Grand Thoughts number 7, Psalm 119, verses 49 through 56 this time. Beginning there in verse 49, we have now this Hebrew letter, Zayn, if I'm saying it right. And we read, Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, for thy word hath quickened me. The proud have had me greatly in derision, yet have I not declined from thy law. I remembered thy judgments of old, O Lord, and have comforted myself. horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law. Thy statuettes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night and have kept thy law. This I had because I kept thy precepts." May the Lord bless the reading of His word this morning. I wanna just do a brief recap of the sixth stanza, and I know that it seems like we just keep going over and over these things, but every time someone finds one of these sermons on Sermon Audio, they may have not listened to the other four, and I'm not gonna do all of the other five either, but just for real quickly, if you remember last week, we found the militant David. Militant meaning aggressive or extremely active, in the defense or support of a cause, often to the point of extremism." He got extreme with the Lord. Can you imagine that? In your prayer time, have you been so bogged down with such a load of care that you got extreme with the Lord? Has there ever been a time that you got with the Lord and said, Lord, Lord, please, you got to do something. Help me, Lord, help me. Have you done that? Well, this is akin to what David is doing. David was aggressive with the Lord in the defense of his cause, albeit though he was respectful as he did so, reminding the Lord of the Lord's own words. Looking back at verse 41, he says, according to thy word, you hear my plea, Lord, help me, help me, help me, according to thy word. And what we found there is that David imposes upon the Lord's mercy, Believing in the Lord's mercies are not a one-time thing, but an all-time thing for His people. God just doesn't answer one prayer. God is there all the time to hear all prayers and answer them as He pleases, but to those of His people, of His family, oh my goodness, His ears are open wide, and He moves to their aid constantly. That's a frivolous prayer of some kind. But here David is, he's reminding the Lord of how generous the Lord had been to grant David mercy. And David's reminding the Lord that as a result of that gross sin, God had forgiven him. David knew that he didn't deserve mercy, but God had shown mercy to David. And David here is reminding the Lord that he had, and had for a much greater sin. Surely, for what David is asking now, The Lord could be and would be merciful. And the Lord would be. We're gonna see that in a minute. And David, as I told you last week, is not wrong here in how he was aggressively pleading. Remember, I showed you from the book of Hebrews last week that Paul took a page out of David's playbook and said in chapter four, verse 16, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Boldly, boldly. Listen, our little church would grow if we'd all get bold with God and ask God to do something for us. Hey, ask God, be bold about it, God. You've done it for other churches, do it for us. Lord, send us sinners." Again, this is without a doubt how we prove to the Lord that we really mean business when we do come boldly. Of course, as I said before, you must come respectfully and come correctly. Hebrews 10 verse 19, Paul said to Hebrew Christians of his day, and to us, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiness, and that's where the throne of grace is, come by the blood of Jesus. Verse 20, that new and living way which He had concentrated for us through the veil, that is to say His flesh. And since we have, verse 21, a high priest over the house of God, which is Jesus, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, our bodies washed with pure water, and hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering." Believe that God's going to do this thing. Answer your prayer. Believe it. Yeah, but Brother Darrell, there's been a lot of times that I prayed that I didn't get what I asked for. I can't answer to that. Known only to God is the reasons for why He does a thing. And you can trust though, if God didn't answer that prayer, it was for your good, Your benefit causes what, Reggie? All things do, what? We're together for good for them that love God. That's exactly right. And so here is Paul and David, and of course we've also looked at Father Abraham in Genesis 18, getting aggressive with the Lord about the situations they were in. Oh, I still get a kick out of how aggressive that Abraham was. And at the end there, and I'm paraphrasing here, God pretty much says to Abraham, Hey, if I can find ten people down there, I won't destroy it. Go home. Being aggressive. So David was extremely bold, saying to God in verse 43, Take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I have hoped in thy judgments. which we knew the Lord wouldn't do to anyone that was a member of the undefiled. But David was using this audacious statement to tell the Lord that the only way David wouldn't, listen to me, the only way that David wouldn't keep the Lord's commandments is that the Lord would have to physically take them out of David's mouth. Oh, that we would be like that. The only way that we wouldn't praise the Lord, the only way they wouldn't testify of His goodness before men is that God shut our mouths. Truly, he