While the congregation belongs to Christ, again, we may be in church. And I think it's true for all of us. Church life is something we are privileged with. And almost every Sunday, we can come to church. And we can be under the ministry of the word. Is there anything that can be better than that? Not really. to be taught and led in the way of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What a blessing! What a privilege! And when this is our focus, yours and mine, when it's our persuasion, then that is of God. And it is of true and real blessing for us in our lives. Yes, not only as older ones, but as middle-aged and as young people and children too. and that it may be so, and that we encourage each other accordingly. Let's now consider our text passage from Psalm 119, the verses 65 to 80, and especially from the perspective of verse 69b. What does the believing psalmist say there when in the midst of assault and slander from others? Take note. He doesn't respond sinfully. or like the devil would suggest, or the world, but he says, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. Yes, that's his resolve, his godly resolve, you might say, regardless of whatever else in life, in happy or sad circumstances, in good or bad situations, for whatever reasons, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. Does this find an echo in your heart? and mine as well. Do you agree? Here we have expressed clearly the aim of the godly. And let's have this, in fact, as our theme for this afternoon, the blessed aim of the godly. And we will look at it as found in our text and in the context, considering also the believing psalmist's attitude and inclination and mission with this resolve he had. Now, as soon as I mention the word aim, we can think of different things. I think of children and young people. You might have a dartboard in the basement and you throw darts and you throw them to get bullseye, to get them in the center of that dartboard. You don't want to miss the mark. Sin is always about missing the mark. I think others of you might really like fishing. Well, when you go fishing, you want to catch the big one. You aim for that. Or this year, maybe for work, for school, you aim for it to be a better year than last year. Yes, the best year yet. Well, what is it for you and me to aim rightly before God? Yes, also in 2024. And I mean here, then, spiritually speaking, as in our text, what is it to aim spot on, living before God and our neighbor, under God's true and everlasting blessing? Isn't it exactly as the psalmist says in our text, having his godly aim, praying and testifying before God and our neighbors, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. Our text is from Psalm 119, and before we look more closely at it and its context, Let's just ask ourselves, let me ask you, what are three ways at least in which Psalm 119 is really special? Now the children, I think, could tell me right away one way that it's special, of course, is, well, it's the longest chapter in the Bible. We have Psalm 117, two verses, but Psalm 119 has 176 verses. We all know that, I'm sure. But did you also know, another thing special about the psalm is that it's divided into 22 eight-verse sections. And it follows the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet in each section, from aleph to tau. And that means all the verses in the first section, first eight verses, they start with the letter A in Hebrew aleph. And the next section, All the verses start with B, in Hebrew Beth, and so on. This was done sometimes just to show the beauty of the word of God, but also as a real help for memory work, in memorizing scripture. And there are other acrostic passages in the Psalms and in Proverbs and in Lamentations. The two sections we read from in Psalm 119 are in the letter Teth and Yud passages. By the way, others have tried writing out Psalm 119 following the English alphabet, leaving out the letters K, U, X, and Z, because they're kind of difficult, and to get 22 letters. It's a great meditation exercise, trying to do so. If you're bored on Sunday, Why not try it? Write Psalm 119, all A in first eight verses, starting with A and B going down through the Psalm that way. One Christian author has said, commentator, he said, this psalm is the Christian's golden ABC of the praise, love, power, and use of the word of God. Here we have set forth in inexhaustible fullness what the word of God is to a man of God and how a person is to behave himself in relation to it. Saying that brings me to yet a third something special about Psalm 119, and that is all its 176 verses refer to and reflect on God's Word in one way or another. The psalm also uses ten different terms in reference to God's Word, speaking of God's Word as also His precepts, statutes, judgments, commandments, testimonies, law, righteousness, truth, and ordinances. And this whole psalm, in this way, you see, it prizes God's Word as just so very excellent to read and to know and precious beyond measure to meditate on and to live by. Well, again, I ask, is this saying your conviction and confession, this Christian worship service together? If so, won't you say with heart and lips sincere, with the believing psalmist of old, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. My aim in preaching is that we all would say this in truth before God and each other. Yes, also