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Psalm 119:41-48 - Waw · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his word and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today we are in Psalm 119 and we
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  are in the WAH section. That's aw, the WAH section, and
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  that is verses 41 through 48. And all of these verses start
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  with the Hebrew letter Wah. It's got words that start with
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  that letter in the Hebrew alphabet.
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  Psalm 119 is like the A-Z of the Word of God.
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  And each of the 22 sections they start with one of the letters of
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  the Hebrew alphabet. So the first 8 verses all start
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  with the Hebrew equivalent to RA section, Section 2.
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  All all of the verses start with the equivalent of our letter B.
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  And so it walks through A to ZA, 176 verses in total looking at
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  the word of God. And all of it is looking at
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  God's instructions towards us, His relationship with us, and
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  what our response is to be as a result.
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  And so today in verses 41 through 48, there's kind of two
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  main thoughts that we're going to look at, but I'm going to
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  read through this passage. And as I've mentioned, each time
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  the as we're walking through this portion of Scripture, it
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  won't just say like, hey God, I love the Bible or I love
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  Scripture. The psalmist puts a variety of
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  ways that he describes the word of God.
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  And so in this particular, in this particular portion of
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  Scripture, the law section, God's words are described as his
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  promises, what God has promised, God's word, the word of truth,
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  God's judgments, God's instruction, God's precepts,
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  God's decrees, his commands, and his statutes.
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  And so those are the words that you're listening for, that all
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  of this communicates. This is what God has told us.
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  And so here's what we're going to do, or here's what we're
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  going to feel as a result of God's declaration of himself and
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  his ways to us. Let's start reading verse 41.
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  Let your faithful love come to me, Yahweh, Your salvation as
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  You promised. Then I can answer the one who
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  taunts me, for I trust in Your word.
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  Never take the word of truth from my mouth, for I hope in
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  Your judgments I will always obey your instruction.
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  Forever and ever I will walk freely in an open place because
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  I study Your precepts. I will speak of Your decrees
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  before kings and not be ashamed. I delight in your commands which
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  I love. I will lift U my hands to your
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  commands, which I love and will meditate on your statutes.
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  OK, there's two main things that I want to look at today from
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  Psalm 119 in the law section. It is this number one.
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  God's word should be loved by us.
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  God's word should be loved by us.
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  I see this in verse 41. Let your faithful love come to
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  me, Yahweh, your salvation as you promised.
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  And then verses 47 and 48, I delight in your commands, which
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  I love. I will lift up my hands to your
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  commands, which I love here. The love for the Word of God is
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  incredibly important in the life of the believer.
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  I think of first Peter chapter 2 and I'm going to turn in my
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  physical Bible over here. We walked through first Peter
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  all together. I think this was many months ago
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  now, but we can read this about what Peter says about the Word
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  of God verse #23 of chapter 1. Going into chapter 2, he says
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  you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of
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  imperishable through the living and enduring Word of God.
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  For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like a flower of
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  the grass. The grass Withers and the flower
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  falls, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.
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  And this word is the gospel that was proclaimed to you and then
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  down in second, first Peter 2 verse 2, like newborn infants,
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  desire the pure milk of the Word so that by it you may grow up
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  into your salvation. There Peter highlights for us
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  that the word of God is what gave us new life.
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  It was the message of Jesus, of his forgiveness and his love of
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  God's justice against sin, of our condemnation that we were
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  going to experience. But God in Jesus Christ made
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  that way that we could be reconciled to him.
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  And so it is the word of God that brought us into
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  relationship with God. It is the Word of God that
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  allows us to grow, and we've been talking a lot about that
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  over the past several episodes. And So what should our response
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  be to the Word of God? What do we think about the
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  gospel message? What do we think about the book
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  of Psalms or the the stories in Genesis or the accounts of
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  Joshua and the miracles that God worked there as Israel entered
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  the land and as God gave it to them, taking it away from those
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  who had been practicing idolatry and horrible evils and
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  atrocities? What do we think of this Word of
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  God? Well, I hear the Psalmist would
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  say, I love it. I love the commands of God.
