WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.379 So, Psalm 119, verses 169 to 176. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:38.320 Let your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen your precepts. 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:42.299 I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight. 00:00:42.960 --> 00:00:46.899 Let my soul live and praise you, and let your rules help me. 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:49.920 I have gone astray like a lost sheep. 00:00:50.620 --> 00:00:54.159 Seek your servant, for I do not forget your commandments. 00:00:54.159 --> 00:01:05.219 So, our quest or our journey in this epic psalm comes to an end tonight. 00:01:06.479 --> 00:01:12.699 And it's a fitting conclusion to the psalm because it's full of just prayer and praise to God, 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:15.340 according to His Word. 00:01:16.019 --> 00:01:21.560 And really the main point is that those who remember God's Word kind of, I guess, 00:01:21.560 --> 00:01:24.019 bubble over with praise and prayer to God. 00:01:24.739 --> 00:01:29.159 That we, people who marinate in God's Word will kind of pulsate with prayer and praise to God. 00:01:29.840 --> 00:01:34.819 And really, if we take away anything from Psalm 119, 00:01:34.920 --> 00:01:39.579 I really hope you guys take away just the importance of meditating on God's Word is to prayer. 00:01:40.759 --> 00:01:46.840 And just letting your prayers be driven by and informed by Scripture, 00:01:46.979 --> 00:01:50.099 but also just to pray the Scriptures itself. 00:01:50.099 --> 00:01:55.640 Because I think when we're doing that, it's God's Word makes us more attentive in our prayer. 00:01:55.699 --> 00:02:01.679 And also, it makes our prayer more substantive instead of just kind of repeating these kind of vague, 00:02:01.680 --> 00:02:10.520 hackneyed phrases that we've accumulated through all of our years of being a Christian and hearing other people pray. 00:02:10.980 --> 00:02:13.640 We get to pray in accordance with God's will and His Word. 00:02:13.639 --> 00:02:18.519 So the verses 169 and 170 begin with prayer to God. 00:02:18.719 --> 00:02:18.899 It says, 00:02:18.900 --> 00:02:31.300 So there are a couple of phrases that are just repeating in those two verses. 00:02:31.920 --> 00:02:32.659 The first one is, 00:02:32.659 --> 00:02:37.960 So that's an example of poetic personification. 00:02:38.620 --> 00:02:46.659 The psalmist is speaking of his prayer like it's an actual person that's going and appearing before the presence of God in his throne room. 00:02:46.819 --> 00:02:49.259 So it's cry coming before God. 00:02:49.800 --> 00:02:51.620 His plea coming before God. 00:02:51.620 --> 00:03:06.000 And you probably experience this where if you're on a phone call with somebody and then you keep talking and then you realize you don't hear anything back. 00:03:06.259 --> 00:03:07.319 You don't hear any response. 00:03:08.060 --> 00:03:13.980 And then you say hello, hello to make sure somebody's still on the other side of the line that just happened or something. 00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:14.700 Yeah. 00:03:15.080 --> 00:03:16.860 And then because you lost connection. 00:03:16.860 --> 00:03:20.120 And then obviously when you realize that there's no one on the line, you hang up, right? 00:03:20.160 --> 00:03:21.620 And you don't keep talking. 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:26.020 And I think sometimes Christians think about prayer the same way. 00:03:27.000 --> 00:03:29.760 They don't have faith that God actually hears. 00:03:30.260 --> 00:03:31.840 They don't have faith that God actually answers. 00:03:32.660 --> 00:03:34.980 And when you lose that faith, you stop praying. 00:03:35.720 --> 00:03:36.520 Because what's the point? 00:03:36.640 --> 00:03:39.760 Like who keeps talking on the phone when you know that there's no one else on the end of the line? 00:03:40.620 --> 00:03:42.400 But so this is a really helpful way. 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:44.660 In contrast to that, to think about prayer, 00:03:44.659 --> 00:03:49.479 is that when we pray, it's like prayer like an ambassador or a person, 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:53.859 an emissary that goes before the king actually appears before the face of God. 00:03:54.219 --> 00:03:57.439 That when we pray, we approach the very throne room of God. 00:03:57.859 --> 00:03:59.960 And that God hears and that God answers. 