Sermon Cloud

Intro: Continuing on … not really sermons as much as meditations through Psalm 119. And this evening we will continuing on meditating with the psalmist through his love for God’s word and the fruit of this love. 

Theme: Wisdom and fruitfulness comes when we meditate and obey God’s Word. 

Read: Psalm 119:97-104.

This first verse acts as a thesis statement for the remainder; it stands as title and introduction to all that will follow

I. Meditation: Fruit of Love. 

(97) “How I love Your Law” - a simple statement of his attitude, his inner disposition toward the Law of God. It involves mind, will, and affections - the whole of his being. In connection with the command, the precious “Shema” (Deut. 6:4-5) to the OT Jew it was akin to “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all of your soul, and with all of your strength.” And then Moses immediately adds, “These words, which I am commanding your today, shall be on your heart.” The point is this: love for God is evidenced by love for His Word.

 Why? Because this is where He is revealed. If we love someone we want to know them. If we exist in the environment of spiritual life, we will want to go to the one place where than life is encouraged, defined, challenged, and instructed. 

Bridges notes: 

“The professor may read, and understand, and even externally obey the law; but the believer only loves it; and he lives in it, as if he could not live without it; To the professor it is a task imposed to satisfy conscience …. To the child of God, I t is food and medicine , light and comfort.” (Bridges).  

“I am occupied (also translated, “meditate” “muse”)” - the result of his love. Like a parted lover so is the psalmist with the Word of God. What does this mean? It means simply that his mind and affections are so taken with what he has discovered in Scripture that he cannot get it our of his mind. He is distracted by thoughts of the word. 

Very often we are just the opposite, we forget what we read or prayed over before we even begin the day or shortly thereafter. 

“Unless God’s law inflame and ravish our hearts with the love of it, many allurements will quickly steal upon us, and lead us away to vanity. The prophet, then, here commends such a love of the law, as, possessing all our senses, effectually excludes all the deceits and corruptions to which we are otherwise too much inclined.” (Calvin). 

It means that all day long Scripture is what is influencing and informing his thought, speech, and actions. He is viewing life from the standpoint of God’s revelation. 

How does God’s Word practically affect you thinking about yourself, your marriage, your job, your children? Not just in a general or casual sense, but in that you actually think of specific verses; specific applications, specific ways in which it commands obedience in your life? 

Three Results of meditating on the Word: 

Acquire Wisdom

(98) “make me wiser”  - this is the first and greatest practical fruit of the Word. Wisdom. The ability to live life skillfully. (Ps. 111:10)

Wisdom is knowing how to apply truth - particularly God’s truth - to life. Since embodied in the Law was all of the reveled truth of God to know it, live it, meditate on it, and obey it brought one into the very sphere of living in wisdom and understanding. This is what is played out in the life of the Psalmist. 

Wisdom was a common and preeminent element of OT religion - both pagan and biblical. In other words, man has generally recognized the superior value and worth of wisdom. To have all the knowledge in the world, but not know how to apply it life’s various situations and the very day matter of living, makes that knowledge useless, or at least not very helpful. 

The wisdom of the OT however, is quite distinct from other ancient world views although the format of wisdom literature is similar to that of other cultures. Reflected in OT wisdom is the teaching of a personal God who is holy and just and who expects those who know him to exhibit his character in the many practical affairs of life. This perfect blend of the revealed will of a holy God with the practical human experiences of life is also distinct from the speculative wisdom of the Greeks. The ethical dynamic of Greek philosophy lay in the intellect; if a person had perfect knowledge he could live the good life (Plato). Knowledge was virtue. The emphasis of OT Wisdom was that the human will, in the realm of practical matters, was to be subject to divine causes. Therefore, Hebrew wisdom was not theoretical and speculative. It was practical, based on revealed principles of right and wrong, to be lived out in daily life.” 

The distinction between godly wisdom and human wisdom is the “fear of the Lord” (Prov. 1:7; Job 28:28; cf. Ecc. 12:13). While human wisdom can help one navigate this world successfully it can do nothing for the glory of God, the preservation of the soul, or the satisfaction of the soul - ultimately. It is only of this world and for anyone who is thinking rightly it is seen as futility and vanity. (Ps. 105:22 provides an interesting example in Joseph).In connection with this note: Acts 6:10

True wisdom, the wisdom that makes one wise unto salvation (1 Tim. 3:15), has real value and increases eternal fruit and true spiritual rest is that which is in yielded response and obedience to the Word of God. (Prov. 8:12-21). 

