Speaker: Have you ever opened a gift, maybe Christmas or your birthday,
and you've looked at this gift and thought to yourself, "What is it?
And what do I do with it?
And what good is it?"
I remember, uh, my mother-in-law, who likes to buy gifts for us off of
Shark Tank each Christmas just to, to be funny, uh, one year she got
us something called the StopDrop.
And, uh, I, I remember opening it, and it was this black kinda nylon, uh, covered
foam tube with a little slit in it.
And I remember looking at it, and that was one of those moments I
thought to myself, "What is this?
What do I do with it?
And what good is it?"
She explained, uh, it's for your car, and it goes over your seatbelt buckle, and
it, it fills the gap in between the center console and your seat, your driver's seat.
I thought, "Okay, I, I don't know how useful that is, but fine, I'll,
I'll put it there," and I did.
And, and I, I installed it, and I started using it in my car, and I still didn't
really know, well, what good is it?
And then I, then I realized the first time that I dropped my phone
and it didn't go into that crevice where you can't get it because it's
Your, your hands are too big, and you can't get them between the seat, and you
can't reach it, and you have to get a hockey stick or something like that to try
to wedge under there to get the phone out.
Or the first time I dropped some french fries and they didn't go
down to become petrified french fries for future generations to
discover in archeological digs.
Then I realized how good the StopDrop was Some of us might look at the Bible
like I first looked at the StopDrop.
Maybe you're here this morning and you hear messages and sermons like you've
been hearing this summer on Summer in the Word about, "Okay, I'm supposed
to read the Bible, I'm supposed to be in the Bible, I need to take it in,"
but y- you're kinda looking at it the way I first looked at that gift and,
and you're wondering to yourself, "Yeah, but what good does it do?"
Or maybe just, "What does it do at all?"
Or maybe some of you in the room, uh, y- you know theoretically, conceptually,
what the Bible is supposed to do in your life, but you've been in a rut
recently, and you need some reminders of how good God's word is for us.
Well, this morning, no matter where you are on that spectrum, I, I hope and I,
I trust and I pray that our passage is going to encourage you this morning that
the word of God is good and good for us.
The word of God is good and good for us.
Take your Bibles and open up to Psalm 119, and we're gonna begin in verse 49.
We're gonna go down through verse 56 total, but let's just look at
the first four verses together.
Says this, "Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope.
This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.
The insolent utterly deride me, but I do not turn away from your law.
When I think of your rules from of old, I take comfort, O Lord."
I mentioned this last week, but we see again here in these verses
that the psalmist was not writing Psalm 119 from the lap of luxury.
If it was David, then David knew what it was to suffer.
He knew what it was to be afflicted.
He knew what it was to be in turmoil.
Whoever it was, he says very plainly here that he is in affliction.
"This is my comfort in affliction."
He needs comfort.
The insolent are utterly deriding him.
And so sometimes we can come to church and we can be around other Christians,
and we might think, "Well, your life is buttoned up and it looks all nice and, and
neat and clean, so of course you would say that the word of God is working for you."
But the word of God doesn't just work for us when life is good.
The word of God in times works for us even more when life is, is not
going so well, and that's where the psalmist is as we pick up.
He needs comfort.
He's in affliction.
And so what the scriptures do, and one of the first things that we're gonna
see here that the scriptures do for our good, is that the scriptures encourage us
and spur us and propel us to keep going.
Uh, the scriptures come alongside us when we need the boost, when we need
the perspective shift, when we need the reminder of God's faithfulness.
And so as we gather together this morning and asked ourselves the
question, "What good is God's word?"
the first thing that we're gonna see is God's word is good because
point number one, it provides promises that fuel endurance.
God's word is good for you because it provides promises that fuel
endurance, that keep us going.
Remember back in our study of 1 Peter, if you were with us then, I
made the argument that we are not the church on vacation, we are the church
in exile, that we are sojourners.
We are strangers and aliens, as Peter says here.
And so as such, we should expect affliction in this world.
We should expect that we're not gonna be comfortable.
We should expect that we're going to need the fuel of the promises of God
to keep us going, to help us to endure.
See, because we have an enemy who's prowling around like a roaring lion
seeking someone to devour, who wants to do everything he can to discourage you
from being in God's Word, to discourage you from enduring, to discourage you
from your faithfulness, and he's been doing this from the very beginning.
In fact, look at the very beginning of Ge- the, the Bible, Genesis
chapter 3 with me for a second.
It says this: "Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of
the field that the Lord God had made.
And he said to the woman…"
Now, maybe you're not super familiar with the creation account,
but at this point, this is Satan speaking through the serpent.
So the s- the serpent is, uh, Satan has, has possessed the serpent, and the
serpent goes and speaks to the woman.
This is Eve.
And he says to the woman, "Did God actually say?"
So notice right away what the serpent is doing.
He's attacking the Word of God.
He's undermining the Word of God.
He's introducing doubts into God's Word, questioning God's
faithfulness and His goodness.
"Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?'
And the woman, Eve, said to the serpent, 'We may eat of the fruit of the trees
in the garden, but God said, "You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that
is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die."'
But the serpent said to the woman
Notice the contrast.
God said, but the serpent said in verse 4, "You will not surely die.
For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will
be like God, knowing good and evil."
And so notice that you and I have an enemy whose tactic from the very
beginning has been to undermine God's faithfulness, to undermine the Word of
God, to cause you to doubt, to cause you to question, to cause you to wonder,
"God, are you really going to come through on what you said you would do?"
To cause you to say, "God, what did you really mean when you said this?"
To cause you to rationalize even and excuse disobedience, or to cause you
to say, "Do I really need the Bible?"
Or to cause you even, like we talked about last week, to wonder, "Is it even
worth it to keep reading the Bible?
Is it even worth it to keep pursuing the Lord?"
That's what your enemy wants to do.
That's the world in which we live.
That's the reality of being sh- sojourners and strangers and exiles in this world.
And so that's one of the reasons why we need the Word of God to fuel our
endurance, to fuel our endurance.
And what that endurance does for us, what that looks like, what that means is this.
I think there's three things that we see in these verses where we can get
some characteristics of the one who is enduring, and the first is this.
It means standing firm in the promises of God, standing firm in them.
Verse 49: "Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope."
Remember your word to your servant.
The psalmist, uh, calls on God.
I- in fact, it's in a command voice in the Hebrew.
It's an imperative verb.
He's commanding, which sounds uncomfortable, but i- we'll talk
about what he means here in a second, God to remember something.
Now, God is omniscient, which means what?
God knows all things.
God exists outside of time.
He knows the end from the beginning.
If God had a phone, He would have an iPhone, not an Android, by the
way, but if God had a phone, He would not need the Reminders app.
He is God.
He knows all things.
And so as such, what is David or the psalmist or the author, what
is he doing, saying, commanding God to remember His promises?
Well, what he's doing is, is he's not implying that God might
have forgotten, but he's simply cashing in the promises of God.
He's saying, "God, I know that you have said these things, and I'm laying
them before you because I need to know that you are faithful, and I need
to remember that you are faithful.
So God, please remember things like the fact that you are working
all things together for my good because your word tells me you are.
Please remember, God, that you are the God that's gonna wipe away
every tear from my eyes because right now I'm weeping a lot of them.
Please remember, God, that you are the God who knows the beginning
from the end because right now I have questions, and I can't see
the end from where I'm standing."
And so the psalmist is calling on God, uh, uh, to, to remember these
things, and he says, "These promises in which you have made me hope.
Remember your word that you have given to your servant in
which you have made me hope."
The word hope there is the same word in the Hebrew for the word wait.
I-I-- In which I'm waiting on you, God.
Remember the things that I'm waiting for you to, to fulfill.
And then he says in verse fifty, "This is my comfort in my affliction,
that your promise gives me life."
This is what comforts my soul, that your promise gives me life.
You-your promise revives my soul.
It awakens me.
It enlivens me.
Psalm nineteen says that, "The word of God revives the soul."
So that you might be in the valley of the shadow of death, but the word of God is
gonna give you the light of life as you're there because it's gonna remind you of
the promises of God, that God is faithful, so you can stand firm in the promises.
So when you are there and you sense the enemy is coming alongside to try
to undermine your confidence in God.
Did God really say that He would work all things together for your good?
Did God really…
Do you think God really cares about where you are right now?
Do you think God cares about your struggle?
Do you think God really cares about this?
You need to preach the promises of God to your soul in those moments.
You need to go back to, like, Romans eight, when I talked about that last week,
that there's nothing that can separate you from the love of God under Christ Jesus.
You need to preach that to your soul.
You need to go to Ephesians one and preach to your soul that you have been
sealed with the promised Holy Spirit as a guarantee of your inheritance, and
that nothing can take you away from that.
You need to preach to your soul, First Peter, chapter one, that you
have been born again to a living hope that is imperishable and undefiled
and unfading, that's being kept in heaven for you who are being guarded
by God's power for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
You need to preach to your soul, Revelation twenty-one, that as you
cry tears now, one day God is gonna wipe away all tears from your eyes.
And you need to stand firm in those promises and say, "God, I'm, I'm
immovable because You are faithful.
You are faithful.
You've promised You will, and I trust You will."
So endurance means standing firm in the promises of God.
Endurance also means, though, not being thrown by the world's opposition.
I, I mentioned it a second ago, y- you should expect it.
You should expect the opposition of the world.
L- look at verse 51.
He says this, "The insolent," the rude, the haughty, the prideful,
the wicked, "they utterly deride me.
They greatly mock, they disparage me.
But I do not turn away from your law."
The insolent utterly deride.
They greatly mock me.
I've been watching a lot of World Cup soccer recently, and there's
something that happens in the second half of a soccer game
specifically with a team in the lead.