00:04:01.780 --> 00:04:06.019 It reminds me of Hebrews chapter 4, verses 14 to 16. 00:04:06.020 --> 00:04:09.820 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. 00:04:10.320 --> 00:04:13.100 Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 00:04:13.780 --> 00:04:17.560 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, 00:04:18.060 --> 00:04:22.860 but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 00:04:23.500 --> 00:04:27.560 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:31.660 that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 00:04:31.660 --> 00:04:35.360 Because Christ is there in the throne of God as our intercessor. 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:41.140 When we pray in his name, we are in his presence. 00:04:41.480 --> 00:04:42.840 We have his audience. 00:04:45.380 --> 00:04:48.700 It's like, I don't know, can you imagine going to the White House? 00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:51.860 All the steps that you would take to prepare yourself, 00:04:52.120 --> 00:04:53.680 the way you dress, what you do. 00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:57.439 But we're going to the very throne room of God when we pray. 00:04:59.280 --> 00:05:02.879 And it's holy ground wherever we're kneeling to pray. 00:05:04.220 --> 00:05:09.280 And these prayers that he prays are not just a list of the psalmist's own personal desires. 00:05:10.060 --> 00:05:13.180 Twice, again, there's another phrase that he repeats in those two verses, 00:05:13.379 --> 00:05:15.160 and that's according to your word. 00:05:15.879 --> 00:05:19.040 Give me understanding according to your word. 00:05:19.180 --> 00:05:20.920 Deliver me according to your word. 00:05:20.920 --> 00:05:26.520 So he wants his thinking and understanding to be conformed to God's word. 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:32.500 He doesn't want God's will to be conformed to his thinking and understanding. 00:05:33.400 --> 00:05:35.879 And when the psalmist says he asks God to pray, 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:40.040 when he asks God to deliver him according to his word, 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:45.819 he's not asking that God would deliver him and make his situation better according to his own liking, 00:05:45.980 --> 00:05:47.939 but that according to his word he would deliver him. 00:05:47.939 --> 00:05:54.240 And so this is, again, it's something that's been coming up again and again through Psalm 119, 00:05:54.339 --> 00:05:58.879 the importance of seeking God on the basis of his word according to his will. 00:05:59.259 --> 00:06:02.019 That's what 1 John 5, 14, 15 talks about. 00:06:02.139 --> 00:06:05.379 If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 00:06:06.279 --> 00:06:08.459 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, 00:06:08.519 --> 00:06:11.920 we know that we have the request that we have asked of him. 00:06:11.920 --> 00:06:18.400 So it's a really simple but powerful idea that when we pray in accordance with his word, 00:06:18.520 --> 00:06:20.560 that God answers our prayers. 00:06:21.420 --> 00:06:25.020 I brought a little, a short article. 00:06:25.480 --> 00:06:33.620 If you guys only have a few copies of it because I had to rush out to get a email from the bus stop, 00:06:33.620 --> 00:06:35.519 so I couldn't wait for it to finish printing. 00:06:36.420 --> 00:06:39.620 But it's two, 12 reasons you should pray scripture. 00:06:40.220 --> 00:06:45.079 So I encourage you guys, if you want to take it with you and read it, to do so. 00:06:45.740 --> 00:06:51.660 And then after those two prayers in verses 169 and 170, 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:59.379 he follows it up with two praises that he anticipates he will do when God answers his prayers. 00:06:59.379 --> 00:07:02.259 So it says, 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:06.240 My lips will pour forth praise, for you teach me your statutes. 00:07:06.360 --> 00:07:10.879 My tongue will sing of your word, for all your commandments are right. 00:07:12.219 --> 00:07:19.639 So God's word, kind of meditating on God's word, not only produces prayer, but also produces praise. 00:07:20.219 --> 00:07:22.540 And he's very effusive in his description. 