WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.000 Psalm 119 verses 49 to 56. 00:00:03.720 --> 00:00:04.000 Yeah. 00:00:04.900 --> 00:00:05.139 Yeah. 00:00:09.859 --> 00:00:11.519 Let me read it out loud for us. 00:00:13.700 --> 00:00:17.620 Remember your word to your servant in which you have made me hope. 00:00:18.820 --> 00:00:22.699 This is my comfort in my affliction that your promise gives me life. 00:00:22.699 --> 00:00:30.780 The insolent utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law. 00:00:31.699 --> 00:00:35.579 When I think of your rules from of old, I take comfort, O Lord. 00:00:37.740 --> 00:00:42.140 Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked who forsake your law. 00:00:42.980 --> 00:00:46.519 Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourn. 00:00:46.519 --> 00:00:50.920 I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and keep your law. 00:00:50.920 --> 00:00:55.640 The blessing has fallen to me that I have kept your presets. 00:00:58.939 --> 00:01:02.780 Ships make use of anchors, as you know, when ashore. 00:01:03.540 --> 00:01:07.819 In order to prevent it from drifting away due to the wind or the current. 00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:12.500 Most anchors have a, there are two types of anchors, but most of them have a hooking mechanism 00:01:12.500 --> 00:01:19.099 where it actually hooks into the seabed and grips it so that it doesn't move. 00:01:19.099 --> 00:01:25.000 And it's the actual connection to the ground, the solid ground that keeps us from moving. 00:01:25.659 --> 00:01:31.599 And similarly, when we are in turbulent times in the midst of a sea of changes, 00:01:32.159 --> 00:01:36.560 we need to exercise our faith like anchors to hook into God's word. 00:01:36.939 --> 00:01:41.139 And God's word is the immovable seabed that keeps us from drifting into the seas. 00:01:41.140 --> 00:01:47.379 And that's kind of what this, that's kind of the reality that this section of Psalm 119 speaks of. 00:01:48.019 --> 00:01:53.359 Its main point is that God's word provides comfort in the midst of affliction 00:01:53.359 --> 00:01:56.780 and produces righteousness in the midst of wickedness. 00:01:57.640 --> 00:02:00.740 So let's first look at the comfort in the midst of affliction. 00:02:01.780 --> 00:02:05.120 It begins with a prayer asking God, 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:09.180 Remember your word to your servant in which you have made me hope. 00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:12.379 This word is what the psalmist hopes in. 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:16.280 It's, in fact, God who made him hope in this word. 00:02:17.020 --> 00:02:23.659 And, of course, God doesn't, you know, get senile like humans do and forgets things. 00:02:23.920 --> 00:02:25.719 So it's not that he forgets. 00:02:25.920 --> 00:02:27.879 That's why he must be reminded to remember. 00:02:27.879 --> 00:02:34.060 But rather asking God to remember his word is asking him to really act in accordance with his word. 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:36.340 God, this is what you said to me. 00:02:36.460 --> 00:02:37.500 This is what you promised. 00:02:38.099 --> 00:02:40.340 Remember your word and do what you said you would do. 00:02:40.919 --> 00:02:42.699 I place my hope in your word. 00:02:42.939 --> 00:02:44.539 I've staked my life on it. 00:02:46.019 --> 00:02:47.960 So please remember what you promised. 00:02:48.159 --> 00:02:50.060 So that's kind of the idea behind this prayer. 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:53.000 And it's not a presumptuous demand. 00:02:53.300 --> 00:02:55.780 You know, that stems from a sense of entitlement. 00:02:55.780 --> 00:02:59.439 It comes from an acknowledgement of humble dependence. 00:02:59.599 --> 00:03:02.420 That's why the psalmist refers to himself as your servant. 00:03:03.240 --> 00:03:04.420 I am your servant. 00:03:04.780 --> 00:03:06.199 I don't belong to anyone else. 00:03:06.659 --> 00:03:08.180 No one else do I hope in. 00:03:08.659 --> 00:03:11.580 So please help me, take care of me, deliver me. 00:03:12.379 --> 00:03:13.340 I look to you. 00:03:13.620 --> 00:03:14.699 I am your servant. 