In public scripture reading, we're continuing to work through Psalm 119. So if you will turn to Psalm 119 in verse 137, we'll be focusing on verses 137 to verses 144. I see two truths extolled here in this love letter to God for giving his love letter to us, which is what Psalm 119 is. There's two things I see here. One is the character of God's Word, and secondly, the comfort of God's Word. Let's consider both briefly for a moment. First of all, the character of God's Word. The stanza begins by asserting something about the nature of God Himself, and then it talks about the nature of the Word that proceeds from Him. Righteous are you, O Yahweh, and upright are your judgments. Your testimonies which you have commanded are righteous and very faithful." David employs the covenant name of God. You are righteous, you are just. Oh, Yahweh, when He says that, what's He telling us? He's reminding us that this God is faithful. This God makes a covenant, He doesn't break it. He's true to His every promise, and because of His nature, His Word proceeds from Him. Therefore, His Word is as infallible and just and righteous as He is, because it comes from Him. There's a place in the Scriptures where God says, I have exalted My Word above all My name. And he says, because of that, you can trust everything he says because just as God is just and pure and right in his essence, even so his word is just and right and pure in its essence. Because God is eternal, it follows that his spotless purity is unchangeable. I was inspired to do the call to worship after I did the public scripture reading. I was working through this and wanted them to connect to one another. But He's been righteous from all eternity. Righteous is just a synonym for just. He is just right now, and He's going to be just for all eternity future, because He cannot change. And therefore, because God is immediately righteous, everything that proceeds from Him is just and it's holy. So His Word is just and holy. And you find that all over this section of Psalm 119, verse 137. upright are your judgments. Verse 138, your testimonies which you have commanded are righteous and very faithful. I love the language of verse 140, your word is very pure. 142, your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, doesn't change, right? That's why it's everlasting. And your law is truth. 144, the righteousness of your testimonies is everlasting. Spurgeon puts it this way, God's word is righteous and cannot be impeached. It is faithful and cannot be questioned. It is true from the beginning and it will be true to the end. It's true words. So that's the character of God's Word. But then what about the comfort of God's Word? Because God's Word and God's ways are just and right, then therefore His promises, His precepts, and His providence are all just and right. Let's consider each in turn. God's promises are just and right. If He gives you a promise in His Word, you can take it to the bank. You should not presume upon things he's not promised. He's not promised to make you healthy and wealthy and wise in this present age. He's not promised that to you. But what he has promised you is if you believe on him, believe on his son, he'll give you eternal life, he'll save you. He's promised that if you're in Christ, all things will work together for your good. You can take all those promises to the bank because it is an infallible God who promised you those things, and his word is pure and just, even as he is pure and just. Again, to quote Spurgeon, what a mercy that we have a God to deal with who is, and I love this language, scrupulously faithful. true to all the items and details of his promise, punctual to time, steadfast during all time. Then he says this, well may we risk all upon a word which is ever faithful, ever sure. Those are good words. If you place your faith in God's promises, you will never be disappointed because He will always fulfill His promises. But not just His promises, also God's precepts are just and right. The word precept is just a synonym for His commandments. Everything God commands you to do is right. and it's just. God will never lead you astray. You can know if you're obeying His commandments that you're walking in the pathway of obedience, the pathway of holiness, and you never need to feel unsafe in your soul. Now, obeying God's promises may not make you safe in body. It may not make you safe in your reputation. You may suffer much because you obey the Lord. But that being said, you have to have an eye to eternity and to say, great is my reward in heaven. I am accumulating rewards there, not for here. And so I'm gonna trust the Lord that when he tells me to do something, however hard it may be, it's always just and it's always right. You know, it takes trust to obey the Lord, doesn't it? There's a reason that we sing trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus than the trust and obey, because trust and obedience are the two legs with which you follow God. I trust him and I obey him. I trust him and I obey him. I have to trust him because sometimes doing his commandments is going to bring me to harm. But I have to say, if God has commanded it, then it's right, and I'm gonna do it just because it's right, and God says it's right, regardless of the consequences, regardless of what it costs me. The third thing, then, is God's providence is just and right. God takes his children through joyful times. He gives us seasons of gladness and of relative prosperity, but he also takes us through hard times, doesn't he? He takes us through valleys. He takes us through sorrows. He takes us through hardship and spiritual warfare and persecution. And yet, what did Job say to his wife? Shall we indeed accept good from God? And shall we not accept adversity? That is, of all your circumstances, good and bad, the joyful and the sorrow, they're all ordained by a sovereign God who loves you more than you love yourself and who does all things well. And I mean to understand even in this life, you know, sometimes we think we'll learn later why God took us through something. You know, we don't always know in this life why we went through something. There's some things I look back and I'm still trying to figure out why did we go through that? Was this trip really necessary, Lord? In eternity, I think we'll know, but in the meantime, we simply have to trust Him, that when He says all things are working together for the good of those who love Christ, that He is not a liar, and He's telling us the truth. If we get a hold of that, we can obey what Paul tells us to do, to do all things without grumbling and disputing. If you're like me, you probably do most things with grumbling and disputing, which is what I do. But trusting Him to say, everything that you've ordained is right, to be able to say with a hymnist, I know wherever He leads me. Jesus doeth all things well, even when providence is difficult. There's one other thing I want to point out to you though. about obedience to God's command and trusting the justice of His ways. I've touched upon it already, but let me bring your attention to it again. That is, obeying God's righteous commands will oftentimes have negative consequences in this present age. All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus might suffer persecution? No. All who desire, without exception, to be godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, the Holy Spirit says. Sometimes standing up for the pure gospel of Jesus Christ and not compromising your obedience to the Ten Commandments will arouse the ire not only of the world, but of many a professing Christian. Your reputation will suffer abuse from slandering tongues. You'll be called militant, unloving, legalistic, harsh. Fidelity to God and his word has resulted in many thousands of our brothers and sisters in Christ being fined, imprisoned, tortured without mercy, and martyred. Being faithful to the law and the gospel, requires faith that everything God says is righteous and just, and that I have to trust Him to do what is right regardless of the consequences to me. There has to be a sense of self-denial to say I'm willing to put aside my reputation, put aside that which is most dear to me sometimes in order to obey the Lord. You must be resolved to do what is right just because it's right, regardless of the consequences. And yet, as you do so, you can rest with a clear conscience. to say at the end of the day, however hard it's been, my conscience is clear before God, because what he says is true and right, and he's worth suffering for. And I think that was what David's getting to when he says in verse 143, trouble and anguish have overtaken me. But what sustains him? He says, yet your commandments are my delight. At the end of the day, I can rest easy. And when I put my head on the pillow with a clear conscience that I followed you and trusted you and know that everything you do is right. Well, if you are able to stand, please do so for the honor of the reading of God's word. Righteous are You, O Lord, and upright are Your judgments. Your testimonies which You have commanded are righteous and very faithful. My zeal has consumed me because my enemies have forgotten Your words. Your word is very pure, therefore Your servant loves it. I am small and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts. Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is truth. Trouble and anguish have overtaken me, yet your commandments are my delights. The righteousness of your testimonies is everlasting. Give me understanding, and I shall live. May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing of his word. Please remain standing as we sing the scriptures together.