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  Do you love the commands of God or is it an inconvenience for
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  you? I think for myself sometimes I,
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  I, I doubt that there is a person on this planet that does
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  not experience this. That is, we come to the word of
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  God, we go, OK, well, I know God doesn't really like this.
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  Like I can read the verse and it's very clear to me God is
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  against this, but I kind of like that and I feel like maybe my
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  life would be better if I just continue doing that and just
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  ignored this verse or this command.
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  When the truth is because our entire existence occurred
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  because God spoke and the world's were formed as we would
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  hear in Hebrews 11, because we have been through the Word of
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  God. It was a seed that was planted
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  in our lives that bore fruit that now we believe in Jesus
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  Christ as a result of the Word of God and we are now to be
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  equipped with the Word so that we can grow up into our
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  salvation. And though we have the Word as
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  the sword of the Spirit to defend against Satan and his
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  fiery darts, so often we don't value the word of God like we
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  don't love it. We don't love being told that we
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  are, pardon me, We don't love being told we're wrong in our in
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  our attitude, in our temperament, in our vocabulary,
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  in in our actions, in our over indulgence in the things that
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  God has given us. We don't view we don't view
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  God's word as being valuable. We don't love it.
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  We don't spend time in it and instead we just take a very
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  superficial view to the word of God.
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  I love I've even done episodes of of Tabernacle talk going over
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  the verse of the day from the you version Bible app.
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  And I think especially when looking at context and looking
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  at the meaning of of the verse within the book and within the
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  section of the book that that verse is written, I think having
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  a verse of the day can be really great.
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  It can give you a starting point for where you spend time in the
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  word. But I think so often what it can
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  become is I read a sentence that was in a book that God gave to
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  me. And so because I read the
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  sentence and maybe it talks something about happiness or
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  about joy or about God's presence, I am totally happy.
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  And that's all I need for the day.
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  And so long as I maybe can manage to pull up the verse of
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  the day, then I'm good to go about the rest of the of my day.
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  My friend, no, that is not what we are called to do as the
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  people of God. The word of God ought to be
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  all-encompassing in our soul that we learn the word.
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  And you know, you are right now you're listening.
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  You're 8 minutes into Tabernacle talk looking at Psalm 119,
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  verses 41 through 48. This is something that obviously
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  through your action, you have said I do care about the word of
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  God and I want to hear from him. I want to encourage you continue
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  to cultivate that. What some of the things that
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  have so enriched my love for the word of God have been the Bible
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  project and you guys hear me reference that often.
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  They have a podcast, they have a website, they have YouTube
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  videos, so many incredible resources that have made me fall
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  in love. Especially they they go over all
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  of the Bible, but especially their work in the Old Testament
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  and in the language and specific vocabulary choices that the
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  writers of the Old Testament used in order to paint beautiful
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  pictures about our relationship with God, about the coming
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  Messiah, about the hope that would be found and the certainty
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  that God will make all things right.
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  All of that is highlighted by the Bible Project.
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  And so I love spending time in that.
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  I'll say one other one, the Bible Talk podcast by it's by a
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  couple professors from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in
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  Louisville, KY. They, they publish it in
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  connection with 9 Marks, which is a ministry out of the DC area
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  encouraging faithful Bible teaching and, and classic
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  Baptist, historical Baptist ecclesiology, which thankfully
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  is not in the scope of the stuff for today.
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  But Bible talk is another one of those where they've been walking
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  through. So they've done Genesis, Genesis
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  through Judges, and then they walked all the way through like
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  Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings. And now they are into Isaiah.
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  So they're, they're learning all of the Bible and you can listen
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  through and hear incredibly theologically astute professors
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  who love the word of God and are enchanted by it.
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  They, they love the word. And so as a result, it causes
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  you to love the word. So spend time around other
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  people that also love the word of God that they want to talk
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  about it. That as you have questions, it's
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  not like, oh, well, what good is that to to my time?
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  I'd rather spend my time doing something else.
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  No spend time with those that love the Word of God and you
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  will grow to love the Word of God.
