WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:03.660 Cool, so Psalm 119, 33 through 40. 00:00:07.679 --> 00:00:12.880 All right, verse 33. 00:00:13.540 --> 00:00:17.800 Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will keep it to the end. 00:00:18.420 --> 00:00:22.179 Give me understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. 00:00:22.940 --> 00:00:26.039 Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. 00:00:26.740 --> 00:00:29.820 Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain. 00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:34.600 Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways. 00:00:35.460 --> 00:00:37.920 Confirm to your servant your promise that you may be feared. 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:41.600 Turn away the reproach that I dread, for your rules are good. 00:00:42.439 --> 00:00:45.780 Behold, I long for your precepts and your righteousness give me life. 00:00:47.079 --> 00:00:50.539 So we're in the middle of studying Psalm 119. 00:00:50.740 --> 00:00:51.879 It's a very, very long chapter. 00:00:51.879 --> 00:00:57.600 And as you probably heard beforehand, that Psalm 119 is an alphabetic acrostic. 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:09.400 So it's got eight verses each, and each of those verses starts with the one letter of the Hebrew alphabet successively. 00:01:09.799 --> 00:01:09.879 Right? 00:01:10.460 --> 00:01:14.960 So the first eight verses starts with the first letter, the next eight verses starts with the next letter, etc., etc. 00:01:14.959 --> 00:01:17.839 The psalm is also a wisdom composition. 00:01:18.239 --> 00:01:23.439 So it's teaching its hearers about the right way to live and right faith. 00:01:23.780 --> 00:01:23.979 Right? 00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:30.379 It makes clear that wise living centers around the instruction of God, the word of God. 00:01:30.379 --> 00:01:34.879 And a number of words with slight nuances are used throughout Psalm 119. 00:01:35.359 --> 00:01:42.560 So, for example, we see in this passage the words statutes, law, commandments, precepts, promise. 00:01:42.819 --> 00:01:46.819 So they all refer to God's word, and it's slightly nuanced. 00:01:48.959 --> 00:01:54.959 And it's not super profitable to go into, like, the theological differences between each of the nuances, 00:01:54.959 --> 00:01:58.000 but it's good to know that they mean slightly different things. 00:01:59.179 --> 00:02:04.859 Throughout this chapter, we encounter the psalmist's yearning that God calls him to live in his instruction. 00:02:05.479 --> 00:02:09.780 And in this passage specifically, we read of the psalmist petitioning God 00:02:09.780 --> 00:02:15.599 and relying on God to change his mind and his heart and his life. 00:02:15.599 --> 00:02:18.479 And so this is what we can take away from this passage, 00:02:18.759 --> 00:02:22.780 that we need to rely on God to change our minds and our hearts through his word, 00:02:22.900 --> 00:02:26.620 which leads to changed lives that are full of hope. 00:02:27.120 --> 00:02:30.299 So looking first at a changed mind. 00:02:31.319 --> 00:02:39.240 So we first need him to change our knowledge, our thoughts, our intellect, our understanding. 00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:39.659 Right? 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:42.039 That's what our minds refers to. 00:02:42.039 --> 00:02:46.560 And it's relatively easy to memorize knowledge of the Bible, 00:02:46.699 --> 00:02:50.479 just like we might study it in school and memorize, like, facts in a history book. 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:55.719 We can memorize, like, the order of events, people, books, and chapters. 00:02:56.280 --> 00:03:00.079 But our aim is not the superficial degree of knowledge. 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:00.680 Right? 00:03:00.759 --> 00:03:06.259 Rather, we're seeking to understand what God is revealing in his word so that we might obey it. 00:03:07.199 --> 00:03:08.819 Verses 33 and 34 say, 00:03:08.819 --> 00:03:12.840 Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will keep it to the end. 00:03:13.419 --> 00:03:17.719 Give me understanding that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. 