WEBVTT 00:00:09.039 --> 00:00:12.480 Psalm 119, verse 57. 00:00:13.119 --> 00:00:15.039 Yahweh is my portion. 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:18.000 I promise to keep your words. 00:00:18.160 --> 00:00:20.160 I entreat your favor with all my heart. 00:00:20.320 --> 00:00:22.559 Be gracious to me according to your promise. 00:00:22.719 --> 00:00:25.760 When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies. 00:00:25.839 --> 00:00:29.440 I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments. 00:00:30.079 --> 00:00:33.520 Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget your law. 00:00:33.679 --> 00:00:37.119 At midnight I rise to praise you because of your righteous rules. 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:42.159 I'm a companion of all who fear you, of those who keep your precepts. 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:47.119 The earth, O Yahweh, is full of your steadfast love. 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:50.399 Teach me your statutes. 00:00:52.159 --> 00:01:07.040 A few months ago I was preaching through 2 Corinthians 7, and I talked at an evening service about Jonathan Edwards and the impact his writing from the 1700s has had on my own life and understanding of God and his word. 00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:14.159 And I was cornered afterwards by some of the college students who asked me a very insightful question. 00:01:14.239 --> 00:01:21.599 They asked me what it is about Jonathan Edwards' life that made him so impactful. 00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:28.239 What was it about him that made him, that gave him such an oversized impact on our worlds? 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:35.599 If you're not familiar with Jonathan Edwards, he was a pastor in Northampton, Massachusetts in the mid-1700s. 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:41.040 Northampton, Massachusetts, now and then is not a very significant town. 00:01:41.120 --> 00:01:42.159 It's a dot on the map. 00:01:42.239 --> 00:01:44.319 It's kind of a college town now. 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:46.560 Back in the 1700s, there was no college there. 00:01:46.640 --> 00:01:50.079 It was in the middle of essentially nowhere. 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:53.840 Edwards grew up there. 00:01:54.000 --> 00:02:24.080 He went to Yale, down in New Haven, Connecticut, where he graduated as valedictorian from Yale when he was 16 years old, gave the valedictorian address in Latin, fell in love with a 13-year-old from New York City, when pastored in New York City until, you know, for several years, until she was old enough to marry, married her, took her back from New York City back to Northampton, where he spent the next few decades pastoring. 00:02:24.400 --> 00:02:33.360 The Great Awakening broke out while he was in Northampton largely through his ministry, through his own preaching, he would travel around and preach at other churches. 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:36.159 He preached gospel messages that led to the Great Awakening. 00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:39.840 1730s, there were not a lot of Christians in the United States. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:43.919 Church attendance had been on the decline for a generation or two. 00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:58.800 But by 1743, in that little three-year period, 1740 to 1743, some historians estimate that at least 10% of Americans had made professions of faith in Christ just in those little three-year periods. 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:00.560 It's called the Great Awakening. 00:03:00.639 --> 00:03:09.199 It had a profound impact in our own country, giving the principles that would ultimately, I think, lead to our own independence, the notion that all men were created equal. 00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:14.560 You need to firmly believe in a creator for you to fit have the sentence all men were created in any way. 00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:18.719 That's largely owing to the influence of the Great Awakening. 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:26.400 Edwards was fired from his congregation towards the end of the Great Awakening for reasons that I've talked about before. 00:03:26.479 --> 00:03:28.800 But when he was fired, he had all kinds of opportunities. 00:03:28.879 --> 00:03:31.919 He could have gone to pastor in London or to teach at Oxford. 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:33.919 He could have gone back to New York City. 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:36.560 There was even a church in Virginia that offered him a job. 00:03:36.639 --> 00:03:37.680 Can you imagine? 00:03:38.960 --> 00:03:41.360 London, New York City, Virginia. 00:03:42.319 --> 00:04:00.400 And he said no to all of those places and went instead to an Indian tribe that's on the border of what's now the border between Massachusetts and New York and spent seven years with the Indians, learning their language, translating the scriptures into their Indian language. 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:09.199 From there, he finally went down to Princeton to be the president of Princeton, where he was instrumental in the invention of the smallpox vaccine. 