And that is that if one of the opposing players gets within breathing distance
of them, they'll fall down, and they'll grab something on their leg, and they'll
roll around on the ground, right?
A- and they, they, uh…
Or worse, the goalie will…
A ball will roll up slower than a toddler could kick it, and the bully-
goalie will pick it up, and then he'll fall down on the ground like
he just had to make a diving save.
And we all know what they're doing.
Everybody knows what they're doing.
They're killing time.
They're trying to delay to get the clock to run out so that the match
ends, and they can emerge victorious, and it is the most annoying thing
on the face of the planet, right?
But what happens when, when the opposing fans see a team doing that?
What do they do?
They boo, right?
Or the Europeans whistle.
Americans, we give a good throaty boo, and it's so much better to dis- to
express our displeasure than the whistle.
Whatever.
That's neither here nor there.
But they boo.
You know what I've never seen?
I've never seen a soccer team affected by the boos of the opposition so
that they go, "You know what, guys?
We are s- hold on.
C- ref, can we call time out here?
We are so sorry we've been dishonest.
We are so sorry that we've been acting like sissies, rolling around and
holding our shins 'cause we got a little boo-boo when he kicked me in the leg.
We are so sorry that we have been flopping on the ground.
W- we're gonna stop.
We're gonna run after every ball that's kicked out of bounds as fast
as we possibly can, full speed.
We're gonna make sure that, that we get the ball back in play
because you booed us, and that was shocking, and we did not expect that.
And so we don't want you to be against us, so we're gonna change
everything about what we're doing."
Never seen a soccer team do that.
In fact, I've seen them just be more sissy about things after that Y'all, we
need to expect the boos of the world.
We need to expect the fact that they're not gonna get what we're doing here.
We need to expect the whistles of the Europeans.
We need to expect that they're gonna look at your view of
marriage and say, "What are you thinking, you narrow-minded bigot?"
We need to expect that they're gonna look at our view of human sexuality
and think y- you're intolerant and unloving and cruel and harsh.
We're gonna have to expect that they're gonna look at us and say, "Why don't
you use the same profanity that I use?
Are you better than me?"
We need to expect that our coworkers or our neighbors or our friends,
quote-unquote, are gonna stop inviting us to things because they
won't wanna be around us anymore.
We need to expect that your friends are gonna think to themselves, "Why wouldn't
you put your kid on the travel ball team?
Because you just want them to be there on a Wednesday night for adventure club?
W- w- why wouldn't you go to, to the travel tournaments on the weekends?
Because you think it's important to be at church?
What are you thinking?"
We need to expect the opposition of the world.
And expecting it, when we encounter it, we can't be thrown by it.
We need to keep going.
We need to keep pressing on.
He says, "But I do not turn away from your law."
The, the mocking is gonna come, the derision is gonna come, the
disparaging is gonna come, and yet we need to say w- we're ready for
that because we expect it and it's not gonna throw us from our mission.
So we're gonna keep going.
And so maybe you think about the, the family that's next door to you that
you've invited to VBS for the last four years and they haven't come.
Don't give up.
Or maybe you think about the neighbors across the street and you've been
trying to get to know them and, and they're one of those families that
they pull into their driveway and the garage door closes as soon as
their car gets into the, the house.
Don't give up.
Don't, don't stop pursuing.
Or maybe it's your spouse who's been an unbeliever for the last…
Y- you, you got saved two decades ago, and you've been living with somebody
for 20 years who doesn't follow Christ and has drained you, and you've shared
the gospel, and they've still resisted.
Don't give up.
The, the worst thing that could happen to us as a church, y'all, is for us
to look around our community and think to ourselves, "They just don't really
like Jesus, so why don't we just hang out together since we all like Jesus?
Why don't we just become a holy huddle?
Why don't we just get inwardly focused here?
Why don't we just become our, our, our Christian clique, our sanctified sect,
and just hang out together and let the world be the world a- and, and we'll just
ride this out until Jesus comes back?"
Y'all, that would be the worst thing that could possibly happen to us as a church.
We are here to be a lampstand.
We're here to be a light.
We're not here to be comfortable.
We're, we're here to be on mission.
We're here to reach the neighbors.
We're here to reach the people that don't look like us and worship at a
temple instead of worshiping at a church.
That's why God has us here, and as we try to pursue them, they are
going to oppose what we stand for.
We shouldn't be shocked by that, but instead we need to stay faithful.
We don't need to turn away from the mission that God
has given us and what we do.
So endurance means not being thrown by the world's opposition.
But third, what does endurance mean?
It means this, it means being comforted by God's proven track record.
And so the first part of endurance is looking forward, saying, "God, I'm
gonna keep going because you've got promises that you're going to fulfill."
Standing firm in the promises of God.
A-and then the second part of endurance looks like saying, "You know what?
The world's gonna oppose me as I'm doing that, and yet I'm
not gonna be thrown by that.
I'm gonna keep going."