00:03:18.519 --> 00:03:21.319 So the goal here is to obey. 00:03:23.019 --> 00:03:25.959 I think we've been going through a loop on Sundays, right? 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:31.500 So we're reminded of the Jewish leaders in Jesus' day who knew the scriptures better than anyone else. 00:03:31.500 --> 00:03:35.580 And yet they were the ones who were in conflict with the Lord. 00:03:36.680 --> 00:03:42.860 And we even see in John 3, Nicodemus the Pharisee, when he encounters Jesus, 00:03:43.080 --> 00:03:45.400 Jesus tells Nicodemus that everyone needs to be born again, 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:48.500 from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive. 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:50.300 But Nicodemus doesn't understand. 00:03:50.520 --> 00:03:52.020 He incredulously asks, 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:54.159 How can a man be born when he is old? 00:03:54.280 --> 00:03:56.639 Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? 00:03:56.639 --> 00:03:59.699 And Jesus responds, 00:04:00.239 --> 00:04:01.459 Are you the teacher of Israel? 00:04:01.619 --> 00:04:03.379 And yet you do not understand these things. 00:04:04.739 --> 00:04:09.699 So to have right knowledge is not a matter only of studying and putting in time and the effort. 00:04:09.839 --> 00:04:10.559 It involves that. 00:04:11.099 --> 00:04:18.659 But it requires prayerful reliance on God to give us that genuine understanding of what God's teaching us. 00:04:20.099 --> 00:04:21.979 The second thing is the heart change. 00:04:22.699 --> 00:04:24.579 Verse 36 through 37 says, 00:04:24.579 --> 00:04:28.479 Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain. 00:04:29.019 --> 00:04:32.779 Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways. 00:04:33.859 --> 00:04:41.299 Our hearts involve our desires, our loves, ultimately who we are at the core of our identity. 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:46.079 And I'm in my 30s, which is still relatively quite young. 00:04:46.079 --> 00:04:54.000 So I'm still growing in my appreciation of the impossibility of changing a person's heart. 00:04:54.579 --> 00:05:03.199 I think throughout, well, pre-30s, like youth and teens and 20s, it's just a lot of growth, right? 00:05:03.219 --> 00:05:03.939 A lot of potential. 00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:12.319 I think of just like a small seed putting down roots and shooting up a trunk and branches and green and young and supple. 00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:17.800 And it's just full of possibility and hopeful expectation. 00:05:18.759 --> 00:05:21.920 But then what happens when the shoot starts going sideways? 00:05:22.579 --> 00:05:29.339 You know, have you guys seen those experiments where they put like a seed in a box and there's only one hole of light and the seed like goes towards the light? 00:05:29.339 --> 00:05:32.839 Like what happens if you go all crooked and the branches are twisted? 00:05:33.719 --> 00:05:40.919 And what's being produced are rotten leaves, rotten fruit that are ugly and no good. 00:05:41.659 --> 00:05:45.939 So I think with our hearts, our intentions may be good and kind. 00:05:46.159 --> 00:05:52.779 But at least for me, as I've grown older, I've seen more and more the ugliness of my heart, the sickness of my heart. 00:05:52.779 --> 00:06:03.139 And I may want to be gentle in speech, but, you know, in a conflict, the first words and thoughts might be anger or impatience. 00:06:04.679 --> 00:06:11.259 And I might want to be full of faith, but when I face trials in life, it's anxiety and fear that grip my heart as opposed to faith. 00:06:11.259 --> 00:06:18.779 And I might want to be self-controlled, but I over and over again in a vicious cycle indulge my temptations. 00:06:21.379 --> 00:06:24.339 And it's like Peter, we see plenty of examples of this. 00:06:25.060 --> 00:06:30.899 Peter, before the Lord went to the cross, said, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. 00:06:31.699 --> 00:06:33.560 But he ended up denying him three times. 00:06:33.719 --> 00:06:36.420 And it says that Peter went out and wept bitterly. 00:06:37.240 --> 00:06:39.539 And Paul talks about the struggle, too, in Romans 7. 