The Lost Sheep...again Psalm 119:169-176 Series

“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.)