Let's turn our attention to the ministry of the Word this morning. I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 119. And we're going to look this morning at verses 129 to 136. And while you're turning there, let me just give a quick plug this morning for the colorables that we have for the children. We are trying to give parents, we're trying to give more resources, if you will, to your children so that while the ministry of the word is taking place, they can have something to kind of follow along with and maybe connect. And so to that end, we're trying to provide a colorable for the morning and the evening. This is out there on the in the counter, and it corresponds to the sermon this morning, and there's one tonight with hearts, and it corresponds to the sermon this evening. Tara Schultz, our administrative secretary, is sending those out on the listserv every week, and then we try to print some out. So those are there. I just want to encourage you to try to get those before before or right after Sunday school, probably before Sunday school, before they transform that welcome center into a snack area, but then when they transform it back, it's gonna be there. So boys and girls, this is for you to follow along with, and I'm gonna ask you questions along the way, okay? And it looks like you've got a little figure here with a lantern, and that lantern is lighting the path. So we're gonna talk about how the Word of God lights the path before us, alright? And I want you to talk with your mommy and daddy about that after church today. Well, I hope you found Psalm 119 verses 129 to 136. In just a moment I'll read that. Many of you who are members here, you know that I normally am expositing Psalm 119 in the evening. I've decided to switch them. Doing Song of Solomon tonight in preparation for the Lord's Table seemed more fitting. And just for this one time we're going to consider Psalm 119 in the morning. So let's give our attention to Psalm 119 verses 129 to 136. The psalmist says, your testimonies are wonderful, therefore my soul keeps them. The unfolding of your words gives light and imparts understanding to the simple. I open my mouth and pant because I long for your commandments. Turn to me and be gracious to me as is your way with those who love your name. Keep steady my steps according to your promise and let no iniquity get dominion over me. Redeem me from man's oppression that I may keep your precepts. Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your statutes. My eyes shed streams of tears because people do not keep your law. Thus far the reading of God's word, grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord stands forever and we are thankful for it. Would you bow with me this morning and let's ask the Lord for help in the ministry of the word. Father God, what a joyous morning it has been. It's not Easter, but we sing of the resurrection, and we thank you, Father, that we don't have to wait till Easter. We could sing about it every Sunday, because this is the day that the Lord has made, and let us rejoice and be glad in it. And Father, we pray that in the same way that when you converted us, you resurrected our dead souls. We were dead in our trespasses and sins, and you made us alive together with Christ. that Father, you would do another reviving work in our souls this morning. As we hear your word, Father, I pray that your Spirit would teach us, would lead us along paths of righteousness for your name's sake, and that through the ministry of the word, Father, we would love the word more. We would perhaps even, some of us, think of the word in categories and terms that we've never thought of it before. And that Father, you would give us a heart on fire for your word. We ask all these things in Christ's name. Amen. Well, many of you know that this is a stanza within Psalm 119. There are 22 stanzas in Psalm 119. Each stanza corresponds to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And this morning, we're looking at a particular stanza. It's the Pei stanza. It's roughly equivalent to the P in English. And it's interesting because this stanza kind of like tonight is talking about love. Really, this stanza is something of a love poem to or about the Word. It's a love poem about the Word. Now, I want you to think about this for a second. I'm not a poet. I've said this many times. In the pulpit, I'm not a poet. I'm not even close to a poet. Whenever I try to write a poem, it's soon forgotten and probably thrown away, okay? But there's other things that I, you know, think with me for a moment. Besides your husband or wife, and I hope that that is someone that you would want to write a love poem to, what other things would you like to write a love poem about? I mean, I know at my age, I would love to write a love poem about my ice packs for my knees. They just make my knees feel so wonderful. I'm serious. It's amazing what those things do. I could write a love poem about naproxen or Aleve because it takes away the pain in my body. But of course, it's temporary. But have you ever, as a Christian in your life, have you ever thought about