Now, it may get a little laborious through these things, but bear with it if you will, because Psalm 119 is going to produce for us as we go along a lot of doctrine that is in the Word of God. You remember I told you that Charles Spurgeon called this the Bible within the Bible. And in this first part here, we're seeing the doctrine of repentance, We're seeing the doctrine of Jesus Christ, because as it goes, David is really speaking about His Messiah to come. And you know that men wrote in the Old Testament and in the New Testament as well, as they were moved on by God. So actually when you're reading Psalm 119, you're not reading just the grand thoughts of David, which I've entitled this, The Grand Thoughts of David, but you're actually reading the very words of God. This is God breathed. And so though He may say some things over and over again, Understand that what I'm trying to do is to listen to the voice of the Lord as well, and take what God has given David back those many years ago, centuries ago, and make it applicable to you today. And to do that without changing the Word of God to fit this nasty culture, I'm not going to do that. But what we hope will transpire is that you'll take the hint that David gives us here about serving the Lord as we should. So now I'm down at the fifth stanza, which is at verse 33. And the Hebrew letter this time is HE. Now notice what David says right away. Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statuettes, and I shall keep it unto the end." Again, we hear David saying, Give me understanding, verse 34, And I shall keep thy law, yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart. Make me to go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do I delight. Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. Turn away mine eyes from beholding, notice this, beholding vanity, and quicken thou me in thy way. Establish thy word unto thy servant who is devoted to thy fear. Turn away my reproach which I fear, for thy judgments are good. Behold, I have longed after thy precepts. Quicken me in thy righteousness. May the Lord bless the reading of His Word. Again, Psalm 119 is a record of those thoughts that David had while reading and studying the Word of God, that that he had available to him in those days, the law if you would. And certainly we all should be reading and studying the Word as David did, and having deep meditations on it. When we say deep meditations, you ought not just read the Bible, but you ought to read a portion of Scripture, a verse, whatever, and ask yourself, what is this saying to me? Am I doing what it says? Can I do what it says? I don't have the power to do what it says. Oh Lord, help me. And Lord, I have been doing what it says and I repent on bended knee right now. But that's how you ought to read the Bible. While you're reading it, you'll happen upon some really, really wonderful things that may just absolutely make you throw your hands up in the air and say, praise God, praise God, from whom all blessings flow. It may cause you to weep because in this you see yourself. Or God speaks directly to you through His words and says, hey, don't you worry about a thing, I got this thing under control. And I like it when He says that, don't you? And so this is David, and he is absolutely having, as I told you last Sunday, an emotional explosion in this psalm. I mean, he's running the gambit. As I told you here, in this psalm alone, we see David, and he is euphoric after these meditations he has, just on verses 1 through 3. And I'm not repeating last Sunday's sermon, hang on to your hats. We're going to get through it. And he became euphoric upon learning that he was a member of the exclusive club of the undefiled. How many of you are members of that club? I am! I'm a member of the undefiled. Verse 1, Blessed are the undefiled in the way. He's euphoric over that, and he has learned that he's on the exclusive path. that leads to and on the right way, that leads to heaven and eternal happiness. There he says it, who walk in the law of the Lord, the ones in the way. Not only that, David was euphoric that he was wearing the exclusive uniform of the undefiled, which was the righteousness of Christ. He looks forward in time by the inspiration and influence of the Holy Ghost and he sees that those who have been redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb are wearing new clothes and those new clothes are the righteousness of Christ. Hey you got on those clothes today that's one thing about we're not walking around naked Now you can be dressed in winter clothes, but the one thing that ought to be shown out of you is your robe of righteousness that's put on you by Jesus Christ. David was thrilled about this because if you got that uniform on, if for him, if you got the uniform on the righteousness of Christ, his Messiah is to come, you are perfect and complete in him. Well, say amen. Perfect and complete in him. No more defilement on us. WE'RE WEARING THE ROBE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, HALLELUJAH, EVEN NOW. But not only was he euphoric about that, he