living in the perilous days we do in 2024. And later in the sermon, I will mention too what especially drew me to preach on this text. But come now, without further delay, let's probe together whether this be your and my testimony, considering the aim of the godly. After explaining the text itself, we will try to understand it better, noting from the context the believing psalmist's attitude, inclination, and mission in what he's saying in our text. But I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. That is clearly the psalmist's aim and resolve. Notice here, he doesn't just want to know about God's word. and his will. But his desire is to live accordingly, yes, to keep God's word and will. He doesn't just want God's word kept in a box at home. He doesn't just want God's word kept on the pulpit by all means. No. What he means with what he says is he wants God's word to be in his heart and in his life, to be living by it, to be obeying it in every way, in all his thoughts, words, and deeds, without exception. He doesn't want to miss the mark from what God's Word teaches. This is his godly aim, before the Lord and man, both in private and public, with whoever he may be and with whatever he is doing. He's genuinely sincere, you could say, about this. How do we know that? Well, he says, I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. You could also translate, with all my heart. And the word heart, you know, refers here to the center and core of his being. And the adjectives with my whole heart tells us he's not half-hearted about this. He's wholehearted in this matter. He doesn't want to be double-hearted. He doesn't want to be hypocritical. No, he wants to wholly follow the Lord and his word. He says also in verse 80 in this regard, let my heart be blameless, or sound, upright you might say, wholehearted, without any sinful holdups or inconsistencies, let my heart be blameless in your statutes, and that I may not be ashamed, he says. Well, another verse in this psalm, dear congregation, and many others could be mentioned, is verse 133 showing How wholehearted the psalmist is, really, in wanting to keep God's precepts. In that verse we read him in prayer to God saying, direct my steps, step by step, every detail, by your word. And let not any iniquity or let no iniquity have dominion over me. That's what he says in verse 133. Do you hear it? He's asking, Lord, in every detail of all his life, with all his heart, his aim here is to be wholeheartedly seeking and serving the Lord. He doesn't want to be following sinful desires and lusts at any time with anyone and with anything. Well, is this same with you and me today? Or are we pretty hit and miss about this? Are we not too intent on this? Does the psalmist's aim of Psalm 119, 69b reflect your aim and mine too by God's grace and spirit? Isn't that the case for true Christians? And isn't this so necessary, beloved, in our lives if we will be God's true people today and if we will have a blessed year as the years come and go? I still remember so painfully when in a church I served, I preached actually on Psalm 119, verse 133, just mentioned. I had a sermon prepared for New Year's Day on that verse as a great New Year Christian prayerful resolve for the coming year. It was in King James and back then still, order my steps in thy word and let not any iniquity have dominion over me. And you know with New Year's Eve, before New Year's Day, we had a service and as often, especially when still younger, we would have families over after the New Year's Eve service for celebration and fellowship and lots of food and enjoying each other's company. And then we would always conclude at close to midnight with singing and prayer and calling on the Lord, thanking Him for the year past and asking Him for His blessing on the year ahead as only Savior and Lord for us as the years go by. It was a blessed evening that we had as we had several families over and the company all left by around 12.30, 1 o'clock and we mutually mentioned hopefully seeing each other later that same morning for the New Year's Day service. But then one family was painfully absent for that New Year's Day service. Why? Well, when they went home, the father, the husband, when he left our place, he indulged in his alcohol addiction. And as we found out later, he was too drunk and hungover to come to church and hear the sermon on Psalm 119, verse 133. And his life, continuing in a sinful pattern of not, with his whole heart desiring to keep God's precepts, over time, without repentance, he fell to more and more sin and more and more disarray, including desecration of the Lord's Day. preferring so-called recreation with the family. You know, we can worship God in nature just as well. And finally, it all resulted in a very painful divorce and the children in a broken home without true godly example and nurture from their parents. Well, why bring this sad example up? Because you see congregation. If you and I won't and don't care to keep God's precepts with our whole heart, we open ourselves to sin. And we then live as those who are at best hypocrites and not truly God's people. If you or I can allow any sin in our lives and think while we can still be good church people and find Christians, we are simply living a lie. We are deceiving ourselves. And if it doesn't change, we won't be able to deceive