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  I could talk for a lot longer about loving the Word, but I'm
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  going to continue on with the second thought that I wanted us
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  to look at today. So #1 love the Word of God #2 is
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  the actions that we can take as a result of what we learned from
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  the Word of God. So it's not just read and it's
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  not just think about that. We're going to look briefly at
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  that at the very end of this section.
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  It's not just read or think about.
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  It's now I can take some action steps as a result of what I have
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  learned from the word. So verse #42 I can answer the
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  one who taunts me, for I trust in Your Word and I'm thankful
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  that there is a response that the child of God can give to
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  those that do not believe or do not obey the Lord as a result of
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  what they know. I'm going to turn over real
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  quick in first Peter chapter 3 because Peter mentioned
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  something kind of like this. He says in verse #15 he says in
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  your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time
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  to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the
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  hope that is in you. There.
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  We can give an answer to unbelievers when we know the
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  Word of God, when we trust and believe Scripture.
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  Our answer doesn't have to be, well, I think this or my opinion
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  is this. We can say here with the
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  Psalmist and with Peter, here's what Christ says.
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  Here's what the Lord has said. And so I have an answer for
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  those that despise God. Not in a, OK, well, they're
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  attacking me kind of way, but no, in a they, they did
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  disbelieve the Lord. They don't love him, they don't
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  follow him. But I'm going to encourage them
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  with the word of God. And since the word of God is
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  what made me a child of God and what made you a child of God,
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  that is what can work for others that we point them to the
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  message of Scripture. Ultimately, of course, Jesus
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  Christ and the gospel being the consummate message of the Word
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  of God, so we can answer when people have questions or
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  objections or hear taunts. It's even when people aren't
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  responding well, you can respond with the Word of God verse #44
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  He says, I will always obey your instruction forever and ever.
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  We can actually take action steps based on the Word of God.
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  I know Psalm 119, sorry. I know the book of Psalms is a
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  wonderful treasure for so many people, but I want to encourage
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  you don't just say, OK, I'm going to do a, a Psalm for the
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  day. Now, if that's all that you are
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  able to have time for, you're busy.
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  You're like me, you got some toddlers, you got some kids.
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  You're like, man, I'm busy, wonderful.
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  And any portion of the word of God is going to be good for you.
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  But also, if you read through the book of Proverbs, if you
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  read through the epistles, that's like Romans through Jude,
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  you are going to see the commands of God that you can
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  actually obey. Often in Psalms, there will
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  sometimes be things of like, don't put your trust in
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  Princess, praise the Lord's. You know, I, I think last
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  episode we looked at a command that was given to take our eyes
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  off of dishonest gain or take our eyes off of money and what
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  money can buy. But there are more specific
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  commands that are given to us in the rest of Scripture that we
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  can obey. And if you're just reading
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  perhaps a Psalm, you might not see all of the commands that God
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  has for you. So pair Scripture with
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  Scripture. So you might say, OK, I'm going
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  to read a Psalm and get some encouragement for my day today.
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  And then I'm also going to read, you know, the letter of Jude,
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  it's 2525 verses, super, super short book.
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  Or I'm going to read second John, which is all the 12
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  verses. And I'm going to read the
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  commands that God has for me there.
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  And then I'm going to obey the word of God.
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  If all you ever do is ingest scripture, but it never affects
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  your behavior, you are going to be impoverished.
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  That's not the point that God has for you.
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  He doesn't want you to just become a great reader.
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  He wants you to be a doer, or as James tells us in James one,
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  don't just be a hearer of the word, but be a doer of the Word.
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  OK then verse #45 he says I will walk freely in an open place
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  because I study your precepts. He says there is freedom found
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  when you are walking according to God's way.
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  So when you are following the Lord, you don't have to worry
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  about maintaining a particular lie.
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  You don't have to be scared about that because you you're
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  able to say I walk in the truth because my God is truth.
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  He commands me to tell the truth and so I can just live safe.