was euphoric about that that uniform had also made him free of condemnation and corruption, and as a result, David had also gained the exclusive privileges of this exclusive club of the undefiled. Those privileges was that David was no longer controlled by sin and wasn't being held responsible for those sins anymore. Because why? Jesus was going to pay them all for him. Every one of them. He saw that in time. We know that's already happened, hasn't it? Our Messiah's already come. Jesus paid it all, all to Him we owe. Sinning let the crimson stain, but He did what? Wash it white as snow. Oh man, David is just absolutely euphoric about this exclusive privileges that he has now. He's had an absolute emancipation. He's had a special adjudication. He's been given an impeccable imputation of Christ's perfection, His righteousness that made him now undefiled. At you and I today, if you have put your trust in Christ Jesus, because of Christ's perfection imputed in us and to us and on us, we are pronounced undefiled in the high court of God Almighty and will hold that position, listen to me, for the rest of eternity. Say amen. Did you catch on? Am I going too fast? I can slow down, but we'll be here a long time. Listen, by the imputation of Christ's righteousness, we'll be allowed into heaven. Without it, we couldn't get in. In case you didn't know, imputation means something accounted to or charged to someone. That's what imputation is. And so what God has done, imputing to us the righteousness of Christ, He has charged Christ's righteousness to our account. Our account was filled with nothing but one sin after another. Oh, what a mess! But the Lord took that all away and wrote on our account the Lord's own righteousness. It's accounted to us! It's made ours by believing in Christ and His salvation. We first find the understanding of this grand procedure in Psalm 31 verses 1 and 2. Turn there. I preached this text at my dad's funeral. Boy, I was so excited to get to preach that at his funeral. Oh my goodness, my dad had been a hopeless drunk all those years, and the Lord got ahold of him and saved him, and imputed to him Christ's righteousness, and I was so thrilled to stand up before that crowd and preach this line right here. Blessed is he, verse 1, Psalm 32, whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. Your sins are not charged to you anymore. It's what verse 2 says. Well, say amen, somebody. No longer. Verse 2 tells us that our sins are no longer charged to us. That is imputed to us because the Father charged Christ with our crimes of sin, laid them on Him, and summarily sentenced Him to the death due to us, poured out His wrath on Him that was due to us. That is why the Apostle John tells us in 1 John 2 that Christ is our propitiation whereby Christ paid for our sins and satisfied God's demands for justice that was on us. Very few churches will hear that kind of message today. Thank God your pastor has been given understanding so you can hear it. Not that I'm anything, I'm nothing. I'm just the vessel that He's chosen, but my, what grand doctrine this is. That should make you euphoric all the time, knowing that the record of your sins was put on Christ's account. And that sin no longer defiles you. You are the undefiled. That's why David was euphoric. And then reality set in as I told you in verse 4. His euphoria turned to exasperation. David realized that his best efforts weren't that good. Verse 5 and 6, remember that? "...Oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes," he writes, "...then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments?" He's embarrassed. He's embarrassed. Because He had been, and He cries out in verse 8, O forsake me not utterly. And so in His exasperation, verse 9, He blurts out before God, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? I have not been able to do it. And God answers Him back by taking heed thereto according to Thy Word, to His Word, the Lord's Word. And with God's reply and plea burning in his mind, he reflected on how he had done business, reviewed his account so far, and he regroups, repents, refocuses attention, and cries out, verse 18, Open my eyes that I may behold, that is, see and understand the wondrous things out of the Lord's law, begging for divine vision, divine discernment, divine devotion, so that he could keep the Lord's Word. And as you get down to verse 26, he cries out, I have declared my ways, I've repented, I've declared my sins, my problems, my inability to keep your Word, and I know, says David, thou heardest me, you heard my prayer, and might I add, David says, you see me as well. That's my words, paraphrasing. So, Lord, says David, I'm going to be able to know and keep thy word if you, God, teach me thy statutes. Verse 27, only you can make me to understand the ways of thy precepts. Then and only then shall I talk of thy wondrous works. Until you do, Lord, verse 28, my soul melteth for heaviness. YOU MUST STRENGTHEN THOU ME ACCORDING UNTO THY WORD. And in verse 29, he starts hitting the pavement hard with his hand. REMOVE FROM ME THE WAY OF LYING, AND