Psalm 119:33-40 | Before You Read: How to guarantee more from your time in the Word

Speaker: We had a great time.

Uh, well, uh, most of it, except for sleeping in a, in, in a tent

outside in, in, in the heat.

Um, I, I still am not there yet.

Uh, but we had a great time aside from that at the camp out.

And, uh, o- one of the things about the camp out that struck me this year was

just how much preparation went into it.

Uh, if you don't prepare for something, i- it's not gonna go well.

Uh, preparation is gonna make or break any experience, and

that was true of the camp out.

We had to prepare by reserving the spots.

We had to figure out where we were gonna have it.

We had to, to plan the meal.

We had to get all the food and all the snacks.

We had to plan the activities.

We had to, to…

Pastor Marc did a devotion.

He had to plan the devotion.

In other words, we couldn't just show up at the event, all of us, and

say, "Hey, we're gonna have a camp out," and everybody just show up.

Okay, well, what's gonna happen?

We're not sure.

We're just gonna show up, and we're just gonna trust.

We're gonna let go and let God make this the best camp out ever.

It would not have been the best camp out ever.

Uh, preparation can make or break an experience, and that's not just true with

a camp out or with planning your vacation or with a, a big presentation at work.

It's true when it comes to our, our time in the Word of God too.

Preparation can make or break our experience in God's Word.

But sometimes we can be like just showing up at the campground and expecting

to have the best camp out ever when it comes to our time in the Word.

We just show up.

We just grab the Bible, open it up, and we're like, "Okay, this is gonna be great.

I'm gonna learn a lot.

I'm gonna be different after this, and, and I'm gonna,

I'm gonna read my, my Bible."

We talked about some of our mindset and, and discipline in our pursuit

of the Word so far this summer in this Summer the Word series.

Uh, but this morning I want us to think about how we prepare

as we approach the Word of God.

And, and what I'm gonna suggest to us is the way that we're gonna

get more out of our time in the Word than we ever have before is

if we come to the Word prayerfully.

That we come to the Word prayerfully.

Preparation is key to the success of anything that we do.

And so before we open up God's Word, we wanna make sure that we prepare

in prayer, that we prepare in prayer.

Our passage, Psalm 119:33-40, is gonna give us at least three requests

Psalms 119:33–40

that the author makes of God before he gets into His Word that I think

are, are good for us as well.

And so let me read our passage for us.

It says this: "Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will walk…

or I will keep it to the end.

Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe

it with my whole heart.

Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.

Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain.

Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things, and give me life in your ways.

Confirm to your servant your promise, that you may be feared.

Turn away the reproach that I dread, for your rules are good.

Behold, I long for your precepts; in your righteousness give me life."

Uh, so last week we talked about coming to the Word of God with a, a humility,

with a, a teachable heart, hungry for God to, to teach us something in the Word.

And, and that's about our responsibility, what we bring to the table.

But as we get into these requests of God, what we're asking God to do, uh,

the first thing that I want us to focus on asking God to do is not what we bring

to the table, but what He brings to us, what He needs to do, what, what we

need Him to do in our own lives, in our own minds, in our own hearts to get the

most out of God's Word that we possibly can when we pick it up to read it.

And so our first point this weekend is going to be that we need to ask

God for transformative understanding.

Ask the Lord for transformative understanding These first three verses, he

says, "Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and I will keep it to the end.

Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe

it with my whole heart.

Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it."

There's three main verbs that show up in our, our text here that,

uh, lead into this transformative understanding that we're talking about.

He says, "Teach me.

Give me understanding."

And then he says, "Lead me."

Those three verbs are actually in the command voice in

the Hebrew, the imperative.

And so as parents or grandparents or maybe just siblings, I'm sure this week

at some point in time you have used the command voice with your family members.

With my kids, it's, "Hey, you need to pick up your room.

Hey, you need to pick up the stuff on the stairs before you go and play outside."

Or maybe it's with one of your siblings, or maybe it's even with

your, your spouse if things got a little bit tense at home this week.

But rarely would we ever think about using the command voice with God.

Think about that for a second.

When would you ask in a command sense God to, to do something for you?

Uh, that is, is bold, to say the least.

But it's important to know that the author is not presuming an authority over God.

He's not suggesting that God is beholden to him.

He's not suggesting that he can command and God is gonna say, "Uh,

how high do you want me to jump?"

That's not why he uses the imperative.

Rather, the psalmist, in his desperation for God to answer his prayer, uses a

verb tense that is more intense than anything else he could have done.

And so he, in other words, uses the, the most intense, most, uh,

aggressive form of these requests that he possibly can because of his own

desperation that God would respond.

In fact, it's not just in these first three verses, it's all of the,

the verbs that he's asking of God.

They're all in the command voice throughout this entire passage.

But here specifically in these first three, he says, "Lord, teach me."

In other words, cause me to learn, God.

He says, "Give me understanding.

Cause me to understand.

Lead me.

Cause me to walk in the way that you show me, the path that you show me."

Verse 33, let's just tackle this first part.

