The little Bible. The Scriptures condensed. Amass a Bible, says Spurgeon. Holy writ rewritten in holy emotions and actions. Blessed are they who can read and understand these saintly amorphisms. They shall find golden apples in this true Hesperides, and come to reckon that this psalm, like the whole Scripture which it praises, is a pearl island, or better still, a garden of sweet flowers." Man, what accolades Spurgeon gives Psalm 119! That's why I call this series that I'm attempting to do, that is preach through this psalm, I call it the Grand Thoughts of David. For truly they are, if you can get out those wonderful pearls that we have Spurgeon talking about in his little quote there. But even more so you'll enjoy this psalm if you can do what it says. So the day we move to the third stanza, verse 17, the Gimel stanza. This would be like the letter C in the English alphabet. This is the third letter in the Hebrew alphabet, Gimel. And there David writes, Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live and keep thy word. Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. I am a stranger in the earth. Hide not thy commandments from me. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times. Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed, which do err from thy commandments. removed from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept thy testimonies. Princes also did sit and speak against me, but thy servant did meditate in thy statuettes." And then the last verse, "...thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselor." Psalm 119 verses 17 Through 24, may the Lord bless the reading of His Word today. Let's pray. Father, I pray that what I have here is from You. You know how weak and frail I am. And nothing of any value can come from me. But Your Word is always valuable. and it will accomplish that for which it is intended." And so, Lord, here I am. Use me as you see fit. Speak through me as you want. Silence me where I need not speak. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen and Amen. I don't know about you, but upon reading verse 18, I immediately thought of that hymn we sing here a lot of times, Open My Eyes That I Might See by Clara Fiske Scott. Those verses are fairly simple, but they're great verses. The song is in your hymn book, you don't have to turn there, but it says, "...open my eyes that I may see, glimpses of truth thou hast for me. Place in my hands the wonderful key that shall enclasp and set me free." Silently now I wait for thee, ready my God, thy will to see. Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine. The second verse of that song goes, Open my ears that I may hear voices of truth, thou sendest clear. And while the wave notes fall on my ear, everything false will disappear. Silently now I wait for thee. Ready my God, thy will to see. Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine. And then the last stanza of that good song says, open my mouth and let me bear. Gladly warm truth everywhere. Open my heart and let me prepare. Love with thy children thus to share. And then that chorus, silently now I wait for thee. Ready my God thy will to see, open my mouth, illumine me, Spirit divine. I don't know if she got her idea for the psalm from Psalm 119, but I have to believe she did. I believe she got that from verse 18. There's a good story behind this and then a sad story as well about this. She had gone to a funeral over in Iowa. She lived in Illinois and you're Chicago. And on the way back from the funeral, she got killed in a car accident. Isn't that something? But what a great song. And surely this is similar, this psalm is similar to what David was praying for and would eventually be made into an anthem by him as such to be sung by the people. In other words, he is admonishing his people though he's speaking to himself here, open my eyes. In other words, pray that God would open your eyes that you may see what's in his word. Here at the third letter of Gimbel, verse 17, David prays, Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live and keep thy word. I know these are strange words, it makes one wonder if David was sick when he wrote them, or even near death. But neither is the case. He makes this request because of the question he has asked back up in verse 9. where withal shall a young man cleanse his way? To which the Lord replied, By taking heed thereto according to thy word." He wants the Lord to deal bountifully with him, because David has reflected upon his past, and he's reviewed his record, and upon the review of the record, reality set in. And that reality was that David realized that he had not been as faithful to keeping the Lord's Word as he should have been, or should had. David realizes that he has been sort of faithful, but not as faithful as he should have been in keeping the Word of the Lord. So David cries for repentance in verse 10, Oh, let me not wander, W-A-N-D-E-R, from thy commandments. In other words, he HAD wandered, and he don't want to wander anymore, for he KNEW there were times, as I told you before, that he had wandered away and had failed the Lord utterly. Thus, as I told you two weeks ago, He regroups, He refocuses His attention to taking heed to the Lord's Word and repeating the same every day with fervency. But after He does this, reality sets in again. David's past performance showed a lack of proficiency in keeping the Lord's Word. His past performance had been pitiful. His pridefulness in thinking that he had been taking heed to the Lord's Word was, in a word, pathetic. His pitifulness and not being able to do so, that is, keeping