WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.440 Psalm 119, 73, verses 73 to 80. 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:09.800 I'll read it out loud for us. 00:00:13.080 --> 00:00:15.820 Your hands have made and fashioned me. 00:00:16.899 --> 00:00:19.600 Give me understanding that I may learn your commandments. 00:00:20.719 --> 00:00:23.820 Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice, 00:00:24.560 --> 00:00:26.699 because I have hoped in your word. 00:00:26.699 --> 00:00:31.480 I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous, 00:00:32.219 --> 00:00:35.000 and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. 00:00:36.780 --> 00:00:41.879 Let your steadfast love comfort me according to your promise to your servant. 00:00:43.140 --> 00:00:48.579 Let your mercy come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight. 00:00:49.780 --> 00:00:56.159 Let the insolent be put to shame, because they have wronged me with falsehood. 00:00:57.660 --> 00:01:01.480 As for me, I will meditate on your precepts. 00:01:01.780 --> 00:01:06.620 Let those who fear you turn to me, that they may know your testimonies. 00:01:07.079 --> 00:01:12.060 May my heart be blameless in your statutes, that I may not be put to shame. 00:01:12.060 --> 00:01:23.420 The main point of this psalm is that even in affliction, we can hope in our faithful God and in his righteous word. 00:01:24.140 --> 00:01:26.799 And it's divided kind of into two sections. 00:01:27.240 --> 00:01:30.359 We see a profession of hope in verses 73 to 75, 00:01:30.359 --> 00:01:34.500 and then we see his prayers for help in verses 76 to 80. 00:01:35.319 --> 00:01:41.000 And this stanza begins, and I'll really focus on this for much of the psalm, much of the sermon. 00:01:41.539 --> 00:01:46.640 It begins with a much-needed reminder in verse 73 of our creatureliness. 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:51.000 It says, your hands have made and fashioned me. 00:01:51.540 --> 00:01:54.439 So we're created beings, like we're creatures. 00:01:55.420 --> 00:02:00.700 And this is, if you think about it, if you reflect on it, it's a very sobering and humbling reality. 00:02:00.700 --> 00:02:05.000 You know, because we don't like to think of ourselves this way. 00:02:06.359 --> 00:02:07.760 We're prone to forget it. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:12.379 We like to think, as humans, that we're these masters of our own fate. 00:02:13.199 --> 00:02:13.300 Right? 00:02:13.980 --> 00:02:19.219 It's the autonomous, you know, sovereign beings, unaccountable to God. 00:02:20.140 --> 00:02:22.980 I think you were laughing probably because you know the poem. 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:23.420 Yeah. 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:29.039 It's a 19th century English poet named, what's his name, Herbert something? 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:29.580 Herbert. 00:02:30.699 --> 00:02:36.780 He wrote a, he captured this kind of human hubris in his poem entitled Invictus. 00:02:37.780 --> 00:02:45.439 And he writes at the end, he says, it matters not how straight the gate, not straight A-I-G-H-T, 00:02:45.539 --> 00:02:49.459 but straight S-T-R-A-I-T, like how narrow, you know, the gate. 00:02:50.439 --> 00:02:53.120 How charged with punishments the scroll. 00:02:53.679 --> 00:02:55.979 I think these are explicit biblical allusions. 00:02:56.219 --> 00:02:57.539 He's mocking scripture, basically. 00:02:57.539 --> 00:03:00.679 He's saying, I don't care how narrow the gate is to eternal life. 00:03:01.239 --> 00:03:06.339 I don't care how severe the punishments are in the scroll of the Lamb in Revelation 5. 00:03:06.500 --> 00:03:06.639 Right? 00:03:07.019 --> 00:03:09.959 And then the last two lines are, I am the master of my fate. 00:03:10.239 --> 00:03:11.879 I am the captain of my soul. 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:13.299 Right? 00:03:13.339 --> 00:03:14.139 I mean, that's his attitude. 