He says, "Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes, and

I will keep it to the end."

The transformative understanding that we're after here is going

to do three things in our lives.

The first thing that it's gonna do is it's going to lead us to obey Him.

Understanding the Word of God and the understanding that He's gonna give

to us is gonna cause us to obey Him.

That's why he says, "Lord, teach me that I will be able to keep

the, the, the statutes to the end.

Teach me your way and, and I will keep these things."

The, the teaching here is different than back in verse 12 when we

looked at that, uh, last week, when he says, "Teach me" there.

That's about internalizing, storing up the Word of God.

This form of, of teach is about guidance.

Point it out.

Show me.

It- it's a word that could be used for aiming as well.

And so the psalmist is, is asking God, saying, "God, will you aim

me towards your statutes in order that I can keep it to the end?"

And so the understanding that the psalmist is after is an understanding

that is going to result in obedience.

It's gonna result in us not just hearing the Word of God or

reading the Word of God, but doing something with the Word of God.

That's why he says, "And I will keep it to the end."

That "to the end" is, is from a word that suggested the end of a day when the

wages would be given out to a worker.

In other words, the psalmist is saying, "I, I want to obey this to the f- to

the fullness of, of my whole life.

I, I want to give everything I am towards pursuing and obeying your Word."

But we ask the Lord, "Lord, give me this understanding."

We prepare in prayer by coming to Him saying, "Lord, I, I need

to understand your Word as I prepare to open it," because we

want to be able to obey the Word.

Th- the second thing our understanding does for us, though, is it not only

helps us to obey, it helps us to surrender, and that we see in verse 34.

He says, "Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and

observe it with my whole heart."

And so there it is again, "Give me understanding that I may keep your

law," oh, the obedience portion of it, but, but to what degree?

With everything that I am, with my whole heart, in full devotion,

in full surrender before you.

That's the other thing that we're asking of the Lord when we pick up the Bible and

we say, "Lord, I, I need to understand this," we're asking to understand

it so that we can obey it, but we're also asking to understand it so that

God will get into our kitchen of our lives, so to speak, and meddle with us.

Uh, sometimes we can come to God's Word and we can say, "Uh, okay, let me focus

on the things that I, I'm already doing well," a- and, and I'm gonna say, "Okay,

I'm, I'll keep that all day long," 'cause that's not hard for me to do.

Thou shalt not steal?

I don't really struggle with stealing.

Awesome!

I love that verse.

But maybe there's another verse.

Hey, y- you've heard it say, "Do not commit murder," but if you get

angry with your brother, it's the same thing as committing murder.

And, and I know what it's like to be on the road and have somebody cut me off.

Oh, man, I…

Lord, I…

Don't give me understanding in that verse so much.

And so it's about full surrender.

It's saying, "God, I, I, I want you to meddle in my life.

I, I, I'm climbing up on the operating table.

Holy Spirit, take the scalpel of the Word of God and, and open me up."

We're not sure if David is the author of Psalm 119.

Many speculate that he is.

If he is, then he likely also had in mind what he wrote in Psalm

139 at the end of it when he said, "Lord, I want you to search me.

I want you to try me, test me, know me.

If there's any grievous way in me, let me know because I wanna get rid of it."

That's the same idea here.

Lord, give me understanding in order that I may keep your law and

observe it with my whole heart.

It's a full surrender.

Understanding leads to obedience.

Understanding also leads to surrender.

And so we come and we prepare in prayer by asking the Lord, "Lord,

I want to understand in a way that I'm gonna be able to surrender my

whole life to you and say there's nothing off-limits to your Word, Lord.

Take your Word, take the Spirit, and do the work of the Word through the Word."

Understanding leads to obedience.

Understanding leads to surrender.

And then finally, understanding leads to a delight in the Word as well.

Verse 35, he says this: "Lead me in the path of your

commandments, for I delight in it."

Cause me to walk in the way.

Lead me.

When we were camping, uh, we, uh, right before bed, took our whole crew, all of

our, our kiddos with us up, up to where the bathrooms were, and the bathrooms

were a little bit of a, a hike away, and you could cut through the middle

of the, the brush and the dense forest.

But, you know, I don't know if you guys have heard of the ticks and

stuff, but, uh, if there's a conspiracy theory that I think might be real, I

think the ticks are, are real, guys.

We didn't get any, thankfully, partially because we didn't walk

through the woods to get there.

So we walked around the loop on the, the, the road to get to where we

needed to get, but it was pitch black.

And so we had flashlights, and a lot of people had their phones

because we're that generation, and so they, they turned their phones on.

But I brought a, a real flashlight from home.

You know the ones that the Brits call a torch?

I brought one of those, and, uh, and I turned it on, and it had a, a huge

beam, and it just lit up the path.

And with the path illuminated like that, we were able to walk it and

get safely to where we needed to get and get safely back to our tent.

God's Word is, as we read earlier, as Lewis read, Psalm 119:105,

Psalms 119:105

"Your word is a light unto my path and a lamp unto my feet."

