[0:00] Would you please join me in Psalm? We'll get to verse 137 through 144. What a sweet prayer to say that. We pray that all of our days would bring glory to His name. Thank you for that special.
[0:12] How many of you, when you get to Psalm 137, you can see the end of Psalm 119 on the page that you're at? How many of you could do that? All right, that means you're either not listening or you all have large print Bibles, or all of your Bibles are laid out differently than mine.
[0:25] From where you're at in Psalm 137, can you see the end of Psalm 119 on that same page? Oh, interesting. Okay, Travis can. All right. How many of you see it on the next page to it, beside it? Okay. All right. Most of you must have in the bottom right corner of your Bible.
[0:43] Have you ever had a Bible so long that you're able to do that? You didn't know exactly the passage, but you knew it was in the bottom right of a certain page. And so you guys must be in the bottom right of your Bible. That's interesting fact that I wasn't aware of because I'm in the top left of my Bible. But Psalm 137 through 144, we're in the 18th to 22 different sections as we've been going through Psalm 119. And I appreciate Greg leading the first part of the service. Tonight, I told him I'm not giving myself enough time for us to be in the Bible on Thursday night because I love talking so much about all that's going on with the missionaries.
[1:18] I want to make sure we have time tonight to look at it and end with a song, which we haven't been able to do on most Thursdays recently. But would you follow along with me? And I'm trying to get you to play along here. All right. Ms. Judy and other rooms in the WANA classes, they're learning the Bible. And I have the responsibility of leading this group in here, making sure you stay engaged in the Bible. Each time we've come together, we've looked and we've seen that there's a different expression or a synonym for the Word of God. And so in this, we will have the same in each verse. Maybe raise your hand when I get to that word, okay? And we're saying, when I get to the end, I'm going to read the verse.
[1:57] And when I get done reading the verse, say the word that would be a synonym for the Word of God once I'm done. Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments. Good.
[2:08] Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful. Catch it on quick. All right. Psalm 139. My zeal has consumed me because mine enemies have forgotten thy words.
[2:22] Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it. I am small and despised, yet do I not forget thy precepts. Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and thy law is the truth.
[2:36] Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me, yet thy commandments are my delights. Amen. The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting. Give me understanding, and I shall live.
[2:47] I shall live. Wonderful. Eight for eight. You've all passed tonight. So as we looked at last week, the letter, we looked at a different letter that started off many of the words.
[2:59] And today, we will look at another one. And there's a beauty to it. It's not hidden in Psalm 119. I don't know much about original languages, but when it comes to Psalm 119, it's not hidden, but we ought to see the structure of it.
[3:13] We ought to see the beauty of it. So I'd like to highlight it for you. One year, I was in children's evangelism in the summer in a program called Neighborhood Bible Time. Some of you have seen it in churches. And it could be quite embarrassing for me at times because I was traveling, and we always wore a short-sleeved shirt, a tie, a bunch of ribbons here, and a whistle.
[3:31] All right? And we had to be prepared at any time to make animal balloons and to do this silly cheer that we would do. Mark, you know it. Don't you want to come up here and do that with me? All right? And during the training time, the man in charge, he would have us do this like anywhere.
[3:46] We'd be at a restaurant. He'd be like, all right, boosters, it's time for the Bible Time chair. I'm at the airport, which is always pretty to cause a national security when you got 75 guys doing this weird dance, you know, in front of everybody.
[3:59] That's what it looks like. But what he said was, I'm trying to help you guys get out of your, to not worry about your own image when you're teaching the Word of God. Just be willing to do whatever it takes to communicate.
[4:11] All right? That's so important when teaching with kids. Well, I feel a little bit like that when I say Greek words, okay? Or Hebrew words in this case. I don't have a very large vocabulary, and I make up for my lack of vocabulary with stuff and things.
[4:26] You know what I'm saying? And some of you get that joke. But I have a difficulty with it, but I don't want to miss out. So I've got a couple slides, and we'll talk about Bo Carpenter, I'm sure, when we look at those slides here in a second.
[4:40] And they love you here, Bo. It didn't take long, man. Bo's moving in tomorrow at 7 a.m., right? Is that happening? It has to if I say it. Why don't we say 8 if I'm making up numbers, all right?
[4:51] I want you to just get with Bo. They unloaded. They loaded up U-Haul, and they brought it over the day, and we didn't help them. But they got bigger stuff tomorrow, all right? And so if you could help them, please do.