00:03:14.399 --> 00:03:14.539 Right? 00:03:14.699 --> 00:03:17.459 It's a, I will not be constrained by God's laws. 00:03:17.560 --> 00:03:18.839 I will live for myself. 00:03:18.840 --> 00:03:20.180 I am the master of my fate. 00:03:20.319 --> 00:03:21.319 I'm the captain of my soul. 00:03:21.960 --> 00:03:23.640 Really appalling arrogance. 00:03:23.979 --> 00:03:24.080 Right? 00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:27.400 It's a, it's kind of a galling ignorance too. 00:03:28.199 --> 00:03:29.759 It's God is the creator. 00:03:30.099 --> 00:03:30.840 We're the creatures. 00:03:31.020 --> 00:03:32.099 He fashioned us. 00:03:32.599 --> 00:03:34.219 He, his hands have made us. 00:03:34.300 --> 00:03:34.879 We're creatures. 00:03:35.439 --> 00:03:37.560 And if we're creatures, God made us. 00:03:37.640 --> 00:03:38.920 We're not unaccountable. 00:03:39.060 --> 00:03:40.199 We're accountable to him. 00:03:40.659 --> 00:03:41.599 We depend on him. 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:42.840 We're not autonomous beings. 00:03:43.479 --> 00:03:45.060 We're not masters of our own fate. 00:03:46.519 --> 00:03:51.259 And in this, it's this pride in ourselves and, and unbelief in God, which really are 00:03:51.259 --> 00:03:56.219 two sides of the same coin that are at the root of all of humanity's spiritual ills. 00:03:56.219 --> 00:03:56.579 Right? 00:03:56.579 --> 00:04:01.579 Instead of coming under the authority of God and his word, like we put ourselves over God 00:04:01.579 --> 00:04:02.079 and his word. 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:02.419 Right? 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:03.400 To judge it. 00:04:03.479 --> 00:04:04.519 To cherry pick through it. 00:04:04.659 --> 00:04:05.500 To discard it. 00:04:05.539 --> 00:04:06.139 To ignore it. 00:04:06.139 --> 00:04:12.139 We let our own flawed subjective sense of right and wrong guide us instead of letting 00:04:12.139 --> 00:04:14.799 God's righteous word guide us. 00:04:16.159 --> 00:04:21.159 But verse 73 of Psalm 119 teaches us that creatures, as creatures, we should assume that 00:04:21.159 --> 00:04:22.959 this humble posture of learning. 00:04:23.800 --> 00:04:27.120 It says, give me understanding that I may learn your commandments. 00:04:27.399 --> 00:04:29.319 We should be submitted to the creator. 00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:30.939 That's the natural order of the universe. 00:04:31.659 --> 00:04:35.779 But this verse doesn't merely speak of our creatureliness. 00:04:36.139 --> 00:04:39.360 It also speaks of God's special care for us. 00:04:41.099 --> 00:04:47.279 And it says, because it says in verse 72, that God's hands have made us and fashioned 00:04:47.279 --> 00:04:47.800 us. 00:04:48.139 --> 00:04:48.219 Right? 00:04:49.219 --> 00:04:52.539 So God is spirit, as we know from John 4, 24. 00:04:52.759 --> 00:04:56.199 So he doesn't have hands, literally physical hands. 00:04:56.360 --> 00:04:56.519 Right? 00:04:57.060 --> 00:04:59.379 Unless you're speaking about the incarnated word. 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:00.899 Unless you're speaking of the son. 00:05:01.740 --> 00:05:04.800 So this is an example of anthropomorphism. 00:05:04.959 --> 00:05:05.039 Right? 00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:10.780 A poetic device where you kind of attribute human characteristics to God. 00:05:12.100 --> 00:05:19.360 And it's, but it's intended to convey the kind of way in which God took special care 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:20.240 to make us. 00:05:20.640 --> 00:05:22.200 He fashioned us with his own hands. 00:05:22.680 --> 00:05:23.200 Made us. 00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:26.479 Genesis 1 to 2 speak of this. 00:05:26.479 --> 00:05:26.699 Right? 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:29.459 God creates the entire cosmos simply by speaking. 00:05:30.019 --> 00:05:30.139 Right? 