Sunday Sermons
Psalm 119:96-112
119:96 “I have seen a limit to all perfection”: “This verse could well be a summary of Ecclesiastes, where every earthly enterprise has its day and comes to nothing, and where only in God and His commandments do we get beyond these frustrating limits” (Kidner pp. 426-427). Obviously, the writer is saying that every earthly perfection has a limit or an end, for even the physical universe that God created will end one day (2 Peter 3:10). “Thy commandment is exceedingly broad”: The Bible covers every area of our lives and gives us everything we need (2 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). In the Scriptures we are given all truth (John 16:13). In contrast to everything on this earth, the values and truths found in Scripture will never lose their worth or meaning. When we are studying the Bible we are learning lessons that will apply for eternity. In addition, how many people view the Bible as really restrictive? In contrast, the writer viewed God’s commandments as giving him plenty of room. Do we feel constrained or liberated by doctrine?
119:97 “Oh how I love Your law!” The benefits of Bible study are conditioned upon the right attitude. If we truly allow ourselves to fall in love with God and His Word, then everything else will fall into its proper place in life. We truly need to feel sorry for people who rebel against Scripture, criticize it, stand in judgment over it, resent it, and feel superior to it. Note, loving God’s law means loving those laws that keep us from evil, that is, loving His threats and warnings as well as His promises. A person really has not fallen in love with God until they have also fallen in love with what the world might consider “negative” commands. People who resent the Bible as “law”, are people who resent a God who challenges them when they do or believe what is wrong.
119:98 “Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies”: The righteous man or woman will develop enemies(Matthew 5:10-12; John 15:18).
119:99 “I have more insight than all my teachers”: The writer is not arrogant or boastful; rather he is simply stating the facts of the case. A young man or woman who studies the bible and applies it will naturally know more about real life and how things work then someone who is older yet worldly. The person who studies the Bible is learning God’s wisdom! By giving us the Bible God has spared us from trial and error living. We can raise our children right the first time. Our first marriage can be very successful. God’s wisdom is more direct and superior to the wisdom of this world (Jeremiah 9:23-24). In addition, human wisdom is often caught up in fads, like many modern theories about childrearing. In addition, the writer is not saying that he is wiser than godly teachers who were also mediating upon the Scriptures, rather it is inferred that these teachers did not love God’s law as does the writer of this Psalm. “More insight”: There are many smart people in this world that perform all sorts of research, yet the person who knows the word of God is able to take all that information and see things a person of this world does not see.
119:100 “I understand more than the aged”: Again, not an empty boast, nor is it ridiculing the older generation, rather by studying the word of God the child of God can have more insight into life than the aged person who is operating by their own human experience and human wisdom.
119:101 “I have restrained my feet from every evil way”: When God says no, He is keeping us from evil. We need to carefully label the things that God condemns. “Fun” is the wrong label for such things rather “evil”, “wicked”, and “selfish” are the right labels. When we realize that what God condemns is “evil”, we will stop viewing the Bible as a book of unreasonable restrictions. “That I may keep Your word”: There is something far more important than our own physical gratification for the moment, that is, seeing that we do not offend God.
119:102 “For You Yourself have taught me”: When we really listen to Scripture and apply it, God is our teacher and instructor (John 6:44-45). Thus we see the need to treat the Bible with respect when we are either reading it or hearing it read(Nehemiah 8:5). God is teaching when the Bible is opened! (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
119:103 “How sweet are Your words to my taste!” “Is the will of God burdensome to the psalmist? Hardly” (Williams p. 380). To spiritual people, the Word of God is a pleasure, it is dessert. There is a delight in knowing that we have a sure guide to life, and here is a relief in knowing that we are not left to wander alone.
119:104 “From Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way”: “This understanding engendered by God’s word leads him not to tolerate falsehood (as in our relativistic world today where all is gray). He hates those false ways that lead to death. This is not arrogance. This is honesty, born from a man who has learned from the owner’s manual how to live” (Williams p. 381). “Attraction to the true and revulsion against the false are, for us, acquired tastes. Verse 104 describes the process; 101 reveals the earnest co-operation it requires of us” (Kidner p. 427).