Wisdom is a gift from God and available to all who seek her in humble faith (Prob. 2:1-7; James 1:2ff). 

World: Wealth will make you happy and satisfy all your needs: Word: “Those who want to get rich flal into temptation and a snare and any fooloish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away form the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

World: Stand up for your rights - Word: “consider others as more important than yourself”

World: express yourself, vent, you need to let it out - Word: Prov. 12:16, 18; 15:1, 4. - This could go on. 

“they are mine forever” - unlike the wisdom of the world that will perish and be held up as ultimately empty and futile before God. The wisdom of the one who fears God and keeps His commandments will endure forever; it is grounded in eternity - the Eternal One. 

How do we know when we are walking in wisdom? James 3:13-18. 

Quick to listen rather than express one’s own mind (Prov. 12:15; 18:2). 

In the NT wisdom is bound up in Jesus Christ (Col. 2:3-8; 1 Cor. 2:30; He is wisdom that is foolishness to the world, 1 Cor. 1:18ff). 

In the Word of God we have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16). Therefore, like the OT saint so we know God’s wisdom as we know God’s Word, which will always be centered on the Person, ministry, work, and return of Jesus Christ. 

Greater insight 

“I have more insight”

Definition: 

 “relates to an intelligent knowledge of the reason. There is the process of thinking through a complex arrangement of thoughts resulting in a wise dealing and use of good practical common sense. Another end result is the emphasis upon being successful.“

Knowledge does not equal insight, or the understanding that is able to yield the benefits of what is known. It is possible to know a great deal about the truth but yield very little advantage from it. Remember, the guiding and sustaining thread that runs the entire experience of the psalmist is not his knowledge  of the word, but his love and obedience to the Word. 

Negative example: Jer. 8:7-9; etc. **1 Kings 12:6ff (Rehoboam).

Job 32:8-9. 

Gain Understanding (discernment)

*Parallel thought

(100) “I am more discerning than the aged” - usually we associate age with wisdom, and proverbs does say, Prov. 16:31 “A gray head is a crown of glory,” however, it is wrong to assume that age equals wisdom. It is possible to have lived for a long time and not learn very much, or not have profited as much by your years as would have been expected.

Age does not guarantee wisdom and understanding (cf. Job 32:6-10; *Ecc. 4:13). 

Hebrews 5:11-14 follows this same line of thought (also John 7:17). Understanding comes from trusting obedience, putting faith in to practice. 

While understanding is a gift of God, it does not come automatically. The possession of it requires a persistent diligence. It is more than IQ; it connotes character. One is at fault if he doesn't have it and in fact, not to pursue it will incur God's punishment (Prov 2:lff; Ruth 1:21ff). When one acts on the objective presentations of God's revelation, he will attain the ideal of the significance of understanding.”  

It is possible to hear and not perceive (Matt. 13:11; 15:6-9). 

It comes from the Lord and therefore is something to be sought from Him in prayer (cf. James 1).

Discernment comes by having our sense trained through practice. 

Key to Fruitfulness: 

Obedience 

(100b - 102) **“Because I have observed …” 

Sometimes we notice that both ourselves and others do not live in Christ and according to Christ to the same level that we know things about Christ. Put more simply, we tend to know more than we obey. Sometimes we are stumped by the reason for this, yet the Psalmist answers it here and provides the key that turns knowledge into experience - namely, obedience! (*John 7:17). 

Wisdom and fruitfulness comes when submit ourselves entirely to the authority of the Word.

How often we settle with such slight encounters with the Word of God - but we are to pursue it, or as Martin Luther said, “shake … every bough of it; that, if possible, some fruit at least may drop down to us … if your soul really hungers, the Spirit of God will not send you away empty. You shall at length find in one , and that perhaps a short verse in Scripture, such an abundance of delicious fruit, that you will gladly seat yourself under its shade, and abide there, as under a tree laden with fruit.” (Luther). 

