Sermon Tone Analysis

*God’s Righteous Word and the Right Response of our Emotions (Ps 119:137-144)*

/Preached by Pastor Phil Layton at Gold Country Baptist Church on March 1, 2009/

www.goldcountrybaptist.org

I hope you realize and appreciate the treasure you have in your hand, and the tremendous privilege it is to be able to own a complete copy of the Bible in your own language in your own house – something no one in Bible times was able to do, and something hardly anyone was able to do for about 95% of human history.

What a precious privilege we have!

In John MacArthur’s book /Sufficiency in Christ/ he writes of his love for old Bibles from history:

‘my favorite is a Bible from sixteenth-century England, one of the earliest printed copies of God’s Word.

The top third of this Bible is covered with the blood of its original owner.

My friend let me hold it in my hands, and tears came to my eyes as I leafed through it.

How did blood get on the pages of that Bible?

When Bloody Mary ruled England, she terrorized Protestants, murdering as many as she could.

Her soldiers would spill the person’s blood, then take his Bible and dip it deep into the blood.

A few of those Bibles have been preserved and are known as Martyrs’ Bibles.

Scientists have tested the paper and confirmed that the dark stains on every page of my friend’s Bible are human blood.

I examined that Bible carefully, page by page.

I could see where it was well worn from being studied.

There are water stains, as if from tears, and places where a thumb had frayed favorite pages.

This was someone’s most valuable possession, and his or her blood is there to prove it.

In sad contrast, [modern Christians treat Scripture so lightly and] take their Bibles for granted, forgetting that many have given their lives just to own one copy.

If the church today placed as high a value on God’s Word as those martyrs did, perhaps there would not be so many people running off to experts in human theory … Scripture hasn’t failed them—they’ve failed Scripture … Their sinful neglect inevitably bears the fruit of doctrinal confusion and spiritual impotence.

Because they never disciplined themselves to live according to biblical principles, they’re now abandoning Scripture for worldly alternatives.

They turn to psychoanalysis to solve their problems, to science to explain the origin of life, to philosophy to explain the meaning of life, and to sociology to explain why they sin.

Churches, schools, and seminaries have thus made themselves vulnerable to the influence of such teachings.

… Your spiritual health depends on placing the utmost value on the Word of God and obeying it with an eager heart.

If you think you can find answers to your spiritual problems through human counsel or worldly wisdom, you are forfeiting the most valuable and only reliable source of answers to the human dilemma.

Don’t relinquish the sweet, satisfying riches of God’s Word for the bitter[ness] of this world’s folly.’[1]

We believe God’s Word is truly and totally sufficient (all we need) not only for salvation, but for our spiritual life and godliness.

It’s one thing to say that, but do we act like we believe that?

If someone found /your Bible/ years from now, would they be able to tell how much you loved and read it and how dearly treasured it was to you?

What about those who observe you and me now?

Do we live like we believe what 2 Peter 1:4 says, that there are “precious and magnificent promises” in this book?

Do our hearts resonate with what we read in Psalm 119, or does what we read sound foreign?

Do we treasure it in our heart so we might not sin?

Notice the language of great emotion for this great Book (v.

139 “zeal,” v. 140b “love,” v. 143 “anguish …delight,” v. 144b “life”).

I also want you to notice why Scripture is so great in His affections – because of the great God of the Word (“right~/righteous” 6x in 8 verses).

Today’s text shows us the righteousness of God’s Word and our right emotional response.

137 *Righteous* are You, O Lord, And *upright* are Your judgments.

138 You have commanded Your testimonies in *righteousness* And exceeding faithfulness.

139 My zeal has consumed me, Because my adversaries have forgotten Your words.

140 Your word is very pure, Therefore Your servant loves it.

141 I am small and despised, /Yet /I do not forget Your precepts.

142 Your *righteousness* is an everlasting *righteousness*, And Your law is truth.

143 Trouble and anguish have come upon me, /Yet /Your commandments are my delight.

144 Your testimonies are *righteous* forever; Give me understanding that I may live.

*CONTEXT*: Ps 119 was written amidst adversity and adversaries (v.

139b); v. 157 explains these persecutors and adversaries were many, and verse 161 explains that his persecutors included princes.

These were not just co-workers who didn’t like his faith, they were kings and rulers who wanted to destroy him, as we saw in earlier verses.

This is the context, in the presence of his enemies, that the table of God’s Word is spread as a feast for his soul, and his cup overflowed with its satisfying goodness and mercy.

Vs. 143 shows he wrote not from an ivory tower, but in the furnace of trouble.