writing a love poem about the Word of God? I can't say that I have, certainly poets in the past have, but here we have something of a love poem about the Word of God. And I just want you to notice this morning a few things in this love poem. Here's the first thing I want you to notice. I want you to notice in verse 129 the wonder that the psalmist has for the Word. the wonder that the psalmist has for the Word. Verse 129, your testimonies are wonderful, therefore my soul keeps them. I want you to see the connection here between the indicative and the imperative. In other words, what God has done and what those wonders call us to do. Think about it for a second. Boys and girls, have you ever been to a magic show and the magician gets up there and he takes off his top hat and he reaches into that top hat and what does he pull out? He pulls out a rabbit, right? Well, guess what? It's all smoke and mirrors. It's all bait and switch. It's all a trick. You see, the magician has tricked you. They figured out a way to give you the idea that something has really come out of nothing. But something hasn't come out of nothing. But you know what God did at the beginning of this universe and world? He spoke a word and universes leapt into existence. Somebody told me the other day that our universe, the one we're in, is shaped like the inside of an ear. And I said, okay, I'm listening, what's your point? Well, they said, here's the connection. The Bible says in the beginning that in the beginning God spoke and everything came into existence. So think about it, an audible word goes out And it forms a shape similar to the inside of our ear that also hears an audible word. And God created something with audible speech. God creates something with his word. He created universes. He created planets. He created platypuses. He created humans. He created beetles. He created all things. How wonderful is his word. But it doesn't stop there. You see, God not only created, but what did he also bring? When he judged the Egyptians, he brought plagues. He spoke plagues into existence. Those plagues came on Egypt. Then the exodus happened. He split the sea and redeemed his people. And then he brought his people into the promised land, and they brought conquest to the promised land, subduing their enemies. God calls the sun to stand still while Joshua and the children of Israel defeated their foes. Not only that, but God sent the Word Incarnate, Jesus Christ, second member of the Trinity, took on flesh to take on the sins of His people and to give them His righteousness. This is all contained in the Word, and it all is the Word doing the work of God's bidding. This is wonderful. Not only that, but there's wonder and how God has preserved his word. I often tell you, and I just told my Greek students this last week, that before 1948, the oldest Hebrew manuscript that we had was from the 9th, 10th century AD. It was the Leningrad Codex. And then in 1948, we found the Dead Sea Scrolls, and we have a copy of just about every book in the Old Testament, with the exception of one book, the book of Esther. And when they dated it, they found that it was from the first century B.C. and first century A.D. in that time. So you know what that means? That the Dead Sea Scrolls version of the Old Testament was 1,000 years older than the extant copy that we had. And you know what? Scholars found out when they compared these two documents, separated by 1,000 years, they were virtually the same. You know what that means? God miraculously preserved his word. Now, boys and girls, if you think that's not a big deal, have you ever played the game telephone? Remember that game? Remember that you get like 25 kids and you say, Peter Piper picked a pack of pickled peppers, and then he says it to the next person, and by the end, you get something that sounds nothing at all like that original sentence. Well, guess what? That message wasn't preserved. But you know what God does if we were to play that game again? God supernaturally goes along with the communication of one person to the next and makes sure that they get the next message, and then to the next generation, and the next generation, because God preserves his word. That's wonderful, and I want you to notice the connection between the psalmist saying, when I look at that, when I look at the wonder of your word, I must Keep your commandments. How can I not? Not only did you do all that, God, but here's what you did. Listen, I was dead and you made me alive. I was dead and you made me alive. The Word did that. The Word of the Spirit of God made me alive. I hated God one moment, and the next moment, I don't know where it came from, but I loved the Lord. I wanted to be next to Him. I wanted to be near Him. I wanted His Word in my hands. I wanted it to go in my heart. I wanted the promises so I could cling on to them. How did that happen? It's a miracle. So, when we behold the wonder of the Word, we say, how can I not? I must, my soul must keep the commandments. But there's wonder at what the Word connects us to as well. Look at verses 132 and 133a. The Word connects us to the