And, and so we delight in that because i- if I had to walk the path

in the pitch black, I would not have had nearly as much delight in that

walk as I did with the light there.

I felt good.

I felt safe.

I felt secure.

I knew where I was going.

And so I felt safe, and that led to a delight as I walked the path

that was illuminated before me.

And so the understanding that God gives us when we come to His Word is going to

not only give us the desire to obey, it's not only going to cause us to surrender

fully to Him, but it's also, in all of that, gonna cause us to delight in the

work that He's gonna do in our life.

He's gonna light the path and say, "Walk this way," and that

is going to be something that we can indeed delight in it.

And this is not just a delight that's a, a happiness.

It's a delight that's a desire.

It's something that we, we richly crave and long for

But back to the ask, right?

The reason why we have to ask, the reason why we have to prepare in prayer

before we open up the Word is for this to happen, we need God's help.

All of us need God's help in this.

This doesn't come naturally to any of us.

I said last week that God has spoken to us in our language, and indeed He has.

In the Bible that you have either on your phone or in your laps, y- you have

the Word of God written in English, and you can read it, and you can

understand it, and it follows the rules of grammar, and you can put the pieces

together, and it's in your language.

You can comprehend what the God of creation wants you to know about Him.

But to really truly understand it, to really truly know what He wants you to do

with it, to really truly have this take a, a root in your life and, and do what God

wants it to do in your life, then you need Him, through His Spirit, to do that work.

In other words, you can read it and you can comprehend it, but to read

it and to understand it in order to interpret and apply it to your

life, that's a work of God in you.

And so that's why we, just like the psalmist, we come to the L- the, the Lord

before we ever open up the Word and we say, "Lord, I need you right now to help

me understand what I'm about to read.

'Cause without you," as the, the young ones say these days, "I'm cooked."

We need God to help us interpret and apply.

It, it, it, it's like this.

I, I like a lot of sports.

I'm not a huge basketball fan.

I watched my first NBA game all season long last night because I, I'm not

a huge Oklahoma fan 'cause the…

it tried to kill me with tornadoes and, and freezing rain, and it was just…

I l- if you're from Oklahoma, I love you.

Don't love your state.

So I was watching a little bit just to see if, if Texas was gonna win

over Oklahoma, and, uh, and they did.

The Spurs won, uh, newsflash, in case you're not aware.

But I watched my f- I don't, I don't really l- I don't love basketball.

So I can talk sports with most people, but when it comes to basketball,

I can understand the cons- the, the, the words that are coming out

of their mouth, but that doesn't understand the c- mean I understand the

concepts that they're talking about.

So I can walk up on a couple of guys talking basketball and, and I'll just

kinda listen, and I'll realize very quickly that I'm out of my league,

that I don't really know what's go- I understand the words they're saying.

I don't really understand what they're talking about, though.

And so I'll throw some words out that I know, like Cooper Flagg and

three-pointer and, you know, hoop and things before I look for the nearest

off-ramp to that conversation and go to talk about a better sport, like baseball.

Um, I…

Basketball, it, it's…

I understand the words, but it doesn't hit the same way as somebody who loves

the sport and understands the sport.

That can be the Word of God without the Spirit's help in our lives.

A- a- and so let me just say the uncomfortable thing.

If, if you're not a believer, you shouldn't expect to get anything out

of the Word of God other than a set of moral principles because you don't

have the key to understanding it.

A- and that may sound, like, mystical, and that may sound odd to you, and yet

it's written by God, and He's given us His Spirit to help us understand,

what does this have to do with me?

And so let me just give you one example.

Matthew 5:48.

Matthew 5:48

Therein, Jesus says this: "You shall be perfect as your

heavenly Father is perfect."

A Christian and a non-Christian can both read that verse and

come to the same conclusion.

That's not possible.

Nobody's perfect.

You don't need the Holy Spirit to understand that.

Uh, we can read a verse that says, "You shall be perfect as your heavenly Father

is perfect," and we can all, no matter whether you have Christ or don't have

Christ, say, "That's not possible."

The difference is, what do we do with it from there?

See, the unbeliever may say, uh, "This just confirms what

I think about Christians.

Christians just think that they're better than us.

Christians just think that they're holier than thou.

Christians think that they're perfect when they're not.

This confirms what I've always believed, and that is that the Church

is just a bunch of hypocrites."

Because they're gonna say, "You shall be perfect as your heavenly Father

is perfect," and they claim to have a relationship with this heavenly Father,

so they must think that they're perfect

See, the Christian, on the other hand, is gonna come to a verse like this,

and the Christian's gonna look at it and say, "I'm, I'm not perfect at all.

A- And the only hope that I have of meeting the standard of the

Heavenly Father is to have a perfection that exists outside of me.

The only hope that I have of being considered perfect is if I have

the perfection of the Son of God, if I have Jesus' perfection."

And so this just reminds me when I come to Matthew 5:48 that my only hope is Christ.