00:03:14.800 --> 00:03:15.460 That's the idea. 00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:20.159 Remember your word to your servant in which you have made me hope. 00:03:20.159 --> 00:03:25.819 And then the psalmist continues in verse 50 of Psalm 119. 00:03:26.819 --> 00:03:26.979 He says, 00:03:27.060 --> 00:03:33.900 This is my comfort to my affliction, that your promise, comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life. 00:03:34.579 --> 00:03:38.460 So he's experiencing some kind of suffering or affliction. 00:03:38.460 --> 00:03:43.960 And we know from the next verse that he's being ridiculed and derided by his enemies. 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:48.640 But nevertheless, he's holding on to faith and hope that God's promise gives him life. 00:03:49.819 --> 00:03:54.340 And it's this word that's life-giving in the midst of life-training circumstances. 00:03:55.620 --> 00:04:01.219 And because this psalmist has hooked on to the seabed of God's word with the anchor of faith, 00:04:01.300 --> 00:04:02.260 it says in verse 51, 00:04:02.259 --> 00:04:12.239 So he's able to remain steadfast in his devotion to God and to God's will, 00:04:12.359 --> 00:04:14.859 even in the midst of insolent derision of his enemies. 00:04:15.340 --> 00:04:23.599 And so instead of being tossed to and fro by the wind of human opinion or criticisms, 00:04:24.339 --> 00:04:28.579 instead of feeling insecure and embattled by the sea of affliction, 00:04:28.579 --> 00:04:29.800 it says in verse 52, 00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:38.079 God's word provides comfort in the midst of affliction. 00:04:38.460 --> 00:04:40.020 And I love how it's phrased here, 00:04:40.060 --> 00:04:41.520 When I think of your rules from of old. 00:04:41.660 --> 00:04:42.879 His rules are not novel. 00:04:43.819 --> 00:04:46.199 They're not creations of men. 00:04:46.280 --> 00:04:46.960 They're not invented. 00:04:48.080 --> 00:04:51.939 It's from of old because God is the ancient of days. 00:04:52.420 --> 00:04:53.819 He's from eternity past. 00:04:53.819 --> 00:04:59.139 And in that unchanging law of God and rules, we take comfort. 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:01.399 So we can find comfort in the midst of affliction. 00:05:01.500 --> 00:05:02.180 That's the first point. 00:05:02.740 --> 00:05:07.439 And then secondly, it says that God's word produces righteousness in the midst of wickedness. 00:05:08.639 --> 00:05:10.199 And in verse 53, it says, 00:05:10.339 --> 00:05:14.120 Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked who forsake your law. 00:05:14.920 --> 00:05:18.060 It's a really descriptive phrase, hot indignation. 00:05:18.060 --> 00:05:22.800 It's really referenced to rage, heat of anger. 00:05:23.959 --> 00:05:27.959 Psalmist is enraged because of the wicked who forsake God's law. 00:05:27.959 --> 00:05:40.639 And we might think in kind of the sanitized Christianity that we might think of that this is an undignified or even unchristian response. 00:05:40.639 --> 00:05:45.360 But this is actually a biblical and godly response to wickedness. 00:05:46.279 --> 00:05:47.979 Psalm 11, 5 says, 00:05:48.139 --> 00:05:51.319 The Lord hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. 00:05:51.839 --> 00:05:57.979 Mark 3, verse 5 says that Jesus looked around at the Pharisees with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart. 00:05:58.579 --> 00:06:03.099 Romans 12, 9 teaches us to abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. 00:06:03.699 --> 00:06:10.240 So to be like God, to be godly is to hate what God hates and to be angered by what angers God. 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:13.740 And so the question to ask is, 00:06:13.840 --> 00:06:21.139 Does hot indignation seize you when you see God dishonored and besmirched by the wicked? 00:06:22.420 --> 00:06:29.480 Does hot indignation seize you when you see the vulnerable oppressed and unjustly exploited? 00:06:31.379 --> 00:06:34.340 This doesn't mean that we should lash out in sin, of course. 00:06:35.100 --> 00:06:38.079 There's plenty of biblical warnings about sinning in our anger. 