name. And the name connects us to the promises, and the promises connect us to the grace. Look at verses 132 and 133a. Turn to me and be gracious to me as is your way with those who love your name. Keep steady my steps according to your promise. So look at the connection there. Look at the connection. When God gives us his name, He's marking us. That's why we read Heidelberg 31 and 32 this morning, because it's not just that Christ has a name. Why is He called Christ? He's anointed. He's prophet. He's priest. He's king. He's teacher. But wonder of wonders, He puts that name on us. What is your name? I am a Christian. That's my name. I am a Christian. That's why one of the most beloved books in all of Western literature is Pilgrim's Progress. And who is the hero in that? Really, it's Christ, but the next one is Christian. And his wife later, Christiana. They bear the name of Jesus. And when that name is upon us, God's grace is upon us. And God's grace is upon us because with the name comes the what? The promises. This is why the psalmist is in love with the word of God. I love your testimonies, they are wonderful, and my soul keeps them." And this is why our Lord says, the man does not live by bread alone, but by every word, listen, every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. We need constant proximity to the word of God. Beloved, you should have an insatiable desire for more and more word. In the Sunday school I was talking about this, how Paul in the book of Ephesians, he says, you know, be filled with the Spirit and sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. You're just always singing, kind of like his idea of always praying. You're always singing. It doesn't mean you're audibly always singing, but you've got a melody on your heart and you can't suppress it. Why? Because God has given you all things in Christ. Is there something to sing about? Absolutely. You know, the Muslims don't sing in their worship services. Why? They have nothing to sing about, beloved. We have something to sing about. We have salvation. We have new heavens. We have new earth. We have new birth. We have all things in Jesus Christ. But not only do we see the wonder of the Word, but secondly, I want you to consider, in verse 130, the illumination of the Word. Look at verse 130. The illumination of your Word. It says, the unfolding of your words gives light. It imparts understanding to the simple. What's this talking about here? Boys and girls, this is an example your picture is showing us. Before this person had a lamp and a lantern, perhaps it was dark and they couldn't see that path, right? They couldn't see where they were walking. How frustrating is it, boys and girls, when you can't see where you're walking? Maybe you're walking down the hall in the middle of the night. And you had the light on and your brother or sister was mischievous and they turned it off, okay? That's frustrating, isn't it? And maybe you stub your toe on something. Well, God gives us something so that we don't stub our toe, but it's much more than not stubbing our toe. He gives us an illumined path so we might find life. But what does this mean, this idea of illumination? Well, very simply it means this, that God causes us to understand the Word. We can read the Word and still not understand the Word, and even in understanding the Word, there's understanding and there's understanding. You see, on the one hand, somebody who does not have the Spirit of God in them, somebody who is not a Christian, somebody who wants nothing to do with Christianity can read this Bible. I would even submit to you that Satan himself could read this Bible and intellectually comprehend what was going on and hate every bit of it. But the difference between understanding and understanding is that the Spirit of God not only opens our mind to understand what's going on, but He causes us to love it. He causes us to pant after it. He causes us to want more of it. He causes us to want to see it materialized in our life. He causes us to say, God, I live by your promises. And every time I see another promise fulfilled in the land of the living, it's just one more confirmation that you're there and not silent. And even when you don't give me, Father, the things that my soul pants after, things that you have not promised me in your Word, the amazing thing as a Christian, as a child of God, listen, is that in the absence of those things that I asked for and wanted, you can form my will to be happy with the answer that you give. And is that not really the purpose of prayer? If you're not a Christian this morning, or you think you are, but really you're not, listen to me. The purpose of prayer is not taking a laundry list of petitions of God and say, have it to me by next Thursday. That's not what prayer is. Now, make no mistake, God is such a gracious Father that He says, ask what you will in my name, and if it's my will, I'll give it to you. But really what prayer is is conforming my will to the will of the Father. That's prayer. And on the one hand, as a young Christian, it was hard for me to learn, but as a young Christian, it