GRANT ME THY LAW GRACIOUSLY. Verse 30, I have chosen the way of truth, NOW. THY JOSEPHS HAVE I LAID BEFORE ME, NOW. I have stuck unto thy testimonies now, O Lord, put me not to shame. I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart so that I can. And then we come to the fifth stanza. And David now begins to be the earnest David. He had been emotional, now he's the earnest David. If a young man can only cleanse his way, verse 9, by taking heed thereto according to the Lord's word, in David's mind there was no time to waste. David wanted to get started right now making amends, but also understanding and following the Lord as he should. He wants more of verses 1 through 3. He wants the blessings of the undefiled in the way that he might walk in the law of the Lord. He wants the blessings of those, verse 2, that keep His testimony, that seek the Lord with all their heart. And certainly, He wants the blessing of those that also do no iniquity because they walk in His ways. And this, beloved, is what every believer SHOULD want. Give yourself a check up from the heart up. Do you want the blessings of the Lord on your life? As the undefiled are said to be blessed, here in verses 1 through 3. I do, I got my hand up. How can you know the Lord's way and walk in the law of the Lord? How can you keep His testimonies and seek the Lord with your whole heart? And certainly, how are you going to abstain from sin and iniquity in order to walk in His way? Well, you've got to know the Lord. You've got to know the power of His resurrection. And in and of ourselves, you all know we all got weak minds in this church. We need help. Well this is in fact what David wants and is asking for here. David wants the blessings of knowing the Lord up front and personal. He wants the blessings of close communion with the Lord. But most of all, he wants more than anything to know the Lord with his whole heart that he might never offend the Lord in any way. Listen, if you ever begin to have a close personal relationship with the Lord, you'll be concerned about how you treat Him. You'll be concerned about how He feels. You'll love Him so much you won't want to do Him any wrong. Do you feel that way now? Do you love Him so much? Are you acquainted with Him so well that you don't want to hurt Him? Listen, one thing you've got to understand, don't you ever believe that our Father and His Son and the Holy Ghost have no feelings. Don't ever believe that. They have feelings. Hey listen, Jesus wept over that crowd at Lazarus' tomb. And He was weeping because He had done so many miracles right in front of them before their faces. And here they were weeping over a dead man, for crying out loud, who has gone on to paradise, if anything, having a party over there. But he wept when he saw their unbelief. Everybody says, I've heard that so much it makes me sick. He was weeping because he was so close to Lazarus and Lazarus was gone. He knew where Lazarus was. He even told Martha, I am the resurrection life. I know where he's at. I told Debbie, don't let him be crying, carrying on at my funeral. If you're gonna cry about me, cry after I'm gone. But throw a party for crying out loud. And David said, I will. He's gone, hallelujah. Brian definitely will. No, rejoice because I've gone on to be with Jesus. I've gone to my heavenly reward. Praise God, the very thing I've been preaching about for years, I get to do, hallelujah. You get to do when you depart this world. Some of us may go into rapture, hallelujah. but everybody gets so sobbing. If you're gonna do some crying about a departing loved one, cry over the one who died in their sins and went to hell. That's the one that ought to break your heart. That's the one that ought to throw you on the face and go, oh Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord. Man, I've done those funerals. Oh, how hard it is to preach the funeral of one that's died in their sins and gone to hell, and you know it. All you can do at best is comfort the family. That's all you can do. And preach the gospel to them. You don't want to go where HE went. SHE went. Cause you know where they are. And of course, I don't ever get that bold and say it like that. I don't want to hurt no one's feelings at that funeral. They're grieving, crying out loud. But you understand what I'm saying? David doesn't want to offend the Lord. So precious has the Lord become to him, has been to him, that the Lord has become to David one that sticketh closer than a brother. David's own son, Solomon, wrote in Proverbs 18, 24, that a man that hath friends must show himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother, and in this case, it is Christ to him. To the father, to him. They're family! Solomon wrote that in Proverbs 18. He got that from his daddy. His daddy no doubt taught his son the facts of it is, if you're going to have friends, you have to do some friendship yourself. You've got to show yourself friendly. And when you do, if you'll be friendly and you'll do the right thing, you'll have people stick closer to you than a brother. The Lord had certainly become a friend to