the Lord's Word in the first place, had rendered this pitiful performance. Every one of y'all could put your name right in the same place, including this pastor. Thus David asked the Lord to deal bountifully with him. Notice he says that he's the Lord's servant, so are you. and he asked him to deal bountifully that he may live and keep his word. Knowing his past performance, he asked the Lord to give him grace and mercy to live, so that he might write his past record and DO what he's supposed to do, and that is keep the Lord's Word. David knows it all. Believers SHOULD do that. And certainly based on His, and let me say to you, all our performances in studying the Word, and keeping the Word, and living by it, we all are failures at best, and God has every right to punish us, even with death for our failure. But I'm a believer. Yeah, you are. But you know how you act in spite of God's grace and mercy on you, and you deserve a good kick in the seat of the pants for sure, and if God wanted to, He could kill you. David fully understands that. So he cries, Deal bountifully then with me. In fact, what David is doing here is asking for forgiveness for his past performance. for his pridefulness and thinking he was doing all that he could do to be all he could to the Lord. It was a ruse. He hadn't been doing all he could. His record, Chronicles and Kings, Samuel shows how many times he failed. Many times. Got mad at the Lord one day. Just got mad at him. He knows his pitifulness pitifulness, if I can say the words, and not being able to do so in the first place, is all on Him. And what the real reality here is, the truth of the matter, is that in and of Himself, He comes to this conclusion, in and of Himself, He's not able to do it. Here's the man after God's own heart, who declares, admits, that he's unable to do this. He did a good job before faking it. You do a good job faking it, don't you? Especially on Sunday morning. But you know that you've not been doing it. Have not been able to do it. So David's asking the Lord to look beyond his faults and to see his need and let him live. Help him. to do the right thing and bring Him to keep His Word. And this request goes deeper than it appears. He knows that He can't keep the Lord's Word in and of Himself. And so in verse 19 He declares, I am a stranger in the earth. In other words, what he's saying is, hey, here I am, I'm alone in this thing as such, I'm not able to do it, I'm a stranger in the earth. In other words, without the Lord's help, he cannot understand anything pertaining to the Lord or His Word. It's all strange to him. He's made this admission before in Psalm 39, verse 12, where he said that he was a stranger to God, an absolute sojourner, meaning a wandering, hopeless wretch without the Lord's grace and mercy to help him. And isn't that true of every one of us? Without the Lord's mercy, we couldn't go another hour, another day, another minute. You name the timeframe. Without His mercy, you couldn't, you couldn't, you couldn't. No man can. We are all wanderers, and that doesn't mean from place to place either. Some of y'all have been stuck in the same house for years. Some of y'all don't like to leave the house. Some of y'all are just virtual hermits, CEOs or recliner riders of America in good standing. But we are also all over the place when it comes to the Word of the Lord. We are blind to the things of God most times. I'm using we, though I do study for your benefit. But with you, I need help. Dave is crying for divine help. He wants help. Thus he first asked the Lord for grace and mercy, verse 17, and verse 18, here's what he asked for in this divine help. He cries for divine vision. Open my eyes, open my eyes, that I might behold, that I might recognize, and that's a key thing about this word, behold, recognize, that I might recognize the wondrous things out of Your Law. Help me recognize it when I see it. You know, that's the big problem we have today. In all of Christendom, it seems like, most folks don't recognize the Word of God when they see it. It's obvious by how many different versions we have. They're all confused. And so, you know what they do in most of the big churches? They stand and read it off the screen, in hopes it's the truth. Most of them don't have a Bible at home. If they do, they don't read it, they pick it up to see. But not David here, he's begging for divine vision. He wants to recognize what is God's true word. Not the devil's word in any form, not fables, not fakes, not foul doctrine, but he wants to recognize the truth, the pearls, the wisdom, the knowledge. out of the pure Word of God. You know, by the time we get to Jesus in the New Testament, the Pharisees had done written 50,000 new laws with the law. And most of them are just tradition, has nothing to do with the law, the commandments, or any such thing. Knowing his human inability, David begs the Lord for then divine discernment after this divine vision helps him recognize what's there. Not only does he want to recognize it, he wants to know it. He wants divine discernment. You know what discernment means? Being able to see it for what it is. Being able to discern things. And that's one of my things that I plead for. There is so much out there that can lead you astray. There's so much out there that appears godly, that appears holy when it's not. It's a fake, it's a fallible, it's a false doctrine. Paul says in the last days they'll be clamoring for this. They'll be clamoring for stories and things to soothe their itching ears. They'll plead for it. And as a matter of fact, when they get preached to with the