I invite you to take your Bibles tonight and turn to the 119th Psalm, and we're going to be looking at verses 41 to 48. And for you one-and-a-half Hebrew students, that's the Vav or the Wow stanza, depending on if you want to pronounce it like Jesus or not. If you want to pronounce it like Jesus, it's the Wow. If you want to pronounce it not like Jesus, it's the Vav. And if you're like me and you're in a doctoral seminar when you got one professor who says vav and the other who says wow, you're just scared and you don't say anything. Psalm 119, wow stanza verses 41 through 48. Let's give our attention to the reading of God's word. Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise. Then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in your word. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your rules. I will keep your law continually forever and ever. And I will walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts. I will also speak of your testimonies before kings and not be put to shame, for I find my delight in your commandments, which I love. I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes. That's for the reading of God's word. Let's bow our heads one more time this evening and ask the Lord for help as we come before his holy word. Father God, again, we lift up our petition this evening that you would take this word, Father, in the few minutes to come and work it into our hearts by the ministry of your Holy Spirit, Father, Lord, I know that for some of us tonight, to even read these words sounds religious and devoid of anything identifiable in our lives. And Father, I pray that your Spirit would minister to those who have that attitude. And on the other hand, Father, for those who think that they have mastered this law-keeping thing, I pray that your Spirit would minister to them as well. and that both categories, Father, and all of us tonight would see our need for Jesus once again, that we would rejoice that he has been sent from heaven, and that, Father, we would have hope in this King who even now is wielding his scepter over all the cosmos. We ask these things in Christ's name, amen. When I was learning to drive, my dad, who's not a military man, by the way, he'd always tell me, and my siblings would always make fun of him for this, both behind his back and to his face, he'd always say, Josh, you need to always be aware of your surroundings. Always be aware of your surroundings, okay? And of course he's talking, you know, you're in traffic. You pull right up to the bumper of somebody who's in front of you to light or whatever, and then somebody who's behind you pulls right up to your bumper, and then there's a zombie apocalypse, like you're stuck, right? You've gotta give yourself a way out. And in the last four years, going on five now that I've been here in this militarily saturated area, I found out that there's a name for this. You guys know what it is? You gotta watch your essay, situational awareness, right, okay? You always gotta watch your situational awareness. You gotta know and see and be aware of the obstacles in front of you, okay? And the center of this stanza really gets that idea perfectly in verses 44 and 45. I will keep your law continually forever and ever. Now watch this, this is the ESV. And I shall walk in a wide place for I have sought your precepts. The psalmist will often talk about a wide place in which to walk. A wide place in which to walk. Why? Because in a wide place you could see everything before you. In Israel, there are things called wadis, and wadis are basically like these deep canyons, right? And in the spring of 1999, when I was studying there, we would go on these hikes in these wadis, and they would always warn us. They would say, now you need to understand, in Israel, there are flash floods. And the problem is if you're hiking in the bottom of these wadis, which is what we would do, we would hike in the bottom of these wadis, these big ravines. They said, and a flash flood comes, it can basically fill up the wadi and you'll drown. You'll get your foot stuck on a rock or a stick or whatever. You won't be able to get up, you'll drown. And so you need to be aware of that. It was a narrow place. It was not a broad place. It was not a wide place. You could not see and have mastery over the obstacles in front of you when they came against you. And so this idea of walking in a wide place is applied to walking in God's commandments. And a wide place could also be seen as an ancient path. The prophet Jeremiah said this, stand by the roads and look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is and walk in it and find rest for your souls. But they, that is the wicked, they say, we will not walk in it. Let me describe for you very briefly what the wicked do in contrast to the righteous before I then turn around and tell you more about what the righteous do. Turn in your Bibles very quickly. We'll come back. Keep your thumb in Psalm 119. Turn your Bibles to Proverbs 18.1. This verse has been on my heart the last six months. And I want you to hear it. Proverbs 