2-23-25 - I Shall Keep Your Statutes

Well, good morning. It's good to be with you all, as I said. I am going to begin a new sermon series, going through Psalm one nineteen. And if it all goes to plan, it will be around a 22 part series. We'll we'll take the Psalm eight verses at a time.

I've often encouraged you all to be in God's word and to be reading it. I've been encouraging you to read through it in a year and to fill your hearts and your minds with the word of God. And as I was thinking about it and how we should respond to God's word and what place it should hold in our lives, I began to think about Psalm one nineteen. Because one nineteen Psalm one nineteen is very instructive as it comes to the word of God. It teaches us how we should approach God's word and the effect that God's word should have on us.

And and as you look in in church history, this is one of the Psalms that has been most, that that pastors and godly men have encouraged others to read when they feel spiritually dry. That Psalm one nineteen is a refreshing Psalm That it draws us towards the worship of God and towards the study of his word. The famous and godly bible commentator Matthew Henry had a godly father. And his father told his children that they should take one verse from Psalm one nineteen every morning and meditate on it. And thereby go through the entire Psalm twice in the year.

Philip said to his children that that will bring you to be in love with all the rest of the scriptures if you were to meditate on one verse every day. And I don't think it's a coincidence that his son went on to write a commentary on the entire bible that has been a blessing to the church. Psalm one nineteen is the longest chapter in the bible. It has 176 verses in it. The Psalm has 22 stanzas made up of eight verses.

And each of those stanzas are named for a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The first word of each line starts with that letter. And the reason that this seems to have been the case is because children were expected to memorize Psalm one nineteen. And so having this alphabetic, acrostic was a mnemonic device to help memorize the Psalm. I would encourage all of you to work at memorizing it.

I think it would be helpful for us in learning to love God's word and to meditate on it. John Calvin says that, sure, it would be easier to memorize it in Hebrew because you have that. But as children were expected to memorize it then, it should be expected of us now and we have no excuse not to. The main theme of the Psalm is the delight in and the lessons that the psalmist has learned from God's law, his testimony, his word, his way, his precepts, his statutes, his commandments, and his judgments. All of those are words which are used throughout the entire Psalm.

They're used to describe God's word. And all but depending on how you parse it, one or maybe three verses of this entire Psalm mentioned God's word by one of these names. There are distinctions that we can draw and could make at different points between each of the nuances between each one of these words that the psalmist uses for God's law. And there will be points throughout the series that we probably will get into that. But in general, I think they're synonyms.

They're referring to not just maybe they're referring to particular aspects but we should read this as referring to the bible and its entirety. The psalmist obviously referring to the bible up into whatever part that he had But now, us having the entirety of God's word, it would refer to all of scripture. So my plan is that we'll go through this eight verses at a time. In some ways, the Psalm is like Proverbs, where the verses don't always seem to be fully connected. There doesn't seem to have a full through thought.

But, Charles Bridges says they're more like pearls on a string. That each one is wonderful and helpful and delightful and yet there may not always be a true thought. Well, our context our our text for today is going to be Psalm one nineteen verses one through eight. And in these verses, we see that the content, the blessed, the happy man is the one who walks in the way of the Lord and who is diligent to keep God's precepts. We're going to see that the godly man resolves to keep God's statutes, not in his own strength, but he resolves to keep them in the strength of the Lord.

And so my hope for us this morning is that we would be resolved like the Psalmist to keep God's statutes, to walk in his way, and to seek his strength to do it. Please stand for the reading of God's word. This is Psalm one nineteen one through eight. How blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. How blessed are those who observe his testimonies, who seek him with all their heart.

They also do no unrighteousness. They walk in his ways. You have ordained your precepts that we should keep them diligently. Oh, that my ways may be established to keep your statutes. Then I shall not be ashamed when I look upon all your commandments.

I shall give thanks to you with uprightness of heart when I learn your righteous judgement. I shall keep your statutes. Do not forsake me utterly. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

You may be seated. Well, the first three verses of this Psalm are unique in comparison with the other a 173 and that these first three verses are the only ones that do not directly address God. It begins by saying, this is who the blessed man is. And you would be right to remember Psalm one and the way that it talks about it. It begins very similarly to it, stating the necessary thing for men to be, right or to be blessed or happy might be a better way of understanding it.