was the most amazing things that I learned, because I learned that at the end of the day, I'm not wise enough to even know what to ask sometimes. I think I know what I want, but then God doesn't give me, and I'm like, God, thank you for not giving me that. Because it would have been a hot disaster. And what he does is he shepherds me through unanswered prayers. Isn't that beautiful? Now, if you're a Christian, you understand that. If you're not a Christian, let me just say this. The beautiful thing that is waiting for you on the other side of bowing your knee to the cross of Jesus Christ is this. Your whole mentality will be changed such that whatever God wants, you want. This is what is wondrous about illumination. It changes us. The natural person, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2.14, does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Look at verse 130b. The unfolding of your words imparts understanding to the simple, to the simple. See, there's a core humbling that must take place in the child of God before He can understand the Word. There's a core humbling that must take place. And here's the first step in the core humbling, and I'm just coming back to what I already said. Not my will, but Your will be done. Here's the second step in the core humbling, okay? I want Christ to be honored and glorified in whatever happens in my life more than anything else. That's the second step in core humbling. And let no one deceive himself. Paul says, 1 Corinthians 3.18, if anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. What does that mean? What does that mean? Well, here's what Charles Bridges says. He says, we do not mean to disparage human wisdom, but it is the pride of wisdom, so opposed to the simplicity of the gospel, which prevents us from sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing his word. It is when we, like a child, think God's thoughts after him, and say what he has said, and believe what he has spoken, and let the word of God be what it is, that divine wisdom drops. But even that's somewhat misleading because, folks, guess what? We don't let the Word do anything. The Word does whatever it wants. That's how you were made alive in Jesus Christ. He, don't take this the wrong way, but He changed your will. Don't get the impression that the Bible says, He took you kicking and screaming. No, He changed you so that you wanted to come. That's what He did. He did it even though it was not existent in your heart at all. So we do not have permission. Well, let me back up. How can we let the Word of God be what it is? It will be what it is whether or not we give permission for the Word of God is over us, not under us. And you need to keep this in mind because we do not have permission to make war with the Word of God like so many do. We do not have permission to make war with the Word of God like so many do. We do not have any authority to do anything other than that which it gives us. But sometimes we say, the Word of God calls me to do difficult things. And guess what? God will give you the grace to carry it out because all that He requires, He gives. All that He requires, He gives. So let the words unfold as they are and let them have their perfect way in you. Do you feel as if the Spirit of God has not illumined the Word of God for you lately? Is your Bible reading time dry? Is your Bible reading time tedious? Is even hearing the Word of God preached right now boring? Well, there may not be illumination going on. It's possible for a Christian to read the Bible and not be illumined. How would that come about? What sort of circumstances would cause such an absence or a dearth of illumination? Well, do you even read the Word of God? You can't be illumined in the Word of God unless you're actually putting the Word of God before you. The first step is you've got to get it in you. And I think that some of us here need to start there. Maybe you were not brought up to read the Word of God. Maybe you have not been brought up to have a habitual time in the Word of God. We need to have a habitual time in the Word of God. Do you eat physical food? Yes. Do you need physical food? Yes. You need spiritual food. This is what Jesus said. How was Jesus able to survive for 40 days and 40 nights without bread or water? Well, because he had the bread of life. And so we need to put it before us. But why else might we experience a lack of illumination? Well, do you actually desire to keep it when you read it? Or do you make war with it? Do you say that it is too hard to keep in these days? God calls us to be sexually pure, but I mean, who does that anymore? That's so passe. God calls us to tell the truth, but I mean, who does that anymore? I mean, if I did that, I wouldn't get as big of a tax break as I get for Pete's sake. Well, God calls us to only worship Him. God calls us to be in the house of God on the Lord's day. God calls us to worship Him in spirit and truth. God doesn't allow me to make up my own model for worshiping Him, but I mean, after all, just look at Christianity, everybody does that. Guess what? If that's what you're saying, then