00:06:39.540 --> 00:06:40.500 He says, 00:06:40.680 --> 00:06:44.600 For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 00:06:45.100 --> 00:06:49.900 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 00:06:50.780 --> 00:06:53.960 Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? 00:06:54.540 --> 00:06:56.700 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:01.780 So as we study through Psalm 119, 33 through 40, 00:07:02.180 --> 00:07:06.400 we see that it's Christ who gives us hope for our hearts to be changed, 00:07:06.399 --> 00:07:14.779 to reach down deep and to change what we love, change what we want, change what's valuable to us, 00:07:14.859 --> 00:07:18.079 which is not something that we can ultimately control. 00:07:18.079 --> 00:07:21.379 And God gives us hope. 00:07:23.139 --> 00:07:26.659 He turns our eyes away from things that are worthless. 00:07:27.459 --> 00:07:31.199 And, I mean, they might be worthless in different ways. 00:07:31.539 --> 00:07:32.759 They might be outright sinful. 00:07:33.099 --> 00:07:38.579 So he changes, he averts our eyes to things that are more valuable, right? 00:07:38.579 --> 00:07:43.560 But they might be worthless in the sense of not being the best, right? 00:07:45.459 --> 00:07:50.779 Maybe it's a good thing, but it's taking up too much of your time or too much of your heart, right? 00:07:52.860 --> 00:07:55.419 So, I mean, I don't know if this is like a good thing, 00:07:55.500 --> 00:08:00.379 but an example that came to mind is like after work, coming home and playing like six hours of Fortnite 00:08:00.379 --> 00:08:06.000 or something like that, right, where it's fun and it might be a decompressing thing, 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:11.980 but you could probably spend that better with sleep or Bible study or exercise 00:08:11.980 --> 00:08:15.699 or talking with your wife or all kinds of things, right? 00:08:17.060 --> 00:08:21.360 So in Christ, we have confidence in God to untwist those branches, 00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:26.719 to straighten out that trunk that's gone crooked and to make us produce good fruit. 00:08:26.720 --> 00:08:32.860 And this ultimately leads to the last thing, which is changed lives that are full of hope. 00:08:33.920 --> 00:08:40.340 These changes in our minds and our hearts, yeah, it brings real change. 00:08:40.500 --> 00:08:41.600 So verse 38, it says, 00:08:42.160 --> 00:08:44.759 Confirm or fulfill, is another translation, 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:48.840 to your servant your promise that you may be feared. 00:08:50.820 --> 00:08:55.019 And we know that God is not like a man, right? 00:08:55.040 --> 00:08:55.620 He doesn't lie. 00:08:55.700 --> 00:08:56.300 He tells the truth. 00:08:57.720 --> 00:08:59.060 In Numbers 23, it says, 00:08:59.259 --> 00:09:02.620 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. 00:09:02.920 --> 00:09:04.560 Has he said and will he not do it? 00:09:04.899 --> 00:09:07.420 Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it? 00:09:08.340 --> 00:09:12.860 So we know that God is faithful and he's trustworthy. 00:09:15.379 --> 00:09:21.759 And there are sweet promises, nuggets in God's word that we hold on to and we cling to. 00:09:21.759 --> 00:09:27.139 So a question is, what are some of those promises for you guys that you hold on to, 00:09:27.659 --> 00:09:31.259 that are sweet to you, that are treasures to you in dark times? 00:09:31.259 --> 00:09:42.960 A few is from Philippians chapter 2 when he says that God works in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:47.519 So we know that God is working in our lives, in our hearts, and in our actions to bring change. 00:09:47.519 --> 00:09:53.799 We know that God is also changing our character to make us more and more Christ-like, 00:09:54.299 --> 00:09:59.579 to make us more loving, humble, holy. 00:09:59.580 --> 00:10:05.500 And as we hold on to God's promises, we build up this track record with God, 00:10:05.620 --> 00:10:10.520 seeing that he fulfills these promises over time, and this builds up hope for us. 00:10:12.580 --> 00:10:15.740 So that's some of the things that we see in this passage, 00:10:16.360 --> 00:10:20.520 and I encourage you guys to trust his word for hope, 00:10:21.040 --> 00:10:24.980 because he brings life change that we can't bring ourselves. 00:10:24.980 --> 00:10:28.980 With that...