Now what the psalmist says in these verses is something that is very countercultural. The psalmist makes the bold claim that the way for us to be blessed or to be happy is by what? By being blameless. By walking in the law of God, by observing his testimonies, and to do all those things with all our heart. Think about this.

When was the last time someone told you that the solution to your sadness was a closer obedience to God? That they said, you know, the reason you're depressed might be because you're not being obedient. And and and actually, if you want to be happy and content and blessed, what you ought to do is obey. When's the last time you were told that? Even among Christians, if you suggest that perhaps the cause of their unhappiness was the fact that they're not walking in the law of the Lord, immediately what's the response?

You're a legalist. But consider this, God says those who are blameless, who walk in the law and observe the testimony wholeheartedly are blessed. This blessing is not contingent upon something. It is the way to happiness. But is this what we pursue?

Is this what we're taught will bring us happiness? I'm gonna go through a number of examples. Think about this. In our culture, what we learn is that following rules is binding. It cramps our style and it will make us unhappy.

Think about that. I mean, consider these things with me. In story after story, what are we taught? We're taught that adults are stupid, that they don't know what they're talking about. Adults and authority figures are old and antiquated.

They haven't caught up with the times. They trust authority figures and the rule of law. All of our heroes have to think outside the box. They have to ignore the rules to win. I mean, you think of if you've read Harry Potter, this is the consistent theme in Harry Potter.

Like, all the adults are dumb, and these little kids know more than all the authority figures. And and and and again and again, the authority figures apologize to the kids for trying to keep to the rules and govern them. Laws and rules are constraining. They make us lose. Laws are more like guidelines.

This is true also of the, you know, in our culture, health is such a fad these days. There's countless gurus who you can read and they will teach you the true way to be successful and happy and healthy. Some of them will tell you to only eat meat. Some of them will tell you not to eat meat. If you breathe right, and you ground yourself, and you get rid of all seed oils, then you'll be happy.

Fix the dietary things and you'll be blessed. You know, really, if we wanna be happy, what we have to do is get out of cities and start a little farm and have chickens, then we'll be at peace. And of course, we have to make sourdough and have all homemade food. Or, or you know where happiness is found? In alcohol.

We can't have a family event without alcohol. How would we have fun? We can't imagine not having it around. It's necessary. Happiness is found with a little libation.

Money. Right? That's what we need for hap well well, no, no. We all know. Well, money doesn't buy happiness, but money buys all the things that bring about happiness.

So get money. When our bank accounts reach this level, that's that's when we can be at peace. That's, you know, when retirement gets to whatever that number is for you, that that's now we'll have peace. Our investments. No.

No. It's not that for us. Right? It's politics. The right administration.

We'll be blessed when we have the right administration and power. That's that's when happiness will be. Grades. Right? We'll be happy when we have the right If our grades are high enough, then we'll please our parents.

Then then we'll find the thing. Our populating in school. Right? A lot of these things that I'm saying, I'm not saying there's no nuance in these. Right?

God did give us the outdoors and the sun is helpful for you. But this Psalm is simple in what it tells us. That blessed man, the happy man, is the man whose way is blameless and who walks in the way of the Lord. And we could continue. I mean, we could walk through.

We could go through for ten more minutes and more, thinking about all the things that our culture will tell us, will bring us happiness. And at some point, and to some extent, we've bought into each of these notions as to like, this is the key to to happiness is is really by, you know, eating right or having this thing. Everyone wants to be blessed and everyone wants to be happy. And everyone is on a path trying to figure out how to do it. And there are an endless number of gurus and influencers on social media who will tell you how to do it.

And they'll show you all the videos which are lies of how they've achieved happiness. And all you have to do is follow their five step, three step, 10 step, 12 step, however many steps they think it is to happiness, and then you will succeed and you will be happy. And across all of that nonsense comes Psalm one nineteen. And it says that you will be blessed if you follow God. Fundamentally, it is that simple.

I did not say it was that easy, but it is that simple. Adam failed to keep God's law in paradise. It's not easy. Adam didn't do it. Right?

And and he was in in in paradise, but it is that simple. And anyone who is not walking in the way of the Lord will not be blessed. They will not be happy no matter what their social media tells you. This is something we all have to consider because the reality is when we sin, we are choosing a sinful desire over obedience to God. And what you're saying in the moment that you sin is that you think that that sin is what's gonna bring you the joy and the happiness that you want.