Matthew 5:48

My only hope is His perfect righteousness that He gave to me when

He died on the cross for my sins.

And so you see, we can both come to the same verse, Matthew 5:48,

Matthew 5:48

and the English is not difficult.

"You shall be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect."

But the difference comes in the work that the Holy Spirit does to give

us an understanding of what that verse is meant to do in our lives.

And so this is why we have to come and prepare in prayer and ask the Lord, "Lord,

give me a transformative understanding.

Give me an understanding that's gonna get into my life.

Give me an understanding that's gonna show me what you want me to do with this text.

Give me an understanding so that I don't walk away missing the

point, and I need you to do that."

And here's the thing.

I, I believe with my whole heart that if you pray that, genuinely meaning

that, that God will answer that prayer so that when you pick up 2 Chronicles,

you can pray, "Lord, I don't often get a lot out of 2 Chronicles.

It's hard for me, but I'm asking you, will you give me an understanding?

Will you teach me?

Will you lead me?

I wanna follow you with my whole heart.

You say, 'All scripture is breathed out by God.'

That includes 2 Chronicles.

Lord, I want to take away from this what you would have me take away from it today.

Please give me understanding."

Rather than, "Oh, man, 2 Chronicles again?

Okay, here it goes."

S- do you see how preparation can make or break any experience,

including our time in the Word of God?

Or maybe it's Galatians or Ephesians, whatever your favorite book of the

Bible is, the book that you've read 100 times before, and you go to

that every time and you're g- you, you could quote it from memory.

And so your prayer at that time is, "Lord, I'm coming to a passage right

now that I've read so many times I know it backwards and forwards, and

I love it, but Lord, I, I just wanna ask you, keep teaching me right now.

Give me an, an even deeper understanding for what I'm about

to read than I've ever had before.

Show me the blind spots in my life that I need to bring into submission

to your Word right now as I read this."

And so we wanna prepare in prayer.

We wanna come to the Lord.

We wanna seek Him.

We wanna ask Him, "Lord, will you teach me?"

If we're not doing this, we are leaving so much on the table.

I, I don't know if you're like me or you're willing to admit that you're like

me in this, but oftentimes when I come up to a stoplight, if I'm the first one

on the line, whatever car comes up next to me, I wanna beat it off the line.

And if you're not like that, then you're lying.

I'm just kidding.

Maybe you're not.

Maybe you're not nearly as competitive as I am.

I … and for the longest time, y'all, I, I, I drove Corollas, and I, I love

Corollas, but there's nothing that's gonna beat anything off the line.

Uh, uh, nothing about a Corolla that's gonna beat anything else off the line.

Uh, when I wanted to, I had to pull up to the, the s- the

stop sign or the stoplight.

I had to turn off my air conditioning.

You guys know that trick, right?

The throttle feels a little bit more response- responsive

when you turn off your air.

Man, I was turning off my air.

I was turning off my, my, my radio.

I was turning off my windshield wipers.

I was turning off everything, and I was still getting beat off the line.

Now, I drive a car that I can beat most things off the line, and it took me

41 years to, to get there, but God was finally like, "Here, have some fun."

Um, not everything.

I can't beat everything, but most things.

And so I'll come up to the stoplight and I, and I'll look over

there, and I'll make a decision.

I'll see what's next to me, and I'll decide whether or not I have to take it

out of eco mode- … into sport mode.

And not only do I sometimes put it into sport mode, but

then I'm like, you know what?

I'm also gonna take off my regenerative braking so that there's as l- least

amount of friction on my tires as possible because I wanna beat this

mom in her minivan off the line.

Ja

When, when you come to God's Word, if you're not praying before you

get into the Word of God, you're trying to beat a car off the line and

you're not using all the power that you've got to be able to do that.

Y- y- you're trying to beat the car next to you, a- and, and yet

you're in eco mode and, and, and regen braking is all the way up.

A- a- and so you're, you're playing with y- a hand tied

behind your back, in other words.

Prayer is so vital to us when we come to the Word of God.

A- and when we don't pray before we pick up the Bible, when we don't prepare in

prayer, we're leaving on the table so much more than we could be getting out of it

if we went to the Lord and said, "Lord, humbly, submissively, I'm, I'm, I'm,

I'm pleading with you, please teach me.

C- under-- help me understand these things.

I wanna obey, I wanna delight, I wanna surrender before you.

Help me to do this."

And so I- I'm, I'm just gonna encourage you, Church, to, to, to do this.

And then the other thing that I wanna encourage you with on that

as, as I follow up with that is, is to persist in doing this.

Uh, uh, this is not a magic formula, okay?

This is not three steps to get rich in the Word of God.

It doesn't work that way.

Eugene Peterson wrote a book called A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.

It, it's…

That's his dis- uh, definition of discipleship, a long

obedience in the same direction.

And one of the things that he wrote in there is, is a bit of an indictment on

our culture, and I, I think he's right.

He says this.

He says, "There's a, a great market for religious experience in our world.

