So I decided to walk the line with empty feet I'll take it all, I will take it all If someone's lost faith, it's okay It's time now for the Hedges and Highways radio broadcast featuring evangelist Robert Jones. Please stay tuned at the end of today's broadcast for an address where you can send all correspondence. And now with today's message, here's Brother Robert Jones. Welcome back to a Friday's installment of the Hedges and Highways radio broadcast. I'm your radio preacher evangelist, Robert Jones. It is a joy to be back with you. Hope you're doing well. Appreciate the goodness of the Lord. What a week. Man, it's been full. It has been super busy, and I hope that you've had a good week as well. Well, let's get back into the Scriptures, but we're in Psalms 119, verse 48. We'll be finishing up this section of the ladder, and we'll be in verse 48 here today. I do want to encourage you again to be in God's house Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, revival meetings, and pray that God will meet with you in a most definite way, and asking the Lord to do a great, great work amongst the hearts of His people. And again, we're grateful for the opportunity to be in God's house this Sunday morning, Sunday night, and we're looking forward to the services that God's going to allow us and afford us to be in. and excited about it, really, and looking forward to it in a most definite, definite way. Well, again, we have been looking at this segment of this great portion of Scriptures, and we'll be finishing it up today. And it has helped me in how God wants us to connect with Him, but yet how God made a way for us to connect through Him. And that, of course, prayer, but one means that He allows us, and it's a two-fold conversation. It's difficult to have a one-way conversation with somebody. And may I say, God has made it in such a way that we can pray to Him, and that's that communion back and forth. And then also the way He communes back to us is through His Word, and that is that ladder. And this psalmist, I sort of just have put it as he's taking steps, so shall I have. And when you climb a ladder, usually you're climbing it by yourself, and that's not a wise thing to climb a ladder with somebody else. for I trust, for I have hoped, so shall I keep thy law. And see, it's just a steady step towards God. I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts, I will speak of thy testimonies, and I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved. Then verse 48 says, my hand also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved, and I will meditate on thy statues." You see, you need to go through and circle all these I's, and this ain't a prideful I. No, this is a purposeful of what he told the Lord he would do. Can I say you've got to be—I know there's people who have written books of purpose-driven life and all this stuff, and I'm not against them. They may have some good truths in them. I've never read them, but I will say that this individual here, whoever this psalmist is—some say it was David, some say it's others—but can I say whoever the psalmist is, and God knows, but I do know it was written by the Holy Ghost because it's an inspired book, God is re-emphasizing, these are things that we need to do. This psalmist says, I have, and I trust. And you've got the three here. You've got the the triplets, I guess you could say. Faith, where he says, for I trust. Hope, where he says, I have loved. or I have hoped in thy judgments. And the third one is here where it's in verse 7, which I have loved, and again in verse 48, which I have loved. So you got faith, hope, and charity. Isn't that what 1 Corinthians 13, 13 is? These three remain, you know, faith, hope, and charity. Can I say there's that aspect of those triplets that are together? But this psalmist says, "...my hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved." Now, the psalmist is declaring that he is going to lift his hands, okay? He's not going to allow anything to hinder that. Now, he's doing it by himself, and this is the true character of an individual. What you do by yourself is who you really are. And he was going to lift the hands, as usually what it is, is a gesture in the Old Testament always associated with prayer. Well, you read Psalms 28 too, hear the voice of my supplication when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracles. Can I say that it is that aspect of when we pray, when they prayed in the Old Testament, they would get on their knees and they would lift their hands with their palms up towards the heavens. Can I say he was not going to allow anything to hinder his prayer life? Oh, I would dare say that many have allowed the busyness of the day to hinder their prayer life, because I have to say, guilty as charged. We would all have to say that, would we not? I mean, we get up and we've got our days planned, and sometimes we plan more in a day than a day can hold. And then we plan out, don't get mad at me, but we plan out a prayer life. Oh, I'm too busy, Lord. I'll talk to you later. No, no. This psalmist says, I'm not going to allow the things of this world to hinder my prayer life. And oh, by the way, Psalms 119, the majority of it is nothing more than just a prayer. and that it is that associate. He says, my hands also, and not only do we see that in Psalms 128 verse 2, but look at what it says in Psalms 141 verse 2, let my prayer be set forth before thee as an incense. and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice. Can I say it is that gesture of prayer. This psalmist says, I'm not going to allow anything to hinder that. Oh, I would say that we need not to allow anything to hinder our prayer life. Can I say, not only did he say, my hands also will I lift up thy commandment. It's also not only associated with his prayer, but it's also associated with praise and honor. Can I say Psalm 6234, thus will I bless thee while I live, I will lift up my hands in thy name. Psalms 134 verse 2, lift up your hands in the sanctuary and bless the Lord. Oh, can I say that we should not only not allow things to hinder our prayer life, but can I say sometimes we allow things to hinder our praise. This psalmist says, oh, I'm not, I will lift up my hand unto thy commandment. We need to praise God, and the book of Psalms is really There's a lot of Psalms in here about praise. Psalms 