That that's what's gonna satisfy you. That the alcohol, the pornography, the food, whatever that thing is that you give yourself over, that desire, you think in that moment that that will be better for you than obedience to God. That it will make you happier, that it will satisfy you. And across those lies that are deceit and lies that come straight from hell, Psalm one nineteen says, the blessed man is the one who obeys God. Those lies are the ones that Satan used to deceive Eve in the garden.

Your sin, despite what the entire world, the flesh, and the Devil tells you, will not bring you the blessings that you desire. Your sinful desires will destroy you. They will lead you to death. They are all in opposition to life. You young men and women that are growing up in Christian homes, as you grow and you get older and you gain independence, you must face this fact.

The world looks, oh, so appealing. The Devil comes as an angel of light. He portrays himself so deceptively. It looks so appealing. And maybe you haven't experienced enough to see through its glitz and its glamour.

But I tell you, you must trust God in his word. And you must follow it no matter how unpopular it makes you at school, or in the world. Because that is the path to true happiness and joy. It's in following God's law. Happiness will result from following God.

The other point I wanna make on this before we continue on is that one thing our culture is very shy of admitting to is that many of your problems are caused by your own sin. And if you're facing a situation that truly is not a result directly of your own sin, your sin makes it worse. We don't have room for this victim mentality, Where all the problems are out there, we're gonna blame other people for the things going on in our lives. We have to take responsibility and follow God. There is no problem that cannot be made worse by running our mouths, by getting angry, by giving in to our sin.

How much unhappiness in your life has been caused by you running your mouth? You know? I mean, I can just think of so many, like, examples in my own life of, you know, talking back to my parents or a teacher or something. And they're like, I was in trouble before and it's just I just ramped it up. How many problems in your work and in your home are caused by the fact that you're just lazy?

I mean, you know, we wanna blame all these other things as to why we couldn't get this done and why we like, but when we boil it down to it, the cause of the unhappiness, how much is it just rooted to the fact that we were too lazy to get off our duff and do something? Or the lack of disciplining our desires? In other words, our lack of happiness is often due to us seeking after sinful things and straying from the ways of God, from not following his law. And where we have this reaction against laws and rules and think they're cumbersome and weighty, the reality is that laws give us safety and freedom. And that when we pursue our sin, it brings about unhappiness and guilt and shame and enslaves us.

Now, in verse four, we have a shift in the way the psalmist is writing. And in in some ways, these first three verses are just opening up to us the rest of the psalm and saying, listen, if you wanna be a happy man, happiness will be found in keeping the law of God. This is this is what should guide us. This is what the way we should go. And then, the psalmist shifts in verse four and he says he says, you have ordained your precepts.

And all the rest of these verses are now addressed to God. And he says that God has ordained or commanded his precepts. And we may ask, why? Why has God ordained and commanded his precepts? Well, here's the thing.

God didn't command and give his precepts and ordained for them for his own good. He didn't he did not ordain the law for himself. God doesn't need to be taught to keep his law, nor is God in any danger of breaking his law. God's law was actually given for us. And think about what we've been discussing.

It says, happy is the man, the one who follows God's law. The law was given as a protection for us to free us, to free Christians, to teach us the proper way, so that we could keep it diligently. How many times as a parent have you given a law, a commandment to your child? Don't run-in the house. And then, they run.

And they trip. And they fall. And they hit their head. And then what do you say? I told you.

I gave you this law. And why did I give you this law? Not because it's for my good. Because if you run and trip and hit your head, it's painful. It hurts.

It's bad for you. Right? And and and God gives us these laws not because he's, a starchy, who wants bad things for us, or wants to just ruin all our fun. Rather, he's given us his laws, so that we actually will have happiness. So that we actually will be a blessed person, a blessed man, a blessed woman.

God's precepts are not there to trick us or to confuse us or as a got you. Rather, for the Christians, they're there to teach us and to guide us and help us. Because because God actually has intricately designed this entire world and the way that it should go. And when you cut across the grain of God's desires and his design, it will not go well for you. That's why the law is teaching us how God wants everything to operate and how it should operate.

So when you operate in the way that God designed you to operate, it will go well with you. Even even pagans realizes to some extent, they'll get little snippets of the truth and they'll follow it and you'll see that there are certain earthly blessings that come along with it because the law of God is given to teach us how he designed the world to be, how he designed you to be. And when you walk in step with that, when you go in accordance with what he has commanded, it will go well with you. Now, you say, this sounds legalistic. This sounds like it sounds burdensome, doesn't it?