00:04:09.360 --> 00:04:16.319 Of course, it was a dose of the smallpox vaccine that ended up killing him when he was 55 years old. 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:22.480 He was a remarkable man and preached easily the most famous sermon ever, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. 00:04:22.639 --> 00:04:29.600 He's been used in our country's history in so many different ways, widely regarded as the most influential theologian and pastor our country has ever had. 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:35.439 And so the question is: what was it about him that made him so influential? 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:38.639 Did he just happen to be at the right place at the right time? 00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:40.000 And the answer is no. 00:04:40.160 --> 00:04:45.519 He was so influential from Northampton and Stockbridge, yeah, with the Indians. 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:57.279 His children went on, many of them to ministry, eight daughters who ended up in the mission field, many of them did, a son that went to be a professor at Princeton, another that went to be a leader in the abolitionist movement. 00:04:57.519 --> 00:04:59.519 I mean, he had an oversized impact. 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:06.399 And it was not because just God's providence, it was not merely because he was in the right place at the right time. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:09.759 You can't attribute it to circumstantial reasons. 00:05:11.519 --> 00:05:21.040 I think the best way to understand the influence and the impact that he was able to wield is to think about him in terms of a devotion to godliness. 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:26.160 He had a single devotion to growing in godliness. 00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:35.120 He took his giftedness, he took his intellectual genius and channeled it towards growing in godliness. 00:05:35.279 --> 00:05:45.120 He continually examined his ways and asked himself, how could he better use his time, his mind, and his physical strength to grow in godliness? 00:05:46.160 --> 00:06:01.279 When he was a teenager, and this is the best way to illustrate this about Edward's life, when he was a teenager, he wrote 70 resolutions to himself, 70 resolutions that would motivate how he would lead his life. 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:04.480 Not one, not two, seventy. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:08.879 The rest of his life he would try to read through them. 00:06:08.959 --> 00:06:13.920 He'd read 10 of them or so every Saturday evening in preparation for the Lord's Day. 00:06:14.000 --> 00:06:16.560 He would try to read all of them every month. 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:21.839 These resolutions captured how he was designing to live his life for God. 00:06:22.079 --> 00:06:22.399 G.A. 00:06:22.639 --> 00:06:28.560 Packer described these resolutions as, quote, God-centered, God-focused, God-intoxicated, and God-entranced. 00:06:29.360 --> 00:06:30.959 You can find these 70 resolutions. 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:31.680 You can Google them. 00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:33.439 Please don't do that now. 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:40.959 Let me share a few of my favorites with you. 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:44.639 The first one, and they almost all of them start with the word resolved. 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:45.360 There's a few that don't. 00:06:45.439 --> 00:06:47.839 We'll look at one of them in a second, but they almost all start with resolved. 00:06:48.000 --> 00:06:48.639 Resolved. 00:06:48.800 --> 00:07:09.439 Number one, that I will do whatever I think to be the most to God's glory and my own good profit and pleasure in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now or never so many myriads of ages hence, resolve to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, and how many and how great soever. 00:07:10.639 --> 00:07:15.759 There's a lot that's in this, but I just want to draw your attention to something in the first phrase here. 00:07:16.079 --> 00:07:20.879 He's resolving to live his life in a way that glorifies God. 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:30.160 But what I want you to note particularly about this is Edwards does not see a distinction between what glorifies God and what is for his own good, profit, and pleasure. 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:32.639 He's not listing different things at the beginning of this. 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:38.560 When he says, I want to do whatever is most to God's glory and to my own good, that's not number two on the list. 00:07:38.720 --> 00:07:41.279 In his mind, that's the same thing. 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:48.800 Whatever is most for God's glory is for his own good and his own pleasure. 00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:52.319 They're not distinct in his thinking. 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:57.439 And that's critical for understanding the way he lived his life. 