WEBVTT 00:00:00.580 --> 00:00:03.520 Psalm 119 verses 25 to 32. 00:00:06.060 --> 00:00:08.160 Let me read it out loud for us. 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:12.900 My soul clings to the dust. 00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:16.440 Give me life according to your word. 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:21.240 When I told of my ways, you answered me. 00:00:22.260 --> 00:00:23.859 Teach me your statutes. 00:00:25.240 --> 00:00:27.859 Make me understand the way of your precepts. 00:00:27.859 --> 00:00:31.439 And I will meditate on your wondrous works. 00:00:33.060 --> 00:00:35.920 My soul melts away for sorrow. 00:00:37.100 --> 00:00:38.980 Strengthen me according to your word. 00:00:40.140 --> 00:00:42.579 Put false ways far from me. 00:00:43.340 --> 00:00:45.980 And graciously teach me your law. 00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:49.859 I have chosen the way of faithfulness. 00:00:50.560 --> 00:00:52.480 I set your rules before me. 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:55.980 I cling to your testimonies, O Lord. 00:00:55.979 --> 00:00:58.859 Let me not be put to shame. 00:01:00.019 --> 00:01:06.079 I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart. 00:01:06.079 --> 00:01:15.379 So in this fourth stanza, we see that the author is in desperate straits. 00:01:16.319 --> 00:01:19.659 He's really close to death. 00:01:20.019 --> 00:01:21.739 Twice he describes himself that way. 00:01:22.700 --> 00:01:26.780 And it says in verse 25, my soul clings to the dust. 00:01:26.780 --> 00:01:30.340 And in verse 28, my soul melts away for sorrow. 00:01:30.599 --> 00:01:34.920 So the word soul is the Hebrew word that's sometimes translated as life. 00:01:35.820 --> 00:01:38.879 So my life or my soul clings to the dust. 00:01:39.180 --> 00:01:41.120 My life, my soul melts away for sorrow. 00:01:41.240 --> 00:01:49.480 So whatever the situation might be, this psalmist is so full of sorrow that his life, very life, is ebbing away. 00:01:49.480 --> 00:01:55.100 And he describes it graphically as his soul melting away. 00:01:55.460 --> 00:01:57.040 It's almost like ice melting. 00:01:58.439 --> 00:02:02.000 His sorrowful tears are melting away of his own soul. 00:02:03.520 --> 00:02:07.980 And he says his soul also clings to the dust, which is another way to refer to the grave. 00:02:07.980 --> 00:02:14.719 Because if you remember the fall and the curse that follows the fall in Genesis 3, 19, God says, 00:02:14.860 --> 00:02:17.219 You are dust, and to dust you shall return. 00:02:17.539 --> 00:02:21.700 So when we die, our soul, our bodies reduce to dust. 00:02:22.520 --> 00:02:24.699 So in death, every human being is reduced to dust. 00:02:24.840 --> 00:02:28.420 And so the expression, my soul clings to the dust, is a reference to approaching death. 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:29.980 It feels like he's dead. 00:02:30.099 --> 00:02:31.659 It's like dying, clinging to death. 00:02:33.340 --> 00:02:36.860 But when he is sorrowful unto death, he cries out to God. 00:02:36.860 --> 00:02:41.440 He says in verse 25, Give me life according to your word. 00:02:42.160 --> 00:02:47.060 And in verse 28, similar cry, Strengthen me according to your word. 00:02:49.220 --> 00:02:57.500 What are the things, think about in your life, that you turn to when you feel depressed or depleted? 00:02:58.060 --> 00:03:06.160 Maybe it's music or my life is surfing, YouTube, binge watching. 00:03:06.860 --> 00:03:08.460 Cookies or ice cream. 00:03:09.480 --> 00:03:12.060 It depends on the person. 00:03:12.180 --> 00:03:12.680 It could be different. 00:03:12.740 --> 00:03:13.860 Energy drink, alcohol. 00:03:13.860 --> 00:03:22.780 These things might provide temporary escape from the harshness of reality and improve maybe our mood for a time. 00:03:23.240 --> 00:03:25.660 But they don't impart life. 00:03:26.780 --> 00:03:30.400 But God can give us life according to his word. 00:03:30.740 --> 00:03:33.860 And so twice, he says, Give me life according to your word. 00:03:33.980 --> 00:03:35.620 Strengthen me according to your word. 00:03:35.620 --> 00:03:39.759 Because the word of God can be a lifeline to people who are drowning in the sorrows of life. 00:03:41.460 --> 00:03:43.300 And the psalmist knows to rely on God's word. 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:43.560 How? 00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:45.900 Because he's cried out to God in the past. 00:03:46.580 --> 00:03:48.379 And God has answered him. 00:03:48.860 --> 00:03:54.719 He says in verse 26, When I told of my ways, when he told God of his ways, he says, You answered me. 00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:59.419 When the psalmist told God about his plight in the past, God came to his rescue. 00:03:59.539 --> 00:04:00.840 He answered him and delivered him. 00:04:01.460 --> 00:04:09.740 And so now when he's facing yet another trouble in life, the psalmist says twice in verses 26 and 29, Teach me your statutes. 00:04:10.340 --> 00:04:11.479 Teach me your law. 00:04:12.020 --> 00:04:22.899 He knows that living according to God's word, following God's word, hearing from God's word is going to help him to really grow past this desperate strait that he's in. 00:04:22.899 --> 00:04:40.919 And so if we have heard the voice of God from his word in the past, if we have received guidance from his word in the past, and we have received help from God's word in the past, then we too, like the psalmist, when we're desperate, when we're longing for some help, we can turn to God's word and find that great help, strong help. 00:04:41.620 --> 00:04:45.279 Because scripture is not merely an encyclopedia, right? 