[5:02] I got three slides. And so if we could show the first one, which is the letter Sadi, which is the next letter in our list. If we were reading it in Hebrew, which would be pretty awesome, all right?
[5:12] We would be looking at the beginning of the different verses for this letter. Show me the next slide. It's going to be real small for you, but if you're going to use like a, these are the numbers from Strong Concordance, but that first letter that's circled, that would be found at the beginning of many of these verses.
[5:28] And so the word righteous is in the first verse, and then three verses later. Let's go to the next slide. The word pure will be the first word of that one. Just one more slide over. And I'm guessing Evans is back there the night, huh?
[5:42] Yeah, Evans, you're gone, bro. I love you, man, but you just got to go, all right? Somebody move Evans out of there, all right? And all right, that's good. Evans, really, get over it. Just get over it. Whoever that is.
[5:52] Yeah, thank you. All right, thank you. And so the word pure would be starting with that verse right there, and it starts with it. And so that's what we'd be seeing, this beautiful poetry where so many of the verses start with this same letter and teaching you at this.
[6:08] And so the initial letter of these verses, they start off with this sound and this letter, which is also the primary parts of the word righteousness. Righteousness. So if you're reading this, you very much know what the theme of this passage is.
[6:20] It has to do with the word righteousness. Let's see how many of y'all would answer this correctly. If I was to do a flip chart today and I would say A is for apple. All right. Anybody have a different word?
[6:31] Anybody say aardvark or anything? All right. And what do they say up in New England, Kyle? Would y'all say apple as well? Not from there. Not from there. All right. And so B is for boy?
[6:44] Okay. I didn't know that one. All right. So in this case, R would be for righteousness or sari would be for righteousness. If you were memorizing, if you and your family were in exile and you're trying to teach your family, couldn't get to the temple anymore, you couldn't have the laws of the land.
[7:00] If you were removed and you were trying to keep the culture, you're trying to keep the language, what might you do? You might open Psalm 119 and you might teach your kids the alphabet and let them know.
[7:12] And you would say this letter is for the word righteousness. And you will see that righteousness is the theme. The good definition of righteousness is God's righteousness means that God always acts in accordance with what is right and is himself the final standard of what is right.
[7:30] So God does not just act in a right fashion. God is right. He acts consistently with who he is. This passage ends with one prayer request, verse 144, which we will end with tonight.
[7:42] And I pray that you will make it your own request to the Lord. But let's look at words for a moment. We looked at a letter and Juan tells me righteousness does not start with an R in Spanish.
[7:52] Well, it doesn't in Hebrew either. So it doesn't really matter, Juan. But let's look at each one of these words here that we've already mentioned in our, and as I read the verses and you read them back to us.
[8:04] I want to look at the meaning of each one of those words. Because if you say you want to better understand the Bible, like if I want to understand this 137, there'd be a few ways to do it. I could read from the beginning of my Bible to the end as many times as I'm able to do in my life.
[8:18] Every time you go from left to right, when you get to a certain passage, you're going to have better understanding of it, understanding the context of it. Another way is that you'd have a better understanding of each word that you read.
[8:29] And the way to do that would be to follow your cross references on that word. David DeBois did that for us on a couple of Thursday nights where he just showed you the power of that middle column for you, or just the power of looking up where another word is used.
[8:44] So this word, first word that you said was the word judgments. And that's found throughout Psalm 119. It's found six other times the same word judgment is used. This is the most easily common understanding of what the law of God is.
[8:59] The day at the training center, I was teaching. I asked Zachariah if he obeyed traffic signs, and he told me he did not. And I wasn't ready for that. And the Schooley family was there with us.
[9:12] And I feel like the Schooley family is visiting schools that we're really missing out on a really good dad joke here. And I don't have it, but when I get older, I bet you I'm going to think of a good dad joke for that.
[9:22] But Zachariah admitted with our guest in the room today that he did not pay a lot of attention to it. But afterwards, he tried to justify it to me. I'm from a small town in North Carolina. It's just not worth it, all right?
[9:33] Nobody's ever going to be at that four-way stop when I get there. I might as well keep going through it. But that's the most commonly understood understanding of the law as in regards to judgment.
[9:44] The law is a sign of breaking the law as one of its functions. We're told that it's a schoolteacher in Galatians to warn you and tell you where the parameters are and the not pass it.
[9:55] And that's how most people see things like speed limits. But some of those signs are very instructive. If you're driving on the back roads and you see a road that says it turns like this, that's kind of good to know, right?
