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*How Affliction Increases Affection (Ps 119:153-160)*
/Preached by Pastor Phil Layton at Gold Country Baptist Church on March 22, 2009/
www.goldcountrybaptist.org  
 
You’ve heard of the seven wonders of the ancient world – well, there are many more wonders of God’s ancient Word.
We have the great privilege to look again at Psalm 119 in this wonderful book inspired by a wonderful Savior.
One of the wonders of Scripture is its unique nature and history, the diversity of human writers from multiple countries over more than 1500 years, yet a wonderfully and amazingly consistent Divine message:
 
There are words written by kings, by emperors, by princes, by poets, by sages, by philosophers, by fishermen, by statesmen, by men learned in the wisdom of Egypt, educated in the schools of Babylon, and trained at the feet of rabbis in Jerusalem.
It was written by men in exile, in the desert, in shepherd’s tents, in green pastures, and beside still waters.
Among its authors we find a tax–gatherer, a herdsman, a gatherer of sycamore fruit.
We find poor men, rich men, statesmen, preachers, captains, legislators, judges, and exiles.
The Bible is a library full of history, genealogy, ethnology, law, ethics, prophecy, poetry, eloquence, medicine, sanitary science, political economy, and the perfect rules for personal and social life.
And behind every word is the divine author, God Himself.[1]
Psalm 119 is the most wonderful tribute ever written to the wonderful Word of God.
In our verse-by-verse section-by-section study through this chapter, this morning we come to the section beginning in verse 153.
One of the wonderful blessings of studying through this book is seeing the wonderful blessings that took place through the original author’s commitment to Scripture and prayer.
Theme: /Affliction should increase affection for God and His Word./
Goal: /We walk away saying “what a wonderful Savior we have”/
 
Psalm 119:153-160 (NASB95) 153 Look upon my affliction and rescue me, For I do not forget Your law.
154 Plead my cause and redeem me; Revive me according to Your word.
155 Salvation is far from the wicked, For they do not seek Your statutes.
156 Great are Your mercies, O Lord; Revive me according to Your ordinances.
157 Many are my persecutors and my adversaries, /Yet /I do not turn aside from Your testimonies.
158 I behold the treacherous and loathe /them,/ Because they do not keep Your word.
159 Consider how I love Your precepts; Revive me, O Lord, according to Your lovingkindness.
160 The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.
This passage begins in /affliction/ (v.
153) and ends with /affection/ (v.
159 “I love Your precepts”) and praise for God’s truth (v.
160).
Our affections of love, delight, and joy and praise to God are not /inconsistent with/ affliction; they can be /increased in/ affliction.
Paul said in 2 Corinthians 7:4 “I am filled with comfort; *I am overflowing with joy in all our affliction.”*
 
2 Corinthians 8:1-2 (ESV) 1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for *in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy* and their extreme poverty have *overflowed in a wealth of generosity* on their part.
1 Thessalonians 1:6 (ESV) 6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for *you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit*
 
It is not only /possible/ to receive, love and delight in God’s Word with joy during affliction … Psalm 119 argues that it’s /essential:/
 
92 If Your law had not been my delight, Then I would have perished in my affliction.
You may have noticed when I read our passage earlier he prayed 3x “revive me ~/ give me life according to Your Word.”
In v. 50 and others we see God’s Word was the instrument God used to answer that prayer through affliction, which also brought great comfort.
50 This is my comfort *in my affliction*, That *Your word has revived me.*
 