00:04:45.419 --> 00:04:52.539 Or a how-to manual that you turn to and you just got to find the right chapter and verse to live. 00:04:52.540 --> 00:04:56.480 It's rather a book that brings us into greater, deeper relationship with God. 00:04:56.900 --> 00:04:59.700 It's a book through which God speaks presently. 00:05:00.319 --> 00:05:02.660 And so we need him to help us understand. 00:05:02.840 --> 00:05:04.400 We need to listen to him personally. 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:08.740 And so that's why the psalmist prays like this in verse 27 and 32. 00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:09.939 In verse 27 he says, 00:05:09.939 --> 00:05:29.079 So these prayers are showing us that genuine understanding of God's word only comes with God's help. 00:05:29.079 --> 00:05:42.339 Only when God enlarges our heart, only when he enables our understanding and obedience can we run in the way of his commandments, follow his way. 00:05:43.139 --> 00:05:50.979 We might understand theoretically or conceptually, but we don't really grasp it in our hearts unless the spirit of God helps us. 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:57.000 God makes us understand who he is as our father, as our God, as our savior. 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:03.480 And you may have noticed as we're reading through this, there's an emphasis on the way of the Lord, 00:06:04.079 --> 00:06:11.860 which shows us that God's demanding from us more than just mental assent, saying, yes, this is true. 00:06:12.040 --> 00:06:12.759 Yes, I believe it. 00:06:13.060 --> 00:06:14.680 But he demands obedience. 00:06:14.980 --> 00:06:16.680 He demands moral compliance. 00:06:16.939 --> 00:06:19.660 He demands not just sacrifice, but obedience. 00:06:20.500 --> 00:06:23.759 And so five times in these eight verses the word way is repeated. 00:06:24.319 --> 00:06:26.019 And it's used in contrast. 00:06:26.019 --> 00:06:31.560 So first, he contrasts my ways in verse 26 with the way of your precepts in verse 27. 00:06:32.279 --> 00:06:36.359 So our ways are full of sin and full of suffering and full of death. 00:06:36.719 --> 00:06:39.039 But God's way leads to life everlasting. 00:06:40.099 --> 00:06:48.939 And then it also contrasts in verse 29 the false ways that we can be tempted to walk in from the way of faithfulness in verse 30. 00:06:49.299 --> 00:06:51.459 The psalmist says, I choose the way of faithfulness. 00:06:51.459 --> 00:06:57.699 So all other alternatives to God's way, the way that God's word teaches us is false. 00:06:58.120 --> 00:06:59.239 Whatever it might be. 00:06:59.919 --> 00:07:03.099 What kind of worldview, a system of morality, philosophy. 00:07:04.039 --> 00:07:09.259 Whatever it is that other philosophers, religious leaders, or pundits propound in life. 00:07:09.259 --> 00:07:13.740 If they are contrary to God's word, they're false. 00:07:15.099 --> 00:07:17.120 They lead astray. 00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:18.319 They mislead people. 00:07:18.899 --> 00:07:20.279 They don't deliver on the promises. 00:07:20.939 --> 00:07:23.879 But God's way, in contrast, is the way of faithfulness. 00:07:24.120 --> 00:07:28.759 The word faithfulness can also be translated as trustworthiness or honesty. 00:07:29.539 --> 00:07:31.379 God's way is true to reality. 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:33.719 It leads us in the right path. 00:07:33.819 --> 00:07:34.879 It's honest with us. 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:38.019 It's faithful because it's the word of the God who is faithful. 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:42.719 And then finally it says in verse 32, I will run in the way of your commandments. 00:07:42.920 --> 00:07:45.839 So it's not just a set of beliefs, but a way of life. 00:07:46.259 --> 00:07:49.519 Following God, Christianity, and a path to walk on. 00:07:50.680 --> 00:07:55.279 And so it's when we follow the way of God's word that it gives life to us even when we're in the midst of death. 00:07:55.420 --> 00:07:56.980 God's word has the power to do that. 00:07:56.980 --> 00:08:01.560 And this wonderful promise that's in this psalm is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. 00:08:02.900 --> 00:08:05.939 Because he's the one who says in John 14, 6, 00:08:06.340 --> 00:08:10.439 I am the way and the truth and the life. 00:08:10.740 --> 00:08:13.000 No one comes to the Father except through me. 00:08:13.160 --> 00:08:17.879 So the way of life that's being described here in this psalm is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus. 00:08:18.040 --> 00:08:19.400 He is the way of life. 00:08:19.740 --> 00:08:20.660 He is the truth. 00:08:20.740 --> 00:08:23.060 He's the way to the Father, only way to the Father. 00:08:23.060 --> 00:08:30.720 And so he's the, as the incarnate word, the word made flesh, he fulfills what this inscripturated word, the written word promises. 00:08:31.480 --> 00:08:35.259 And he does that by, in the ultimate says, dying on the cross for our sins. 00:08:35.799 --> 00:08:38.080 Paying the penalty of death that only we deserve. 00:08:38.679 --> 00:08:42.980 And then being raised to life so that when we believe in him, we do have eternal life. 00:08:42.980 --> 00:08:45.920 That's the way of life that he's leading us to. 00:08:46.440 --> 00:08:51.060 And so following the way of God's word gives life to those who are sorrowful unto death. 00:08:51.240 --> 00:08:54.220 That's really the main point of this psalm. 00:08:56.320 --> 00:08:59.680 So let's reflect on that and we're going to pray following this psalm. 00:08:59.759 --> 00:09:01.639 But before we do that, Brian, let's sing another song. 00:09:01.639 --> 00:09:03.060 Let's sing.