00:05:30.439 --> 00:05:37.300 But when it comes to humanity, in Genesis 2, 7, it says, the Lord God formed the man of 00:05:37.300 --> 00:05:41.219 dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. 00:05:41.279 --> 00:05:45.379 The noun form of the Hebrew verb for form means potter. 00:05:45.879 --> 00:05:46.699 He formed. 00:05:47.419 --> 00:05:48.399 He handmade. 00:05:49.099 --> 00:05:49.259 Right? 00:05:49.259 --> 00:05:55.219 It conveys God's intimate kind of artistic personal involvement in the creation of humanity. 00:05:56.039 --> 00:06:00.819 And as a potter shapes the formless clay into a piece of pottery, God formed mankind with 00:06:00.819 --> 00:06:02.620 his own hands, figuratively speaking. 00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:04.339 So that means we're handmade. 00:06:04.899 --> 00:06:05.099 Right? 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:08.719 And I own almost nothing that's handmade. 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:09.680 Right? 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:11.439 Because handmade things are expensive. 00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:12.180 Right? 00:06:12.980 --> 00:06:14.720 I mean, it's like, that's, yeah. 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:20.319 Because it shows that special personal care went into the product. 00:06:20.519 --> 00:06:20.720 Right? 00:06:21.439 --> 00:06:23.840 If you have handmade jewelry, that's special. 00:06:24.040 --> 00:06:24.199 Right? 00:06:24.759 --> 00:06:28.079 It's, and we're such creatures. 00:06:29.019 --> 00:06:30.280 God formed us. 00:06:30.300 --> 00:06:32.060 He fashioned us with his hands. 00:06:32.060 --> 00:06:34.399 That shows his special care for us. 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:38.180 That also should make us more eager to learn from him. 00:06:38.420 --> 00:06:40.240 Because he cares for us in such a way. 00:06:40.339 --> 00:06:41.180 To submit to him. 00:06:41.240 --> 00:06:41.939 To follow him. 00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:45.600 We belong to him so we can trust him and follow his commandments. 00:06:46.259 --> 00:06:51.399 And it's that foundational faith of verse 73 really kind of undergirds everything that follows. 00:06:52.079 --> 00:06:56.840 It's that foundational faith that enables the psalmist to have persevering faith and hope. 00:06:56.839 --> 00:06:59.560 Look at verses 74 to 75. 00:06:59.739 --> 00:06:59.899 It says, 00:07:00.159 --> 00:07:05.679 Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice because I have hoped in your word. 00:07:06.500 --> 00:07:12.759 I know, Lord, that your rules are righteous and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. 00:07:13.359 --> 00:07:19.879 Again, we saw in the last stanza the idea of, in our affliction, God has done good to us. 00:07:20.099 --> 00:07:21.019 If you guys remember that. 00:07:21.739 --> 00:07:24.099 But we see a similar idea here. 00:07:24.100 --> 00:07:28.280 We don't know exactly what the kind of affliction that he's facing is. 00:07:28.360 --> 00:07:33.580 But we know from kind of the few verses down that he has enemies. 00:07:34.100 --> 00:07:34.240 Right? 00:07:34.320 --> 00:07:39.200 Who are either slandering him or, you know, wronging him somehow with falsehood. 00:07:39.280 --> 00:07:40.760 So it's probably some form of slander. 00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:45.820 And they're insolent in their treatment. 00:07:46.780 --> 00:07:48.960 And so that may be connected to this affliction. 00:07:48.959 --> 00:08:00.180 Yet, even though there are people who are perpetrating this evil, the psalmist knows that ultimately no affliction comes to him apart from God's sovereign permission or sovereign guidance. 00:08:00.180 --> 00:08:00.459 Right? 00:08:01.180 --> 00:08:05.939 So he says it's God who in faithfulness has afflicted him. 00:08:06.439 --> 00:08:06.500 Right? 00:08:06.920 --> 00:08:08.660 In the same way, Job, right? 