And this third one is the balm to the soul as we stand firm, as we keep going,
and that is to be comforted by the promises of God's Word, comforted by
the, the, the proven track record of God.
He says that … He says in verse 52, "When I think of your rules
of old, I take comfort, O Lord.
When I think of your rules of old…"
So he's looking backwards, and for the psalmist, he's looking back probably
to the Abrahamic Covenant and the blessings, the promises to Abraham and
Sarah of the birth of Isaac, the promises that went through the forefathers,
the inhabiting of the Promised Land.
And he's looking back at those things saying, "God, you were
faithful then, and you'll be faithful now, and that comforts me."
We have the benefit and the blessing of being able to look back not just to the
Abrahamic Covenant but also to all of the different promises that God has fulfilled.
Just think about some of the Messianic promises that were fulfilled
in Christ at His first coming.
Depending on your source, there's anywhere from 57 to s- I, I saw one source said
there were over 300 different Messianic allusions or prophecies that you could
trace to the first coming of Jesus.
Things like He was born of a virgin, Isaiah chapter 7.
Or He was born in Bethlehem Ephrathah, a town too small to be numbered among
the, the, the tribes, Micah 5:2.
Or that He was born of the line of David in 2 Samuel chapter 7.
Or that He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our
iniquities in Isaiah chapter 53.
So we can go to the Word of God and say, "God, you have fulfilled your promises
time and time and time again, a-and, and so I'm gonna take great comfort in that."
But then we can even go beyond that and, and not just look to the
scriptures, but look to your own life.
Every single one of us in this room who named Christ as our Savior have a
testimony to add and layers to add to saying, "God, you've been faithful in
my life in the past in so many ways.
You came through and provided a child.
You came through and restored my marriage.
You came through and, and, and provided for our, our financial needs.
God, y-you have been so good to me in the past."
And so when I consider your rules of old, I take comfort, O Lord.
Endurance means being comforted by God's proven track record.
If He was faithful then, He's gonna be faithful to you still, and He will
be faithful to you in the future, 'cause He's a God who is unchanging.
The point is we can look to the scriptures and we can find that comfort.
We can find that encouragement to endure.
And the enemy all along is gonna be trying to get you off the Word.
He's gonna be trying to undermine the Word, trying to question the Word of God.
Don't let him do it.
Hold fast to the scriptures.
Endure.
Hold fast to the promises that fuel endurance.
But I wanna, uh, talk now about w-what do I do with the opposition, though?
Uh, what do we do about the wickedness that we see so
prevalent in the world around us?
The Word of God is good because it fuels our endurance, but the Word of God also
is good because it helps us begin to understand and frame our understanding
of the wickedness in this world.
Look at verse 53.
He says this, he says, "Hot indignation seizes me because of
the wicked who forsake your law.
Hot indignation seizes me because of the wicked who forsake your law."
I wanna talk about something just briefly.
I don't have time to do it full justice, but from a high level here, there's a,
an argument for the existence of God in apologetics that's called the moral
argument for the existence of God, and the moral argument for the existence of God,
in summary, says this: there are moral right and wrongs that exist that transcend
culture, transcend time, transcend race, transcend religion, transcend people.
A- and at the end of the day, we have to be able to point to something
that explains why that's there.
A- and really, you need a source that transcends all of that.
You need a source outside of that which has been created to be able to
provide the standard that is written on the hearts of all human beings that
says this is right and this is wrong.
In a naturalistic worldview, that is, a worldview that eliminates God from
the equation, a worldview that says that, that there is no God, they…
That worldview cannot explain the existence of these universal morals.
Case in point, let's just take the main precept of Darwinian
evolution, which is survival of what?
The fittest.
There's no morality in that.
A Darwinian evolutionist can't argue morals, because if I tell you, "Yes,
but this puts me above you, and this is about my survival over your
survival," then I'm following the, the worldview of a Darwinian evolutionist.
You have to have something that exists outside to be able to f- provide a
moral standard that's gonna transcend all time, space, and culture.
And so with that in view, and again, that's a, a, a very truncated view
there of the, the moral argument for the existence of God, I see
that principle here in Psalm 119:53.
Because what Psalm 119:53 does, for us as believers at least, is it provides
a framework for us to understand the wickedness and the evil and the
opposition of the world that we're gonna encounter as we navigate this life.
The Word of God is good.
It's good because it provides promises that fuel endurance, and
second, it's good because it provides a framework to respond to evil.
It provides a framework to respond to evil
If I reject God, I don't really have a leg to stand on to object to evil.
Because again, if I go back to the very principle of naturalistic evolution,
it is survival of the fittest.
And so to appeal to something as right and wrong, I have to
be able to appeal to someone who established what is right and wrong
You've probably felt it before.
As a believer, I would be sure that you've felt it before.
A, a rising anger in the face of someone who is openly defying God and His Word.
A, a, a simmering indignation over somebody who's flaunting
their disobedience, who's boasting in their insolence.