[10:05] You want to know what's coming ahead. Or if you get to an intersection and you see a yield sign, you want to know that or a stop sign. So it's not just telling you, hey, if you don't follow this rule, you're going to be punished.
[10:16] It also says, hey, let me help you stay safe on this road. So the assignment I gave the students is the assignment I'll give you the night. As you're driving home and you see a sign, say, thank you, yield sign.
[10:27] You've been so very helpful to me, all right? I appreciate your ministry in my life. Well, the first one, the way that we would see, the first word that was used as a synonym of the Word of God was the word judgments.
[10:38] And that's probably our easiest understood understanding of God's Word. Second word that you said was testimonies. This is a legal language dealing with what is a witness, bearing testimony of what they have observed or heard, reinstating what they believe to be true.
[10:55] A witness was necessary in establishing guilt in legal settings. You see that in Numbers 3530 and Deuteronomy and Old Testament, you see the need for a witness.
[11:06] A crime has been committed. They needed to have an eyewitness accounting of it. And anyone who chooses to reject God's law goes against the witness, the witness being him.
[11:18] He furnishes the proof that is needed for conviction. He is the witness of his own word. I've told you before, my wife is a part-time criminal lawyer, all right?
[11:30] She's always following some criminal case and she's watching it. And her favorite part, which has now become my favorite part because that's what happens when you're married. Your wife gets into something like that and you make fun of her a while.
[11:41] Next thing you know, I'm like, who was on the witness stand today, dear? What did they say? Did we get them? And so the watching that witness part is an exciting part of a case. Well, God is the witness of what he has given us to do.
[11:54] He stands as the righteous character witness. He is the one who says right and wrong. And then thy words. This is specifically speaking about communication. The holy triune God communicating with us, giving primary attention to his speaking towards us.
[12:10] The word that is used twice, thy word. And then precepts. That is exercising oversight upon a subordinate. It's used in a plural sense almost every time. It's in Psalm 119, all but three occasions you're going to find it there.
[12:23] And it's exercising oversight of people. You're either going to reject it for the worse or you're going to accept it. Verse 142 uses the word law or teaching here.
[12:33] Torah sets out regulations. It gives instruction as a wise teacher would teach students. And then lastly, the word commandments. And here we have the word commandments.
[12:46] In Jeremiah 32, 11, we find that it is when they purchase a plot of land, it refers to the terms of the contract. Or it could be used, as I've already said in Proverbs 2, 1, my son, if thou will receive my words and hide my commandments.
[12:59] They're instructions given to us. And these commandments, we find they rest upon God himself. Leviticus 22, 31, therefore shall you keep my commandments and do them.
[13:11] I am the Lord. What is the reason? What is the motive? Is I am the Lord. What is it you tell your kids? Because I am dad. Why? Because I am dad.
[13:21] The reason that you have to do what I told you to do is resting fully upon our relationship together and my role of authority in your life. These commandments come from God.
[13:33] They're rooted in that. It's the very nature of God. He gives us what is best in protection. And Deuteronomy 11, 1 says, Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God and keep his charge and his statutes and his judgments and his commandments all way.
[13:49] Which is an expression of our love is to trust him. And in trusting him, we would obey his words. He's trustworthy. His words are trustworthy. He's righteous.
[14:00] His words are righteous. Deuteronomy 8, 6. Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways and to fear him. And showing reference to God, we walk in the way in which he gives us.
[14:13] And God extends his mercy and love to them as we obey. Deuteronomy 5, 10. And showing mercy unto the thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. We find all through the Old Testament, what is the violation of breaking these commandments?
[14:27] It results in guilt and a need for atonement. And then verse 144 is the word, testimonies. So that is very evidently the theme of each of our stanzas in Psalm 119.
[14:39] We've done this many times now where I've read a verse or you pointed it out. But have you also noticed that there's a second minor theme that would be there as well. And it would have to do about affliction and persecution to the children of God.
[14:53] So last week, so the week before, we've seen about every week, major theme of the word of God and also the opposition that we have in this world. There's a great contrast. The more we love the world, the more we love the word, the more we're hated by the world.
[15:06] Why would you be surprised? If they hate me, then they're also going to hate you. The more of me that you have, the more they have the hate about you. And so look at, if you look down at your passage here, you're going to see in verse 141, I am small and despised.