18.1, whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire. He breaks out against all sound judgment. In my 25 plus years of walking with Jesus and then in my, I don't know, five plus seven years of formal ministry, I have seen a pattern over and over and over again which really breathes life into Proverbs 18.1 and it is this. When professing Christians want to do and have their own way, they isolate themselves. They isolate themselves. Some of you know this better than I because I'm not a hunter. Some of you are hunters. I guess you don't need to be a hunter to know this because my dog would do this. Sometimes when animals get hurt, what do they do? They isolate themselves. Somehow they think in their mind, okay, like maybe they're out and they get their limb caught in a bear trap, right? And so somehow as they're hobbling along on the tripod of three legs, they're trying to find a place to isolate themselves and they think that's gonna fix it, that's gonna get the bear trap off. Well, often that's where they die. And the principle is applied to the church when you are in sin and you're running after those siren songs that are calling your name so that you could shipwreck on the shores of the world, the flesh, and the devil. One of the lies that Satan is whispering into your ear is, don't go to the people of God. Get away from the people of God. They're gonna put a bear trap on the other three limbs. When in reality, what the people of God are there to do is to help you take that bear trap off your limbs. Whoever isolates himself seeks what? His own desire. He wants to be on the narrow path, a path that he creates for himself. And the proverb says, he or she breaks out against all sound judgment. Let me say this as a brother in the Lord who loves you and a pastor. If you're not a member of a church, this may describe you. Can I just say that again with all the love in my heart that I possibly can? and maybe you're not doing it intentionally, but if you're not a member of a church, you are, whether you understand it or not, whether you realize it or not, it may be inadvertent, it may be intentional, but you are trying to keep yourself from accountability where people wiser than you are trying to help you, not hurt you, but help you walk this path called Christianity because it's not easy to do by yourself, and I would dare say you can't do it by yourself. So. What describes the righteous? Well, the righteous walk on broad paths, wide paths. They do not isolate themselves. They do not run away, but they walk on wide paths. And you wanna know why they're wide paths? Because they have been trodden for century after century after millennia after millennia, because they are the paths that God has instructed and charged the people of God to walk upon. They are the ancient paths. They are the good way. And I wanna give you very quickly tonight four things that characterize the people of God who walk on these broad paths. And I really am gonna be quick tonight. Four traits or characteristics that mark the man or woman, boy or girl who walks on wide paths. Number one, those who walk in wide places define steadfast love according to promise and not popular opinion. Let me say that again. Those who walk in wide places define steadfast love according to promise and not according to popular opinion. Look at verses 41 and 42. 41 and 42, the psalmist says this. "'Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, "'your salvation according to your promise. "'Then I shall have an answer for him who taunts me, "'for I trust in your word.'" That word steadfast love in the ESV is translated different ways in other translations, but it is one of the most beautiful words in the Hebrew language, it is the word chesed. And chesed could probably even better be translated Loving kindness. And I love that translation because it's trying to cram as many English ideas that would appropriate this idea of chesed into the same word. Loving kindness, faithfulness, mercy, undeserved kindness. And it is described as that characteristic of God that he gives to his people And the psalmist says here, let that chesed come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise. So we as people who walk on the broad path, listen to me, do not define love according to the world. Teenagers, we have any teenagers in here? Listen up, okay? Here's something you're gonna hear from your boyfriend or your girlfriend. I've said this before, I'll say it again. If you really loved me, you'd sleep with me, okay? Poppycock, okay? That is defining love according to the world. Defining love according to God's steadfast love and his promises looks very different. And let me tell you something. You're going to get a plethora of different definitions of what love is in this world and you need to be grounded. You need a place to stand. Like Archimedes said, give me a place to stand and I can move the world. You need a place to ground love, and the place you ground love is God's promises. What has He promised to be to you in Jesus Christ, and what has He called out of your gratitude to Him for what He has done? What has He called