ourselves and others much longer. Sooner or later, it always comes out who we truly serve, either God wholeheartedly or ourselves and this world mostly, even when trying still to appear religious, somewhat still. Well, I say all this to ask how are you and I doing in our personal life? in our single life, in our marriage life, in our parenting life, in our family life, in our business life, in our work life, in our recreational life, in our school life, in our life as citizens before God and man. Can you say that God, the aim of the psalmist in Psalm 119, is your aim truly before God and man? Does God know, regardless what others may say evil about you even, even unjustly so, or whatever circumstances you're going through, that this verse reflects your prayer and care and your aim and your resolve also in this year 2024. But I will keep your precepts with my heart. Now admittedly, this is pretty convicting, isn't it? I mean, who of us does this? Who of us does this all the way? Perfectly so, none of us, none of us. We all fall short, miserably so. But when you live by God's precepts, you come to know of one, don't you? For whom this verse was perfectly true all his lifetime, regardless whatever accusations and slanderous things people spoke against him. who am I thinking of? Well, of course, I mean Jesus Christ of Nazareth. This verse, it tells us of the Savior, really, in all his beauty and holy resolve, with all his heart to love and to obey and keep all God's precepts all his life. And we know from the Bible there was not a single flaw in Jesus' life. The Bible tells us on many occasions He was blameless. Pilate, you know, he could find no fault in Jesus, though many false witnesses came against him with all kinds of terrible lies about him and shamelessly misrepresenting him and his words time and again. And Pilate, we know, he wickedly caved into the evil pressures finally to crucify Jesus. Unjustly, he gave him over to the cross. But when we understand the precepts of God, We know, really, it's all part of the whole gospel history and message of Jesus Christ as the just for the unjust, giving his life a ransom for many, all to bring sinners like us to God in his grace and mercy. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, he was made sin for us. He who knew no sin himself, that we, that is all who are trusting and following him, might be made the righteousness of God in him. And you know, when we are trusting in this Saviour, when we are looking to Him with all our shortcomings, also in the way of Psalm 119, verse 69b, This you may know what was true of Jesus, the Savior, the Lord graciously and gloriously makes true for his people to hear in part already, and then in the world to come in glory perfectly so forevermore. This is the great good news. All of Psalm 119 also makes this so very clear. When we by grace, through faith, trust and follow Christ as our Savior and Lord, and seek to live by His Word with our whole heart, then God by His Spirit, He also works, yes, in our lives, that we want to keep His precepts with our whole heart. He makes it so for Christians that you don't want to live in sin anymore. You still sin, yes, a lot, but you don't want to. When we learn experientially, of God's full and free salvation through the crucified and risen Redeemer. Then we say with the hymn writer, take my life and let it be wholly consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Then we don't want to live with any secret sins and unlawful God dishonoring, word denying exceptions. No. This is part of God's gracious work in his people's lives. Yet, for the most holy, it remains a struggle still here below. Oh, for sure, with many failings of ourselves. But nevertheless, it is what becomes our heartthrob longing and prayer and aim in life when truly saved. Can you identify with what I'm saying? Then we don't excuse and cling to any sin, but we repent of sin daily. And we repeatedly find refuge and renewal in Christ the Saviour time and time again. This is what describes the Christian ever looking to Jesus and needing Him and trusting Him. And then when that's the case, we say and pray, In truth, God knows, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. So again, I ask you, one and all, is this blessed aim of the godly resonating with you here this afternoon, whether younger or older? Will you have this as your bullseye goal before God and man, God helping you also in this new year, 2024? And will we as Christian congregation encourage and exhort one another in this, in true brotherly love and care for one another? Isn't that what we are about, when it's well? And saying that, let's look closer now at this blessed aim of the godly, as expressed in Psalm 119, 69b, seeing also something of the believing psalmist's attitude. and inclination, and mission, along with his godly aim. From the verses surrounding our text, we learn the Christian attitude of the psalmist. It is obvious he is not speaking arrogantly, is he, when stating his aim, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. No, clearly he's saying this humbly, and not in self-reliance at all, but in humble, hearty dependency on God alone. You see, the psalmist knows his own tendency to go astray and to fall into sin. And he acknowledges his need of God's grace and mercy and even his fatherly chastisements to lead and keep him in