Jonathan Edwards, that great theologian of American colonial days, this man thought a great deal about time and the proper use of time. In his now famous Seventy Resolutions, Edwards wrote this as resolution number five, resolved never to lose one moment of time, but improve it the most profitable way, I possibly can. See, to Jonathan Edwards, time was an issue of stewardship, because he recognized that God had entrusted just a limited amount of time to him, and therefore he wanted to use that time given to him in the most worthwhile and profitable manner. And for him, that meant using his time for the glory of God, to honor the Lord. See, Edwards was resolved to live his life in light of eternity. If you read through his resolutions, you'll see that very clearly. He wanted to live his life in light of eternity because he knew that following death he would stand before God and would have to give an account of his life and therefore he was determined to use his time wisely, not to squander even a moment of it. Now, Jonathan Edwards' single-minded, unwavering desire to make every moment count certainly was in line with what Scripture teaches, because the Bible does exhort us to use our time wisely. For example, in Psalm 90, we read this, So teach us to number our days, so that we may get a heart of wisdom. In other words, God has only given us a certain brief number of days to live on this earth. That's true of all of us. So we are to use those days wisely, not to waste them on ourselves, not to waste them on our pursuit of pleasure, but to use them for the Lord's honor and for His glory. So avoiding wastefulness of time and opportunities is certainly something that every believer in Christ ought to be conscious of. And there are a number of specific matters that the Bible mentions that we are not to waste. For example, in Proverbs 29.3, we read that we are not to waste our money. In the parable of the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15, we're told that the son squandered his estate with loose living. It's interesting, in John chapter 6, after Jesus fed thousands of people, he made it a point not to waste any leftover food. We read this in John chapter 6 verses 12 and 13, when they were filled, meaning the people were filled with the food, he said to his disciples, gather up the leftover fragments so that nothing will be lost. So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves which were left over by those who had eaten." But perhaps the best known verse in Scripture concerning wasting something is from Ephesians chapter 5 verses 15 and 16. Paul admonishes the Ephesians, therefore us, not to waste opportunities to minister for the Lord. He says, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of your time. Making the most, buying it up, using it, because the days are evil. In other words, we are to live in such a way that we make the most of the opportunities then available. that the Lord gives us to serve Him and others. So, time, resources, opportunities are all areas that Scripture clearly tells us that we are not to waste. However, there is something that we seldom think about when it comes to wastefulness, and that is our afflictions, our suffering, our troubles, our trials. You see, afflictions are opportunities to grow spiritually. and to serve others, and we are not to waste them. And there is no better place in Scripture that teaches this than Psalm 119. So I invite you to open your Bibles to Psalm 119, because this morning we're going to resume our study of this psalm by continuing to look at the 10th stanza, in which the psalmist tells us about the importance of not wasting our afflictions, and then we will transition into the Lord's Supper. Now, as you'll recall from last Sunday's study, this tenth stanza begins with the smallest Hebrew letter, the letter Yod. But it teaches us a huge lesson, a major lesson about affliction and suffering. Using his own experience as one who is suffering great affliction due to persecution at the hands of his enemies, the psalmist teaches us that there is a proper way to endure affliction so that we don't waste these times of suffering and fail to use them as opportunities to grow and to mature. In other words, his message to us is don't squander your affliction. Don't waste this opportunity. Learn from it. Grow by it. Use it to glorify God. And the way the psalmist teaches us this all-important lesson is by telling us several things that he did while going through his deep time of affliction. And by doing these things, far from wasting his affliction, he used it as an opportunity to grow in his relationship with the Lord, as well as benefiting others. And he wants us to follow his example by applying these principles to our lives. That's the whole reason Psalm 119 is laid out before us. He's teaching us. He's instructing us. Now last week we looked at two things the psalmist tells us he did during his time of affliction so that he didn't waste it. First of all, he tells us that he asked God for an understanding of his word. In verse 73, we read, your hands made me and fashioned me. Give me understanding that I may learn your commandments. Now, knowing that God had created him and had fashioned him with the ability to think, to be logical, to be rational, to comprehend him and his ways unlike the animals that he had created. The psalmist is here asking the Lord to help him to grow in his understanding of scripture. Lord, you've given me a mind to understand you. You've