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  You don't have to worry about your spouse finding you know,
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  inappropriate picture from someone else or a text from
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  someone else on your phone because you say I am faithful to
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  my spouse and so I don't have to worry.
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  And so I have freedom in this relationship.
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  You don't have to worry about like avoiding a particular
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  person because you cheated them or you swindled them.
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  You you've said I am going to walk in open honest relationship
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  with those around me, loving, caring relationship.
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  And so when I see people, yeah, they might have done wrong by
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  me, but I have not done wrong by them.
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  And so I can have an openness and I can talk to people and
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  there is freedom that is found for the child of God as they
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  walk according to the precepts of God.
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  I think of the verse in Galatians 5 where Paul says
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  where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
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  And what a joy that we can answer opponents with the word
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  of God. We can obey the Word of God and
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  see our lives transformed and changed.
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  We can find freedom as we pursue God's way and not our own.
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  And then verse 46, I will speak of your decrees before kings and
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  not be ashamed. You can, if you will, you can
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  testify. You can give testimony.
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  You can share with other people, even kings, even royalty.
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  You could tell them about what God has told you.
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  You are not responsible for telling other people what you do
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  not know. That's someone else's
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  responsibility. If if someone were to ask, hey,
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  Brian, I really have a lot of questions about, you know, Old
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  Testament manuscripts. I know a couple of things, but
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  that's not my area of expertise. That's not one of the things
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  that I have invested a lot of my time in.
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  I have friends that have spent a lot of time in that.
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  And so I would say, hey, this person would be a great one for
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  you to talk to. Now if someone asks, hey, I
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  don't know how to be saved. Like I don't know how to know
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  that I'm on my way to heaven, that I have a relationship with
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  God. Well, God has told me that I do
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  know how because I accepted the Lord and I know, I know that I'm
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  headed for heaven. And so I can tell someone else
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  what I have learned, someone might not ask you, hey, would
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  you explain the Trinity and the difference between, you know,
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  modalism and Arianism and like historical theological belief in
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  the Trinity? You might not know some of those
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  answers. I, I know a couple of those
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  answers, but God hasn't asked you to communicate what he has
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  not told you yet. And so just be faithful to tell
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  what God has told you. And that might be something
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  simple. It might be something about
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  being kind to someone else or offering forgiveness or being
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  generous in the way that you live.
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  Whatever God has told you, go tell it to someone else.
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  Don't keep it inside. Don't just say, well, I read it
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  and that's enough. No, if if you read it, it means
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  that God has a purpose for you to go tell someone else about
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  it. And then in verse 48, as we
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  close, I will lift up my hands to your commands.
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  Praise, worship of the Lord should occur when we read the
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  Word of God. When we read the word, our
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  reaction should be God, you are great, you are holy, you are
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  loving, you are generous, you are the victor.
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  And so I'm going to worship you. I'm going to praise you because
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  you are worthy of it. Here.
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  This lifting up of hands, it's like in victory.
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  And then at the end of verse say I will meditate on your
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  statutes. It is.
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  I'm not just going to read it one time.
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  I'm not just going to hear it one time.
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  I'm going to keep on thinking about it.
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  I'm going to remember, Hey, I remember when my buddy Owen or
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  I'm going to remember when Gary, or I'm going to remember when
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  Martha or Brenda mentioned this verse.
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  And I'm going to keep on thinking about that verse all
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  throughout my week. I'm not going to let the Word of
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  God just kind of fall flat in my life.
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  No, I'm going to keep on bringing it up, listening to it
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  over and over and over again. So what should we do with the
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  Word of God? We should love it.
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  We should use it then to answer opponents.
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  We should obey it. We should not just read it.
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  We can find freedom as a result of walking in the Word of God.
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  We can speak about it to others. That what we have heard, what
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  we've read, we're going to pass on to someone else.
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  We're going to praise as a result of what we have read in
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  the Word of God. And we're going to keep on
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  thinking about it. We're going to meditate on it.
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  Thanks for tuning in today. And next time we're going to be
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  looking at verses 49 through 56 under the Hebrew letter Zayin.
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  Thanks for tuning in. Have a wonderful day.