culture has illumined you and not the Word of God. Culture has illumined you and not the Word of God. Here's another one, listen. It may be possible that you're not being illumined by the Word of God if you're not praying over it. We must pray over the Word of God. I often think of prayer as kindling with the Word of God. It creates a spark, and I do not say that I'm the one doing it, but I do say, if you want a fire starter, prayer is the best fire starter you can get. Because what you're doing is you're saying, Father, I'm looking at your word. Father, I have bitterness in my heart right now. In fact, Father, it's one o'clock in the morning. I'm by myself. I got up because I had a dream about somebody, and now I'm thinking about them, and we're not okay. We're on the outs. It's one o'clock in the morning. I'm by myself, and I'm thinking about them. Father, this is really dangerous, because this is stinking thinking. careening into bitterness and anger, and I could just feel rottenness in my heart. And so I'm opening your word, Father, and I'm crying out to you for help. Would you please give me help? See, that's praying over the word of God. That's fighting for joy. That's fighting for obedience. That's fighting for submission to God's word. That's fighting to have Christ supreme in your heart over anger, over rancor, over lust, over pleasure, over wantonness, over excessiveness, whatever the case may be. It's that Christ would be all in all. We need to pray over the Word of God. Here's another one. It might seem counterintuitive. Sometimes you don't need to pray. Sometimes you just need to sit silent before the Word of God. I was doing family devotions with my kids the other night and we read about the story of Elijah. Remember when Elijah was out in the wilderness and he was running away from that harlot Jezebel? I mean just before he had all the bravery and the courage in the world and then the painted face came after him and he got scared and he ran off. The Lord came to him and there was these series of events. First there was a whirlwind, but God was not in the whirlwind. And then there was an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake. Then there was something else I can't remember right now. Thank you, lightning. There was lightning. My son's listening this morning, that's wonderful. There was lightning, but he wasn't in the lightning. What was he in? He was in the silence, small, still voice. And I think sometimes, beloved, and the psalmist modeled this for us, and it really is a form of prayer. We got to get before the Word of God, and sometimes we just, not even the Word, just close our eyes and get silent before the Lord. You know why we don't like to be alone with our thoughts? You want to know why? Because they accuse us, they condemn us. Our thoughts condemn us and they accuse us. And you know what's standing behind those accusations and the condemnation? It's the accuser of the brethren. But you see, you don't have to stop there. Because in this word, and as we stand silent before God, we can come before a mediator and gaze upon him in faith, and we can assuage the accusations and the condemnation of Satan. We can assuage the condemnation of the flesh by coming in repentance and faith to Jesus Christ. Turning from our sins and believing in the one who can assuage our conscience. So do we cry out to God to give us a desire for it when we find ourselves in a desert of affection and love for the word? Well now finally, I want you to consider A longing for the Word. Look at this. Look at verse 131. A longing for the Word. The psalmist says, I open my mouth and pant because I long for your commandments. That's the positive side of longing for God, is that we open our mouth, look at this picture, it's a picture of you're dehydrated and you want water. It's a picture of you're hungry and you want food. But it's not water, it's not food, it's the word of God. I open my mouth and I pant, I long for your commandments. This is the psalmist feeling incomplete without the word of God. But there's a negative side to that too. Look at verse 136, my eyes shed streams of tears because people do not keep your law. Some of us don't like to think about this. We get our theology from Beatles songs, live and let live. Frankly, Guns N' Roses got it right, live and let die. When we come to an imprecatory psalm. We have words for the child of God. When we see things like we do now, the Taliban going out and killing Christians. The Taliban going out and inflicting injustice and a reign of terror. We have words. My eyes shed streams of tears when people do not keep your law. We should shed streams of tears when they do not keep God's law in the world, and we should especially shed streams of tears when they do not keep God's law in his own church. in his church of all places should be a people marked by the keeping of his law. Sadness should characterize our posture when people do not keep God's law in both the world and in the church. And guess what? If you get away from that, if you're just like, I don't care, live and let live, you know what that's called? That's