sincerely believed that, and he reminded the Lord, he told the Lord, covering all the basis with the Lord, as verified by verse 48, where David ends this standard by saying, my hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved, and I will meditate in thy statuettes, which I told you metaphorically is David with his left hand on the Bible and his right hand here and says, look, I promise to keep the truth, to tell the truth, nothing but the truth, So help me you, Lord!" He means business. And I closed the sixth stanza last week by telling you that this is truly a great lesson on how to pray the militant prayer. Because here's the mechanics of it, the mindset of it, and if we would have the kind of respect bolstered by confidence in the Lord's ability to answer it, oh, we'd see great things happen in our life. So now we come to stanza number seven. And it would appear that David is continuing his aggressive pleading with the Lord. However, What we really find here is that the militant David has now become the humble David. If you want to, right there by that beginning, verse 49, you could write there, the humble David. In fact, David has moved, in verse 49, from provocation to exaltation. He's changed this militant prayer to profuse praise. In his prayer, he's praising the Lord. Let me just run a rabbit real quick here. Listen, do not confine your prayer time always for asking stuff. How about taking prayer time to be thanking God for what He's already done for you, what He is doing for you, what He will do for you, and spend the time in praise. I exalt you, Lord. I praise you, Lord. You are magnificent. You are wonderful. I adore you. Sing to Him, God, You are so good. What are the cases? But do not spend your prayer time all the time begging and pleading for this and that. God's got it under control. Praise Him that He does. Yes, we can plead mildly as David did. Yes, we can be aggressive. Yes, we can pray for stuff. He invites us to. He asks us to. But sometime, oh, stop. and praise His holy name. Some of you ought to pick out a songbook in here and take it home. And sometimes in your personal devotion time, sing to Him. Well, I can't sing, Brother Darrell. So what? He doesn't care if you can carry a tune in the bucket. He would love to hear you sing to Him. Guess what we're going to be doing in heaven? Singing to Him. Singing to Him. And so here is David, he's moved from militant prayer to profuse praise. He knows that he's been very provocative with the Lord to remind the Lord of the Lord's past mercies. He knows that, and he knows in his heart that he must remember that his very breath, yea, his very next heartbeat is without a doubt the Lord's sure mercy upon him. And so even though he's being aggressive, he also must remember who he's talking to. Therefore if God is going to answer David's requests David must temper his aggressiveness with humbleness Yes, we can come to the throne boldly and we are invited by the Apostle Paul in Hebrews to do so But I remind you again that we are told by Paul in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 22 and 23 that we must come with a true heart and and full assurance of faith. That means being humble with it in our assurance. Having our hearts sprinkled from the evil conscious, our bodies washed with pure water, meaning obedience to the word of God and obedience to God himself day in and day out. And verse 23 of that chapter, holding fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful to promise and has promised us. And so what we need to do is remember that he keeps his promises and humbly tell him We're thankful that He does. And so, in verse 49, He says, "...remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused Me to hope." God now, by everything I can tell by this stanza, has now delivered upon His promise to show mercy as we see here that David has received and is receiving the knowledge and wisdom of God's Word that David has requested. I hope you do that occasionally. God, give me knowledge of Your Word. Give me wisdom about Your Word so I can live for you as I should. I know that it seems that David is saying to the Lord here that the Lord must remember His Word unto thy servant, which was the basis of David's militant prayer. But David has moved on to praise. So in the sense of how David is forming his praise, this is David saying, I remember thy Word to thy servant. God has moved upon David. The Holy Spirit has moved upon David. And the Lord is opening up David's mind and heart to His Word. I remember thy word to thy servant. David, being the servant here, says to the Lord, I acknowledge the fact that, Lord, You have done these things, and I know them for a surety now as You open Your Word to me. Now, you might say, well, Brother Darrell, looking at that one verse, how did you come to that idea? Well, notice, if you will, that David's reception of God's Word, David's reflection upon God's Word, David's possession of God's Word, number one, has caused David to hope, verse 49. He wouldn't have any hope if the Word had not started to become real to him. You can't hope in that that you don't have a clue about. You'd be stupid to do that. But upon reception of God's Word by the Holy Ghost and David's reflection upon it and certainly his possession now of it, it's caused David to hope, verse 49. Secondly, verse 50, it has become David's comfort in his affliction or afflictions. Now when there's