I mean, look at the in those first verses, the blameless, the righteous, all these adjectives, this very holy person. And then he says that, you know, we're to diligently follow them. And so we can look at ourselves and we can say, well, I don't really necessarily feel like I'm a very blameless person and I don't know that I diligently follow the law of God. Well, look at verse five. The psalmist says, oh, that my ways may be established to keep your statutes.

And this is not a o as in, like, discovery. Right? This is an o as in pleading with God. Because the psalmist here is not looking at his life and saying that on himself he's doing such a great job keeping all these commandments and he's a blameless unrighteous person. He's calling on God to establish him.

We cannot be established on the grounds of our own ability to keep God's law. The psalmist needs God to establish him and to enable him to keep his statutes. No man is capable of keeping them on his own. And this might be the tension that you feel as we read about what the psalmist says about the law of God and what maybe you read in some of Paul's letters about the law of God. Right?

The law brought about death. What does that mean? How do we reconcile all the negative comments about the law in Galatians? Part of this is a perspective. It's whether you're in Christ or not.

If you're not in Christ, the law is all judgment against you. But if you're in Christ, it's life. See the progression that we see in this Psalm. Blessed are the blameless who walk in God's law, who seek it with their whole heart, who do not act unrighteously, and are diligent to keep God's precepts. That's intense.

I don't know how if you were to grade yourself on that, how high you think you would grade on it. But that's an intense thing that he's saying there. It's a weighty thing. And in light of that, he goes, oh, that my ways may be established to keep your statutes. This is not the cry of the self righteous Pharisee, but a man who knows that he's supposed to diligently keep God's law and is unable to do that, and his ways must be established by God.

He needs the work of Christ. And here's a beautiful thing. If you do as the Psalmist does and you cry out to God, you'll be established by him. And you can look at God's law then and no longer be ashamed. The lack of shame is not because the psalmist is perfect, but because he's in Christ and he's established by him.

The the the law and the joy that comes in it is because we know that Christ is there to fill up and to clothe us in his righteousness. But if we are looking at it as something that is merely something we have to scrounge up and to follow and to work and keep all in and of ourselves, then it will be burdensome. And it will bring you down. But if we approach it through the power of Christ, as clothed in his righteousness, then we can have joy in reading, like the psalmist does. And then, that's what he goes into.

Right? The idea of being established by God and of crying on God to do that then leads the Psalmist into giving thanks. After all, he says that after he cries out to God to be established, he'll read God's law and he'll not be ashamed. Think about it. I mean, and you have places in scripture where you have like, Paul saying things like, I'm not the guilty of I'm not guilty of the blood of any man.

And he just talks about all these things that he's done. And you're like, how can how can you be so confident? How could you read the law and not be ashamed when you think about your own life and the things you've done? It's because our being established is not a work of our own hands, but it's in light of the work that Christ did. We're established by him.

And then this leads into the last verse, which is a sort of astounding thing that then the psalmist says, I shall keep your statutes. I shall keep your statutes. And he's like, you know, we're supposed to, do it diligently and with a whole heart. And he's talked about all these things. We don't stray.

We don't be unrighteous. We're to be blameless. And then he goes, I shall keep your statutes. And it's something that should actually be strengthening to us and that we should make resolves to obey God and to not give in to sin. The resolve of the psalmist is not based on his own strength.

Being resolved means to some extent that we're not going to be of two minds. Notice think about, and James, he says that the double minded man is unstable in everything that he does. And we can have this temptation to where we can look at the culture, we can look at Christianity, and we can, you know, what are we gonna pursue? Where are we gonna go? Which which path are we gonna set our feet to?

And the more that we sort of look at these things and and and like we're Christians, but the world looks kind of appealing, and we sort of think maybe we wanna head that way. Like, the more that we're of two minds, the more we open ourselves up for attacks from Satan, the more vulnerable we are when we're of two minds. But if we resolve to follow God, it will be a strength to us. Where there are points in your life where the only thing that keeps you on the right path is because you made a promise. And sometimes that promise just gives a great amount of strength to weak hands.

And isn't this what we do every time or should be doing when we take communion? It's clear at baptism. Right? You're identifying. This is who I identify with, with Christ.