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:07.439 Number four, resolved never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God. 00:08:09.040 --> 00:08:12.079 Nor be, nor suffer it if I can avoid it. 00:08:12.560 --> 00:08:15.600 We might use the word tolerate instead of the word suffer. 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:18.160 But notice what's behind this resolution. 00:08:18.399 --> 00:08:24.639 He says, I want to not do anything unless I understand how it glorifies God. 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:27.439 And he's not even just active here. 00:08:27.519 --> 00:08:36.240 He says, I resolved not to passively just entertain, not to be in the presence of things that don't glorify the Lord if I can help it. 00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:47.919 Number five, resolved never to lose one moment of time, but improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can. 00:08:49.039 --> 00:08:53.200 Do you understand why I'm reading these to you at the new year? 00:08:54.559 --> 00:09:00.960 Number seven, resolved never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it was the last hour of my life. 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:04.960 Understand he wrote this as a teenager. 00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:13.039 I'm not going to read you all 70 of them, although I would have made my studying easier this week. 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:15.440 Number 52. 00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:26.159 I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live if they were to live their lives over again. 00:09:27.919 --> 00:09:28.799 Resolved. 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:37.519 That I will live just so as I can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age. 00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:44.320 He died in his mid-50s, but wrote this when he was much younger. 00:09:46.320 --> 00:09:49.679 These are staggering resolutions for a teenager to write. 00:09:51.200 --> 00:09:55.519 Again, notice that he wrote them about his own personal conduct. 00:09:56.799 --> 00:10:02.480 Today, you might get somebody who writes 70 resolutions about how other people should live. 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:06.399 70 resolutions about things our country needs to do differently. 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:08.799 Not Edwards. 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:14.639 Seventy ways he was resolved to live his life to the glory of God. 00:10:14.879 --> 00:10:21.279 I do want to draw one main point out of this passage that Edward or out of this these resolutions. 00:10:21.360 --> 00:10:31.120 That Edwards was monumentally used by the Lord because he devoted intentionally his own energy and efforts to growing in godliness. 00:10:32.240 --> 00:10:36.480 Psalm 119 captures this very well, the entirety of Psalm 119. 00:10:36.559 --> 00:10:39.279 Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible. 00:10:40.399 --> 00:10:41.600 It's an acrostic. 00:10:41.840 --> 00:10:48.159 An acrostic is something that goes sequentially through the alphabet, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, all the way through the Hebrew alphabet. 00:10:48.399 --> 00:10:52.159 It is, most acrostics are one line at a time. 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:53.840 22 lines. 00:10:54.320 --> 00:10:55.519 Not this acrostic. 00:10:55.600 --> 00:10:57.919 This acrostic is 22 stanzas. 00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:03.679 Each stanza has its own form, where each stanza goes through a letter of the alphabet. 00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:10.559 So, for example, the psalm begins with the letter A, as the alphabet does, Aleph in Hebrew. 00:11:10.639 --> 00:11:16.480 So verses 1 through 8, each of the first eight verses of the psalm begins with the Hebrew letter A. 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:25.919 The second stanza, bet, each of the eight verses there begins with the Hebrew letter B, bet, and then so forth throughout the entirety of the alphabet. 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:30.080 Why would anybody write a psalm like that or anything like that? 00:11:30.240 --> 00:11:31.600 What's the point of an acrostic? 00:11:31.679 --> 00:11:37.759 And the answer is using an acrostic like this shows you the breadth of what you're writing about. 00:11:37.919 --> 00:11:39.360 It's like Proverbs 31. 00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:40.399 We looked at this a few weeks ago. 00:11:40.559 --> 00:11:51.519 Proverbs 31 is an acrostic showing you that you can harness all of the language and you still don't exhaust the ability to describe the wisdom personified as a woman. 00:11:51.759 --> 00:11:55.679 There's so much to say about her, you can go from A to Z and still have more to say. 00:11:55.840 --> 00:11:59.919 So that's why somebody uses an acrostic to make the point about an abundance. 00:12:01.519 --> 00:12:04.879 Psalm 119 is an acrostic on steroids. 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:12.080 It's not just the 22 letters, it's the 22 letters, eight times each. 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:14.879 This is not subtle. 00:12:15.759 --> 00:12:17.440 This is not some obscure point. 