trouble in trial, David takes comfort from God's Word. The Lord's Word had quickened David, made him alive, even in the midst of every affliction. Now he's getting the point. Now he's seeing God's point, and he's able to react to it, and know for a surety, and though he wasn't there when it was written, when it was said, it's still fact, all things do work together for good, for the good of the Lord God. That's what he's come to. Notice here that the proud have had him in great derision, verse 51. That is, they mocked David because of this, they ridiculed him, they've held him in disrespect because David held to the Lord's word. And we know this evidence here by David saying that he had not declined from the Lord's law. So open in his heart and mind was the word that no matter what others did to him, no matter how they made fun of him, He wouldn't give up the Lord's Word. And see, that's where you might be in your life right now. Family may make fun of you for staying with the Lord. Might ridicule you. Friends, neighbors ridicule. There's that old fanatic Darrell Lingerfeld. There's that old Ted Stone. What a fanatic he is. That old walker, if he comes back in this office again, touting that Lord's stuff, we'll send him packing, big doofus. That's why people think about us who believe in the Lord. But David says, he don't care if they hold me in derision, verse 51. I'm not gonna decline from the Lord's law. Then thirdly, how we know that David has received the answer to his prayer and the Lord's opened the word to him. David was finding comfort in the Lord's judgments of old. What does that mean? The Lord is allowing David to review the history of the Lord's past performances and finding comfort in it. Well, that's what you do with your Bible, isn't it? Are you not reviewing some of the things that God's done in the past and taking comfort from it? My, I have. I read some of these things, the exploits of some of these men that God lit upon and I am just blown away. Man, some of the things they've done. David's exploits were incredible as it was. But you go back there and there's Joseph becoming second under Pharaoh and saving all that nation and them around him by God's tutelage of him to be ready for a famine coming about seven years. Oh my, and then Daniel, I mean, they're gonna throw him in the dungeon to the lions because he prayed three times a day. But God locked the lion's mouth and they didn't eat Daniel. What great stories, you ought to be teaching your kids that, grandkids that. These are wonderful. So David would, verse 52, is finding comfort in the Lord's judgments. That's how we know that he was now getting a full meal. the Lord's Word. Then, fourthly, verse 53, Though the wicked might horrifically forsake the Lord's law, David says in verse 54 that the Lord's statutes have and had been his songs in the house of his pilgrimage. Hey, this morning, Marty requested prayer for the world at large, especially for America, because man, we're going to hell, lock, stock and barrel in this country. It's a mess. You know that, and I know that. But look here, we're still maintaining by the grace of God. We're still serving the Lord no matter what happens. It doesn't matter what Joe Biden does. It doesn't matter what the Congress and Senate does. We serve the true and living God who's in control of everything. David's got the same mind. He says, hey, he says, your statutes have been in my Psalms in the house of my pilgrimage where I live. Hey, let my neighbors do whatever they want to. I'm gonna do this. The Lord's statutes have become his life. to the degree they had become the song of his heart and mind, and were steadfastly upon his lips. So great was the Lord's word in his heart and mind that David says that he even, verse 55, remembers thy name, O Lord, in the night, and I have kept thy laws. What does that mean, I have kept thy word, remember thy name in the night? I think that he means his dreams. I think he says he even dreams about the Lord. That's what I want, because my dreams are scum. My dreams are awful. How about yours? Don't you lie. Oh, I've had some of the craziest dreams that I get up just vexed by them. But I've had some good dreams, too, where I've been in church and having hallelujah meetings. Man, I love dreaming like that. He says, but it's so thick on me. Your Word is so real to me that I dream about you. And if he awakes in the night for whatever reason, he has the Lord on his mind to the extent that he sings about the Lord. Verse 56, he says, This I had or have said, David, because I kept thy precepts. Basically, David has been submerged in God's Word. And there's the evidence, hope, comfort, strength. And this was God's answer to David's pleading with the Lord back in verse 33 and 34. Remember, David pleaded, teach me, Lord, the way of thy statutes, and I shall keep it unto the end. Verse 34, give me understanding to thy law, yea, I shall observe it with all my heart, was his prayer. And the Lord had evidently and was evidently throwing into David the way of his statues. Remember what I told you about that word teach in Hebrew? He was shooting into David his statues. He was casting into David, pouring into David, metaphorically submerging David in the water of his word. Do it to me, Lord, do it to me. Rain on me, flood me with the water of Your Word. Don't you know that upon reflection of God's Word, David's reflection and possession of God's Word had