00:07:22.980 --> 00:07:23.240 He says, 00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:29.019 My lips will pour forth praise, literally flow with praise or bubble over with praise. 00:07:29.019 --> 00:07:30.060 It's very descriptive, right? 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:32.379 And then similarly, he doesn't say, 00:07:32.539 --> 00:07:33.959 My tongue will speak of your word. 00:07:34.399 --> 00:07:34.579 He says, 00:07:34.659 --> 00:07:36.620 My tongue will sing of your word. 00:07:37.539 --> 00:07:40.019 And that when God teaches him his statutes, 00:07:40.139 --> 00:07:42.799 the psalmist will praise God and sing of his word, 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:45.879 for all of his commandments are right. 00:07:46.519 --> 00:07:48.799 It is right in the sense that it is correct, 00:07:48.799 --> 00:07:53.159 but also right in the sense that it is righteous, not evil or wrong. 00:07:53.160 --> 00:07:57.720 And then in verses 173, 176, 00:07:57.860 --> 00:07:59.180 psalmist resumes his prayer. 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:06.000 And here he asks God to deliver him from whatever predicament it is that he's facing, 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:09.420 because he keeps God's word, since he keeps God's word. 00:08:10.020 --> 00:08:10.340 It says, 00:08:10.339 --> 00:08:33.839 It's because God promises to deliver those who belong to him and trust in his word. 00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:35.259 He's praying to him, 00:08:35.360 --> 00:08:36.759 Lord, I do trust in your word. 00:08:36.860 --> 00:08:39.480 I do keep your word, so please deliver me. 00:08:40.220 --> 00:08:45.240 And of course, this is fulfilled ultimately in Christ. 00:08:45.460 --> 00:08:49.160 In Exodus, not Exodus, Ezekiel chapter 34, 00:08:49.320 --> 00:08:52.480 God promises of a day when, 00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:56.940 and he will himself come as the shepherd of God's people to gather those who have been scattered. 00:08:57.660 --> 00:09:00.940 And then that's fulfilled, of course, when Jesus comes and says in John 10, 00:09:00.940 --> 00:09:02.020 I am the good shepherd. 00:09:02.740 --> 00:09:07.280 And we see him describe himself and his ministry, 00:09:07.900 --> 00:09:13.000 comparing it in Luke 15 to a shepherd that goes to seek after the one lost sheep, right? 00:09:13.780 --> 00:09:20.920 And so that's kind of what we see anticipated here in the psalm. 00:09:20.920 --> 00:09:26.160 The psalmist sees himself as a sheep that has gone astray, 00:09:26.260 --> 00:09:29.300 not in the sense of just morally going astray from keeping his word, 00:09:29.299 --> 00:09:32.639 but someone that is lost in a predicament, 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:34.059 some needing deliverance. 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:40.959 And we are all in that state because we have all strayed from God. 00:09:41.439 --> 00:09:46.979 We have all been in a great danger in predicament because of our slavery to death, 00:09:47.199 --> 00:09:48.659 our condemnation under the law. 00:09:49.199 --> 00:09:51.259 And it's Christ who comes to seek us, 00:09:51.339 --> 00:09:53.299 who are lost, to save us. 00:09:53.299 --> 00:09:57.039 And he does that by giving his life up to die on the cross for us, 00:09:57.559 --> 00:10:05.079 to take our place on the cross, 00:10:05.339 --> 00:10:07.419 to raise us from our hopeless state, 00:10:08.039 --> 00:10:08.899 raise us from the dead. 00:10:08.899 --> 00:10:12.100 And so this psalm, 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:13.919 the entire psalm, 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:14.919 not just this stanza, 00:10:15.059 --> 00:10:17.220 is fulfilled in Christ, 00:10:17.340 --> 00:10:17.980 our good shepherd, 00:10:18.299 --> 00:10:18.799 our savior. 00:10:19.620 --> 00:10:22.740 And it's by hoping in the word of Christ, 00:10:22.959 --> 00:10:24.179 the gospel of Jesus Christ, 00:10:24.259 --> 00:10:25.220 that we have confidence, 00:10:25.340 --> 00:10:26.459 like this psalmist has, 00:10:26.919 --> 00:10:29.000 that God will ultimately come to our deliverance, 00:10:29.159 --> 00:10:32.620 that we will ultimately be saved and redeemed in the end, 00:10:32.620 --> 00:10:37.379 and that all our cries and pleas prayers will be answered by him 00:10:37.379 --> 00:10:40.419 when we pray in accordance with the word of Christ. 00:10:43.220 --> 00:10:45.379 Dad, let's sing a song and pray.