00:12:17.519 --> 00:12:26.080 This is driving home the point that the word of God is the most important thing that God has given the world. 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:30.000 It's the longest chapter in the Bible. 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:38.960 An acrostic, and every verse of this, with like two exceptions, every verse of the entire chapter has some synonym for the word of God in it. 00:12:40.240 --> 00:12:42.000 We saw this in the passage we just read. 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:43.200 Look at verse 57. 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:44.799 Draw your eyes down to verse 57. 00:12:44.960 --> 00:12:59.600 I promise to keep your words, verse 58, promise, verse 59, testimonies, verse 60, commandments, verse 61, law, verse 62, righteous rules, verse 63, your precepts, verse 64, your statutes. 00:12:59.759 --> 00:13:01.200 The whole psalm is like that. 00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:04.720 Over and over and over again, drawing your attention to God's word. 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:08.480 So this is not some subtle point that you have to learn Hebrew to figure out. 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:30.559 It's the longest chapter in the Bible, right in the middle of the Bible, using synonyms for the Word of God over and over and over again, and in an acrostic format to show you you can stretch the Hebrew language, the English language, Swahili, Spanish, whatever, stretch your language to the uttermost ends of it, and you still can't get your arms around how important the Word of God is. 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:42.000 So much of this psalm is a pledge or a resolution or a vow from the psalmist to study the Word of God. 00:13:43.600 --> 00:13:48.320 This is why when I think about Edwards, my mind goes to the psalm and specifically to this paragraph. 00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:51.600 I promise, verse 57 says, to keep your words. 00:13:51.759 --> 00:13:54.559 This is a psalm that is about resolved. 00:13:54.639 --> 00:13:57.200 You could say it this way, resolved to keep your words. 00:13:57.360 --> 00:14:04.960 The psalmist says, I am vowing, I am making a resolution, I am promising, I'm committing to keep God's word. 00:14:08.639 --> 00:14:13.679 You know, the whole psalm, all of Psalm 119, basically has this overarching point. 00:14:13.919 --> 00:14:15.600 The word to desire God. 00:14:17.360 --> 00:14:20.399 This paragraph, verse 57 to 64, makes that point. 00:14:20.879 --> 00:14:22.639 Yahweh is my portion. 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:24.480 I promise to keep your words. 00:14:24.559 --> 00:14:27.120 It seems like an obvious point, but it's an important one. 00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:33.360 You have to believe that God is good to have a desire to keep his word. 00:14:36.240 --> 00:14:44.080 I pointed out earlier how Edward's first resolution does not distinguish between what's God's glory and what's your own personal good. 00:14:44.240 --> 00:14:47.279 When you see God's glory as your good, it motivates you to act. 00:14:47.360 --> 00:14:49.759 I mean, even a child understands this. 00:14:49.919 --> 00:14:54.320 You try to give vitamins to your child, your child does not think vitamins are good for them. 00:14:54.559 --> 00:14:56.240 So they reject vitamins. 00:14:56.399 --> 00:14:59.039 They want ice cream, for example. 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:05.919 If the child was persuaded that vitamins were actually good for them, then they would desire them. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:08.799 But they're skeptical about that, whereas ice cream tastes good. 00:15:11.039 --> 00:15:19.200 As you grow, you start to understand differently what foods are good for you and which aren't, and that affects your desires and your tastes and your aptitude. 00:15:19.360 --> 00:15:21.600 And this is true of all areas of life. 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:26.000 If you believe that something is good for you and to be desired, you will pursue it. 00:15:28.480 --> 00:15:34.320 Psalm 119 is an appeal for you to understand that the word of God is good for you. 00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:36.320 And so you should pursue it. 00:15:36.399 --> 00:15:38.799 You should desire the word of God. 00:15:40.240 --> 00:15:42.960 If you believe that God is good, then you desire Him. 00:15:43.039 --> 00:15:44.960 This is foundational. 00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:47.440 Hebrews chapter 11. 00:15:48.159 --> 00:15:51.440 Without faith, it is impossible to please God. 00:15:51.840 --> 00:15:54.559 Because for you to have faith, you have to believe two things. 00:15:54.799 --> 00:16:00.960 First of all, that God exists, and secondly, that he rewards those who diligently search for him. 00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:03.679 Those are the two components of biblical saving faith. 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:06.000 It is not faith just to say that God exists. 00:16:06.080 --> 00:16:07.919 I mean, even the demons believe that. 00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:10.320 At least they're a little nervous about it. 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:16.559 But you have to believe that God exists and that he rewards you and that he's good for you. 