113, of course, it talks about, praise ye the Lord, and it's those Hallelujah Psalms, and can I say there's a bunch of those? I think there's quite a few of those, and then you look at towards the end of Psalms, and praise ye the Lord. Can I say, the Lord's worthy to be praised. He inhabiteth He does inhabit the praise of men. Oh, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Can I say, we need to be say-so Christians in that we need to be praising Him and honoring Him and glorifying Him and worshiping Him and praying to Him. But what have you allowed to hinder that? People? I will say that we've allowed some people to, I believe, rob God of His praise. I remember quite a few years ago, and it's not been that long really, I was during the height of COVID, God gave me a message on praising God in your darkest hour. And boy, I lived through that. It was a dark, dark time in my life. You know, I had COVID just like many of y'all have. Not many who haven't. And tragically, I know some have died. I do know that. And mine was getting close in my oxygen level tank there. And it got pretty critical in a degree, not like some. But boy, I remember how I wasn't praising God. And boy, the Lord, He really smoked my heart one day, one morning, and I was really in the mully grubs and complaining and murmuring, you know, like a good Baptist, and just whining, really, because I thought I was leaving this old world. I did, I'm being honest with you, and it was a very I tell you, it was a very, to me, a very oppressing time. I won't go into all the details about it, but it was rough on me. I had to talk to my pastor about it and different things of that nature, and he helped me through the scriptures, which I was grateful, but God helped me one day in the midst of all that. And I remember a butterfly was flying across my yard, and it was a black one. And I said, Lord, really, a black one? I mean, it was early in the morning. I was drinking a cup of coffee I couldn't taste, and the sun was shining. I was feeling the warmth of the morning, and I was just sitting out. I had a rocking chair out there on my recliner, or out there on my porch, and I'd rock. And I'd sit there and drink my coffee in this black butterfly, and I said, really, Lord, a black one? Why not a yellow, an orange one, a bright one? And I remember that butterfly, that black old butterfly flying across our yard, and we had an old purple flower in a little old flower bed there, and the only thing that was blooming, and that butterfly landed on that little purple flower that morning and was sucking the morning nectar out of that flower. Oh, I remember the Lord. He says, if I can take care of that butterfly, I'm well able to take care of you. And I've got this. And boy, the Lord really helped me that morning. What I was allowing to rob God of His praise, oh, God turned it around and I got to where I could praise Him again. Can I say, so many times we allow things to rob God of his praise. This psalmist says, my hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments. The psalmist was not saying he would pray to God's word, rather he was saying he loved for the God's commandment stirred him to pray. Can I say it also offered praise and honor to the Lord, and in addition to that, the psalmist's love for the scripture stirred him to affirm once again his commitment, here it is, to meditate faithfully on it. Can I say what we need in our day is people to get back to that commitment of faithfully meditating on God's Word? We meditate on our status and things of that nature and likes and dislikes and all the things of what's going on in the world, and we need to guard against anything that might rob us of the fullness of the power and the blessings that flow from God's Word. Can I say sin in our lives can hinder us, hinder God's Word from working in us as well as for us? This psalmist, by seeking His law, striving with all his might to obey His commandments and principles, he got to where he could enjoy the full power of God's Word and His life and blessings that it brings and freedom from bondage of sin and these glorious blessings. Can I say, notice again the commitment to the psalmist made. You see that he committed in verses 43 and 46 to speak of God's Word. He had hope in God's Word in verse 43. He obeyed God's Word in verse 44. He seeked God's Word in verse 45. He was unashamed of God's Word in verse 46. He delighted in God's Word in verse 47 and loved God's Word in verse 47. But then he was going to honor, and not only that, but meditate on God's Word in verse 48. If we would follow these examples and have that full assurance of God will grant us what we need according to His Word, then why would you not speak of God's Word and put your faith in His Word and keep it and obey it? Seek it with all thy heart. Be unashamed of God's Word. Delight in it. Love it. Honor it. And not only that, but meditate on it. This psalmist says he was going to lift up his hands in prayer and praise to the Lord, giving him honor for what? His holy word. We're blessed here in America. We really are. We've got the answer to the world's problems. And the answer to America is not in a presidential election, and I'm not going to get political, but our answer is always going to be founded and rooted in God's Word. Why do you think it's such under attack? Why do you think they have strived to take it out of our schools and out of the Ten Commandments, out of our buildings and things of that nature? It is because what can help our nation the most, and if the devil can drive you away from God's Word, he knows he can drive you away from the power that this nation needs. God help us in this day to connect back with God like this ladder that he's talking about, God's word that will connect us to him. Oh, would we get back on the rungs of the ladder of the word of God again? Would we dive in it and meditate on it faithfully in this day? Again, Sunday's coming. What an opportunity for us to connect back to God is through his word. I got to go. I hope you have a great weekend. God bless you is my prayer. Thank you for joining Brother Jones for the Hedges and Highways radio broadcast. You can address all correspondents to Robert Jones, Post Office Box 812, Horseshoe, NC 28742, or you can email rljanchor at gmail.com. Tune in again next time, and may the Lord bless you.