called apathy. And apathy is a cancer to affection for the Lord. Apathy is cancer to an affection for the Lord. You wanna have hot, white, hot affections for the Lord? Kill apathy. Kill apathy in your life. Apathy is the voice that says, I don't wanna read my Bible, I'll do it tomorrow. Tomorrow will never come. Apathy will make sure that it never comes. kill apathy, but I want you to notice also this longing for dominion over sin. Look at 133b through 135. He says, watch this, and let no iniquity get dominion over me. Redeem me from man's oppression that I may keep your precepts. Make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your statutes. I want you to recognize here with the psalmist that something will always take dominion of you. Mark my words, something will always take dominion of you. It'll be lust, it'll be pleasure, or it'll be the Lord. It'll be something. Something is always going to drive you. The question is not if, as if we're neutral, the question is which, the world, the flesh, and the devil, all three, or God's voice through His Word. And because, listen, because I recognize my idolatrous desire for comfort, the psalmist says in verse 134, keep me from man's oppression of my practice of religion so I can keep your precepts. Look at that. Redeem me from man's oppression that I may keep your precepts. What is he saying? I think what he's saying here is very similar to what he's saying in Proverbs 37 through 9. Two things I ask of you, deny them not to me before I die. Remove far from me falsehood and lying. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be fool and deny you and say, who is the Lord? or lest I be poor and still and profane the name of my God. You know what the psalmist is doing here? He's trying to strike a balance. He doesn't have a higher view of himself than he ought. He recognizes, I don't care how strong I am or how strong I think I am. If I won the lotto, my life would probably go downhill. I don't care how strong I think I am or how much I can suffer. If I were poor, I would be tempted to blaspheme the Lord. So Lord, just redeem me from man's oppression. I don't want to be in that place where if I'm under persecution by the Taliban, that I might break and deny the Lord. I hope and pray that I never will. But Lord, keep me from that place. But knowing if he puts me there, he's gonna preserve me. But keep me from that place. This is honesty. This is sober-mindedness. This is not having a higher view of ourselves than we ought. We need to be realistic, but notice in verse 135, I long for the Lord to take dominion of me, watch this, by making my face radiant with the brilliance of his face. He says, make your face shine upon your servant. You know why this is lovely? Because there's connections here. The radiance of God's benediction falling upon the child of God, the reflection of that radiance on the face of the child of God is connected with the fleeing of shame and the fleeing of fear and the fleeing of trouble. You see, beloved, this is metaphorical language, but it's saying something. God's benediction shines down from heaven and it reflects off the Word of God and it goes upon your countenance. God's radiance is reflected off of you. It's like the psalmist in Psalm 34 says, I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. Do you want the benediction of God to fall on you, dear child of God? Then open up the word and let the radiance of God reflect off of that word onto your countenance so that shame can flee. What do we see in the psalmist here? It's an all out love for the Word. And as I've told you before, I think that this is Daniel. He was a prophet. Why is it that he had such love? It's almost as if his love was directed toward a person. And I think it was directed toward a person. I don't think he totally understood it, but when we get to the New Testament, what does the New Testament tell us? The Word of God. Word in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh. You see, this Word, beloved, has a name. God does not encourage love poems for inanimate objects. God encourages love poems for his beloved, Jesus Christ, who is the word incarnate, who is the righteousness that we love, who is the covering and atonement of sins that we crave, who is the one that causes shame to dissipate if we would but what? Come to Him in humility and confess our sins to Him and tell Him, saying the same as Him, I have fallen short of Your glory. I'm not even close. Yes, I'm an American. I pay my taxes. I'm a good citizen, but I'm a scoundrel. I'm a worm and not a man. I need the prevailing grace of God in my life to give me what I do not have and cover what I cannot cover. And in the good news of Jesus Christ, it comes to us and says, here's a covering for your sins. Your sins are forgiven. Never to be held against you again. And here is a perfect record of righteousness, of law keeping. It's all there. And this is why the psalmist loves the Lord. And this is why we love the Lord. And if you know nothing of this, you can have it this morning. If you would turn from your sins and believe in Jesus Christ. Let's pray.