Hence when you see the bumper sticker that says, “Hate is not a family value”, remember that hating evil is a godly virtue. Someone has said, “This book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book”. “Are you indifferent to the Bible? Do you find it boring, unattractive? If so, you will not be kept from sin or from what is ugly and offensive in this world” (Boice p. 1023).
Modern Application
One reason among many why we need to abhor every false way, is because sin, any sin, destroys the world in which we live. “Wherever man asserts his independence of God, saying in effect, that, while he will deny God, he will not deny life, nor its relationships, values, society, its sciences and art, he is involved in contradiction. It is an impossibility for man to deny God and still to have law and order, justice, science, or anything, apart from God. The more a man and society depart from God, the more they depart from all reality, and the more they are caught in the net of self-contradiction” (The God of the Bible, Robert P. Lightner p. 33). Solomon noted, “When the righteous increase, the people rejoice, but when a wicked man rules, people groan” (Proverbs 29:2). Sin does destroy true and godly liberty and freedom in nations, it does eventually destroy economic systems (just look at how people fare under corrupt governments and communistic systems). Sin will move a culture away from great literature, art, music, and culture, and will create a culture that spends its time wading through a media cesspool. Sin destroys law and order. The criminal ends up with more rights than the law-abiding individual. The predator is protected while the victim is further humiliated. Sin destroys relationships, such as marriage, the family, and the neighborhood. Compare the above quotation with the pointed description of a God-denying society in Romans 1:28-32; 2 Timothy 3:1-4). The following article is entitled, “I Can’t believe you made it”: If you lived as a child in the 40's, 50's, 60's or 70's. Looking back it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have...
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. We rode our bikes, we had no helmets (Not to mention hitchhiking to town as a young kid!) We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the
brakes. After running into the bushes a few times we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were
back when the streetlights came on. We played dodge ball and sometimes the ball
would really hurt. We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame, but us. Remember accidents? We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it. We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda but we were never overweight...we were always outside playing. We shared one
grape soda with four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door or rung the bell or just walked in and talked to them. Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in the cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we do it? We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't, had to learn to deal with disappointment..... Some students weren't as smart as others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.....Horrors. Tests were not adjusted for any reason. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. No one to hide behind. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law, imagine that! This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and we learned how to deal with it all”. How many freedoms have you, your children and grandchildren lost because of false ways and sin? What was good and wholesome that does not exist anyone because people rebel against God and refuse to follow His wisdom?
119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path”: Obviously, for the word to be a lamp to our feet, it must be understandable to all men, even the naïve (Psalm19:7). Jesus believed that ordinary, uneducated, regular people could listen to His words and know the truth (John 8:31-32). This world is a very confusing place to live and we are confronted with all sorts of choices and belief systems. What is the right way to live? God’s word guides us like a bright lamp or flashlight through all these choices.
119:106 “I have sworn it and I will confirm it”: The ethics of this man are absolute and not relative, there is no situational ethic for this writer. He has made a solemn promise to God and he will always live for God and keep God’s word. Do we take our confession of Christ and our baptism this seriously?
119:107 “I am exceedingly afflicted”: Even though obeying God brings him affliction and persecution, he will still obey. Instead of finding his “life, meaning, and purpose” in the world, he is determined to find his refreshment in the Word. On what are we depending for significance and feeling good? Human praise or Divine praise? In addition, the Bible helps us endure suffering, for it tells us why we are suffering, and the benefits of remaining faithful (Romans 8:18).
119:108 Bible study and worship go hand in hand. The key to appreciative and reverent worship starts with appreciation for what God has said. “Instead of Bible teaching, people are being fed a diet of superficial pop-psychology, self-help therapy, feel-good stimulants, and entertainment, and the ignorance of the Bible in the churches is appalling” (Boice p. 1027).
119:109-110: The writer realizes that God is in control, even of his life. The person who eagerly studies the Bible cannot feel independent of God. His life is not in the hands of his enemies, rather, his life is in the hands of his God. Yet he is determined to be loyal to the Lord, even when the wicked attempt to hunt him down and catch him.
119:111-112 “His joy and determination to please the Lord are much greater than the affliction with which he lives constantly”(Gaebelein p. 754). Note, inclining our heart towards the truth is something over which we have control. Do we look at the Scriptures as a priceless inheritance? When we became a Christian we inherited the task of faithfully preaching the Word of God to our generation and passing on that truth to the next generation (2 Timothy 2:2).