00:08:08.780 --> 00:08:24.360 When natural disasters come or when, you know, the, I guess, the roaming kind of mobs or people kill his servants or children. 00:08:24.360 --> 00:08:30.780 In the end, Job doesn't say, well, it's these, it's nature, you know, that took God away. 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:37.240 Or it's these people that took, I mean, not these nature that took my children away. 00:08:37.340 --> 00:08:38.800 Or these people that took children away. 00:08:38.820 --> 00:08:41.899 He says God gave and God has taken away. 00:08:42.039 --> 00:08:42.180 Right? 00:08:42.600 --> 00:08:44.860 Ultimately, the ultimate agency is with God. 00:08:44.860 --> 00:08:51.820 And so here, he's likewise, the psalmist says, in affliction, in faithfulness, you have afflicted me. 00:08:52.560 --> 00:08:55.740 I mean, going back to that pottery imagery, let's think about it for a second. 00:08:55.879 --> 00:08:55.980 Right? 00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:00.379 If you're a clay, and let's say that you're a clay that's sentient. 00:09:00.519 --> 00:09:00.680 Right? 00:09:00.800 --> 00:09:02.279 You are able to think. 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:10.899 And imagine the potter lopping off, you know, pieces of your potter on the potter's wheel. 00:09:11.420 --> 00:09:11.580 Right? 00:09:11.580 --> 00:09:16.000 Or, even worse, throwing you into an 1800 degree Fahrenheit kiln. 00:09:16.200 --> 00:09:16.400 Right? 00:09:16.840 --> 00:09:17.540 For you to bake. 00:09:18.020 --> 00:09:18.200 Right? 00:09:18.660 --> 00:09:20.460 It's like, those are not things. 00:09:20.900 --> 00:09:21.060 Right? 00:09:21.139 --> 00:09:23.100 It's like, it sounds like great affliction. 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:23.560 Right? 00:09:24.480 --> 00:09:32.620 But if this clay were not only sentient, but also wise, the clay would know that the potter is doing it. 00:09:33.620 --> 00:09:34.900 That he has a design. 00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:36.060 He has a purpose. 00:09:36.059 --> 00:09:43.579 That he's doing it for his good, in the end, to make him something worthy of his creation. 00:09:43.779 --> 00:09:44.659 Something useful. 00:09:44.879 --> 00:09:45.559 Something beautiful. 00:09:47.219 --> 00:09:48.739 And that's the hope of the Christian. 00:09:49.219 --> 00:09:49.359 Right? 00:09:49.399 --> 00:09:51.299 If we know that God's rules are righteous. 00:09:51.479 --> 00:09:59.279 If we know that in faithfulness, in truthfulness in his own character, that he is afflicting us. 00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:00.459 Then we can endure. 00:10:00.779 --> 00:10:02.559 Because it comes from the hand of our loving Father. 00:10:04.459 --> 00:10:07.639 And so that's the profession of faith. 00:10:08.179 --> 00:10:14.220 And after professing his hope in God, the psalmist prays for help in verses 76 to 80. 00:10:14.379 --> 00:10:17.799 Because even, it's not easy to persevere in faith and hope. 00:10:18.439 --> 00:10:22.980 These things don't come naturally to sinful people living in sinful world. 00:10:22.980 --> 00:10:24.580 We need God's help. 00:10:25.620 --> 00:10:27.980 And that's why prayer is necessary. 00:10:28.680 --> 00:10:32.120 And that's why 19th century Anglican pastor J.C. Ryle says, 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:36.080 Faith is to the soul what life is to the body. 00:10:36.920 --> 00:10:41.200 Prayer is to faith what breath is to life. 00:10:42.440 --> 00:10:42.560 Right? 00:10:42.659 --> 00:10:44.980 So he's saying we cannot live without breathing. 00:10:45.399 --> 00:10:47.860 So we cannot believe without praying. 00:10:47.860 --> 00:10:54.980 He's saying that prayer, because it's the activity, really the defining activity of faith, 00:10:55.580 --> 00:10:59.399 that you cannot be a Christian and not pray. 00:11:00.139 --> 00:11:01.940 That prayer flows from faith. 