[15:20] Verse 143, trouble and anguish. And then in 144, it ends with, I shall live. Unless you act and do something, I won't live. But if you do, then I shall live.
[15:32] So the psalmist here is, he's talking about the zeal that he has for God's word, the characteristics and his great adherence, and he triumphs and hope. And if you're here tonight and you say, well, this doesn't seem descriptive of me, then I will tell you that you're at the right place and among other people who will be honest in our mission.
[15:52] When you read these verses, you first read it and you say, those are not my words, but I want them to be my words based on what I know about God. We want our lives to align with him and his word.
[16:03] And as we pray tonight, I pray that you'll be able to do that with all sincerity, because God's word here is sufficient to make us wise, to train us in righteousness, and to equip us or to furnish us for every good work.
[16:19] And how do I know that? Because it tells us that, right? 2 Timothy 3, 15 and 17, and that from a child, which is happening in these rooms around us, that was known the Holy Scriptures, it's able to make thee wise in the salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
[16:34] And all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable for doctrine, and for reproof, and for correction, and then it says for instruction in righteousness, to know to do what is right, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
[16:52] So let me break this chapter down in two verse segments for you with our time remaining. So in Psalm 137 and 138, I'm going to give each one of these the same letter, because that's what's happening in the passage here, and I didn't want you to miss out on that, even though we only speak English.
[17:10] Some of y'all speak English. I'm speaking a variant of English as well. All right? And so I'm going to use the word character of God, the character of God, which is His righteousness. Righteous art thou, O Lord, and upright are thy judgments.
[17:24] Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful. So the first thing that's said is, Righteous art thou, O Lord. It's the character of God. It's an attribute of God that He is righteous.
[17:36] It's the Lord Himself that has been found to be righteous. And so in the book of Romans, we're told that we shouldn't be ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God and the salvation to Jew first and also to the Greek.
[17:49] And then it says what? For therein is the righteousness of God revealed. That in the demonstration of the gospel, in the person of Jesus Christ, we see righteousness on this blade.
[18:03] First John, He is called the righteous. And so our God is the definition of righteousness. All the way back in Deuteronomy 32, 4. He is the rock.
[18:14] His work is perfect. For all His ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. He is righteous. And so no correct understanding of right can be understood outside of Him.
[18:28] He is the definition of right. He is the definition of righteousness. Any form of right or righteousness outside of God, the Bible tells us, is simply filthy rags.
[18:40] It can take on the appearance, but it's not the same thing because any righteousness has to be a reflection of Him. So outside of rightness, rightness does not exist apart from God.
[18:52] And then we have in some verses here how His righteousness is exemplified. Being righteous means that His words will be right. Thy testimonies that thou hast commanded, they are upright, they're absolute justice, upright are thy judgments.
[19:06] But the righteous testimonies are commanded and requirements of men. They are commanded are righteous. And in faithful insistence on His word, they are very faithful.
[19:16] Simply, your words are righteous because you are righteous. Your words are faithful because you are faithful. And our lives will never be right until we make the recognition of God's righteousness.
[19:29] Ever tried to help somebody get right? Ever tried to help anybody live in a righteous manner? And they tried to do it outside of God and you knew that it was absolutely just a vain attempt? It's just true.
[19:39] There is no right living. There is no righteousness apart from Him. So the first step in living a righteous life would be to recognize that He is the authority on that. And then consuming.
[19:50] The next portion here, the consuming nature of His righteousness. My zeal has consumed me because mine enemies have forgotten thy words. Thy word is very pure. Therefore, thy servants loveth it.
[20:02] These words here, we recently looked at when Jesus said in the book of John, when He went into the temple, that His zeal had consumed Him. And what it was, it wasn't just the love for the temple, but His zeal was consumed for the law.
[20:15] The law of God was being broken when He walked in. I preached this a few weeks ago here, and I preached it at Whitfield on its anniversary service. And my nephew Bryce was watching the service online at Whitfield, and he said, I've already heard this one.
[20:27] He told his grandma. So I'm very proud that he was paying attention to it. And so the zeal has consumed Him. So when He walked in, He was consumed with a love for truth.
[20:39] And He said, this is not satisfactory. This will not happen. And in this passage, we show great contrast. Is that His love for the Word has consumed Him. And those other people, they have forgotten God's Word.
[20:53] Some years ago, when I lived up in Exit 16, I set my yard on fire. I set a lot of things on fire. You can ask that, you'll write. God, and this is what happens when you become an adult, and you get to play with a lighter by yourself, I guess.