And maybe you've wondered, is there a permissible category for that?
I believe Psalm 119:53 tells us that there is.
He says here, "Hot indignation seizes me."
The, the phrase, the two words there, "hot indignation," it, it's from a word in the
Hebrew that means a, a burning, blowing wind, and it was used metaphorically
to refer to rage and fury in a person
That's a little odd to, to think about, that we should feel a, a rage and a
fury about something as, as Christians.
But notice there's a, a cause and effect relationship here.
The psalmist is seized by hot indignation.
He's not taking it up.
He's not saying, "I'm choosing hot indignation."
There's a, a cause and effect relationship.
It happens to him, it seizes him because of the wicked who forsake your law.
Because of the wicked.
In the, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it's a word for sinners there.
Because of the sinners who forsake your law, they reject your law, they set
it aside, they cast it behind them.
They openly defy you.
And when I see that, the cause, their rebellion, it produces the
result in me, the effect in me of this hot indignation that I have.
Which again, for us as Christians makes sense because we appeal to a
holy God who's established through his law what is right and what is wrong.
And so we see what is wrong, and then the response in us is to be
offended for God, to have a, a holy and a righteous indignation.
That's the natural response that we should feel towards sin.
In fact, let me go further.
Our love for the Lord and our love for his Word, it eliminates the possibility
for us as Christians that we should see sin and feel nothing about it
And it certainly eliminates the possibility that we should see
sin and want to fellowship with those who are openly defying God.
I just wanna read a few verses from the scriptures that speak to the contrast
that exists between those that are of the Lord and those that are of the world.
Psalm 1:1, we've referenced it a few times in this series, "Blessed is the
man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers."
Psalm 97:10, "O you who love the Lord, hate evil."
O you who love the Lord, hate evil.
Proverbs 4:18-19, "But the path of the righteous is like the light
of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until the full day.
The way of the wicked is like a deep darkness; they do not
know over what they stumble."
The righteous, their path is like the light.
The path of the wicked is like the darkness.
Th- this is something that John picks up on in John 3:19-21.
Says, "This is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and the people
love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the
light, lest his works should be exposed.
But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that
his works have been carried out in God."
Light and darkness.
2 Corinthians 6:14-15, "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?
What fellowship has light with darkness?
What accord has Christ with Belial?
Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?"
You can just jot down for yourself Ephesians 5:8-11, 1 John 1:5-7,
more passages talking about the contrast between light and darkness.
But all of this goes back to the fact that if we are in Christ and
the Spirit dwells within us, there needs to be a response to sin.
There needs to be a response to rebelliousness.
There needs to be a, a hot indignation, a righteous anger that arises within
us when we see God's Word openly defied
There's a sense in which it's not only appropriate for us to have this visceral
reaction to sin, but it's a mark of our faith that we should respond this way.
And so when you see the world flaunt the perversion of God's design
for marriage, it should inspire in you a righteous indignation.
When you see the world defy God's created design for human sexuality,
it should create in you a, a revulsion that is in a righteous indignation
When you see evil in the world, despotic regimes, terroristic regimes, it should
create in you a righteous indignation
When you see people celebrate the murder of the unborn, it should
produce in you a righteous indignation.
When you see liars and thieves and adulterers and the like, it should
produce in you a righteous indignation
And let me also say, when you see sin in your own life, it should
produce in you a hot indignation
When we see covetousness, greed, lust, anger, sinful anger creeping up in
our own lives, we would do well to be angry in the same way when we see it
in other people's lives because it's rooted to an offense against God.
A-a-and of that, let me just give you two caveats about this righteous
indignation that we should have.
The first is this, it's, it's not a license for sinful anger, right?
And, and that's so important for us as the church to, to, to know.
We should be angry when we see God's law defied, but we also have to remember
that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual
forces at work in this present age
Psalm 4:4 and Ephesians 4:26, they both say, "Be angry and do not sin."
So there is a way for us to be angry and not let it cross over into sin, which
implies there's also a way for us to be angry and to let it cross over into sin.
And so how do I know?
How do I determine?
Well, a good litmus test is, is my anger connected more to a personal
offense or inconvenience, or is it more of an anger that is truly an anger
because God's character is offended, because God's law is being broken?
Is my anger leading me to slander?
Is my anger leading me to divisiveness?
Is my anger leading to a sinfulness in my attitude?
Am I murdering someone in my heart with my thoughts about them?
Well, if I am, then my anger is not a righteous anger
Instead, our anger should be rooted to a deep love for the Lord and for
His Word, that we're angry on God's behalf, that we're incensed because we
know that all sin is an act of cosmic rebellion, a cosmic treason against God.
That we're, we're angry because we know the lengths to which God went in
order to deal with sin by providing a remedy through Jesus Christ, who died
on the cross for our sins, that we would be forgiven, and then rose again
that we would live for Him forever.