There's little enthusiasm for patient acquisition of virtue,

little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier

generations of Christians called holiness.

Religion in our time has been captured by the tourist mindset.

Religion is understood as a visit to an attractive site to be made

when we have adequate leisure."

In other words, Peterson's putting a finger on something that I

think we struggle with, and that is, uh, we, we, we are such an

immediate gratification people.

A- a- and so what we're talking about here, again, this is not gonna radically

transform things overnight, but if you will commit to and persist in preparing

in prayer before you come to the Word of God, when you look back at where you are

at the end of this year, let alone five years from now, 10 years from now, should

the Lord tarry, you are gonna see that He has done so much in your life in answer

to these prayers that you're making.

And so persist.

Sign up for the patient acquisition.

Sign up for the long apprenticeship at the feet of Jesus, like we

talked about last week with Mary.

And come and prepare in prayer and ask the Lord for transformative understanding

Maybe one of the other things that you struggle with is not just

understanding, but, but a want to.

D- do you have the desire to pick up the Bible?

Do you have the desire to get in God's Word?

Do you have the desire after you pick up the Bible to then obey the Word

of God, to, to apply the Word of God?

That's where he goes next.

In verses 36 through 37, the psalmist says this, "Incline my heart to your

testimonies and not to selfish gain.

Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways."

Uh, these are, are requests that could be made before you read the Word,

could be made after you read the Word, could be made while you read the Word.

In fact, these are, are prayers that we could just offer up day after

day after day after day after day.

We need to always have this mindset, just asking God to increase, to

fan into flame the desires that we have in our hearts for Him.

And when we come to the Word of God, another prayer that we should make

as we seek to prepare in prayer is to ask the Lord, "Lord, deepen my desire

for you through my time in your Word.

In what I'm about to read, cause me to love Jesus more, cause me to

hate sin more, cause me to desire godliness and holiness m- m- more.

Lord, I, I need your work in my life," as point number two is about to say here,

to instill in me transformative desires.

Point number two, ask for transformative desires

Transformative desires.

I, I, I think this is another area where we, we don't take advantage

enough of what God has to offer us.

God wants to fan into flame your desire for Christ.

A-and, and I think we, we don't go to Him and, and expect Him to really do that.

He wants for, for your desire to be such that it is a delight for

you to obey the Word of God, to spend time in the Word of God.

A-a-and part of it is, again, we're an independent people, aren't we?

We're a, a pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps kind of a people.

We like, we like Philippians 2:12, "Work out your salvation

Philippians 2:12

with fear and trembling."

Yes, I, uh, that's what I need to do.

I don't…

Doesn't matter how I feel about it, I just need to do it

Yeah, th-th-there's a, a measure, a modicum of truth to that.

Our obedience to the Lord is not based on our feelings about whether or not we want

to, but that doesn't mean that He doesn't want to increase your desire to do that.

Philippians 2:12 is followed by, by Philippians 2:13, which says

Philippians 2:12 Philippians 2:13

this, "For it is God who is at work in you as you work out your

salvation with fear and trembling."

It's God who's at work in you, and notice this, both to will and

to work for His good pleasure.

So the, the God who commanded you saying, "Work out your salvation

with fear and trembling," in other words, "Obey me, do the things that

a Christian should do," is the same God that's saying, "And, and I want to

create in you the desire to do that.

I want to help you will yourself to do those things.

And so come to me and ask me for these things.

Ask for a transformative desire."

And here's the thing, y'all.

I believe if you have this holy resolve combined with this dependent plea that

says, "Lord, I need you to create in me a more deep desire for your, your Word

and for you," I believe that God is going to delight to answer that request.

He's, He's not a cruel despot up there that's like, "Well, wouldn't that be nice

if you could just love being a Christian?"

I think God wants you to love being a Christian.

I think God wants you to love being in the Word.

I think God wants you to love treasuring up the Scriptures in,

in reading and understanding.

God is not up there saying, "I just want this to be miserable for you."

And so don't leave it on the shelf.

Be like the psalmist and, and, and pray with the psalmist,

"Lord, incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain.

Lord, give me desires, Lord, that are greater for your Word, your testimonies,

the things that you have set in, in stone and said, 'This is what's true.'

Lord, in- incline my heart towards that and not to selfish gain."

Why does he identify selfish gain?

Well, because that is the, that's the default of every single person in this

room, myself in- included in that.

If we go through our day in neutral, we're gonna veer towards selfish gain.

And so the psalmist is saying, "Lord, do in me what's not natural in me.

A- a- as I spend time in your Word, Lord, cause my desire to be more for the God

of the Word as I read the Word of God.

Cause me to, to want less that's, that's about me and more, Lord,

that's, that's about you."

Ha- have you ever driven a car that's out of alignment?

Or started to realize that your car is getting out of alignment?

How do you know that?

Well, well you know because when you let go of the steering wheel

for a second, it begins to, to, to veer one way or the other

Our lives are naturally out of alignment when it comes to

what God is calling us to do.

Our lives are naturally going to veer towards selfishness.