[21:04] And so at our first home, I was always burning something in the backyard, and I carved our yard on fire. And so I got real concerned, and I ran to the neighbor next door, and I just said, man, I'm about to burn your house down.
[21:15] You know? I got my yard on fire, and he came out, and he was happy. It was a Saturday night, and I'll leave it at that, okay? He was high on a different spirit than the Holy Spirit.
[21:27] And he came out, and he just kind of looked at it, and I'm like, what are we going to do? And he's like, he went, he said, right there. And I'm like, what? He's like, that's where the fire is going to stop. I'm like, how do you know?
[21:39] And then he said, because that's leaves, and this is mud. All right? And I'm like, all right. You may be drunk, but you know more about fire than I do. And it's exactly what happened.
[21:49] Once the fire stopped having something consumed, it just went out on its own. And so in the same manner here is that when there's nothing there that could be burned or consumed, it went out.
[22:02] Those of us, we have a love for the Word of God. It should be consuming to us. And in contrast, like that same line, the Word of God is not consuming to them.
[22:13] There's no attraction. There's no interest in it. So God doesn't just save us and let us be, but He creates a zeal for truth in us and His Word and a hatred for disobedience.
[22:24] We start out with a sincere desire for milk, a God-given desire. Like, we just want to know Him. We want to know His truth. And as we saw last week, our hearts should break as rivers running down our eyes to other people that ignore God's law.
[22:40] Not as people that we're mad at, but people that are just missing out on how we're wonderful the truth is. So Jesus has a great love for it as we saw Him. And in John chapter number 6, verse 67, remember when Jesus gives those hard sayings and the disciples, He asked them, will you also go away from me?
[22:58] And Simon Peter answered and said, Lord, whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. And they just were saying, we love the heat. We love the truth. We are the leaves in which it spreads and we want every bit of it.
[23:13] It has not found an empty place in us. We love the heat. And in contrast here, verses 41 and 42, I am small and despised, yet I do not forget that precepts.
[23:24] And so, in what ways are we small? Well, look at verse 142 and you'll see the comparison. Thy righteousness is everlasting. We're small in every way that you can measure smallness.
[23:35] We are despised in every way that you can count it. But we're small in the fact that our life is just a vapor. And even in this amount of time that I have, in this little vapor that I have, your word is everlasting.
[23:46] In my little amount of time, I recognize that you are righteous. Neither the glamour of worldly power nor the sting of worldly contempt can move him away from his allegiance.
[23:59] He just said, it doesn't matter how much you despise me. It doesn't matter how much the enemies hate your word. I am not moving from this place. And God's word has proven to be true by those who are zealous for his truth in a world that has forgotten about it.
[24:14] Even if we're small and despised, we will not forget his precepts because we say we may be small and despised, but we carry something that is eternal and everlasting. God's word has been proven true by those that are zealous for it, even a world that forgot it.
[24:30] And then lastly here, trouble and anguish. There's a concern for the righteous testimonies. This is that sub-theme in Psalm 119 that we find, trouble and anguish have taken hold on me, yet thy commandments are my delight.
[24:44] Trouble and anguish, when it comes into your life, it just seems to color everything in a filter. I think there's just where there seems to be no joy left in the day because even when you wake up in that brief moment where you forget about the trouble and anguish, then you're like, oh yes.
[24:57] You ever felt down and then you forgot what was the reason you felt down? And then you're like, oh yes, I feel down for this reason. There's a place that you can take yourself that is different than the world in which there's trouble and anguish.
[25:11] There's a place where you can go delight in his commandments. That's what we mean when we're saying our God is our rock and our fortress. What do we mean when we say we can go hide in him? What are we talking about?
[25:22] We're saying in all the circumstances of life, when they're beating down upon you, you can go and hide yourself underneath the truth of his word. You can't just crawl under this book, right?
[25:33] I mean, but what it is is you can take the words of this and lay this on top of you. And it has a reviving nature about it. We were troubled and were anguished, but now we delight in his commandments.
[25:45] Psalm 144. Therefore, the righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting. Give me understanding and I shall live. What a wonderful expression. What a wonderful prayer which we will end with tonight is, God, if you'll give me understanding, I shall live.
[26:01] That's a great prayer. And what would the answer be? If you were to cry out to God and say, God, I need understanding, where would be the place to look? He says, I've spoken to you.