unadulterated, heart-slamming gospel, they just absolutely rebel against it. I wish you'd get on YouTube up there and look at Jimmy Hamilton's channel, and what he does is he films himself as he's preaching out in different places like Glasgow, Scotland, and London, different places, and you already hear some of the nonsense of people that say they believe in the Word of God say to him, And some of the ignorance that people do to him when he presents the simple gospel. And a lot of churches these days, I don't say all of them, but many, many churches, when you begin to talk about right living and repentance and doing the right thing, they shrug it off or get mad at the preacher or walk. Because you don't want to be preached to. You don't want him stepping on your toes. You don't want God telling you what to do. But He wants divine discernment, verse 19, He's been a stranger to the earth, a stranger to God in the sense of His own flesh, and He pleads that the Lord would not HIDE His commandments from Him, that in every way these commandments, the will of God, the way of God, the words of God would be not only VISUAL to Him, but be able to UNDERSTAND Him as well. David could read the Lord's commandments all day long, no doubt. The man was educated. The man knew some stuff. But just reading them is not enough. There's a lot of folks that read the Bible that don't live by the Bible. But he wants to know what was in His Word. He wants the depth of it. He wants the directions of it. And certainly the doctrines of it. And God's law was not just ten commandments, there was more, so much more in them to help him. David says in verse 20, My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times. He wants to know them. But God must give him grace and mercy and reveal them to David, because David in and of himself doesn't have the ability to know what it means. Certainly Daryl Irenfield didn't know. I mean, God has been gracious to this old boy to let him have enough spiritual discernment, enough understanding, enough knowledge to get in this thing and dig out these things. I couldn't do it by myself, no sir. He needed divine discernment. And then thirdly and lastly, because we're having the Lord's Supper today, David asked for divine direction. He's asked for divine vision. He's asked for divine discernment. Now he's asking for divine direction in order to do and keep what the Lord has shown him. David understood that first of all, there were going to be many deniers out there of God's Word who would try to stop him from knowing these things. In verse 21, God had even rebuked the proud and they were cursed because of the fact they erred from God's commandments. David did not want that to happen to him, Plus, there were the distractors from these folks that erred, who wanted to get David's mind off the Lord's commandments and would attempt to get David to err from the Lord's commandments. David asked that God would remove these humans and these devils away from him in verse 22. He said, "...this reproach and contempt, these distractions, from keeping the Lord's testimonies. He wants GONE, GONE, GONE! Remove from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept thy testimonies. But these don't want me to keep your testimonies. As a matter of fact, in verse 23, both human and demon is recognized in the word PRINCES. Human princes were trying to out-talk David, to distract David, deny the Word of God before David, get David to go a different direction. And you know that any human element like that is always demonically based. Can you say, Amen? These were devilish roadblocks to keeping and doing God's Word. Verse 23, David says, "...Princes also did sit and speak against me, These were the deniers, the detractors, the devilish blockades of David being devoted to the Lord's Word, and he wanted them gone. Now, David was the kind of guy that he did what he said, or he meant what he said, and he said what he meant. That's what I meant to say myself. And once David put his mind to something, very rarely did he change his mind. I mean, David would fix himself to do whatever. So David was not going to be diverted from the task of serving the Lord the way he should. But again, in order to have that ability, he must have grace and mercy from God to give him vision, to give him discernment, and more than anything else, folks, listen very carefully, he wanted and needed DIRECTION. And when I say divine, I'm talking about right from God. And I also believe that God, by the Holy Spirit, gives that to His people. But too many times even His people listen to the deniers. And many times they get distracted And they allow that devilish crowd out there to lure us in whereby we're more interested in the things of the world than we are of God. No joke. Even though we're told not to love the world or the things of the world because the things of the world are not of God. And yet too many times that's where we end up. And we get so distracted that we let down in so many areas. of what we're supposed to be doing for the Lord. I want to remind you that this is all on you when you do that, because He that is in you is greater than he that's in the world, and His mission is to help you to do these things. And you have to go way out there, I mean way out there, NOT to do what He says to do. Go to John 14. I want to give you the mission of the Holy Spirit. He's the one that's in you that's greater than He's in the world. The Holy Spirit is there to give you vision, discernment, and direction. That's what He's there for. And you literally have to go against Him not to have it. That's what David's praying that