given me the intellect. Unlike the other animals that you created, you've given me this intellect, so help me to learn your word so that I might be obedient to you. And why does he want this? Well, he goes on to say he wants it for the purpose of being an example to others, other believers, of how a believer is supposed to handle affliction. Notice verse 74. May those who fear you, those are believers, see me and be glad because I wait for your word. He wants his suffering to count by helping other believers. So when they see his behavior and the way that he handles adversity, by getting into the Word, by doing all of this, the way he handles it, not retreating from God, but by pursuing God, spending time in the Word, learning as much about God's will as possible, and then putting that into practice, he wants other believers to see him model this. He's thinking of them. One of the things that I've observed as a pastor for many years is that oftentimes Christians handle adversity in the worst possible manner. They retreat. They retreat. They isolate themselves. They stop coming to church. They withdraw from fellowship. And in doing that, they waste this affliction by not using it as an opportunity to grow and to learn the Word of God. and to set an example for other believers. Well, the psalmist didn't do that. He desired to show others that affliction was a time to draw near to God, not to retreat and isolate himself. Now, the second thing the psalmist did so as to not waste his affliction is that in addition to asking God for an understanding of his word, he tells us that he acknowledged that God was right in sending him affliction. Verse 75, I know, O Lord, that your judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me." Far from accusing God of mistreating him, the psalmist acknowledges that although he knows that God is the one who has afflicted him, he says that specifically, I know that you're the one who's afflicted me, and he's done it by raising up these evil men to persecute him, he knows, he says, that what God has done is absolutely right. It's a righteous thing, and it is in keeping with his faithfulness to his word. He's only done what the word of God said he would do, and that is discipline those who stray from him. So far from wasting his affliction by blaming others for his suffering, including God, he faces the fact that it is his own sin that has caused God to afflict him, and that God is righteous in doing this. He's just being faithful. to his word. He's meting out discipline, the discipline that he needed. Now this morning, before we observe the Lord's Supper, we do want to see the other things the psalmist said and did so that he didn't waste his affliction. And now the third thing, in addition to asking God to give him understanding of his word and acknowledging that God was right to send him affliction, in the next few verses he tells us that he appealed to God's love for comfort and compassion. This is just wonderful. Verse 76, O may your loving kindness comfort me according to your word to your servant. May your compassion come to me that I may live for your law is my delight. Notice this, in the previous verse this man acknowledged that it's God who has afflicted him. He acknowledged that. But now he appeals to God to comfort him. Doesn't that strike you as unusual? estranged. What he's doing is he's asking someone to seek comfort from who's the very same person who's just struck him. That's different. That's not the normal thing you do, but that's exactly what the psalmist is doing. And he does it because he knows the one who struck him with affliction has a heart filled with compassion and love for his children. See, ordinarily, it would be more than unusual, it would be foolish and futile to seek comfort from an individual who's hurting you, except if it's the Lord. Because the Lord loves those he afflicts. and he afflicts them for their own good and he comforts them in their affliction. And you know what? The psalmist knows this. This is not speculation. This is not wishful thinking. He knows this is the case because he knows that the Word of God states this. The Word of God has told him. Notice at the end of verse 76 what he bases his appeal for God's comfort on. It's scripture. He says, Oh may your loving kindness comfort me according to your word to your servant. See this man knew and he remembered What every one of us needs to know and remember, especially during times of affliction, that God's Word reveals Him to be loving and kind and merciful, even though He sends pain our way. David said in Psalm 103 verse 11 and then verses 13 and 14, these magnificent words, For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness towards those who fear him. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. For he himself knows our frame, he's mindful that we are but dust. God's love for us, we're told, is the love of a compassionate father. He looks upon us as a loving dad looks upon his needy and weak children. In 2 Corinthians, Paul refers to God as the father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our affliction. He gives us comfort, the psalmist tells us, watch this, I don't want you to think of this in a broad general way, but this is very specific. He gives us comfort simply by assuring us of his love for us. Notice the verse again, O may your loving kindness comfort me. It is the love of God that comforts us. But I understand, and all of us do, it can be very challenging to accept that God loves you when you are enduring great pain, especially when you brought this pain on yourself by your own sin. During times like this, our enemy, Satan, he'll tempt us to doubt God's love by whispering to our hearts thoughts like, if he loves you, then why would he let you suffer so much? Or, How can you expect God to love you when you have sinned so greatly against Him? You've forfeited His love. He doesn't care about you. This is where you have to resist the devil. And you know how you resist the devil? The Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 6, you hold up the shield of faith. You trust the Word of God. You have to trust, regardless of how you feel, that God does love you, His word says that, and that His love is not based on what you do or don't do. God's love has nothing to do with our performance as Christians. Now, we ought to be as obedient as possible, but when we're not, we don't forfeit His love. We weren't saved by our performance. His love is not based on our performance. It is His mercy and grace. Scripture tells us that God has shown His love for us by the fact that Christ died for sinners. Not good people. Sinners, like us. God's love for you is unconditional. It has nothing to do with your behavior. God demonstrated His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, meaning rebellious, defiant, lost sinners, Christ died for us. His love has everything to do with Him choosing to love you. Ephesians 2 verse 4 after Paul explains in verses 1 through 3 how wicked we were before our conversion. He says, but God being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us. And he goes on to say He regenerated us. And it's this truth about His love that is to be our comfort, because it will only comfort us, this truth, that we put aside our feelings, our emotions, and taking the shield of faith, we not only trust that the Word of God is absolutely true, but watch this, we personally, and underline that in your thinking, personally apply it, that God loves us. I say personally apply God's love because of how the psalmist speaks of the Word. Notice he refers to it as your word to your servant." Think about that. He looked upon God's word, and probably he's thinking of some specific promise about his love, as something that was personal. It's to you, he says. It's to me, your servant. It's something intimate. It's something specifically for him. It was his word to me, your servant. See, the only way you're going to be comforted in your affliction is by applying what God has said about His love for His children to yourself. It's not simply that God loves His people in a broad, generic sense. It's that He loves you personally and individually. Christ demonstrated His love for you in that He died for you. If you're one of His people, He died for you. not a world in general, but for you. This is certainly how the Apostle Paul looked upon the death of Christ. Yes, we understand it was for his people, but Paul understood it was for me, for him. Paul told the Galatians in Galatians 2.20 that he lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, he said, and gave himself up for me. You see, God's love is not something that is general and non-specific. It is personal and it is very specific. And that's how you have to think. That's the way to be comforted in your affliction. That's the way to make sure you don't waste your affliction because you are to use it as a time to think about God's love for you, individually, to meditate on it, to apply it, to rest in it, to be comforted and consoled by it. Now in the case of the psalmist, notice he goes on in verse 77 and say that in light of God's love for him, he was in need of God's compassion if he wants to continue living. He said, may your compassion come to me that I may live. What he's referring to is the fact that he was in danger of having his life snuffed out, murdered by these wicked evil men is persecutors they they were threatening to kill him so he's just asking God to be merciful to him so that he would continue to live but notice what he gives us the reason he wants to continue living for your law is my delight now here's a man who had been straying from God's Word. And the other stands, he says, it's good for me that I've been afflicted, that I might learn, but I was going astray, and then you afflicted me, and now I've returned. So he's being disciplined for his straying ways. But now he delights in the Word, and he wants to live by the Word in order to obey the Word. See, what the psalmist is saying is that he doesn't want to waste his life anymore. He has wasted it by straying. This is what he has been doing, and he's stopping it. But if God, out of his compassion, grants that he continues to live, he wants his life from this point on to count. And the only way it's going to count is if he delights in the Word of God by obeying it. Listen, I appeal to you to make sure that you use your affliction, whether you're going through affliction now or in the future, as an opportunity to examine your life and to evaluate how you are living. Use your affliction as a time to gauge your passion, or lack of it, for the Word of God. Let your suffering create an awareness in you that the only thing that really matters in life is your relationship with Jesus Christ. Nothing else really matters like that. and it is inseparably connected to delighting in and obeying his word. You can't say that I'm living for you, Lord, and then separate the word of God. If you love the Lord