[26:11] I want to commune with you. I want to have a conversation with you and we can go to his book and we can learn. And for time's sake, I won't make mention of it or take you to the first John as I planned.
[26:24] But you know, there's been a lot of conversation recently. I saw at a college outside of Lexington, Asbury, and there have been some reports of revival. And I haven't been there and I pray that that is what is happening.
[26:37] But the thing that I find so interesting is the great interest in people to want to be part of revival. That everybody says, if I could drive to it, I would want it.
[26:48] You know, like if you give me something that I can just do, if you say it's a location to be at, I'll get in my car and drive to it right now. Which is a heart that a Christian can have.
[26:59] I really do appreciate and understand why a person would say that. If there's a way in which I could be closer to God, then let me have it. Give me, show me on the map. Tell me what to do. Is there a building that needs to be built?
[27:09] Is there something that needs to be driven? But there is a prayer that you'd say, God, would you give me understanding? And in 1 John, we find the work of the Holy Spirit is something that produces a love for the Lord, a love for His Word, it exalts Jesus, all the things that you will find when you spend time in this Word.
[27:28] There's only one book in all printed volumes which offers everlasting hope. How foolish are we if we ever neglect it? God's Word, in closing, God's Word brings the light in the midst of trouble and anguish.
[27:42] So before we pray this passage together, and Stephen leads us in a couple of verses of a song, I want to remind you tonight, we have a righteous Lord, and we're able, someday, we'll be able to enjoy Him for all eternity because of the righteous one, Jesus, who died in our place.
[27:58] But until that day, we hold in our hands the righteous words of God, which we can enjoy right now. We can delight in Him. You don't have to drive to Lexington.
[28:10] You don't have to drive to Mecca. You don't have to drive anywhere. You can have that relationship with the Lord. The psalmist speaks about his zeal for the Word in terms that seem extreme to us.
[28:22] But the psalmist turns to God even in the place of comfort. Pretty soon, Thatcher is going to try to get his driver's permit, all right? And he is going to hold that little booklet that they give you, and he will read it, and he will want to know it.
[28:38] Because all that book is, to some people, that's just a bunch of rules that you have to learn about driving. But what is that little booklet in the hand of a 15-year-old boy? It's the ticket to freedom, all right?
[28:51] He's like, if I understand this book, then they let me drive those cars, and I can go to McDonald's whenever I want, all right? Or whatever it is. And so if you've been holding this as like a book of rules that is just telling you how you don't know how to drive, then you're missing out on so much.
[29:08] It is a place to turn to during times of trial. It's a place where there's great freedom. It will tell you how to live your life, the right way in which to live our lives, because a righteous God wrote it for you and me.
[29:20] And because God is righteous, dependably righteous, His Word is everlastingly righteous and a comfort in times of anguish. I want to pray our psalm tonight, and then we'll say a couple verses before we leave.
[29:31] Heavenly Father, I thank you for being righteous, Lord. That is who you are, but you have revealed yourself to us as righteous. From the beginning of this book to the very end, Lord, from the beginning of my life till now, Lord, there's never been any shadow or doubt that you're anything but right and good.
[29:49] Lord, that means your testimonies, they are also right and righteous and faithful. And I thank you for them, Lord. I thank you, and I pray that I would have a consuming love for it, Lord, that even if my enemies have forgotten it and I live in a world, Lord, that despises it, the more they hate it, Lord, the more that I would love it, that my love for this Word, Lord, it would be a reflection of my love for you.
[30:13] Your words are pure, Lord. They're purifying to me. And I, as your servant, Lord, I love it. They are your precepts that you give to us. They're commandments, Lord. They're statutes.
[30:24] They're the law. Lord, they're everything that I would need, everything that's needed to live a life of righteousness. Everything that I need to furnish me, to equip me for the life you've called me to live. And even though I'm small and despised in this world's eyes, I'm not going to forget your precepts, Lord.
[30:41] They are everlasting. They are big. They are eternal. Your law, Lord, it is the truth. It is not a version of truth or a partial truth. It is the truth.
[30:52] When trouble and anguish come, Lord, and it so often does, and I feel like there's no delight in this world, and I feel like it's been taken away from me, may I hunger and thirst to find my delight in your word, and your righteousness are testimonies of everlasting.
[31:07] And Lord, we pray that you would give us understanding from this. And if you give us understanding, Lord, we will live. And if you don't, Lord, we most certainly can't. So we thank you for the wonderful promises of your word.
[31:19] In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.