We're baptized into Christ. But then, as we come up for the Lord's supper, every time we're saying, I am part of the body of Christ. That's who I am identifying with. That is this resolve that he has in verse eight, where he says, I shall keep your statutes. When you come up and you take communion, you're resolving you will be part of Christ.

You will follow him. This is the way in which you're going. The identity that you have in Christ. We need to be firm in rejecting the world and the ways of the world, and firm in choosing God's ways, and resolve that as for me and my house, we shall serve the Lord. But again, look at the last line.

Right? He makes this resolve. I will follow God. I will obey his statutes. But then what does he say?

Do not forsake me utterly. So he makes this resolve. Right? But then the very next thing is his acknowledgement that if the Lord were to forsake him, he would not stand. The resolve is not made in our own strength.

We must be established by God. We must be dependent on him. And he says, do not forsake me utterly, which implies that there will be times where the Lord does not feel near to us. That we may feel forsaken by the Lord. And then the temptation is to do what?

To go find anything that will make us feel happy, that will fill that void. Still true, that what we must do in those times is persevere and following the way of the Lord. Because the happiness and the nearness to God is not found in abandoning his word and his law, but rather by diligently following it and seeking it and going to it. That's where we'll find God. We won't find it in any of the things we talked about in the beginning, the ways that we pursue happiness outside of him.

The desires you have, the the emptiness you feel will only be found in Christ, in pursuit of him, and following his law. It's how you were made to be. So, three things. True happiness in life only comes by following in God's way. Following God's law is not boring and it isn't easy, but it will bring happiness.

Anything else that is pulling your attention and promising that it will satisfy you is lying. And the lie comes straight from the pit of hell. It's a cheat. It's a whore that's seeking to seduce you from following God. Flee.

You cannot love God too much. You cannot be somehow too obedient to God's law. You can't adhere to it closely enough. Now, I'm not saying you can't be too adherent to the things that man appends to God's law. I'm not talking about what the Pharisees did.

Right? I'm saying to God's word, you cannot be too Christian. You can mystify Christian. Leave that aside. But you cannot follow God too closely.

You cannot be too holy. Ask yourself, where do you feel the tension between God's word and our culture? Where do you feel the tension between what the people around you think you should do, and what God's word says you should do? Where do you feel the tension between the political group that you affiliate with, and what it means to be a Christian? Be a Christian first.

Follow God's law first. Right? We need to be careful about being predictable and fitting into these categories. I remember one time I was at a, machine shop when I worked at a machine shop. And I started talking about my faith.

I was in a real small room. We were polishing molds. It's not the most exciting thing. Started sharing the gospel with him and teaching him about Christ. And all of a sudden on a dime, this dude stood up full on red in the face and started yelling about Republicans and how awful they are.

Said nothing about politics. Like, I was just talking about Jesus and sin and our repentance and it was like, the dude would and it floored me. I was so confused. It's sad. It's sad.

There are ways that we align with political groups, but our identity should be Christ. And that's what should be offensive to people. Alright. So the first thing is, true happiness in life only comes by following in God's way. Nothing else will bring true, lasting happiness.

The second thing is, you cannot do that on your own. You must call on God to establish you and to keep you in his statutes. If you try to just muscle up, and you're just gonna obey God, and you're gonna pull up whatever you can find inside of you, and you're gonna create this faith, you will fail. Let he who stands take heed lest he fall. You must be dependent on God.

It's he who establishes us, not we ourselves. Three, resolve this day to follow God. Resolve to keep his law. And then, in light of that, you seek him out. You call on him to not forsake you, to be near to you, and to succor you, and to give you strength because brothers and sisters, you can't do it on your own.

The only hope that we have of staying in this way is if the Lord keeps us in this way. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Right? We need Christ.

All we have is in him. And if he establishes our way, if we're dependent on him and we keep in that path, then we will be a happy and blessed people. And be encouraged brothers and sisters because God is a good father and he wants good things for his children. Jesus tells us that his burden is light and his yoke is easy. The the image that we have that following God and obeying the law is this hard burdensome thing, is a lie.

That's what Satan wants you to believe. Jesus says his yoke is easy and his burden is light. Let's trust what he tells us. Let's trust him. Let's not trust the lies from hell, which are trying to deceive us unto death.

In our sin flex vision, in the in the corrupted sin natures we have, we look at God's law as a burdensome and hard thing. But as we become sanctified, if we love God, then we'll look at his law as a joyful thing that brings life and happiness and joy to all that we do. Let's pray.