Trouble as we see mentioned in v. 143, and tribulation and trials are normal for God’s people from OT Israelites to the NT church.

Acts 14:21-24 (NASB95) 21 After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and /saying, /“*Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.*” 23 When they had appointed elders for them in every church, having prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

24 They passed through Pisidia and came into Pamphylia.

Whatever your view of end times, you have to affirm that the N.T. does not teach the church or its believers escape all tribulation, even tremendous tribulation – in fact, quite the contrary.

Jesus promised the founders of the early church “/In this world you will have tribulation./

But take heart, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

Paul tells the Thessalonians they are not appointed to /suffer wrath/ in 1 Thessalonians 5 (that’s the distinction), but in chapter 3 he tells them /they have been appointed or destined for affliction/:

 

1 Thessalonians 3:3 “so that no one would be disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this.”

 

2 Timothy 3:12 “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

If you weren’t here last Sunday night you really missed out on an unforgettable testimony from pastor Naha Nayak from India, who shared firsthand of personal persecution: 52 members of his own family have been put to death in recent months by radical Hindu militants.

He also read several statements of Christ to His original disciples promising them this, which comforted him as his brethren have fled for their lives all over India in their deep tribulation.

But if you heard him speak, you could tell he not only had deep anguish in his heart for his people, as v. 143 says, but he had deep love and delight in God’s Word, as verse 143 also says.

92 If Your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.

Martin Luther once said he delighted in Psalm 119 so much, he would not give the whole world in exchange for one of its pages.

Remember Dr. Nikol’s testimony of the one page of her Bible?

One of the advantages of tribulation is it causes us to depend on and delight in God’s Word more.

May we deepen our love today.

141 I am small and despised, /Yet /I do not forget Your precepts.

Notice the word “despised” – his enemies may despise him, but he will not deny God’s Word.

If this is David writing, he may have in mind how small and despised he was in his brother’s eyes when God called him (his family didn’t even have him around when Samuel the prophet came).

David was certainly despised in the eyes of Goliath as a small boy coming with sticks and stones that the giant mocked and looked forward to feeding the little guy to the birds.

David was mocked by his own brethren before, but Saul who was head and shoulders taller than the other Israelites, saw something in David, despite his appearance.

There was a zeal for God’s glory consuming him, and if God is within him and for him, who could be against him?

God’s sovereign choice is intentionally different than our world’s elections and ways of doing things.

 

1 Corinthians 1:26-32  26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the base things of the world and *the despised God has chosen*, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, 29 *so that no man may boast before God*.

30 But *by His doing you are in Christ Jesus …*

 

Isaiah 53 says even our Lord Himself was “despised and rejected of men,” so we’re in good company if the world despises and rejects us for our lowly association with Christ, who came lowly and humbly, riding on a donkey.

Before God we truly are small, but:

 

Isaiah 41:14 “Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel; I will help you,” declares the Lord, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.”

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When God calls the tribe of Israel “you worm,” that’s not a flattering self-image-boosting term in any language.

What could be more small or despised than a worm to most men?

But God tells them “fear not” – and He doesn’t then say, “/you can do it/.”

He says “/I will help you./”

The comfort is not in what a great worm /we are/, but it’s trusting in /what a great God we have/ who promises to help us in grace, and be with us lowly ones, despised by the world.

The Apostle Paul did not mind being small and despised.

He called himself least of the saints, least of the Apostles and not worthy, the lowest of the low -- but … he was a servant of the Most High God.

That is where his significance and purpose was found.

Apart from Christ, we are nothing and can do nothing, but with Him, in Him, we can bear fruit that remains.

If God is for us who can be against?

/Notice in this text the several terms for the righteousness of God’s Word and also several terms for the right emotions we should have in response to God’s Word./

 

*1.

God’s Word is Absolutely Righteous*

137 *Righteous* are You, O Lord, And *upright* are Your judgments.

Another word for “righteous” would be just.

The just and righteous character of God causes all of His judgments and Words that flow out from Him to be consistent with that nature.

God is the absolute standard of what is right and wrong, which is part of what this Heb.

word emphasizes and is part of the reason why our world does not like the righteousness of God but wants to establish its own (Rom.

10:3).

Sinners don’t want the Ten Commandments in public places or courts of law because if God’s moral standard is chiseled in stone in plain sight, they’re condemned before the court is even in session!

They are guilty before God’s Supreme Court.

Ever since the days of Cain in Genesis 4, sinners like Cain have been complaining that they think God is too harsh, that His judgments are more than they can bear.

But the godly say with Abraham in Genesis 18 “shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”