00:11:02.940 --> 00:11:05.320 And because we need God's help. 00:11:05.560 --> 00:11:08.980 That's what it means to be a Christian, is to be someone who recognizes our need for God. 00:11:10.500 --> 00:11:15.560 And psalmist has this unshakable confidence that the Lord will come to his aid. 00:11:15.559 --> 00:11:16.599 So he prays. 00:11:17.179 --> 00:11:20.199 And he has this confidence because he knows the character of God. 00:11:20.339 --> 00:11:20.379 Right? 00:11:20.419 --> 00:11:21.479 Look at verse 76. 00:11:21.659 --> 00:11:21.839 This is, 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:24.299 Let your steadfast love comfort me. 00:11:25.019 --> 00:11:26.059 And in verse 77, 00:11:26.259 --> 00:11:27.979 Let your mercy come to me. 00:11:28.439 --> 00:11:28.639 Right? 00:11:28.699 --> 00:11:33.919 He expects God to answer him because of God's steadfast love. 00:11:34.039 --> 00:11:34.959 Because of God's mercy. 00:11:35.019 --> 00:11:37.099 Not because he is amazing. 00:11:37.239 --> 00:11:38.259 He's deserving of it. 00:11:38.659 --> 00:11:40.119 But because God's gracious. 00:11:40.319 --> 00:11:42.259 Because God's steadfast in his love. 00:11:42.299 --> 00:11:43.239 Because God's merciful. 00:11:43.240 --> 00:11:46.799 And so he knows that in the end, 00:11:46.879 --> 00:11:49.940 even though right now he seems to be in the midst of affliction 00:11:49.940 --> 00:11:52.000 and maybe even experiencing some shame, 00:11:52.320 --> 00:11:55.419 that in the end that God will be faithful to his word. 00:11:55.919 --> 00:11:59.980 And that the insolent, the rebels, the evildoers will be put to shame. 00:12:00.840 --> 00:12:03.200 And then he says and repeats that word in verse 80. 00:12:03.340 --> 00:12:06.919 May my heart be blameless in your statutes that I may not be put to shame. 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:10.980 He knows that if he keeps God's word, that he will not be put to shame. 00:12:11.480 --> 00:12:12.879 And that faith is universal. 00:12:13.240 --> 00:12:19.539 As we know, if we don't believe that we will be vindicated in the end, 00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:23.860 that we will be proven right in the end in following God's law, 00:12:24.060 --> 00:12:28.820 it's difficult to persevere in that, especially in the midst of persecution and opposition. 00:12:28.820 --> 00:12:39.620 And this psalm and this stanza, again, is fulfilled ultimately in what Jesus does for us 00:12:39.620 --> 00:12:43.700 because he's the one who gives us a hope that will not be disappointed, 00:12:44.440 --> 00:12:47.300 that will make us never be put to shame. 00:12:47.299 --> 00:12:51.479 Isaiah 28, 16 prophesied, 00:12:51.479 --> 00:12:57.740 Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion a stone, a tested stone, 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:00.799 a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. 00:13:01.579 --> 00:13:06.819 Whoever believes will not be in haste or will not be shamed. 00:13:06.820 --> 00:13:14.780 And that's quoted in 1 Peter 2, verses 6-7, Romans 9, 33, Romans 10, 11. 00:13:14.779 --> 00:13:20.519 And it's cited as fulfilled in Jesus, that Jesus is the cornerstone. 00:13:20.519 --> 00:13:31.600 He's the one who fulfills the promises of God so that those who hope in him will not be put to shame 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:42.259 because he dies for sinful people, gives his righteousness, imputes that righteousness to hit God's people. 00:13:43.240 --> 00:13:47.580 And after he ascends, he sends the Spirit of God as a down payment 00:13:47.580 --> 00:13:51.399 and to assure us in our hearts that we are adopted children of God 00:13:51.399 --> 00:13:54.659 so that we can have a sure hope that will not be put to shame. 00:13:54.659 --> 00:14:03.139 And it's by believing in Jesus that we can really live like the psalmist of 119, 73 to 80 00:14:03.139 --> 00:14:06.740 with the hope that will not be put to shame. 00:14:11.779 --> 00:14:13.399 Let's pray with that in mind. 00:14:13.480 --> 00:14:14.839 Maybe we could sing another song, Brian.