David and David had come to realize what Jesus had said to his disciples in John 15, 14. Jesus said to his disciples, you are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth, I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my father I have made known unto you. And David fits in this category in the sense that God had revealed things to David. He had revealed to no one else. Wanting this friendship on a deeper level, David had to know more and do more if he would to have it. He wanted to be as good a friend to the Lord as the Lord had been to him. Have you got any friends like that? Who really, really are nice to you, love on you, help you? Don't you want to do something for them or are you a taker and not a giver? Man, I'm sick of people like that. They always take, but they'll never give. When you need them, you can't find them. And certainly, they're not the kind of person that will surprise you and come and say, Hey, can I do something for you? What can I do for you? I got some friends that, man, I'll tell you, on every level, they are true friends. They're concerned about me. They love on me. I'm sure you have some too. He certainly didn't want to be a fair-weather friend to the Lord. That would be offensive. You know what a fair-weather friend is, don't you? He wanted to be the friend that Proverbs 17 says that a real friend does. Proverbs 17, 17 says that the friend that sits closest to him as a brother loveth at all times. Loveth at all times. He's a kind of friend where never is heard a discouraging word. And his clouds were not cloudy all day. Oh, his skies were not cloudy all day. David knew that God was his friend because God had said he was a man after his own heart. And David could not treat him less than he was being treated in his mind. This was His Father. And you don't disrespect Father or your brother Jesus Christ. You just don't. And certainly you don't want to be a disobedient son. You don't want to be a disobedient daughter. And certainly David had felt the chastening wrath of God enough to know that. You better fear the Father because He can whip out that rod any time and light you up if you refuse to honor Him, respect Him for who He is and what He is. I thought about this as I was putting this sermon together for myself. How many times has the Lord had to chasten you? And I also brought this to my mind as I was thinking on that. How much of a friend have I been to Christ? Have I paid Him lip service? Does He get the dregs of my life, the crumbs? 164 hours in a week, how many of those does He get? from you. He gives you all 164 in the air that you breathe so you can live in the midst of it. And you give Him the crumbs? Shame on you! He gives a couple of hours here and there. If you meet every church service you're only here three hours total. You ever think to look in the Word of God to see Just what you're supposed to be doing? You ever look to see that if you don't do it, it constitutes sin? David was extremely aware of this and said in verse 11, Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. This wasn't a one-time concern with David that prompted this psalm or any of his psalms. He felt like this all the time. It was an ongoing concern for David. Thus, the earnest David, is this who this is? No. The earnest David entreats the Lord. Now, if you don't know what that word entreat means, it means to literally beg. In this case, it is an intransitive verb which means to make an earnest or urgent plea. Often in emotional terms and believe me folks David was an emotional guy all Musicians and poets are they're emotional guys. That's why they write the way they write because they take things emotionally God's people ought to be emotional about the fact that they're not going to hell that they're going to heaven, that they're going to live out their eternity in bliss. David was a quintessential passionate man because of this emotion. The very fact the Lord's feelings were so serious and such serious business to David, and such business required immediate action in his mind, and so he takes immediate actions. He begins to do the right thing toward God that very hour, that very day, and falls on his face and cries out, pleads with the Lord, TEACH ME OH LORD! I don't want to go into the day the way I've been going. And listen folks, that word teach is fantastic. I started doing a little research by accident on the word teach. Teacher in the Hebrew is a fascinating word because what it says is something that you would never expect, or the translation of in the Hebrew, you would never expect. Here are the definitions of teach in the Hebrew. To throw, to shoot, to cast, to pour, to lay, to set, to throw water, literally rain, and also direct teach and instruct. Did you hear what I said definitions were for teach in Hebrew? To throw, to shoot. to cast, to pour. I think that's wild. If you reconstruct verse 33, we have David here pleading, O Lord, throw into me the way of thy statuettes, by definition. O Lord, shoot into me the way of thy statuettes. O Lord, cast into me the way of thy statuettes. O Lord, pour into me the way