But, but the idea that He died on the cross for our sins, and then we
see people openly celebrating sin, that should produce in us a righteous
indignation, which should then lead us and propel us and compel us to pray.
To pray prayers like, "God, break their heart over their sin
God put an end to that institution.
We've been talking about in precatory prayers on the Psalms, uh, in the Psalms
in our daily Bible podcast recently.
To praise things like, "God, I want you to completely obliterate
Planned Par- Parenthood from off the face of the planet.
Shut it down
God, defeat that measure before it becomes law.
God, remove that person from office.
God, end, overthrow that regime
These are prayers that can be expressions of a righteous indignation, but it's
not a license for a sinful anger.
And along those lines, the second caveat is this, it, it doesn't
compete with our love for the lost.
It doesn't compete with our love for the lost.
You can hate the sin of the lost and still pursue them with the gospel.
In fact, that's what we're called to do as believers.
And thank God, because all of us were at one point in time lost.
All of us were at one point in time objects of the wrath of
God, as Ephesians chapter 2 says.
And yet God loved us so much to have somebody come, and even though
they hated our sin, they still loved us to share the gospel with us.
And so when you see these sinful acts that lead you into righteous r- r- indignation
or, or hot indignation or righteous anger, don't let that be an excuse for why you no
longer have to share the gospel with that person or why you can pray that, that that
person just leaves and leaves you alone.
There may be times where your prayer has to be, "God, bring somebody else
in to share the gospel with them 'cause I don't know that I can right now."
But you need to pray, "God, bring somebody else in to share the gospel with them.
God, soften their heart so that they'll come to faith in Jesus."
And so the righteous indignation that we feel doesn't compete
with our love for the lost.
Y'all, when we look to the Word of God, the Word of God uniquely
provides a, a rational reason for the way we feel about sin in the world.
Because we know a holy God who is the holy lawgiver, then we have
a reason to feel incensed when we see sin, when we see evil.
As Christians, we have a, a foundation for that, and God's Word provides the
framework for us to respond to evil.
It's another reason why it's good for us
I could tell you my, my phone is, is good for me in some sense.
It's certainly a, a, an ever-present companion with me.
It, I use it to communicate with my family and, and to communicate with other people
through text and email and phone calls.
I use it, my, my email, my Slack on there, my calendar to keep my
work life organized, and so it's useful to me for that degree.
I, I've got maps apps so that I don't get lost or like Pastor Rob
was preaching about a couple weeks ago, to be able to check traffic.
So it's, it's useful for me.
It's good for me there, and, and I- it's a, a present companion.
I keep it with me on a regular basis for that.
Um, I have a Kindle app on there, so while I'm waiting in line, I can make
progress in a book that I'm reading.
And I've also got some entertainment apps on there, YouTube or, or
Victory+ to watch the Rangers lose to the evil Houston Astros
But it's useful.
It's good.
It's a, it's a good companion, and it, and it is a companion.
I make sure that I have it with me because I, I use it because it's helpful for me.
But as scare quotes, "good" a companion as my phone is,
the Word of God is far better.
The Word of God provides a far better companion for us, and we
see that here in our final section.
Look at verse fifty-four.
It says this.
He says, "Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my sojournings.
I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and keep your law.
This blessing has fallen to me, that I have kept your precepts."
You know, I pray that you would find the Word of God not only to be useful,
but that, that it would really truly as a result of that become your constant
companion in this life as you seek to follow Christ faithfully, that you would
see that the Word of God is good for that.
What we're gonna see finally in this last section is this: the Word of God
is good, third, because it provides a c- companion for navigating life.
It provides a companion for navigating life.
Companionship is, is something that, that is, is innate to humanity.
We long for it.
Uh, we, we desire it.
Um, they have things out there to, to kinda fake companionship
if, if I can put it that way.
They've got robotic dogs that are out there that…
or, or pets that you can have and, and it scratches an itch of companionship.
Or recently, Pastor Rod sent us o- on the staff channel this week a, a YouTube
video of the update to Slack's voice recognition situation where it can carry
on a conversation with you and even interrupt you if you weren't interrupted
enough by other people in life.
Now AI will interrupt you.
Um, you don't have to, to even do anything to, to thank it for doing that.
But what was fascinating i- is this, the, this three people that they had on this
YouTube video to talk about the new voice features on ChatGPT were these three
elderly women, and they were t- they were talking to this as though it was a friend.
And, and ChatGPT was talking back to them, and it was meant to be like,
"It's less like talking to a machine.
It's more like talking to a real person."
In fact, the hook line is this.
Their hook is, "A new generation of voice models for natural human-AI interaction."
What does A stand for in AI?
Artificial.
What is artificial not?
Natural.
Okay.
Listen, y'all, we're being fleeced, okay?
Let me read the tagline again.
"A new generation of voice models for natural human artificial
intelligence interactions."
But that's how deep our desire for companionship runs that we're even
looking for it in the artificial.
A- and let's not just blame the AI generation.