paid great dividends. He'll do the same for you. Reading His Word, learning about Him, oh my goodness, the things that you'll find that will come to great fruition in your life. The dividends are unbelievable. And the retirement plan is completely out of this world. I've been wanting to say that. And I just did. That's one thing about living for the Lord and serving the Lord. The retirement plan is the best there is. David now had hope, comfort, strength, companionship, relationship in the very family of God. And he had a song to sing. I hate to admit this, sometimes an old rock and roll tune from the 60s will pop up in my mind and I can't shake that thing all day long. Not too long ago, I came to myself realizing, I was singing that old song, how much is that hound dog in the window? And I couldn't lose it. But there's other days. That boy, great hymns will pop into my head. Oh, and can it be? Start singing that all day long. Man, it'll fill you up. Or how about this one? Father alone will know all about it. Father alone will understand why. Cheer up, my brother. Live in the sunshine. We'll understand it all by and by. That's a good one to sing right there. This was the attitude and actions of a true believer that obtained the favor of God, and God had poured out on him his word, submerged him in it, flooded him with it. This truly is a Psalm 1 man. Do y'all remember the Psalm 1 messages, live in life like a tree? Turn to Psalm 1. Now, I'm sure a lot of folks heard that sermon on the internet and said, what? What in the world is he talking about? But I had entitled those sermons, Living Life Like a Tree. Look at Psalm number one. Blessed is a man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Look at verse two now. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. My goodness, what a blessing that is. This is what David's got a hold of. We don't know who wrote this Psalm, but I think that David wrote it, or at least David got a hold of it. And as David read it, I believe that became an integral part of how he wrote Psalm 119. I'm just, now listen, I'm just speculating, I don't know that for a fact. But notice verse 4, the ungodly are not so, they don't, they care nothing for the Word of God. And because of that, they are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Now, you may not know what chaff is, but back in the old days, they did a thing called winnowing. They'd go in, they'd bring all the grain, stock and all, just pull it all up and bring it into the grain floor. And there they'd start beating out those stocks and getting that wheat grain off there or whatever it would be. And then they'd throw the trash out, but they'd still have all that chaff left over from beating all those dry stocks and things. So what they would do is, is they'd just take and scoop a bunch up in a basket, and they'd go outside in the air, and they'd begin to toss it up. Now, the grain which is heavier would fall back in the basket, but the chaff would blow away. It's called winnowing. And that's what the psalmist is talking about here. He says, "...the ungodly are like the chaff, that the wind dries away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. They have no place in the kingdom of God in heaven." For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous." In other words, He knows His own. He knows what the righteous does, and He loves them. But the way of the ungodly shall perish. David just saw one man. He's planting his tree by the waters. This man that's blessed loves not the world. He walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. He has no desire for a relationship with the wicked. He finds no benefit from such a relationship. He sees the terrors of the wicked's gameship, and he has no desire to be a member of it. Proverbs 4.14 tells us, enter not into the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men. Verse 15 of that chapter says, avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it and pass away from it. Over in chapter three of 2 Timothy, Paul is writing about how these have a form of godliness. They act like they know God. They pretend they know God, but Paul says, from such turn away. Don't stand in the way of sinners. Find no fellowship of any value with them because there is no value. Don't be impressed by their actions. Don't be amused with their antics. Be disgusted by the wicked's activities. Don't sit in the seat of the scornful. Desire no friendship with those that scorn God and His. Refuse to listen to the railings. Know when they are lying. Don't surrender to their prying. Stay steadfast with the Lord. Be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. I want to tell you, blessed is the man who lives in the world, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. We have to be in this world, but we don't have to be of this world. We don't have to act like them, we don't have to talk like them, we don't have to run with them. As a matter of fact, even your own family members, when they start acting up that way, don't let your kids listen to that mess. Your grandkids, put your hands over their ears, get out of there. Flee from the wickedness. I know, I know their family, Brother Darrell, I love them, blah, blah, blah. Okay, fine, good and dandy. But don't delight in their wickedness. Your delight is to be in the law of the Lord, the Bible. As a matter of fact, if you are a true believer, you'll love the Word of