00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:40.120 Ephesians 4, 26 warns about that. 00:06:40.740 --> 00:06:43.139 But we should get angry in the face of wickedness. 00:06:43.699 --> 00:06:45.199 And John Stott puts it this way, 00:06:45.199 --> 00:07:12.019 And I think the way in which we have become so tolerant of evil and so desensitized to it shows how insensitive we actually are to holiness. 00:07:12.019 --> 00:07:15.740 That we are indifferent to sin because we are indifferent to holiness. 00:07:17.399 --> 00:07:22.560 And the flip side of this anger in the face of wickedness is delight in God's law. 00:07:22.779 --> 00:07:24.120 And we see that in verse 54. 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:27.839 Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojourn. 00:07:28.479 --> 00:07:33.099 The psalmist so delights in God's statutes that he sings about them. 00:07:33.100 --> 00:07:40.180 And so we see the beauty and glory of God's laws to make us sing about them. 00:07:41.160 --> 00:07:43.580 If we love God's laws, we will hate wickedness. 00:07:43.640 --> 00:07:48.140 And if our love for God's law is lukewarm, then our hatred of wickedness will also be lukewarm. 00:07:48.139 --> 00:07:51.000 And the converse is also true. 00:07:51.599 --> 00:08:01.939 Our delight will be commensurate with the level of our appreciation of God's law, God's word. 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:11.740 And the psalmist experienced such passionate indignation at sin because he was zealous to keep God's law and to see kept by others. 00:08:11.740 --> 00:08:16.240 And we continue to see that in verses 55 to 56. 00:08:16.420 --> 00:08:19.400 I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and keep your law. 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:22.699 This blessing has fallen to me that I have kept your precepts. 00:08:23.019 --> 00:08:33.860 So even at night when no one else is looking, even at night when his mind maybe is wandering, he's tired, exhausted from a long day. 00:08:34.019 --> 00:08:37.440 The psalmist is remembering God's name and keeping God's law. 00:08:37.440 --> 00:08:46.740 So verse 56, I think, is likely an over-translation because the Hebrew is literally just, 00:08:47.060 --> 00:08:51.020 this has been to me because I have kept your precepts. 00:08:51.140 --> 00:08:53.080 And obviously that doesn't make that much sense, right? 00:08:53.160 --> 00:08:56.280 This has been to me because I have kept your precepts. 00:08:56.280 --> 00:08:57.640 So people kind of supply meaning. 00:08:57.640 --> 00:09:03.260 So some people think, well, this blessing it must be has been to me because I have kept your precepts. 00:09:03.300 --> 00:09:05.400 But I think the NIV actually gets closer. 00:09:05.399 --> 00:09:07.939 It translates as this has been my practice. 00:09:08.519 --> 00:09:10.559 I obey your precepts. 00:09:10.559 --> 00:09:12.159 He's saying it's been to me. 00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:13.159 This is how I have been. 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:15.559 I remember your precepts at night. 00:09:15.720 --> 00:09:16.220 I remember. 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:17.120 I keep your word. 00:09:17.779 --> 00:09:19.819 And so that's why I observe your precepts. 00:09:20.059 --> 00:09:26.679 So remembrance leads to obedience, meditation of God's word and study of God's word, remembering of God's word. 00:09:26.679 --> 00:09:32.459 And we make that our habit and that becomes our practice. 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:41.939 And this section of the psalm is fulfilled in Christ like all the parts of scripture. 00:09:41.940 --> 00:09:55.120 And because Christ is the perfect example of someone who suffered and in the face of affliction found hope in God's word and lived a life of perfect righteousness in the midst of wickedness. 00:09:55.120 --> 00:10:05.960 And he died on the cross as a result of his death on the cross was his affliction, his mockery by men, wicked men. 00:10:06.419 --> 00:10:10.179 And yet through that, he produces the great righteousness that saves us all. 00:10:10.179 --> 00:10:15.159 And so we can look to him and follow in his footsteps. 00:10:15.159 --> 00:10:19.500 Then we can follow and obey Psalm 119 and its prescriptions.