We are going to look out for number one before we're gonna look

out for anyone else in our lives

So much so that in the Old Testament Isaiah even said the, the good works that

an unbeliever does is repulsive to God

Not because they weren't good objectively from the outside, but

because they were done with the motive of, of the self-centeredness

of the individual doing the good work

We are naturally selfish people, and so the psalmist is coming to the word

of God saying, "God, I need you again.

It's me.

I, I, I need you again, and I need you to direct my heart away from myself

'cause it's gonna veer that way, and I need you instead, Lord, to align me

towards you, towards your testimonies.

Incline my heart, Lord, towards your word and not towards selfish gain."

Uh, wh- when we try to do that on our own, when we try to muster up the desire

on our own, when we try to muster up our, our willpower to say, "Okay, I, I don't

feel like it, but I'm gonna just read it because I know I'm supposed to and this is

what I'm, uh, I, I have to do this because this is what a good Christian does.

I'm just gonna read the word of God, and then I read it and, and

I'm done, and now let me go and, and get about the rest of my day."

And that's like trying to take a car severely out of alignment and just hold

it straight and, and steady down the, the, the, the lane as much as you can.

It gets exhausting real fast

But again, y'all, that's not what God wants for you.

And so if you will come to Him and you will ask Him to align your hearts, incline

your heart towards His testimonies, then, then you will find that He'll

fix that alignment problem through the Spirit's work in your heart, and

you will be able to find great joy and contentment and delight, not in

pursuing self, but in pursuing Him such that it will become even life-giving.

That's where he goes in verse 37.

He says, "Turn my eyes away from these things."

There's parallelism between verses 36 and 37.

"Incline my heart to your testimonies.

Uh, Lord, give me life in your ways.

Tu- uh, turn my eyes from looking at worthless things."

That's, that's the selfish gain that he was talking about back in verse 36.

A- a- and so here it's, it's not, "Lord, just, just incline my heart towards

your testimonies and not to selfish gain, but replace the, the desire for

selfish gain with a satisfaction in you.

Lord, I wanna find life and joy in following you."

Where you look is often where your feet will follow

Or when you're teaching a, a teenager to drive, right?

You, you wanna teach their eyes when they're in the car to be up

in, in that way, ahead of them.

Why?

Because if they're down here, then it's, it's too easy to, to start

losing si- and, and you're veering.

Why?

Because where the eyes go, the rest follows

As Christians, it's so easy for our fleshly appetites to cause

our eyes to leave the Word of God and the statutes of God and the

testimonies of God and to alight instead on the, the worthless things.

And, and they're worthless things because sometimes they're sinful things, but

they're also worthless things because they're things that claim to be more

important to you than the Word of God is.

And so sometimes our eyes are, are prone to wander and land on a person or land

on a house or land on a possession or a thing or a promotion or a career or a

different life that I wish I had or a, a dream and a fantasy about something

or what I hope my reality will be like.

And, and these become worthless things because they grab our heart and they

pull our heart away from the Lord

And so the psalmist is saying, "Lord, I, I, I want you to fix my

eyes back on you and turn my eyes away from the worthless things."

Remember King David's eyes wandered before his heart wandered after Bathsheba

And so for us, y'all, we, we need to come to the Lord and, and

prepare in prayer and say, "Lord, I, I, I need you not just for the

understanding, but also for my desires.

I trust that you want me to delight in your Word.

You say it far too often for this not to be the case.

You want me to love the Word of God.

And so, God, I'm asking, as I pick up the Word of God, help me love the Word of God.

I- i- if I've got sin in my heart right now, Lord, I want you to reveal

that to me so I can turn my eyes away from the worthless things and put

it on you and put it on your Word.

I don't want anything competing with you, Lord, for first place in my life."

Whatever those things are that our eyes are tempted to land on instead

of the Lord, it, it will lead us to a, a sense of, of, "If I get this,

then I will be truly satisfied."

But if you've lived enough life in this room, you know that that's not the case.

Because some of those things your eyes have gone after, you've gotten,

and what have they left you wanting?

More.

They haven't satisfied.

They haven't lived up to what you hoped they would be.

And if they're sinful things, well, then they've left you feeling despair, and

they've left you feeling hopelessness, and they've left you feeling guilt,

and they've left you feeling shame, and they've left you feeling condemnation.

And, and here's the thing, y'all, the Word of God is different.

If you turn from selfish gain and let the Word of God do the work of God in your

heart, you will find not shame and guilt and condemnation and, and disappointment.

You will find life, and you will find joy, and you will find satisfaction,

and you will find contentment, and you will find hope, and you will

find more than you ever knew possible

And it's not as though God is hiding it from you

Prepare in prayer.

Come and ask him for these things.

Ask the Lord for transformative desires

Ask them to increase your hunger

To make you want it more and more.

There's one more area though that we have to come before Him, depending on Him for.

It's not only our understanding, it's in, in our desires, but we also, when

we come to the Word of God, we want to find that after our time in the Word of

God, our confidence in God is leveled up.