“Thus bringing your mind into close and continual contact with the testimonies of God, and pressing out the sweetness from the precious volume, it will drop as from the honeycomb, daily comfort and refreshment upon your heart.” (Bridges). 

The Lord said, if we love Him we will “keep His commandments.” Heb. 5 is key here. 

The problem with the Pharisees is that they knew but they did not do (*Matt. 21:28-32).

(101) “I have restrained my feet from every evil way”  - But remember the theme and the driving motivation in all of this - “love [for] Your Law”

“The professor is afraid of hell; the child of God of sin. The one refrains  from the outward act - the other seeks to be crucified to the love of sin. Observe not only the practice, but the motive - that he might keep the word.” (Bridges). 

Rom. 12:9 “abhor what is evil, cling to what is good.” “Abhor” is a strong word; and a strong word is needed against such a deadly enemy. We would not go against a terrorist with a sign that says, “smile; its contagious.” Neither should we treat sin with such trite platitudes, and with such a wink of superficiality. For it would as soon wreck our lives and send us to eternal misery and separation of God as it would cast us in a state of uselessness in the service of God. It does always seek to enslave us (Rom. 6) and cause us to be disloyal to one who has purchased us with His own blood (Acts 20:28). Thus, we get a foretaste of the psalmist hatred of sin in 104 “I hate every path of deception.” 

This the inner attitude of the child of God. The hypocrite is satisfied as long as he is not caught, or does not receive any repercussions from his sin. The child of God is grieved over the sin, that he disobeyed the Lord whom he loves. 

“Oh, may therefore seek to abide within a constant view of Calvary! Sin will live everywhere but under the cross of Jesus. Here it withers and dies. Here rises the spring of that holiness, contrition, and love, which refreshes and quickens the soul. Here let me live: here let me die.” (Bridges). 

“When I am assaulted by some wicked thought , I then betake me to the wounds of Christ. When my flesh casteth me down, by the remembrance of my Savior’s wounds, I rise up again. Am I inflamed with lust? I quench that fire with the meditation of Christ’s passion. Christ died for us. There is nothing so deadly, that is not cured by the death of Christ.” (Augustine). 

A love for holiness and a love for Christ cannot live together in a heart that also loves sin. Like the Lord’s warning against mammon (Matt. 6), we will either hate the one and love the other, or love the one and hate the other. 

The child of God will sin, but just as surely have within them the Spirit who set Himself against that sin, the pleasure of it, until the child is brought to confess and forsake the sin and seek to be cleansed from all unrighteousness. 

I have often said, and the Scripture presents as true, that it is not sin in persons life that causes me to be concerned about their salvation or spiritual state - it is their attitude toward sin. If someone can see sin and live comfortably with it - how does of the love of God abide in them? 

Now this might sound overly simplistic, but is is absolutely a #1 cause for a lack of spiritual growth in our lives - in order for sin to be dealt with it must be identified as SIN. 

We cannot trivialize, rationalize, justify SIN. Not bad habits, not just the way I am, not just “I know I shouldn’t do that” - it is calling it sin, confessing it as sin, knowing the danger of sin, turning from it as sin and to righteousness!

*Jerry Bridges, “Respectable Sins,” (Speech, attitudes, etc.). 

But the more our minds and affection are being conformed to Christ by being conformed to His Word (Rom. 12:1-2), then the more we will love the things of heaven where Christ is seated at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1-3), and the things of the world less (1 John 2:15-17). The less pleasure and the more poison we will see every sin to have. We will see in every sin that which seeks to work in us eternal misery and cast us from the presence of God and the felicity of walking humbly and trustingly with Christ. 

Pleasure of God’s Word: 

Spiritual Satisfaction. 

(103) “How sweet are Your words to my taste …” 

This is only to those who now only know God’s word but are have then been trained by in through obedience and have tasted their power and seen the changes that it make in relationships and, most importantly, in one’s own heart. 

Job 23:12 “I have not departed from the command of His lips: I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.” 

(104)

His understanding from God’s word gives him discernment, which in turn produces in him a hatred of the false way, from those ways that oppose God’s work.