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:18.240 Therefore, you would pursue him. 00:16:18.399 --> 00:16:25.840 You would want to grow in godliness, you'd want to grow in your knowledge of God's word if you believe that he's actually good for you. 00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:31.759 This allows you to make decisions of faith in your life. 00:16:31.840 --> 00:16:43.279 I mean, if you think of Hebrews 11, it goes on to describe Moses, who had the riches of Pharaoh's household, considered them worth losing, to suffer with God's people as a nomad, as a shepherd out in the middle of the desert. 00:16:43.440 --> 00:16:45.039 He'd rather be a shepherd. 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:54.080 He'd rather have sand and sheep and God's favor than to have the riches of the world and be opposed to God and God's people. 00:16:57.039 --> 00:16:59.679 That's foundational for understanding faith. 00:16:59.919 --> 00:17:08.559 To believe that it is better to have God and loss than gain without God. 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:12.079 To desire God. 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:14.640 This is where verse 57 is coming from. 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:16.880 Yahweh is my portion. 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:21.920 The word portion here, it's kind of a technical word in Hebrew. 00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:34.160 It's a word that's all over Numbers and Joshua, every tribe, every family when they entered the promised lands, got a portion of land. 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:37.200 A land that was an allotment is sometimes how it's translated. 00:17:37.359 --> 00:17:39.839 It's a piece of land that's given to people. 00:17:40.400 --> 00:17:42.960 The one exception to that was the Levites. 00:17:43.119 --> 00:17:45.440 The Levites did not get a portion of land. 00:17:45.519 --> 00:17:49.440 They did not have an allotment of actual, you know, real estate. 00:17:49.599 --> 00:17:53.200 For the Levites, their portion was God himself. 00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:57.200 So that's an expression that's used in Joshua. 00:17:57.359 --> 00:18:02.240 It's repeated here where the psalmist writes that Yahweh is his portion. 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:05.279 This psalm was written by somebody who's in exile. 00:18:05.359 --> 00:18:07.039 I mean, I think it was likely Daniel. 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:11.920 We don't know that, but somebody who was in exile, he was a pilgrim. 00:18:12.480 --> 00:18:15.440 The psalm takes you, Psalm 119 is taking you on a journey. 00:18:15.599 --> 00:18:22.160 He's going through the desert, he's facing persecution, he has the opportunity to be opposed by kings and to stand in the presence of kings. 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:25.200 He's out of his land, he's out of the promised land. 00:18:25.279 --> 00:18:28.000 He's a stranger, a pilgrim, an exile. 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:30.559 All that is true about him. 00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:32.079 He's a prisoner. 00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:49.680 And he's saying that in this condition, being in exile, wandering through the wilderness, lost out in the exile, he's happier there because God is his portion than he would have been in the promised lands where he didn't have persecution. 00:18:50.640 --> 00:18:52.480 That's his framework here. 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:54.160 Yahweh is his portion. 00:18:54.240 --> 00:18:59.039 He desires God over any kind of spatial real estate that others might have. 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:01.119 Yahweh is all his heart wants. 00:19:01.359 --> 00:19:03.680 He wants to be content with the knowledge of God's word. 00:19:04.000 --> 00:19:07.279 He's satisfied with what God's word gives him. 00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:13.599 He has satisfaction and joy from his relationship to God through God's word. 00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:15.920 Yahweh is his portion. 00:19:20.079 --> 00:19:25.920 So I want to begin our study in Psalm 119, this little paragraph here, by asking you, could you say the same thing? 00:19:26.079 --> 00:19:28.480 Could you say, God is my portion? 00:19:28.640 --> 00:19:30.960 I delight in my relationship with God. 00:19:31.119 --> 00:19:32.720 I desire to know God more. 00:19:32.880 --> 00:19:37.759 I'd rather have God's word stored up in my heart than any treasures of the world. 00:19:38.079 --> 00:19:39.599 It's kind of a foundational question. 00:19:39.759 --> 00:19:41.839 Do you love the Lord more than the world? 00:19:42.160 --> 00:19:45.119 Because if the answer is no, the rest of the psalm is not going to go anywhere. 00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:46.880 You're stuck in the sand right here. 00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:58.559 The psalm begins with an appeal for you to desire the Lord, to look at the psalmist who treasures the Lord, sees the Lord as his portion. 00:19:58.799 --> 00:20:03.680 And when you do desire the Lord, then you will grow in obedience. 