of thy statuettes. Throw in the water of your word into me. That's what that word teach is. It's just not teach me. Man, this is a word that explodes in the Hebrew to say, hey, do whatever you got to do, but get it into me. Rain on me, flood me with the water of your word. After all these years now, I understand Ephesians chapter 5 verse 26 a lot better, which reads that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. I finally get that. Oh, I understood it, don't get me wrong. But there's some depth and detail there, some urgency in there, and some explosiveness to it. Washing of the Word, the Word washing me, flooding my soul, flooding my being. That's what it's all about. Jesus' words to the woman at the well is in this case. Jesus said to her in John 4, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked him, and he would have given thee living water. Not just that water in the well, no sir. And the woman said to him, Sir, you didn't even bring a pot to draw it out with. How can you give me any water? And Jesus answered and said unto her in verse 13, whosoever drinketh of this water, meaning the water in the well, shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. So we could even read in a real sense, David's plea in verse 33 is, O Lord, drown me in thy statutes. I have often heard my teachers in school, my professors in college say, we are going to submerse ourselves in this subject. You ever heard that? We're going to submerse ourselves in this. Submerse. And if you're serious about a relationship with the Lord, you want to be submerged in Him. You want to be submerged in His Word. Yea, drownded in and with His Word. Think of your wife or your husband. When you met them, began to fall in love with them, you submerged yourself into them and about them. You wanted to know everything about them. You wanted to be near them. Every time you'd kiss goodbye and they had to go home to their house, you went to yours. Oh man, you ached. Oh my goodness. Every time you... Oh my goodness. That first year of marriage, or that first three days, whichever it was for you. Oh, how you ache when they weren't at the house. Oh, oh, you were so submersed in them, you just could not stand to have them out of your sight. Well, this is what David is asking from the Lord. David tells the Lord that he needs Him this way. And he promises, if you'll teach Him, you'll keep it unto the end. David is saying the same thing you said in your wedding vows. Literally, it's the same as saying, until death do us part. That's what David's saying here in verse 33, until death do us part. Of course, death will not separate the undefiled from the Lord. If anything, it gets us up close and personal even more so, right? However, the idea here for David is that he means for the rest of his natural life, Father, he wants to be submerged in the Lord so that he can observe God's law, His statutes and precepts with his whole heart, verse 34. David pleads in verse 34, "...give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law, yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart." And this won't be an external exercise that David will do simply by going to the temple, no! Rather, David is saying that God's Word will become His life. His lifestyle. Not just something he picks up and reads in the morning time, a few verses and goes on. Or at night before he goes to bed. No, no. He says, this is going to be my lifestyle. Everything that I do will be saturated with the Word, performed by the Word, lived outwardly from the inwardly of my being for you. That's why we have the urgent David here. LIFE OF HIM WAS UTTERLY INCOMPLETE IF HE COULD NOT HONOR THE LORD BY LIVING FOR THE LORD AND KEEPING THE WORD OF THE LORD. AND YOUR LIFE WILL STAY INCOMPLETE UNLESS YOU START HONORING HIM BY GIVING HIM THE FIRST FRUITS OF YOUR BEING. FIRST FRUITS OF YOUR POCKETBOOK. FIRST FRUITS OF YOUR TIME. FIRST FRUITS OF YOUR TALENT. FIRST FRUITS OF YOUR TITHE. Your life will stay incomplete. You'll not be a success at anything. God will not honor anything you do. He'll blow holes in your pockets and what money you do make will go right out the door. You won't have anything that you can really hold on to. You'll have more month than you'll have money. And it's all said and done. As long as you refuse to submerge yourself in the Word, as long as you refuse to submerge yourself in Christ, you'll stay in a state of angst and confusion. You'll have a shallow existence with nothing of your own. Sickness and depression will be your life. There is no blessing for you if you do not bless the Lord with genuine love and friendship. And a true friend sticks closer than a brother. If you don't love Him, then He has no reason to bless you. Why should He give you anything when you give Him nothing but the crumbs of the relationship? Why live a paltry existence like that? Even the man who is poor, and lives in a decrepit house that has the Lord and is submerged in the Lord, is happy in the Lord, is wealthier than you. Secondly, we have the submissive David. We've seen the urgent David now pleading with the Lord. We