God's ways. We read that surely in verses 67, 71, and 75. The point is, included in the psalmist's godly aim is a humble attitude. The mark of the ungodly is pride and being proud as reflected also in the first part of verse 69. And again in verse 78 in the latter we read, let the proud be ashamed for they treated me wrongfully with falsehood. But I will meditate on your precepts. Are you this day and this year having and showing a humble heart and spirit before God and man? Not only does a psalmist reflect a humble attitude, but along with that, a teachable attitude. And by the way, that always goes together, doesn't it? Humbleness and teachableness. The proud are those who think and act as if they know it all and they can do it all, but the humble, they learn to be teachable before God and others. The most godly realize how weak we are and our weaknesses, especially spiritually. especially too when you think about how little do we know really concerning God and His gospel way, even as mature saints. And we need ever, don't we, to be taught by God and upheld by Him and His Word and Spirit. Don't you see this teachable spirit reflected with me in the verses 66 and 68 and 73, I think eight times at least in Psalm 119, the psalmist says, teach me, teach me. The psalmist prays repeatedly, teach me, teach me good judgment and knowledge. Teach me your statutes and give me understanding that I may learn your commandments. Are you and I humbly teachable? Like the psalmist, or not so? Does God maybe have to send us in his sovereign mercy and grace some hard knocks to awaken us from our sin and misery left to ourselves? You know, David needed that when he fell into sin. And David testifies in Psalm 32, verse 8 to 10, in God's name, speaking there on behalf of God, or God speaking, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye. Be not like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be harnessed with bit and bridle. or else they will not come near you. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him." See, the wicked, they won't be taught. They're stubborn, resistant. Are any of us like that? Here, just to drive home how foolish and wrong to be as the horse and mule without understanding and stubbornly unteachable, especially before God, let me tell you this old story. I've told them before, but it bears repetition of a farmer who lent his donkey to a neighbor. The neighbor had asked if he might borrow the farmer's donkey to tow a wagon into town. Well, the farmer gladly brought the donkey. And he said to his neighbor, all you have to do is speak gently to him and tell him he'll get some hay when he brings you safely back home. Well the farmer left and shortly after the neighbor went to go to town with his wagon behind the donkey all hooked up and ready to go. The neighbor tried to carry out. the instructions of the farmer. But no matter what he said, and how gently he spoke, and the amount of hay he promised, yet the donkey refused to budge. Finally, the neighbor went back to the farmer and said, it's not working what you said. The farmer then returned with the neighbor, taking with him a huge stick. And he promptly hit the donkey on the head hard with that stick. After that, the donkey listened to the gentle comment about the hay. Sorry, the farmer said to the neighbor, I forgot to tell you that you first have to get the donkey's attention. Dear congregation, hasn't the Lord worked to get our attention, your attention, even perhaps in the last months? From this story, let us learn not to be unteachable, but to have a humble and teachable spirit, for it's so linked to living by the godly aim of our text. How sad and wrong, when any of us should continue, also in this new year, unteachable, thinking and saying and acting as if you can manage life well enough on your own. No, the Bible says such people are fools and none of us can count on God necessarily waking us up to our folly. He doesn't have to do that. It's only His mercy and grace if He does. And if you won't repent and believe the gospel today, just listening to God's preached word here and now, before you know it, it could become forever, suddenly, too late. If you and I keep hardening our hearts against the Gospel Word, we may become so cold and indifferent to God and His Word. That happens, you know. And God forbid it be the case for anyone among us. How that should awaken us to come to our senses while it's yet the day of grace. God's revealed will in his word is that you and I trust and obey him and his gospel word as we hear it. And the sooner the better and the more the better. Think here of the earnest exhortation in the last book of the Bible, Revelation 1, verse 3, there God's word proclaims, blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it, for the time is near. Here we should note something else about the believing psalmist's godly aim and the attitude reflected with it. Not only does he come across as humble and teachable, but prayerful too. You can't miss that, can you? Almost the whole psalm is a prayer in all 176 verses that God lead and keep him in the way of his gospel word. Isn't the whole psalm of the believing psalmist declaring this and testifying this? Lord, except you lead me by your word and spirit, I'm bound to go wrong. You find that throughout the verses. Blessed, noticing that in Psalm 119, it's 22 sections, 