This started, for all my 1980s kids, back with My Buddy and Kid Sister.
Anybody old enough to claim knowledge of those things?
You don't need real friends.
Just carry this stuffed friend around.
My Buddy, My Bu- Kid Sister, Kid Sister and me.
The jingle, we'll get to jingles here in just a second.
Anyways, companionship is something that we long for as human
beings, and it's not a bad thing.
In fact, what did God say when he created Adam?
He said, "It's not good that man be alone."
So we've been created to have a companionship.
A- and as Christians, we can rejoice in the companionship of a spouse or kids
or family or friends, but there's a companionship that we all need that's
even greater than any of those are, and that's a companionship with the
Word of God because the Word of God is our tether to the God of the Word.
This is what we talked about last Sunday if you were with us.
The Word of God is our conduit to our relationship with God, and that
is the companionship that we need more than any other companionship
on the face of this planet.
The Word of God, as the writer of Hebrews says, is not inanimate, but it is living.
It is living, and it is active, and so there's a dynamic relationship
that we can have with God's Word.
And so there's three expressions of our companionship with the Word that
I wanna end with this morning, and the first is this: The Word of God
should come with us throughout the day.
If the Word of God is our companion, then it should come with us everywhere we go
Verse 54, it says, "Your statutes have been my songs in
the house of my sojournings."
And so Da- if this is David, then, then he might have been thinking
about running from Saul or, or running from Absalom, and as he's
going around, he says, "Your statutes have been with me the whole time."
And for David, it was in the form of songs.
I think that's informative for us.
God has created us to be musical creatures.
I, I have never, and still, and I threw this out first service and nobody came
and, and said any different, I've heard a lot of people say, "I don't like that
music or that music or that music," but I don't know that I've ever run into
anyone who said, "I don't like any music."
There's something innate within us, I think just like the desire
for companionship, that likes music, and God has designed us
to be able to hold onto music.
I mentioned the Kids Sister My Buddy jingle, which might still be there.
Uh, for any of you locals here, how about call 267-8433?
Because the next best thing to new is Dalworth Clean.
Thank you.
Bless you for coming through on that.
First service, there were a few more that got that, but Dalworth Clean.
I remember watching that jingle, that commercial growing up as,
as a young boy here in this area.
Or there's the Cars for Kids jingle that, that's around out
there, or, you know, whatever.
Zest Fully Clean.
You're not fully clean unless you're Zest Fully Clean.
Or you get in the car and, and whatever possesses you, and sometimes
I, I'm possessed by the, the spirit of adventure, so I surf the radio.
You know, that old thing that used to be in, in the car that it was
all we had when we were driving around for a period of time.
And so I'll just channel surf, and sometimes I'll land on a
song, and I haven't heard that song for 20 years, 30 years now.
And, and yet the w- the lyrics just, they just come straight back and straight out.
Because music is a unique device that God has given us to remember things.
And so David says, "Your statutes have been my song throughout my sojournings."
Y'all, it is good for us if we wanna bring God's Word with us throughout the day to
have the Word of God in the songs of God's people be part and parcel of our life.
That's one of the reasons why we do worship on a Sunday morning.
That's one of the reasons why Pastor Rod spends time thinking about the
songs that we sing, because we want to have good, sound theology and
doctrine that's coursing through your mind as you go throughout your day.
In fact, we talked about being fueled by the promises of God.
We sang right before the sermon, He Will Hold Me Fast.
Man, I pray that that is an earworm that gets stuck in your head all
week long, that you can't get it out.
You're welcome.
Because why?
Because that's such a good thing to be dwelling on.
Or think about some of the great hymns of old.
It Is Well With My Soul, Horatio Spafford wrote that as the ship that he was
sailing on came to the very spot he had sent his wife and his children ahead
of him, and that boat was shipwrecked, and he lost his wife and his children.
And as he was crossing over the ocean after them, when that boat got to that
spot where his wife and his children perished, the, the captain told him,
and he wrote the words, "When peace like a river attendeth my way."
Where does peace like a river come from?
It comes from Philippians chapter four.
There's a peace of God that surpasses understanding that guards your hearts
and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Or when we sing a song like Great Is Thy Faithfulness, morning
by morning new mercies I see.
Where do we f- find that?
Lamentations chapter three.
His mercies are new every morning.
Great Is Thy Faithfulness.
And so to get the Word of God through the songs of God's people in our
minds throughout the day is one of the best ways for us to bring it with
us throughout the day, and so that's where this comes from when David says,
"Your songs have been my companion.
Your songs have been with me throughout my sojourning.
Your statutes have been my songs."
Y'all, let the Word of God be your songs this week.
There's some good bands out there, the Getty, CityAlight.
Let me recommend one maybe you haven't heard of, Still Creek.
Still Creek.
You can find them on Spotify.
They're actually taking right now Psalm 119 and they're putting an
anthology together where they're putting the words of Psalm 119
to more modern-sounding music.
It's a great band.