Jesus, you love his word. And so for the psalmist, he made sure that his affliction was not wasted because he used it as an opportunity to appeal to God's love for comfort and compassion. And you need to do that as well. I urge you, Think about God's love for you today. Meditate on it. Rejoice in it. But as this man continues writing this stanza, he tells us about a fourth thing that he did so as not to waste his affliction. He tells us that he applied his mind to God's word. Verse 78, May the arrogant be ashamed for they subvert me with a lie, but I shall meditate on your precepts. Having just asked the Lord to let him continue living and not die at the hands of his tormentors, the psalmist now asked the Lord to shame these arrogant men who were trying to ruin him with lies about him. How to shame them? By foiling their plans to kill him. That's what he's talking about. In other words, he's simply praying that God will not allow their wicked plans to murder him to succeed. And in that way, they will suffer the shame of disappointment. But what intrigues me about this prayer by the psalmist is what he says following this request. He says, but I shall meditate on your precepts. Now, when you put his request, his prayer, together with his statement that he's going to meditate on God's word, here's what he's really saying. He's saying that rather than dwelling on these men and their evil, rather than thinking about how horrible they are, he's going to leave them in God's hands to deal with them, and he's going to give himself to thinking about the Word of God. In other words, he's not going to spend his time thinking about these men and how much they've hurt him. Instead, he's made a choice, and his choice is to meditate and think on the truths of Scripture. Folks, this is a tremendous truth and a tremendous thought that the psalmist is giving us, because the natural tendency for all of us when we're suffering, whether it's by the hands of others or by something brought on by illness or just a set of bad circumstances, the natural tendency is to become obsessed, preoccupied with thinking about our pain and our situation. And if others have caused it, we dwell on them and what evil they've done to us. And when we do that, you know what happens? We become enslaved to our pain, to our affliction, because it has absolute control over us. But what the psalmist is telling us is that he made a deliberate choice. Rather than be obsessed with his affliction and the men who afflicted him, he chose to apply his mind to thinking about the truths of God. And in doing this, not only was he free from being a slave to his affliction, but he used this time of affliction as an opportunity to fill his mind with truth. Our friend Charles Spurgeon has some very practical and very helpful words to say about what the psalmist did and how what he said applies to us. Spurgeon said, the proud are not worth a thought. I love it. The proud are not worth a thought. The worst injury they can do to us is to take away from our devotions. Let us baffle them by keeping all the closer to our God when they are most malicious in their onslaughts. Listen, if your affliction is coming from the hands of someone, just give them to the Lord and don't give them another thought. As Spurgeon said, they're not worth it. They're not worth thinking about. Don't let them rob you of your joy in Christ. Choose to think about Scripture, not their evil. And in doing so, you won't waste your affliction. You'll use it to your profit. But in doing this, the psalmist not only profited from his affliction, although he did, but he wasn't thinking only of himself, because he goes on to tell us that he wanted others to profit from his affliction too. So in the very next verse, he gives us still one more thing he did so as not to waste his affliction. He attempted to encourage other believers. Verse 79. May those who fear you turn to me, even those who know your testimonies." Now, it would appear that the lies that his persecutors had been spreading about him, it would appear that they were accepted as fact by some of his fellow believers, and that had to hurt him deeply. I say that because his prayer in this verse, those who fear the Lord would turn to him, would seem to fit that scenario. The thought seems to be this, it's very likely that in hearing these slanderous reports about him, that some fellow believers accepted them as true. And as a result, they had turned away from him. They wanted nothing to do with him. So that now what he's asking the Lord to actually do is turn them back to him. Not just turn, but turn back to him. return to him. And why does he want them to turn back to him? Well, the way this is translated in most of our English versions, I don't think really captures the thought, because it just says in most English translations that those he wants to turn to him are those who know God's testimonies. But what the Hebrew text appears to be saying is that they may know your testimonies. In other words, he wants these fellow believers to turn back to him so that he can now teach them God's Word. See this man, having used his affliction to grow in his understanding of God and His ways, he now wants to share what he's learned with others. He wants to pass it on to them. That's exactly what you and I are to do with our affliction. Use them as opportunities to learn about the Lord and then encourage other believers by passing on to them what you have learned. This is precisely what the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians immediately after stating that God was the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. Joel mentioned these verses earlier, but this is the context. 