Look at verses 38 through 40 in Psalm 119.

Verses 38 through 40, it, it reads this, it says this: "Confirm to your servant

your promise that you may be feared.

Turn away the reproach that I dread, for your rules are good.

Behold, I long for your precepts; in your righteousness give me life."

We don't know where the, the psalmist was in, in his circumstances as he

was writing this, 'cause we're not exactly sure the identity of the author.

Uh, but he was facing some difficulty, facing some opposition, and so he's

longing for confidence from the Lord, and so he's gonna pray and ask

God, "God, confirm your promises.

Remind me of how true your Word is.

Lord, turn away the reproach that I, I'm fearing right now a- and remind me how

good your precepts and your rules are.

A- and Lord, I'm gonna ask you ultimately that, that you would create

in me such a longing for your precepts because I, I want such a confidence

in, in, in certainty that your righteousness is gonna give me life."

And so he's pleading.

He's looking for that confidence and that security, and that's something that

we should do as we pick up the Word of God as well as we prepare in prayer.

Final point this morning is this: Ask for transformative confidence.

Ask the Lord for transformative confidence.

We all long for security, don't we?

You may have an app on your phone like Experian or LifeLock or something

like that that i- is meant to give you protection and a sense of, of

confidence that your identity is secure.

Except you'll get an alert, like I do sometimes, "Hey, your, uh, phone

number was found on the dark web."

And it's like, well, great, what do I do with that?

Nothing.

We just wanted you to be anxious about it

Great.

Super.

Um, thank you, I think, and I pay you for that.

We, we are a security obsessed culture and society.

The, the home security industry is, is valued at somewhere between

$70 to $80 billion annually.

So if you're looking to get into a new business, home security

is not a bad one to get into.

We want to feel safe.

We want to feel safe.

A- a- and not just physically safe, I would say we want

to feel spiritually safe.

That's certainly true of Christians.

Christians wrestle with the, the question of, "Am I really saved?"

I mean, I'm su- I'm sure at some point, if you've been a believer for any

period of time, that you've probably at some point in time had a doubt

cross your mind and looked for the security, looked for the confidence.

But it's not just believers, I think unbelievers are in the same boat.

Solomon in Ecclesiastes says that God has put eternity in

the heart of every single man

And so a, a lot of, of this world, the lost world, is, is trying to wrestle

with how can I have some sort of security in what's gonna happen after I die?

That's really the, the confidence that we want.

That's the confidence that we desire.

And as Christians, when we pick up the Word of God, we're coming to a, a book

that has some answers for us there.

A- and we're not just coming to a book that has some answers there, but a

lot of those answers can ultimately be found in the promises of God therein.

And the psalmist says for us in verse 38, "Lord, confirm your

promises that you may be feared."

Confirm these promises.

Promises like, hey, you know what?

Uh, you've been sealed with the promised Holy Spirit in Ephesians chapter 1,

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

who's the guarantee of your inheritance until you acquire possession of it.

Or a promise like 1 Peter chapter 1, you're being guarded by God's power

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Or a promise like Romans 8:28, that God is causing all things to work together

Romans 8:28

for good for those who love Him, right?

Or a promise like Acts 1 that says that, that Jesus who ascended

is coming back for His church.

Those are, are good promises.

Those are promises that we're p- praying and asking when we pick up the Word of

God, "God, confirm your promises to me.

Remind me that these things are true, and they are steadfast, and they are,

are sure, and I can trust in them.

Lord, give me confidence in these promises."

And then he says, "That you may be feared."

Well, why that he may be feared?

That seems at odds.

Confidence and fear don't often go together

Well, the fear that we're talking about is the, the fear of God,

and the fear of God is this.

The fear of God is a, a reverence, it's an awe, it's a carefulness,

it's a respect of who He is.

And so when we fear God, we remember who He is as we pick up

the Word of God to, to approach Him.

We remember that He is not a big man upstairs.

He's not daddy God.

He is the Lord of all lords.

He is the King of kings.

He's the God of the universe, the Lord of creation, and He is coming back again.

He's the God that split the Red Sea, the God that shook Mount Sinai

He's the Lord that walked on water.

He's the God that raised Lazarus from the dead.

He's the God who raised himself from the dead.

And so when we come to the Word of God and we say, "God, confirm your promises

to me that you may be feared," it's us picking up the Word of God saying, "God,

remind me of who you are and who I am."

And in, in turn, what's that gonna do?

That's gonna cause me to trust you all the more, and my confidence

in you is gonna go sky high.

And so Lord, confirm your promises so that I will fear you more, because fearing

you is where it's safe, remembering that you are the sovereign Lord of

lords and King of kings, and that you have loved me so much that you gave

Jesus for me so that I might have a hope that one day I will be with you.

Lord, confirm your promises to me.

When I pick up your Word today, I wanna be reminded of who you are.

Lord, I'm asking you, increase my confidence by reminding me

who you are and who I am and what you did about that through Jesus

Confirm to your servant your promise that you may be feared.