22 times, you have the expression, O Lord, O Lord. It's not in each section, one in each section, but 22 times in the whole Psalm, O Lord, meaning, O Lord, be my help, be my refuge. You find it throughout the Psalm. And so, do you see with me? How prayerful and careful the psalmist's whole attitude is. Look at even the last two verses of the psalm and different verses in our section. It shows he's prayerful to God. Do you know this from your own experience too? The godly aim of 69b, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart, is closely related to having a godly attitude expressed throughout the psalm. Yes. that we too be like the psalmist, humble, teachable, prayerful. Does hearing this also make you say, in fact, and pray even now as we are under the preaching, Lord, oh Lord, please give me that aim of verse 69, me, me and my children. Yes, along with the godly attitude accompanying it. Let me have this godly aim and grow in it more and more for as long as I live by your grace and mercy in Christ Jesus. And saying that, we come now also to a second reflection on the psalmist's godly aim, as expressed in our text, noting not only the believing psalmist's Christian attitude, but also his inclination, his holy inclination. In verse 112, he even says, I have inclined my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the very end. In other words, his heart and life, he's saying, is steadfastly, zealously inclined, that is constantly bent on trusting and obeying all of God's word and always living in submission to that word of God, God helping him day by day. Now, it's clear this inclination of his heart, this longing of his heart, was all for God and his word. And it's clear, where only does such good and godly inclination come from, congregation? It doesn't come from ourselves. It comes from the Lord, the God of our salvation. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And the psalmist, he says as much, for instance, in verse 88, praying there to God, Revive me, in the old King James, quicken me, that is, make me renewed and alive to your loving kindness, so shall I keep your testimony, so shall I keep the testimony of your mouth. And hear what he says in verse 32, I will run the course of your commandments when you shall enlarge my heart. As I read just two weeks ago in preparation also for this sermon, you know, a lot of so-called New Year's resolutions are all about, quote, New Year, new me. New Year, new me. and are looking to self to improve and better oneself. But time and again, it all falls flat. Yes. Congregation, have you learned yet? We need more than a little reform in life. We need regeneration of heart and life by God's grace and spirit. In other words, to put it simply, we each must be born again. And when we are born again, Then we realize sin for what it is, and we look to Christ for who he is, and we pray to him, and we want to belong to him and to live for him. Yes, only then do we find, when we're born again, deliverance from sin and evil, from within us, in spirit and truth, and steadfast purpose and promise of new life and godliness in and through Christ. Hearing all this, you should realize it really gives hope for everyone also here. In regards to the godly aim of Psalm 119, verse 69b, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. With this verse and with this preaching this afternoon, I'm so thankful. I'm not asking you to have this aim by power from within yourself, but calling you to look to the Lord and the power that's with him to give you this aim. When this verse convicts you of your sin and misery of yourself, and how hopeless it is to rely on self ever truly to be saved and really to be sanctified more and more even as the years go by, then call on this God O Lord of Psalm 119, for his initial regenerating and ongoing reviving work, asking time and again God's mercies for Jesus' sake alone, and you will not be put to shame. 2024 doesn't have to be like years before if you have been living in the wrong way. No. For God hears the prayers of poor and needy and the prayers of his people to come to their rescue, to give them new life, which they don't have in themselves. With him is saving, sanctifying powers for all who call on him. And so our text is saying, come to him in faith and repentance, even for a first time or else afresh, again and again, and you will not be put to shame. The godly aim of Psalm 119, 69b, may be your and my aim too. Really, and increasingly, looking to the Lord. And here, I can share with you now why I'm preaching on this text. The last few months, I've been reading the verses 65 to 80 of Psalm 119 almost every day. And you know why? Well, in our family tradition, and as a gospel minister, as some of you will know, I've often matched birthdays either with the Psalms of the person's birthday or with a text of Psalm 119. By the way, I never run out of Scripture, because no one reaches all those verses, right? And all the Psalms. And the verses 65 to 72 are in the time frame of my own age presently. In fact, verse 69 is the verse matching my present age. And reading this verse a few months ago, I reflected on it before God and prayed to him, asking, Lord, is this verse 69b especially now, is it true of me too? Oh, Lord, let it be so, please, for Jesus' sake alone. Don't let me live a single second not wanting this verse to be