‘Luther noticed in Psalm 119 that the psalmist not only prayed and meditated over the Word of God in order to understand it; he also suffered in order to understand it.
Psalm 119:67, 71 says, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.…
It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.”
An indispensable key to understanding the Scriptures is suffering in the path of righteousness.
Thus Luther said : “I want you to know how to study … in the right way.
I have practiced this method myself … three rules.
They are frequently proposed throughout Psalm [119] and run thus: /oratio, meditatio, tentatio /[prayer ~/ supplication, meditation, and tribulation, or affliction, which] he called the “touchstone.”
“[These rules] teach you not only to know and understand, but also to experience how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, how comforting God’s word is: it is wisdom supreme.”
He proved the value of trials over and over again in his own experience.
“For as soon as God’s Word becomes known through you,” he says, “the devil will afflict you … [and for a believer, Luther said this] will teach you by his temptations to seek and to love God’s Word.
For I myself … owe my [Catholic persecutors] many thanks for so beating, pressing, and frightening me through the devil’s raging that they have turned me into a fairly good theologian, driving me to a goal I should never have reached.”
Suffering was woven into life for Luther.
Keep in mind that from 1521 on, Luther lived under the ban of the empire.
Emperor Charles V said, “I have decided to mobilize everything against Luther: my kingdoms and dominions, my friends, my body, my blood and my soul.”
[At any time Luther] could be legally killed, except where he was protected by his prince, Frederick of Saxony.
He endured relentless slander of the most cruel kind … Physically he suffered from excruciating kidney stones and headaches, with buzzing in his ears and ear infections and incapacitating [conditions] … emotionally and spiritually he would undergo the most horrible struggles … These were the trials that he said made him a theologian… trial, the thorn in the flesh, is Satan’s unwitting contribution to our becoming good [men of God].’[2]
John Piper writes: ‘The stresses of life, the interruptions, the disappointments, the conflicts, the physical ailments, the losses—all of these may well be the very lens through which we see the meaning of God’s Word as never before.
Paradoxically, the pain of life may open us to the Word that becomes the pathway to joy … use the Word of God to fight for joy.’[3]
What a wonderful Savior!
I certainly have not had to face the afflictions of Luther or the man who wrote Psalm 119, or even the afflictions some of you in this room have faced or are facing right now.
My greatest afflictions are undoubtedly future, but the timeless truths of this text should encourage us all and equip us all.
The /emotions/ we see at the start of our passage are by the end of the passage overpowered by his /exultation/ in God’s Word.
His afflictions were not only overcome by his affections, afflictions actually increased his affections for God and His Word.
And they can do the same for us as well.
Let’s consider Luther’s 3 rules for Bible Study for our outline:
#.
Supplication – What he prayed for
#.
Meditation – Dwelling on God more than his afflicters
#.
Tribulation~/Affliction –How he was changed as he prayed
 
*1.
SUPPLICATION - WHAT HE PRAYED FOR*
 
This past Tuesday we had the privilege to hear the wonderful Moody Symphonic band, and they had a beautiful and big harp.
This musician who wrote this Psalm to be sung (whether David the harpist or not), however, begins this stanza on a note different than the uplifting crescendos of the orchestra, as one put it, in Ps. 119 “We find the singer once more tuning his harp to a minor key.”[4]
Verse 153 begins the distraught cries for help, five rapid fire imperatives in the first 2 verses, pressing the writer’s sense of urgency.
This stanza is the /Resh /stanza, meaning each verse in the Hebrew begins with that letter (equivalent to English “R”).
/Regard me/ (v.
153a, “Look”)
/Rescue/ /me /(v.
153b)
/Represent me/ (v.
154a, “Plead my cause”)
/Redeem me/ (v.
154a)
/Revive me/ (v.
154b)
             
*/Regard me/** (v.
153a, “Look”) *
153 Look upon my affliction and rescue me, For I do not forget Your law.
LOOK – in Hebrew could have a general or more special focus.
Turn to Genesis 22, where we have a theologically significant use of this root word.
When our Psalm prays for God to “look upon,” the Hebrew phrase for “look” has been correctly described as having ‘more in mind than a request for God to glance casually upon him … [he] was likely recalling the rich historical testimony of the LORD who had often looked intensely upon the troubles of His people /so as to intervene and care for them … /For example, in Genesis 22 … in verse 8 [Abraham] told Isaac literally “God will see” [same Heb.
Word] i.e.
He will /take care of /the matter of the sacrificial means.
After the substitute for Isaac’s life had been mercifully provided by the LORD, it is noted that Abraham called /YHWH yireh /[or Jehovah Jireh – same Heb.
Root for “see”], “the LORD provides,” i.e.
He quite characteristically /looks upon to care for /His people in their plight.’[5]
What a wonderful Savior is Jesus our Lord!
Exodus 3 also shows how this word is used in another theological, rich passage.
Our text in Psalm 119 prays “Look upon my affliction” and the words for “look” and “affliction” also appear in Exodus 3:
 
Exodus 3:2-17 (NASB95) 2 The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and *he looked [same Heb.
Word]*, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.
3 So Moses said, “I must turn aside now *and see [same Heb.
word]* this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord *saw* *[same Heb.
word]*that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!”
And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then He said, “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
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