God. Why will you love it? Because in sincerity, folks, the Word of God should be feeding you, it should be teaching you, it should be assuring you. That's what it did to the Psalm 1 man. The late Adrian Rogers once said, The Word of God is to your spirit what blood is to your body. The man who loves the Lord, who's in understanding the Word of God as he goes, He understands the will of God, Matthew 6, verse 33. He is receptive to the will of God, John 8, verse 32. He has been made free. And so being free, he takes advantage of all the Lord has for him. And in his law doth he meditate day and night. He faithfully reads the Word of God. He passionately studies the Word of God. He dutifully, to the best of his ability, follows the Word of God. Turn to Psalm 23. Here's what the Lord does for this guy, and for all that will follow His Word. Notice what David says in Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff." That's his word, folks. They comfort me. Thou preparest a table for me in the presence of my enemies. It's like living in this world, folks. Thou anointest my head with oil, though, and my cup runneth over the oil of the Holy Spirit. Verse 6, "...Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord till next Saturday." What does it say? Forever. That tree planted by the river's water, it will last forever just about. That water, that soil along the water is like over in a delta. You know the delta over here by the Mississippi River? Man, I tell you what, they produce some veggies over there. I mean, it's unbelievable what they do, cause that's just fertile ground over there. That Mississippi River floods out every year onto the land and leaves behind all that good silt. Man, you talking about a fertile plain on both sides of the Mississippi River. And down here on Tennessee as well. That abundance of water, that abundance of minerals and nutrients feeds the tree next to the water. The abundance of water from the Word and the minerals and nutrients of it make the believer strong. Strong in faith. Strong in hope. Strong in the midst of a troubled, dying world. And you know what? It calls you to produce good fruit. Over there in Psalm 1, I'm going to turn back there. But it causes this man to bring his fruit in the right season. It guarantees success. His leaf will not wither. Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. A lot of times the reason we don't prosper is we fail to commit ourselves to God and do as we should. Not with our time, not with our talent, not with our tithe. And then we wonder why we can't get ahead. Well, God's not going to bless you for giving Him the culls of your life, the crumbs. The ungodly blow away. Take a lesson. What a wonderful statement David has made here. Oh, the Lord, You've quickened me. You've opened me up. You've submerged me back there in Psalm 119. And David is enjoying the fruits now of HOPE, COMFORT, STRENGTH, COMPANIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP in the FAMILY OF GOD. What we have here is the humble David. He is being humble with everything he says. He is praising. He is thanking. He sees. He realizes. He knows. You might sing, have thine own way. But the question remains, do you mean it? I think sometimes it would do us real well to get on our face and pray. Get on our knees and humble, humble, dying to self and calling out to God. I believe if we would, we might see some grand things happen. And if it's a knee problem at the house, get your cushion out and get on it. And I don't mean sit on it, get on your knees before God. One of the best pictures has popped up on Facebook in the last few years is a farm family. And they're all on their knees at the couch. There's daddy, there's mama, there's the oldest son, there's a daughter, a few more kids, and way down here at the end of it is a little old bitty child, and he's praying too. And even the dog has paws up over his head. Family praying. Back in those days, a farmer had to do some praying. That's all the living you had was that farm. You better get in touch with God. I mean, you had some acreage out there and you had a mule, an old plow that you had to use. You had to get in touch with God. We've forgotten those things. We've gotten so fat and sassy with all that we have. Well, we don't have time for God. And you can see the reason our country's in the shape it is in is because we have forgotten God. Lord, thank You for Your Word. Forgive me, Lord, for my falterings and failings when it comes to true service. I've not been the humble man that I ought to be, and if all the folks in here in this room would be honest with themselves, they'd not have been as humble as they should have been, not as grateful as they could have been, as thankful as they should be, and certainly spending more time with you than with the world. So easy to get caught up in all the minutia around us, thinking that that's enjoyment when eternity lays right before our eyes. What will all these things be when you die? What will all these things be when the rapture comes? There's no worth in it. We ought to be in this moment living our lives for the Kingdom to come. Not this one. This kingdom is ruled by the devil. We don't want no part of him. So bless your people this morning, Lord. The Holy Spirit calls us to repent in dust and ashes, begging for mercy and forgiveness for our lack of respect and holiness toward you. These things we ask in Jesus' name, amen and amen.