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:05.920 Notice the connection in verse 57. 00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:07.759 Yahweh is my portion. 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:11.440 I promise to keep your words. 00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:17.119 Because he delights in the Lord, that's going to motivate obedience in his life. 00:20:17.279 --> 00:20:22.720 If he did not see the Lord as gain, he would not see the Lord as someone to pursue in obedience. 00:20:22.880 --> 00:20:30.079 If he saw God's word as a burden that was anathetical to his happiness, he wouldn't make a resolution to grow in God's word. 00:20:30.400 --> 00:20:35.680 But because he understands that God is his portion, then he wants to grow in obedience. 00:20:36.559 --> 00:20:38.400 He says, I promise to keep your words. 00:20:38.480 --> 00:20:45.039 Again, you could write this like Jonathan Edwards and say, Yahweh is my portion, resolved to keep your words. 00:20:48.160 --> 00:20:55.359 He wants to lead a life where holiness is his own happiness, where happiness is seen in holiness. 00:20:56.400 --> 00:20:59.119 Verse 58 essentially rephrases the same truth. 00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:02.079 I entreat your favor with all of my heart. 00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:05.359 He's saying, What I want from God is God's favor. 00:21:05.440 --> 00:21:06.880 That's the thing I want most in the world. 00:21:07.039 --> 00:21:08.960 His heart is filled with the joy of the Lord. 00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:13.039 He says, I want God's favor with all of my heart. 00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:24.559 One commentator says this phrase, I entreat your favor, is kind of an idiom for tickling someone's face to get them to smile, like you might do with a child. 00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:34.160 The psalmist is using that language towards God. 00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:36.240 I want to touch the face of the Lord. 00:21:36.319 --> 00:21:38.640 I want to cause the Lord to smile. 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:41.039 I'm intruding the favor of the Lord. 00:21:43.599 --> 00:21:48.000 He wants God to be gracious to him according to God's promise, verse 58. 00:21:49.039 --> 00:21:51.200 He has sincere, undivided affections. 00:21:51.359 --> 00:21:54.720 He wants the joy of the Lord brought out in his own life. 00:21:56.400 --> 00:21:59.440 And God has promised that he will be gracious to us if we seek him. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:00.559 Through his word. 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:04.480 And so he says, be gracious to me, verse 58, according to your promise. 00:22:04.640 --> 00:22:10.960 If you have uh New American Standard, or some translations might render the word promise, there is word as well. 00:22:11.039 --> 00:22:14.079 It is a different Hebrew word than verse 57. 00:22:14.400 --> 00:22:20.720 The one in verse 58 is rendered almost like, you might say it in English, I give you my word. 00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:22.799 That's why it's rendered promise here. 00:22:24.079 --> 00:22:25.440 He's committing. 00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:30.880 God is committed through his covenant love to his people to be gracious to them. 00:22:30.960 --> 00:22:33.039 And so the psalmist is availing himself of that. 00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:36.160 That's why the psalm begins, by the way, with God's covenant name, Yahweh. 00:22:36.240 --> 00:22:40.240 It ends this stanza, verse 64, with God's covenant name, Yahweh. 00:22:40.400 --> 00:22:44.319 Many of the stanzas begin by claiming God's covenant name. 00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:49.039 For example, verse 65, O Yahweh, according to your word, deal with me. 00:22:49.359 --> 00:22:53.119 Verse 89, the Lamid stanza, forever, O Yahweh, your word. 00:22:53.359 --> 00:22:54.640 It's repeated throughout the Psalm. 00:22:54.799 --> 00:23:00.319 Many of the paragraphs begin by claiming God's covenant name, which is noticeable when he's in exile. 00:23:00.559 --> 00:23:01.599 He's out in the world. 00:23:07.519 --> 00:23:09.759 So he wants to grow in God's kindness. 00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:14.559 He wants to experience the graciousness of God according to God's covenant promises. 00:23:15.839 --> 00:23:17.119 He desires God. 00:23:17.279 --> 00:23:19.119 Verse 59 goes in a different direction. 00:23:19.200 --> 00:23:20.880 He says, When I think on my ways. 00:23:21.119 --> 00:23:24.079 Verse 59, he's examining his ways. 00:23:25.759 --> 00:23:28.559 Notice the change between verse 58 and verse 59. 00:23:28.799 --> 00:23:34.400 Verse 57 and verse 58, he's looking at God and God's word and desiring to receive joy from them. 00:23:34.640 --> 00:23:42.640 Verse 59, he pauses, takes his eyes off of God, and now instead of looking at God, is looking at his own ways or his own paths. 00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:47.440 Think about what makes a path. 00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:49.039 It's repeated motion. 00:23:49.759 --> 00:23:50.880 Repeated motion. 00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:56.799 If you have a, you know, your front door opens up to maybe a sidewalk that walks out to your driveway. 