have the submissive David. Verses 35 through verse 39. There he says, Make me to go, Incline my heart. This is David being submissive. Make me to go. Incline my heart. Turn away mine eyes. Quicken thou me. Establish thy word. Turn away my reproach. This is David actually singing one of our hymns. You know it? This is David singing one of our hymns here. Have thine own way, Lord. Have thine own way. Thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mow me and make me at your thy will. While I am waiting, yielded and still. Of course, David's last line would not be that way. That's the Arminian line that we sing on the last line of that song. You know it, don't you? While I am waiting, yielded and still. That's the Arminian way. David was a Calvinist. Here's how he sang the hymn. He sang it this way, those last two lines. That's how David would have sang that hymn. This is David saying, do whatever it takes to instill thy word in me. I must have it, he says, for I want to delight in your word, he says in verse 35. Look at there. I want to delight in your word. He pleads for his heart to be fixed on the Lord's testimonies and not covetousness, meaning the things of the world. He doesn't want the wealth and riches that he has. all the concubines he has, all the wealth that he has to ever be a stumbling block or a roadblock to having his heart fixed on the Lord's testimony. Fie on that, get rid of all that in David's mind. I want you, Lord, not all of that. This is the basis of Proverbs chapter 3 verse 1 through 14. There Solomon writes, My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments for length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee, bind them about thy neck, write them upon the table of thine heart. So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. Ted's favorite verses, by the way. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord, depart from evil. It shall be health to thine navel, marrow to thine bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine, increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. My son, despise not the chasing of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father to his son, in whom he delighteth. Then verse 13 and 14 of that proverb he writes happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that get it to understanding for the Merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver and the gain thereof than fine gold and that's what David wants not gold and silver But the Lord calls this greater better finer than anything you'll possess That's what Solomon wanted and God and That's what Solomon wanted. And God, when he asked the Lord for wisdom and understanding instead of riches, power, and prestige. Did you know that? God asked Solomon, what do you want? Solomon could have asked for the moon and the stars all over the world and God would have given it to him. But no. He says, no, you just give me wisdom and knowledge. that I might be able to rule these people." And God said, Because you didn't ask for wealth, I'm going to give it to you anyway. Oh man, blew his barns up so much was given to him. David also knew that the pride of life was ever before him, and he knew that that pride of life was actually death in disguise. Thus he pleads with the Lord in verse 37. Are you looking with me? David says, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken thou me in thy way. Make me alive to your way only. Make me truly alive with a life-giving source of your word. It's what he is saying when he asks the Lord to quicken or make him alive in the right way. David knows this is fact because he pleads in verse 38, Establish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear." He knows this is fact. He knows what the Lord can do to a rebellious child, a disobedient son or daughter. Thus David says he fears the Lord and is devoted to that fear, knowing that the Lord is able to do the very things to him that he had done to the nations around them who refused him. And then he cries in verse 39, Turn away my reproach. Lord, don't spank me. Don't whip me, which I fear. I know for a fact that thy judgments are good. Reproach here is acknowledging his flesh that was naturally inclined to sin, which was a tool of Satan most days for David, and it's a tool of Satan for you too. You know that. Your flesh eats you alive every day, doesn't it? You want to do good, but boy, that flesh. I wish there was some time I could reach up here and there'd be a switch that I could turn my brain off. Debbie thinks I never have turned it on. I like to shut down, because I'll tell you what, some of the things that run through my mind makes me even sick. Which brings us, lastly, to the PERSISTENT David. We had the URGENT David, we've had the SUBMISSIVE David, and now we've got the PERSISTENT David. Verse 40, David says, Behold, I have longed after thy precepts. Make me alive in thy righteousness, please, Lord. Notice that word LONGED here. That means he's literally PINING for it. Oh, his heart's aching for it. David has wanted to be totally submerged in the Lord's words, in