Behold, I long…

Or verse 39: Turn away the, the reproach that I dread, for your rules are good.

Lord, I, I, I, in other words, I wanna fear you.

I don't wanna fear man.

The reproach that comes when I do fear you, Lord, turn that away from me and

remind me that your rules are good.

When I pick up your Word, remind me that this is what's good, not

what the world says is what's good.

Remind me that, that, that I have to fight to ignore the lies of the world out there

and remember that this is what's truth

What's true is not set by an agenda of any group.

It's set by the God of the universe, and it's recorded here.

So Lord, when I come, turn away the reproach of others.

Help me to fear who I should fear.

That's you and not them, and remind me that your Word is true.

Give me confidence therein.

And then finally, Lord, I, I long for your precepts.

In your righteousness, give me life.

Remind me that this is where life is found.

Life is found here.

It's found in the Word of God.

It's not found anywhere else.

It's found here.

He's the source of life, eternal life.

He's the source of life.

He's the source of life right now, not just in eternity, but

that begins right now even.

So Lord, increase my confidence.

And here's the, the, the awesome thing through this, y'all.

If we will do this, what we'll find is we'll get into this cyclical pattern.

W- we're gonna go to the Word of God, and we're gonna ask for God to do these things

in us through our time in the Word, and what that's gonna do is we're gonna find

that there is truly life in the Word.

A- a- and so the Word is gonna produce in us a desire for, for more

of the Word 'cause the Word is gonna result in us feeling the, the great

satisfaction and the joy and the contentment and going, "I love the Word

of God for what it does in my life."

Well, what do you do with something that you love?

You what?

You go back to it, and you want more of it.

And then what that's…

what's that gonna do?

Well, it's gonna produce more confidence in your life.

It's gonna give you more joy, more, more satisfaction.

You, you're gonna find that, that you love Jesus even more, and what's that gonna do?

Well, I wanna get back into His Word again.

And then that's just gonna make you more hungry for the Word as well.

And so if we'll do this, then, then we'll find that there's a, a cyclical

pattern to our time that is going to pay dividends over the long haul.

Ask the Lord for transformative confidence in the Word.

These are three prayers that, that are not exhaustive, okay?

This is not a message about three quick ways to get rich in the Word.

That, that's not what this is.

Th- this is not…

I'm not saying you have to pray these things and you can't pray anything else.

I'm not saying you have to pray these things and you should pray th- I'm just

saying I think when we look at Psalm 119, these are three things that we

see here that are good for us to pray.

What I am saying is I think we d- we all need to prepare in

prayer before we come to the Word.

We all need to do that.

I think this is a great place to start.

A- and i- if you're not doing any of it right now, I think these three things

are just good for, for you to bring next time you sit down with the Word of

God, just you and Him, your quiet time, just opening it up saying, "Lord, I'm

gonna ask you for this understanding, this transformative understanding that's

gonna change the way that I live my life.

Lord, I- I'm gonna ask you that you would give me a, a different

desire for you, a greater desire for you as I read your Word right now.

Lord, I'm, I'm gonna ask you that you increase my confidence in you as a

result of my, my time that I'm about to spend in your Word right now.

I'm asking that you're doing these things, Lord.

I, I want to prepare well for what you have for me in this

meal that I'm about to enjoy."

If you're not praying at all, those are, uh, it's a great place to start.

If you've got a routine of prayer down, maybe you wanna

sprinkle some of this in here.

Maybe you're already doing some of these things.

That, that's great too.

But just again, preparation can make or break an experience, and that's

true of the Word of God as well.

And because God is there, He's given us His Spirit, and He's invited us

into His presence to pray to Him at any time, then I think it makes

all the sense in the world that we would prepare in prayer every single

time before we pick up the Word.

Let's go to prayer right now.

Lord God, we are, are so thankful for your work in our lives.

We are thankful for, as I was just saying, the fact that we have your Spirit

dwelling within us, and your Spirit gives us access to you at any moment.

Even as I was reading this morning in John 17, Jesus prays there for his followers,

and it struck me this morning as, as your Spirit was helping me to understand the

passage, Lord, that you are doing that right now, that Jesus is right now at your

right hand, that He is, as Hebrews 7 says, always living to make intercession for us.

Lord, we know that Paul wrote that we can pray without ceasing.

What an amazing reality that is.

So God, I, I just ask this week for all of us, myself included, Lord, that, that

we wouldn't leave prayer on the shelf, that we wouldn't only pull it off before

meals, that we wouldn't only pull it off at the end of the day or when we're

putting kids to bed, that we wouldn't only pull it off a- as we're getting in

the car for a vacation, Lord, but that we would be people that pray regularly, and

that part of that regular prayer would be preparing for our time in the Word

every single day by first coming before you and asking you to do in the Word what

you've promised us you will do in it.

And so God, we thank you for the promises that we have.

We thank you for your Word, and we pray that we'd grow in it

and in our love for it as well.

We pray this all in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.