00:23:57.119 --> 00:24:03.839 If your mailbox is down at the bottom of the driveway, you can cut across your grass to get to your mailbox. 00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:09.200 If you do that repeatedly, you'll wear a path through your grass. 00:24:10.640 --> 00:24:22.160 There's a restaurant that I go to sometimes where the parking lot is in front of it, and there's kind of this grass island or median that, you know, there's the sidewalk goes around the grass, but nobody walks around the grass. 00:24:22.240 --> 00:24:27.359 Everybody cuts the grass, and there's a path that's entirely worn from the parking lot to the door of the restaurant. 00:24:27.599 --> 00:24:31.359 One time they even put like stepping stones along that path, but nobody walks. 00:24:31.920 --> 00:24:34.720 It just looks like a brown highway right through the middle. 00:24:35.759 --> 00:24:42.240 So the psalmist is there, kind of up on his front porch, and he's looking at the path down to the mailbox or the path down to the door of the restaurant. 00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:43.440 He's examining it. 00:24:43.599 --> 00:24:47.759 So you understand when you're looking at your own path, you're looking at your past. 00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:50.000 So you might be looking forward at the path. 00:24:50.160 --> 00:24:51.119 The path is in front of you. 00:24:51.200 --> 00:24:56.000 You're looking forward to it, but you're really looking into the past because it was your previous motion. 00:24:56.160 --> 00:24:59.200 It was your previous footsteps that wore that path there. 00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:06.160 So the the word picture here is the psalmist is at the top of his driveway, looking down the path, and he's considering the path. 00:25:06.319 --> 00:25:09.920 He's looking at it, going, it looks like I wore my path there. 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:12.799 Is that where I wanted it to make a path? 00:25:13.039 --> 00:25:16.799 Granted, I should have thought of that four years ago before I started walking there. 00:25:17.039 --> 00:25:18.480 But now I'm looking at it. 00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:20.960 Is that where I want the path to be? 00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:23.839 He's considering his own path. 00:25:24.720 --> 00:25:29.519 I think on my ways, is how it's translated in the ESV, but he's considering his path. 00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:34.240 When he does that, he says, I turn my feet to your testimonies. 00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:38.160 He's gonna make a turn in his feet. 00:25:38.319 --> 00:25:41.119 So this right away, notice this is unusual. 00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:44.079 People do not like to examine their ways. 00:25:44.240 --> 00:25:45.519 People are creatures of habit. 00:25:45.599 --> 00:25:48.880 They like to do the same thing over and over and over and over again. 00:25:49.440 --> 00:25:54.480 It takes self-reflection and courage to examine your own ways. 00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:57.920 People are generally optimistic about their own conduct. 00:25:58.160 --> 00:26:01.359 Because when you do something at the moment, you think it's the right thing to do. 00:26:02.160 --> 00:26:05.359 Nobody does something like, well, this is going to be dumb, but I'm gonna do it anyway. 00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:06.160 Ha ha ha ha. 00:26:07.200 --> 00:26:09.920 And generally you do something because you think it's the right thing to do. 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:22.400 So it requires a little bit of humility and courage and self-reflection to look back at your path and say, was this actually pleasing to the Lord? 00:26:23.519 --> 00:26:24.880 It's unusual. 00:26:25.119 --> 00:26:28.079 Jeremiah says this in Jeremiah chapter 8. 00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:30.240 No one regrets his evil. 00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:33.039 Asking, What have I done? 00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:38.559 Everyone has stayed his course like a horse rushing into battle, Jeremiah says. 00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:43.119 It's very unusual to find somebody that looks at his life and goes, Well, that was sinful. 00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:47.200 Generally, people might even say that was sinful, but I'm doing it again. 00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:52.079 I'm charging ahead, full steam ahead, like a horse running off to get slaughtered. 00:26:55.119 --> 00:26:58.000 Jeremiah contrasts that with birds. 00:26:58.079 --> 00:27:00.559 Even the stork in the sky knows her seasons. 00:27:00.799 --> 00:27:03.839 The turtle dove, swallow crane, they're aware of their migration. 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:05.680 They know where they're flying. 00:27:08.319 --> 00:27:09.599 But people generally don't. 00:27:09.759 --> 00:27:12.319 My people don't know Yahweh's requirements. 