true of me. In thought, word, and deed, ever looking to Jesus. But I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. Even as I prayed this for myself, I thought, let me with God's help call and urge all others to the same godly aim in life. And again, how wonderful, I think it's wonderful as gospel preacher that we don't have to work up ourselves this aim, but God will give us this aim. As you and I look to him and call upon him for his mercy and grace and his spirit according to his word. Jesus Christ came to save sinners. In doing so, he lived the perfect sinless life, and yet died the death on the cross as one accursed of God, all on behalf of sinners, as God-given substitute for sinners like us, that all who trust and follow him might truly and forever be saved. It's wonderful to meditate further on this congregation. Jesus lived and died with the godly aim of the psalmist of Psalm 119, not just for himself, but for sinners like us. He lived and died in a perfect way with this verse as his aim, that he might accomplish complete and free salvation for all his people, even for as many as hear his voice and repent and believe on him and to follow his precepts. Notice too with the inclination of the psalmist so to live, not only does he realize it for himself as a given inclination, given from God above in his mercy and love, but he, you can't miss it, he's most glad and grateful for this renewed inclination. Over and over he testifies the way of God's precepts is not only the right way that leads to fullness of life and everlasting life, but it's most delightful and it's so good. You can read that, we read it. He doesn't find God's commandments grievous. No, but he finds them rather so liberating, so life-giving, and so fulfilling. God's laws and precepts, we read just in the Teth and Yud sections, they were so much his delight and his joy, even despite how people mistreated and maligned him and made life difficult for him. Verse 65, he exclaims, He explains, you have dealt well with your servant, O Lord, according to your word. Congregation, I ask you, don't all true Christians learn this same testimony by God's grace and spirit? Then you learn to say with the psalmist of Psalm 84, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord gives grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Oh, Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in you. Indeed, and even so, may I earnestly exhort and encourage all, everyone here, from your youngest years, and I emphasize, from your youngest years, your children and young people, to learn from Psalm 119, the godly aim of verse 69b, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. Learn it, looking to the Lord alone. to give you this aim, and to have you keep this aim as the years go by, accompanying it with the psalmist Christian attitude and inclination of heart, his humble attitude and his holy inclination. Don't anyone here continue in sin and unbelief, thinking you can have life in its fullness apart from God in Christ Jesus. No, the way of transgressors is hard. The Bible says so, and it's found out by many sooner or later, and sometimes very painfully. and awfully so. Don't be a fool, but seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near." No Christian ever regrets being truly led and heartily committed in God's ways according to all his precepts. And to see more of this truth, consider yet the third aspect about the psalmist's godly aim, namely the mission that comes along with it as well. doesn't the whole psalm and all of scripture congregation and world history to prove really how wonderfully purposeful and promising and fulfilling life becomes when living with the godly aim of psalm 119 verse 69b when you have this place a blessed aim for your life and me too our lives our lives by god's grace and spirit become guided by his gospel word, and we then live ever looking to Jesus, and we begin more and more to reflect Jesus, testifying of him in love and care for all people, pointing others to the Lord, to Jesus Christ ultimately, the Word made flesh, of whom all the precepts of God testify. Without holiness, though, we cannot faithfully witness to others. But the more we live in the way of Psalm 119, verse 69b, the more you and I become, without us even knowing it sometimes, such positive and good-doing, encouraging, genuine Christian witnesses in our conduct and conversation before others. Oh, let me ask you, just think. Open your eyes and observe with me. Surely, What a blessing in marriage life, and in single life, and in family life, and in church life, and in work life, and school life, and in society life, when you and I have our text. as our motto for life by God's grace and spirit. But I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. Notice how this comes out even in verse 63 and 74 and other verses. Verse 63 testifies, I'm a companion of all who fear you and of those who keep your precepts. And that means he's saying, Lord, I'm a godly friend and helper with all those who seek and serve the Lord in spirit and truth. Verse 74, he tells what a joy so to live. We read there, they who fear you will be glad when they see me. Why? Because I have hoped in your word. In other words, then they will know When you come to them, you will come with wise answers in life's challenges and with rich comforts from God above and his