and not yours. They are His.
And in the end, you will praise God with a heart that is pure, that is not defiled and not contaminated. That happens because of passages like 1 John 1:9 ~
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. - 1 John 1:9
The beauty is that God forgives you and He cleanses you from all unrighteousness. He purifies you! That’s great news.
So as you are continually learning God’s laws - - as you learn and apply them to your life through the power of the Holy Spirit, you will grow more and more into the person Christ is calling you to be. You grow in integrity.