you to be in your union with Jesus Christ? Those who walk in wide places to find steadfast love according to promise and not popular opinion. And can I tell you something else? Look at verse 42. That's why we can say, then I will have an answer to him who taunts me. You get made fun of by unbelievers. Well, those are the unbelievers that say, if you really love me, you'd sleep with me. And the next thing you know, you're pregnant out of wedlock. Next thing you know, you have some disease. Next thing, oh, you've been lied to. Well, the Lord doesn't lie to you, beloved. He gives you His rules, He gives you His laws, He gives you His statutes, He gives you His testimonies, not because He's trying to be a killjoy, but because He loves you and is trying to protect you. He wants you to have life, as Jesus says, and life what? More abundantly. and life more abundantly comes through conformity to the image of Christ. And isn't that how Paul describes salvation in Ephesians 1-3? You don't need to turn there, but he says that God in salvation has blessed us with everything in Christ, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Does this not mean that even if a trial of faith and patience is ordained for us, that in the end we will find a rich storehouse of experience and wisdom from His divine will? Yes, absolutely. God has promised that. So His love is always tracing its route back to His promise, and His promise is your good. Secondly, what characterizes those who walk in wide places? Verse 43, those who walk in wide places realize the perennial need to speak the word of God to themselves. Verse 43, and take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your rules. My hope is in your rules. I was just talking to somebody the other day, yesterday, and we were talking about how to disciple people. And one of the things I told them as I said, When somebody is struggling with any particular temptation, you need to tell them to preach the gospel to themselves, law and gospel, okay? But I told him, I said, listen, friend, we hear that all the time in this church. And what you need to understand is that there are people, even in this church, who they hear that and they're like, oh yeah, I register that as a theoretical idea. It's a theoretical idea that I need to preach the gospel to myself, that I need to preach the law to myself and tell myself that I'm a miserable sinner, a wretched worm that deserves the wrath of God, and yet, wonder of wonders, God has condescended in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ, for me, not for sinners, but for me, the chief of sinners, and that will get me away from the computer when I'm thinking about looking at pornography. That will keep me away from the house of the adulterous. That will keep me away from the morsels of gossip that entice me to enter into and repeat them. That will keep me from temptation. But you see people say, oh yeah, preach the gospel to yourself, and they don't do it. It's a theoretical concept. And so what I said is that you need to tell your disciple, and you need to tell yourself, okay, that these are things that we literally need to be saying to ourselves. That's what the psalmist is saying here. Take not your word out of my mouth. Your word, God, needs to be in my mouth, and I need to be talking to myself. If I'm in an elevator and I'm going up to a room to be with a prostitute and there are four people in the elevator with me, I'm preaching the gospel to myself so I can not go to that room. People are going to think I'm crazy. I don't care. I don't want to go to the house of the adulterous, so take not your word out of my mouth. Let it not be a theoretical category, but let it be something, dear congregation, that you are in the trenches doing. Take not your word out of my mouth. Preach the gospel to yourself. Preach the gospel to yourself. A stammering confession is better than silence. A stammering confession is better than silence. If we cannot say all we want of or for our Savior, let us say what we can. Charles Bridges says this, when you are most deeply deploring your sins, listen, when you are most deeply deploring your sins, never fail to thank the Lord, or at least to think how you would thank Him if you dared lift up a face overwhelmed with shame and defeat, that He has not taken away His truth utterly, that He has left you clinging to some twig of hope instead of leaving you to find what thousands who look outwardly very calm have found, the depth of the precipice of despair. He has not left that to you. He has given you some twig, he has given you some verse, he has given you some truth, he has given you some promise, and he has strengthened your knuckles to be white, to cling onto them so that even a syllable in your mouth will keep you from the siren shores of temptation and the shipwreck of faith. One of the many reasons I assemble with the saints of God is precisely because I don't often have the Word of God in my mouth as much as I want it to be in my mouth. And so I go around people who have the Word of God in their mouth, right? Think about that for a second. I'm