word in life's trials, all founded and grounded on God's inspired, infallible, inerrant word, so full of the good news of the gospel, giving consolation for every wound in life and help in every need in life. truly beloved congregation, nothing can gladden the hearts of God's people so much as seeing others live in hearty, humble repentance and faith and obedience according to His Word before God and our neighbor. And same is true, nothing makes believers so sad as seeing others turn away from God and His Word. and going their own way, especially in our own families when we meet with that. Why? Well, because we've learned and we keep learning. Nothing does so much positive good all around as living by God's precepts. And all turning away from God's precepts always brings sin and misery sooner or later in different ways, in different degrees. And even if unrepented of, eternal ruin in soul and body one day. What does Paul say in 1 Timothy 4, 8? But godliness is profitable to all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. And in 1 Timothy 6, 6, he writes likewise, now godliness with contentment is great gain. For sure, beloved, this is the case. This is how it is. And just look around, you'll know it's true. Life becomes so purposeful, promising, gospel mission oriented in word and deed when living by our text from Psalm 119. You and I never need to be ashamed living that way either by God's grace and spirit. Whereas time and again, painfully and shamefully, we make such a mess of things when we forget or we refuse to live as taught and shown us in God's word. also as revealed in our text. And you know what else? The Bible becomes so rich and increasingly meaningful and helpful to us. We're living by God's grace and spirit in the way of the psalmist of Psalm 119. The Bible is such a wonderful book, inexhaustible. How the writer of the psalmist, he just rejoiced in and with God's word as he lived by it day by day and wanted to live by it more and more. much comfort and direction and joy and treasure and pleasure in God's Word and the way of God's Word. In verse 162 he testifies, I rejoice at your word as one who finds great treasure. In verse 167 he says most emphatically, my soul keeps your testimonies and I love them exceedingly. In verse 72, the last of the 10th section, he professes, the law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver. Do you hear it? How God's people, living by God's word when it's well, keep finding gems and pearls of gospel riches that so thrill and motivate and comfort them in ever seeking and serving the Lord and living all out for Him in line with our text. But I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. Truly how amazing is God's word in all of 66 books. How good within our fellowship also we tell each other, did you know this? Did you know this? When have you read that? It's amazing. The inexhaustible, inestimable treasures of all God's word. Well, I need to end. When you and I live like the believing psalmist in spirit and truth, with his godly aim and resolve, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. And we hold to that with the attitude and inclination and mission. Along with it, as reflected in this text, oh, it makes us a light in this world of darkness. A city on a hill, as the Sunday school children had to learn this week, having us point to Jesus. as a savior we all need. Well, may God so bless then this sermon and apply it that not a single one of us can rest content without the godly aim of Psalm 119, verse 69b, and that we grow and glow to God's glory in praying and aiming so to live and die, God helping us from our earliest years till our last breath. If you know you have miserably failed in this holy aim, confess it. Ask God for renewal and revival, and you will not be put to shame. The Savior is still out freely to forgive sinners, as many as repent of sin and call on him for his mercy and grace. Live now, 2024, with God's word as a lamp to your feet and a light upon your path, having this whole year the aim of 69B. Not only will we be really blessed, but what a blessing we will be. And to God be all the glory. Amen. Let's pray. Oh, Lord, make this word a lamp to our feet indeed, but I will keep your precepts by whole heart. Let none of us continue comfortably without this as our heart aims. And thank you, Lord, that we don't have to work this aim up ourselves. But we may come to you and say, Lord, we don't have it in us. Please work it in us by your spirit and word. And your gospel is that you will do that. And you will do it initially and increasingly. And one day, in glory, we will be perfect in praising you according to all your precepts. What a day that will be. Will you bless this word and forgive us our many, many sins and grant that when we sin, we don't listen to the devil that we can't go back to Jesus and help us to go back to him time and time again. You delight in sinners coming to you and in saints who fail coming to you. for your forgiveness and your renewal. So bless us, Lord, and hear our prayer. Guide us in the week to come in all that we do. May it be reflected in the week ahead that we heard a sermon about what the psalmist lived and taught, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart. Lord, may we so also be blessed by you and be a blessing. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.