00:27:12.880 --> 00:27:20.240 Jeremiah marvels that people don't take a step back and wonder, am I living a life in a way that's actually pleasing the Lord? 00:27:20.319 --> 00:27:22.480 What does the Lord really require of me? 00:27:24.880 --> 00:27:31.119 So at a time of New Year's resolutions, let me make an appeal to you to actually examine your life. 00:27:31.680 --> 00:27:33.440 Look at your life. 00:27:34.720 --> 00:27:35.759 Look at your path. 00:27:35.920 --> 00:27:36.880 Look at the year behind you. 00:27:37.039 --> 00:27:42.559 Look at the path, and ask yourself, is this path where I, a year ago, is this the path I wanted to make? 00:27:43.119 --> 00:27:44.480 How does it look? 00:27:45.200 --> 00:27:48.000 Does it conform to God and God's words? 00:27:49.039 --> 00:27:50.559 Search out your ways. 00:27:50.720 --> 00:27:51.759 Look in your own life. 00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:52.799 Look at your own ways. 00:27:52.960 --> 00:27:56.640 Like a person might look for a lost piece of jewelry in their house. 00:27:56.799 --> 00:27:58.079 They would scour everywhere. 00:27:58.160 --> 00:28:01.119 They would really think, where was the last place I was? 00:28:01.200 --> 00:28:02.559 Where was the last place I put it? 00:28:02.640 --> 00:28:04.079 I'm on the hunt for it in my mind. 00:28:04.240 --> 00:28:05.279 I'm searching it out. 00:28:05.440 --> 00:28:07.920 You should have that attitude towards the last year of your life. 00:28:08.079 --> 00:28:12.160 Look at the last year of your life and ask yourself, is this what I wanted? 00:28:12.319 --> 00:28:13.440 Is this where I wanted to go? 00:28:13.519 --> 00:28:15.039 Is this what I wanted to do? 00:28:15.279 --> 00:28:16.960 Does it conform to God's word? 00:28:17.200 --> 00:28:21.839 And where you see deviation from your path and God's word, correct your feet. 00:28:21.920 --> 00:28:26.000 Because if you examine your ways in this light, then you will actually grow in godliness. 00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:28.240 And that's verse 59. 00:28:28.480 --> 00:28:31.519 I want to turn my feet to your testimonies. 00:28:33.200 --> 00:28:35.279 So he says, I'm looking at the path. 00:28:35.519 --> 00:28:41.680 I see where the I want to go, I see where I went, so I'm going to take my feet and turn them. 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:44.000 Get pointed in the right direction. 00:28:48.559 --> 00:28:52.000 He's going to look at his ways and they want to grow in godliness. 00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:53.200 Verse 60. 00:28:53.519 --> 00:28:56.559 I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments. 00:28:56.720 --> 00:28:58.319 Notice the path imagery is going on. 00:28:58.400 --> 00:29:02.160 I'm going to turn my feet and I want to hurry to make a new path. 00:29:02.319 --> 00:29:05.039 I want to hurry to make a new way that's according to God's word. 00:29:05.359 --> 00:29:08.319 This is, in other words, a very practical exercise in his mind. 00:29:08.400 --> 00:29:10.079 This is not an intellectual exercise. 00:29:10.240 --> 00:29:12.240 This is not polite dinner conversation. 00:29:12.400 --> 00:29:19.039 This is him making his mind think about how he's going to lead his life and do it differently. 00:29:19.359 --> 00:29:21.680 This is not an academic exercise for him. 00:29:21.759 --> 00:29:23.200 This is life and death. 00:29:23.440 --> 00:29:25.839 Does my life correspond to God's word? 00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:32.480 Notice it's cognitive thinking that leads to a volitional action, which leads to a life change. 00:29:32.640 --> 00:29:38.960 He's saying, I'm going to look at my path, compare it to God's word, say I want to go this way and then walk that way. 00:29:39.279 --> 00:29:42.720 Head, heart, hands, or head, heart, feet. 00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:45.359 What does he know about his life compared to God? 00:29:45.519 --> 00:29:47.039 He loves God and treasures God. 00:29:47.119 --> 00:29:48.480 How's that going to play out in his life? 00:29:48.640 --> 00:29:52.480 I hasten and do not delay to keep your commands. 00:29:52.640 --> 00:29:57.920 Delay is the same word used back in Genesis for Lot who didn't want to leave Sodom. 00:29:59.680 --> 00:30:01.680 It's contrasted with Lot. 00:30:01.920 --> 00:30:05.039 I'm going to quickly go after God in God's way. 00:30:05.279 --> 00:30:10.000 People are such procrastinators, even at the new year. 00:30:11.519 --> 00:30:12.720 I want to be different this year. 00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:17.680 I want to be more aggressive in my Bible reading and my prayer this year, but man, not today. 00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:19.759 It's raining. 00:30:22.079 --> 00:30:23.440 There's a lion outside. 00:30:23.519 --> 00:30:24.799 I can't go out there. 00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:30.720 Remember the king who told Paul, ah, Paul, it's so interesting what you're saying. 00:30:31.440 --> 00:30:34.319 Let me call you back when it's a more convenient time. 00:30:35.200 --> 00:30:37.039 Paul never got that return call. 00:30:37.519 --> 00:30:39.119 It was never a more convenient time. 00:30:39.279 --> 00:30:39.920 Not the psalmist. 00:30:40.160 --> 00:30:47.359 The psalmist says, I'm looking at my path, considering my ways, and I'm going to go a different direction, and I'm not going to be slow about it. 00:30:47.759 --> 00:30:50.799 I'm going to grow in my love for the Lord right now. 00:30:52.880 --> 00:31:01.920