gonna say that again. If you don't have the Word of God in your mouth as much as you think it should be in your mouth and it should be in your mouth, then you congregate with people who do have the Word of God in their mouth. where you come into a service two times here in this place, and at least for an hour, an hour and 15 minutes, you're just hearing Bible, Bible, Bible, just pouring over you and showering over you, and you have to sit there. You have to sit there, or you get to sit there. And that word just keeps coming. And you've said, okay, I'm committing, I'm coming here. And I remember as a young Christian, I'm gonna be honest with you, as a young Christian, I was like, this is kind of boring. And then I learned, I learned the way of the means of grace. I learned the way of sitting under that and letting it instruct me and model me and shape me and form me and create contours that made me look more and more in my confession and in my life and in my hands and in my heart like Jesus Christ. put yourself around those who do speak the word of God. Remember, remember, whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire. I say that again, whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire and he breaks out against all sound judgment. Number three, a third characteristic of those who walk in wide places is that not only do they speak of the word of God to themselves, they have the word of God in their mouth, but verses 46 and 47 they speak of God's word to all people because it is a shameful thing to keep from the world a pearl of such great price. Look at verses 46 and 47. I will also speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame. For I find my delight in your commandments. Now, if you've been here since we began this series, you know that I have presented, not dogmatically, but I presented that I think Daniel is likely the author of Psalm 119, or Shadrach, Meshach, or Abednego. But just think about this, this fits, doesn't it, right? I will speak of your testimonies before kings. That's what Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did in a way that I hope by God's grace I will be able to do for the rest of my life, and I hope by God's grace my children will be able to do in their youth, that I hope the children of this place, Grace Covenant Church, will be able to do in their youth, even as the engines of Babylon continue to rev up louder and hotter and brighter. that we would be able to withstand the King when He stands against us in our holy faith, and we would be able to speak unashamedly these testimonies before Him. Young people, listen, right now, there are 1,000 different opinions of what you should be, how you should dress, what music you should listen to, what it means to be cool, and that could be overwhelming. Can I just please save you so much time as you're trying to figure out who you are? I have an answer for you in the word of God. Colossians 3, your life is hidden with Christ. Your life is hidden with Christ. Teenagers, if you get that right, everything else will fall into place. And there's another verse that says that. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and what? All these things will be added unto you, okay? Then you'll be able to figure out what to wear. Then you'll be able to figure out, you know, is it Alabama or Auburn? You'll be able to figure those things out, okay? Fourth characteristic that characterizes those who walk in wide places is in verse 48. Those who walk in wide places have ready hands, a pliable heart, and a mind stayed on his commandments. Look at verse 48. I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes. I think what the psalmist is getting here, because when you read this, it seems a little jarring. It almost seems like he's lifting his hands up in worship to Torah or to the commandments, but I want you to think of it in a different way. The psalmist is lifting his hands up in such a way as to receive the commandments from the Lord. That's what's going on. He's lifting his hands up to the commandments such that the Lord would send them his way and that he would receive them with a pliable heart, a ready mind, and ready hands. Now, I know that we don't always do that like we want. I know that we're not perfect, and that's why, beloved, we need to look to one who is. Because Jesus Christ demonstrated in his 30, 33 years of life, that in every commandment that came down the pike, his hands were lifted ready to receive them, his heart was opened wide to put it into practice, and his mind was stayed on putting it into practice in his life so as to bring glory to God. And so tonight, as we conclude these thoughts, I want us to look to Jesus. If your attitude is not what it should be toward these commandments, look to Jesus whose was and out of gratitude let your worship be made known to Him. Let's pray. Father God, give us grace tonight to lift our hands up to your holy commandments that we might receive them and put them into practice and find our hope in the God-man who perfectly kept all of them on our behalf. We ask these things in Christ's name, amen.