Love them.
Moms, if you're at home with young ones, a great resource
for you, Seeds Family Worship.
Bluey is, is fine and I appreciate the, the, the whole stance of Bluey and that
you can watch it and as a Christian be like, "Yeah, this is great," but
there are better things than Bluey to have in the background of your day.
Seeds Family Worship is great, takes the scripture and puts it to music that
your kids will engage with as well.
And so let's get the Word of God in us.
Let's bring it with us throughout our day.
Music is a great way to do that.
Second, though, another expression of companionship with the Word of God is
that we are intentional to store it up.
We're intentional to store it up.
The psalmist says, "I remember your name in the night, O Lord, and keep your law."
Th- th- the nighttime in this context is he's talking about affliction, and
he's talking about needing comfort.
The nighttime would've been indicative of times where he would've questioned, where
he would've battled anxiety and fear.
There's an old saying, "The nighttime is not the right time," and a, a
lot of us can resonate with that.
We understand what it is to, to struggle at, at night with fears and anxieties
and what-ifs, and yet the psalmist is saying the Word of God being a
companion for you then and there to remind you of the truths of God's
Word, to say, "I remember your name in the night, O Lord, to keep your law."
The Word of God being that companion, the truth of God to
combat the lies of the enemy.
But that's gonna take storing it up.
If it's gonna be ready for you when you need it as the anxieties and the fears
come, you have to have it within you.
And so to be intentional about storing it up, to use the Bible memory apps,
to use the index cards on the mirrors, to put it as a desktop background on a
computer, to put it as the background on your phone, to set alarms or
reminders on your phone to remember the Word of God throughout the day.
Store it up.
Treasure it up, and you will find the blessing that it is so useful for you.
Because those moments where you are tempted to fear, those moments where
you are tempted to doubt, God's Word is gonna be there to help combat those lies.
So companionship with the Word looks like being intentional to store the Word up.
And then finally, companionship with the Word looks like showing
it through our obedience.
This is what he means when he says, "I, I keep your law."
Or in the very next verse, verse 56, "The blessing has fallen to me
that I have kept your precepts."
We can't claim to be a, a companion of the Word of God if we are also not taking the
Word of God and putting it into practice.
This is what the Word of God is for.
In fact, in James chapter 1, James puts it this way.
He says, "Therefore," verse 21, "put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness
and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks
intently at his natural face in a mirror.
For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.
But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres,
being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."
Look back at verse 56, "This blessing has fallen to me that
I have kept your precepts."
I've done your word.
And so to be a companion of the Word of God is to take the Word of God and to
live it out, to apply it, and that's gonna happen as the Spirit of God w- within
us works to make us more like Christ.
And so the Word of God is, is, is useful for us.
It's good for us.
It's a good companion for us to help navigate this life, and that
companionship means it's gonna stay with me throughout my day.
It's gonna be something that I am intentional to store up in my
life, in my heart, and it's gonna show up in how I live my life.
It's gonna change my life.
God's Word is far better than my iPhone is.
I have God's Word on my iPhone, but God's Word is, is so good.
Think about it this way.
Talk to a Christian and, and ask them, "If you were on a, a desert
island, what are three things that you would want on that island?"
I have never heard somebody say, "My iPhone."
I've heard a lot of people say, "My Bible."
I want my Bible because there's that companionship between us and God that
comes through our time in the Word.
The Word is good and good for us.
It's good and good for us.
So the call to read it and meditate and, and, and memorize it, as we've
been pushing a lot this summer, and unapologetically, i- i- it's
not just do it because it's your duty, but it's do it and find
delight because there's good in it.
It's useful for you.
And just like I started, th- there may be some here this morning who
would say, "Yeah, I, I've just been on the fence with the, the Word of God.
I've been on the fence with Christianity, uh, because I just
don't know what good does it do."
And I, I just pray this morning you've been confronted with at least three things
that have caused you to stop and say, "Oh, yeah, that, that sounds pretty useful."
And there's way more that we could get into
Or maybe you're here this morning and, and you've been in that rut.
You've known conceptually, theologically, doctrinally what the Word of God does,
but you just haven't been experiencing it much recently, and I just pray
this morning that this would've been a good reminder for you that, oh yeah,
the Word of God does these things.
The Word of God is good and good for you
Let's pray
God, we are recipients of the blessing of your Word i- in more ways than any
other generation that has come before us.
We have your Word in a way that, that nobody else has had.
We have it literally at our fingertips through an app that takes up less than
a gig of information on our phone.
The entire revealed Word of God shows up in a tiny app
that's available for us 24/7.
God, I, I pray that we would desire it, and that we would be in
it, and that we would experience the good that comes from it.
Lord God, indeed your Word is good and it is good for us.
It fuels our endurance.
It gives us a framework to think about this world around us, and it
provides a companion that is so good for us as we navigate this life.
We are so grateful and thankful for your Word.
May we spend time in it and reap the blessings of it.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.