2 Corinthians 1-4, who comforts us in all our affliction so that, notice, God comforts us so that, here's the purpose, we'll be able to comfort those who are in any affliction. Well, how? How are we going to do that? He tells us, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Now he's not talking about feelings, he's talking about what truths God has used to bring you comfort. See, the comfort and strength you receive from God when you're afflicted isn't simply for your sake. It's also for the sake of others, so that you can comfort them with the truths from the Word that have comforted you. So don't waste your affliction. Let it be the means by which you are able to bless and encourage others by telling them about how God has used his word to bring peace and comfort to your heart. Now, so far, the psalmist has given us five things he did so as to not waste his affliction. He asked God for an understanding of his word. He acknowledged that God was right in afflicting him. He appealed to God's love for comfort and compassion. He applied his mind to the word of God. And he attempted to encourage other believers. But now, as he brings this tenth yod stanza to a close, he gives us one more thing he did so as not to waste his affliction. He sought the approval of God. Verse 80, May my heart be blameless in your statute so that I will not be ashamed. Although he desires that his fellow believers, those who have previously turned against him, held him in low esteem, his desires that they would now think better of him. While that's true, the most important thing to him wasn't what they thought, it was what God thought. He wants God to give him his approval, his affirmation. This is why I ask the Lord that his heart be blameless in his statute, so that he won't be ashamed. In other words, he's asking the Lord to help him, to enable him to live in obedience to his word, so that he will not be ashamed before God. See, this man, above everything else, wants to please the Lord. That's his ambition. And he knows the only way to do this is by obeying the Word of God. And so he's not about to let his affliction defeat him. He is determined to be occupied with God's Word rather than his suffering. Folks, that's exactly what you and I need to do. Don't waste your sufferings by becoming self-absorbed. Instead, turn to the Lord, get into His Word, seeking His approval by obedience. Now, as we transition to the Lord's Supper, we are reminded that as much as we want to obey God, and that is the heart cry of every true believer, to obey Him, none of us fully obeys God. As much as we might want to, no one fully obeys Him. No one completely, 100% of the time, carries out His will. Listen, even our best obedience is tainted with sin. sinful motives, sinful thoughts. There is only one who is obedient all the time. Only one in all of history who has perfectly kept the law of God in every way and all the time, and that one was Jesus Christ. While on earth, our Lord was completely obedient to the law. In His death, He paid the price for our disobedience. to the law and in his death we come remembering that right now we remember this during the Lord's Supper the death of Christ he died in the place of those who would come to believe in him in that he was judged in their place so that they would never be judged and he has called us to never forget this but to remember it In 1 Corinthians 11 we read, starting in verse 23, For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and he said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in doing so he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he does not judge the body rightly." So, Paul teaches that the Lord's Supper is for believers only. If you're not a Christian, let the elements pass you by. It is our desire that you would become a Christian and thus participate in this But this is not a converting ordinance, this is for believers. It's also, for believers, a time for us to examine ourselves, to see if there's any sin that has not been repented of, not been confessed, perhaps a grudge, a lack of forgiving someone, maybe recent, it may go back years. Any hostility in our hearts, unchecked pride, selfish ambition, resentment, jealousy, Neglect of the Lord and His Word, laziness, apathy for the things of God, just goes on and on and on. So, examine your heart. And whatever you find there, confess it to Him. If you're not a Christian, then look to Christ. Be saved. His arms are open wide for you to come to Him. So come. Trust His death on the cross. for your salvation it's that simple let's pray and then our men will pass out the elements Lord we thank you that you do send us affliction we thank you that your sovereign even over that but there are ways that you've given us to deal and not waste our afflictions to help us to take heed to what we've learned today we are grateful Lord that you, Lord Jesus, fully obedient to the law and you fulfilled the law and the curse of the law by dying in our place. May this be a special time that we remember you. I pray for every true Christian here that they would address sin in their hearts and truly repent. I pray for every non-Christian here that you would bring conviction to their hearts and ultimately bring them into your kingdom. This we pray in your name. Amen.