the Lord's way, in the Lord's will for a long, long time. But he, like all of us, had allowed and will allow outside influences to keep us boxed up with a host of other priorities and pretties and playthings. David had been there. He had been just outside the blessings of the undefiled more than He wanted to be. Some of you stay just outside the infinite blessings of God on your life because your priorities are so messed up. Chase natural pretties and playthings. You are more interested in pleasuring your flesh than you are pleasing God. You know, God, through the Apostle Paul, tells us that perilous times will come because men will be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. And we are. We are in the age of the Laodicean church. The Laodicean church of Revelation 3 was increased with goods and had need of nothing, they said. What did Jesus say about them? They were poor, blind, and naked. These were church people He was saying this about. We are in that age now. Big old fine campuses of these churches, and yet you will never hear repentance preached, Christ crucified preached, It's all about me, it's all about I, it's about number one. But the blessing of utter all-encompassing communion with the Lord, that deep personal relationship that one could have with the Lord, is always just out of reach. And it wasn't because the Lord was withholding that relationship. God's arms are always stretched out wide. especially to his people. But David too many times wanted to get down and run with the world. And friends, you can't serve God and the world at the same time. Jesus says you will love one and hate the other. David pleads with the Lord to drag him out of that grave of death. That's what the word quicken is here, you know that, right? I mean, we go to Providence Baptist Church, the pastor there knows what quicken means in both Hebrew and Greek. And he just doesn't want a SENSE of salvation. He doesn't just want the salvation that's a get-out-of-jail, get-out-of-hell-free card, and that's jail too. He wants to be submerged in it to where this is an ONGOING DAILY TIME WITH THE LORD. Because here is where the banquet table of the blessings of God reside. This is where living begins. Here's where the Lord's righteousness becomes a feast of heavenly dishes that will fill you up continually if you're in relationship with Him. In Christ are all the comforts and joys of heaven. In Christ's righteousness there is strength to live in this perverse world and excel in whatever pursuit God may allow you to have and enjoy. God don't want you to be depressed. Really, He doesn't. God will give you the desires of your heart if you'll draw nigh unto Him. And David was persistent here. That's exactly what he wanted. Listen, the earnest David That emotion of earnestness made him see this thing as urgent. Thus, he was submissive to God, and just in case, he was persistent with God. Listen, I want to tell you the hour grows late, and you may not like these sermons. I'm sorry, that's what was given and that's what I've gave. But I'm telling you, I'm telling you, when I say the hour grows late, soon and very soon we're going to see our King. You know what Jesus says before He leaves the world? Jesus says, will I find faith on the earth when I come? Will I find faith? Now, He knows whether or not He will, but what a slap at us. What a slap that is. That's him saying to us, Are you really mine? Are you really my friend? Do you really care about me? He put Peter to that test at the end of the book of John. Peter, lovest thou me? Be my sheep. Lord, you know I love you. I know I love you. Peter, lovest thou me? Feed my sheep. Lord, you know I love you for crying out loud. You know I love you. This is the guy who has just dove into the water naked because he's out there fishing at night time when he should have been serving the Lord like he ought to have been. He had already went back to his old career. Remember that sermon I troubled? One of the first things that you hear Peter say, the post-resurrection Jesus is still on the planet in physical form. They all had their arms wrapped around his legs. Wait a second, don't go nowhere, stay right here with me. No, Peter says, I go fishing. And the other disciples says, we go with you. Back to their old careers thinking this is, it was fun while it lasted. It was fun while it lasted. Peter, lovest thou of me? Lord, how can you know that I love you? Feed my lambs. I mean, he goes after him, after him, after him, because he knew, he knew for a fact that unless these boys submerged themselves in the word like they ought to, back to the old ways. And Jesus wasn't about to leave that to chance for them or us. You know what He did? He sent the Holy Ghost to submerge us. But don't you grieve Him by you not taking what He says for you to do. We don't do it for salvation, you do it because of salvation. We are created under good works. And the greatest work you can do is learn this Word. Spend time meditating on Him. Have a relationship with Him. Thank you, Lord, for Your Word today. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.