he don't do. So here, for your benefit, from the book of John, John 14, is the role of the Holy Spirit. Everybody there? I want to make sure that you are. Verse 16, Now I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another comforter, notice the capital C, that is the Holy Spirit, that He may abide with you until Saturday. Oh, how long folks? Forever. Even the Spirit, and everybody say it, of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but you know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. Jesus says, I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. Verse 23, If a man love Me, he will keep My words, and My Father will love him, and We will come unto Him and make our abode with Him. Verse 26, But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. See how far you gotta go to get away from Him? Chapter 16, quickly. Chapter 16, verse 7, Nevertheless, Jesus says, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send Him unto you, and might I say, into you as well. Verse 8, "...and when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin." He will give you discernment to see what sin is. Understand? That's what reprove the world means. "...and of righteousness and of judgment, He will give you directions of sin, because they believe not on Me, of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more, So the Holy Spirit's work will be to lead you into righteousness of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged, and you should not give in to him because he is a fallen angel, which you ought to say amen to. Now, let's move on. I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now, talking to the disciples, howbeit when he," and here's the second time he says this, "...the Spirit of truth, when he is come, he will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will," everybody read it together, "...show you things to come." Verse 14, "...he shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine. Therefore said I that he shall take of mine and shall show it unto you." That's what David is praying for. And the third stanza of this wonderful psalm. Deal bountifully with me, open my eyes. Help me Lord to recognize it, but not only recognize it, understand it, and in the understanding live by it. That's what he wants. David says that he did meditate upon the Lord's statutes. But by the Lord's help, He would do what He's supposed to do, especially since verse 24, back now in Psalm 119. I should have told you to go back there. He says that God's testimonies also are my delight and my counselors. He loved those things. He wanted that, but He had to have grace and mercy to understand them. You may love the Word of God yourself. You may love it. But a lot of it you don't understand. And since you don't understand, you're prone to wander, W-A-N-D-E-R, rather than staying fixed on the Lord. Remember what Jesus says, "...Ye shall know the truth, and truth shall do," what? Yeah, not set, make you free. It will change you. Well, that's what David wants, divine direction, will serve the purpose, and David's eyes were opened that he could see. Now, the question is, just how open are your eyes? Or do you do this at the Word of God? You look at it like this. You only want what you want. Boy, Brother Darrell, lately you've gotten so mean. How can I convince you that we are closer now to leaving this planet than we've ever been? And God's only going to take those folks that have made their calling in elections, sure. NOT FOAL BELIEVERS, NOT FOAL CHRISTIANS, FOAL MEANS FAKE, WHO TALK A GOOD LINE, BUT THE EVIDENCE DOESN'T BEAR TRUTH, AND THE BIBLE CLEARLY SAYS, BY THEIR FRUITS YOU SHALL KNOW THEM, AND YOU MIGHT PAY YOUR TAXES ON TIME, YOU MIGHT BE A GOOD PERSON IN EVERY WAY, But if you're not anchored, I mean anchored in the truth whereby you live this thing, and I'm not talking about becoming a whole lot older and all that kind of stuff, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about whereby that Word absolutely endows everything you do. It keeps you away from things you shouldn't be involved in at all. sends you to where you're supposed to be. But many times we fight that. We're so caught up in the world. This right here should be the most important thing you do. This church ought to be at the absolute top of your list. These services are for your benefit. And God expects you at them. Did you know that? God expects you at Him. Your rewards are getting burned up because of the fact of how that you treat His house. I mean, everything you do ought to be set to get you where you need to be with Him. And I'm going to say it one more time, and it kills me. If you seek first the kingdom of God, all these other things will be added to you. I'm not saying give up, this is it, and don't do this, don't do that. That's not what the word of God is about. So there's more dos than there is don'ts, for crying out loud, that are wonderful. And God doesn't expect us to be so busy all the time and be just absolutely poor and walking around in clothes that look like they come out of the bottom of a garbage can. No, God doesn't mind for us to even be rich. We keep things as perspective. But I'm talking about that everything that you do identifies with this Word. Cut it out! Stop all the nonsense! It ain't hard. It ain't hard to give in to serving the Lord. And it comes with so many fringe benefits. It's amazing! I can just say anything I want to, I identify with that. I've yet to hear it from two me-libs, I identify as a Christian. And then I thought about that. Could be they identify as one, but are they one? That mean old preacher.