Sermon series: A SUMMER IN THE PSALMS

Psalm 119:57—64
"You are my portion, O Lord; I have said that I would keep Your words.
I entreated Your favor with my whole heart; be merciful to me according to Your word.
I thought about my ways, and turned my feet to Your testimonies.
I made haste, and did not delay to keep Your commandments. The cords of the wicked have bound me, but I have not forgotten Your law.
At midnight, I will rise to give thanks to You, because of Your righteous judgments.
I am a companion of all who fear You, and of those who keep Your precepts.
The earth, O Lord, is full of Your mercy, teach me Your statutes."

Contained in this, the longest chapter of our Bible and the longest Psalm, are over 170 verses which refer to the Word of God. The Psalmist finds strength, protection, encouragement, wisdom, joy, healing and hope, in his contemplation of the commandments, laws, precepts, judgments and statutes of the Holy Scriptures.
THE BIBLE, THE WORD OF GOD...
The masterpiece of God, the Book above and beyond all books is immortal in its hopes—a complete code of laws, the most entertaining and authentic history ever published, the best covenant ever made.
THE BIBLE...
comes to us drenched in the tears of millions of contritions, worn with the fingers of agony and death, expounded by the greatest intellects, steeped in the prayers of many saints, stained with the blood of martyrs.
THE BIBLE...
The accuracy of its statements and prophecies is substantiated by every turn of the excavators' spade in Bible lands, by history, by multitudinous inscriptions deciphered among classic ruins, by the unlocking of Egyptian hieroglyphics.
THE BIBLE...
Addressing itself to the universal conscience, speaking with binding claims, commanding the obedience of all mankind, the one and only hope of information concerning divine revelation, the world's creation, the soul's salvation, human destiny and the realities of eternity, it offers the first and demands the last by its unequivocal, "Thus saith the Lord."
God, through His prophetic servant, said:
"To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20).
We wonder at the wonder of its indestructibility when we know how it has been severely abused in the hands of its enemies and sorely wounded in the house of its friends!

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"For ever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven" (Psa. 119:89).
Isaiah wrote: "The word of our God shall stand forever" (Isaiah 40:8).
Jesus said: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away" (Mark 13:31).
Wonderful in its inspiration, translation, preservation, unification, salvation, sanctification and consummation, it makes nations and civilizations, homes, individuals, to breathe and grow. Free from earthly mixtures—original, unborrowed, solitary in its greatness—outliving all other books as a mighty factor in civilization, it is unique and peerless and eternally profound!
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16).
"And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (1 Peter 1:19-21).
"For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God, For "all men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever" (1 Peter 1:23-25).
The Bible is the capstone of revelation. It alone is the unique, written revelation of God, a permanent, meaningful, and authoritative self-expression by God of His nature and will. The Holy Spirit's act of superintendence—inspiration—was decisive in the writing of Scripture and is the reason the Bible possesses unique status of divine revelation. Through inspiration, the Holy Spirit aided those who wrote the Bible. The Spirit then guided the Church in identifying inspired works and collecting them as the cannon of Scripture. This supervision renders Scripture uniquely authoritative for Christian believers.
For evangelical Christians, the phrase "biblical authority" means that in the Bible, and uniquely in the Bible, God communicates intelligibly to humans the divine nature, ways, and will such that the Bible is binding on our thoughts and lives. AUTHORITY in this sense is MORAL AUTHORITY. God rightly exercises moral authority over all creation and, therefore, more specifically, over human persons. We ought to obey God's will, and God properly expects this obedience.
THE BIBLE HAS ALWAYS HAD ITS CRITICS.
Critics claim the Bible is filled with errors, however, orthodox Christians through the ages have claimed that the Bible is without error in the original text. Not one error that extends to the original text of the Bible has ever been demonstrated!
THE BIBLE CANNOT ERR and the argument for an errorless (inerrant) Bible can be put in this logical form:
God cannot err. The Bible is the Word of God. Therefore, the Bible cannot err.

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GOD CANNOT ERR. Logically, the argument is valid. So, if the premises are true, the conclusion is also true. God does exist and He is infinitely perfect, all-knowing and cannot make a mistake. The Scriptures testify to this, declaring emphatically that "it is impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18). He is a God who, even if we are faithless, "remains faithful: He cannot deny Himself" (2 Timothy 2:13). God is truth (John 14:6), and so is His word. Jesus said to the Father, "Your word is truth (John 17:17). The Psalmist exclaimed, "The entirety of Your word is truth" (Psa. 119:160).
THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD! Jesus, who is the Son of God, referred to the Old Testament as the "Word of God" which "cannot be broken" (John 10:35). He said "Until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished" (Matthew 5:18).
If God cannot err and if the Bible is the Word of God, then the Bible is without error! For God has spoken, and He has not stuttered. The God of truth has given us the Word of truth, and it does not contain any untruth. The Bible is the unerring Word of God.
JESUS AFFIRMED THAT THE BIBLE IS THE INFALLIBLE, INDESTRUCTIBLE, INERRANT WORD OF GOD. Jesus affirmed the divine authority of the Old Testament. Jesus and His disciples used the phrase "it is written" more than ninety times. It is usually in the perfect tense, meaning, "it was written in the past and it still stands as the written Word of God." Often Jesus used it in the sense of "this is the last word on the topic. The discussion is over." Such is the case when Jesus resisted the temptation of the Devil.
"But He answered and said, IT IS WRITTEN, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God...Jesus said unto him, IT IS WRITTEN again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Jesus said to him, IT IS WRITTEN AGAIN, Thou shalt not tempt [the] Lord thy God...Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan; for IT IS WRITTEN, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve" (Matthew 4, 4,7,10).
This use demonstrates that Jesus believed the Bible to have final and divine authority! Jesus affirmed the Old Testament to be inspired. Although Jesus never used the word INSPIRATION, He did use its equivalent. To the Pharisees' question. He retorted; "How is it then that David, SPEAKING BY THE SPIRIT, call Him Lord'? (Matthew 22:43). David himself said of his own words, "The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; His word was on my tongue" (2 Samuel 23:2).
Jesus ascribed ultimate supremacy to the Old Testament.
He often asserted the ultimate authority and supremacy of the Old Testament over all human teaching or "tradition." He said to the Jews: "Why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?...Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition" (Matthew 15:3). Jesus believed that the Bible alone has supreme authority when even the most revered of all human teachings conflict with it.

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JESUS AFFIRMED THE INERRANCY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
Inerrancy means without error. That concept is found in Jesus' answer to the Sadducees, a sect who denied the divine inspiration of the Old Testament. "Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures [which do not err], nor the power of God" (Matthew 22:29).
In His high priestly prayer, Jesus affirmed the total truthfulness of Scripture, saying to the Father, "Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth" (John 17:17). Jesus affirmed as historically true some of the most disputed passages of the Old Testament. Jesus talked about the creation of Adam and Eve (Matt. 19:4-5), the miracle about Jonah in the great fish, and destruction of the world by a flood in the days of Noah. Jesus declared: "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark" (Matt. 24:37-38). Jesus affirmed that Jonah was really swallowed by a great fish for three days and three nights: "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matt. 12:40).
As concerning the New Testament, Jesus promised to lead His disciples into "all truth" and they both claimed this premise and recorded this truth in the New Testament, we conclude that Jesus' promise was finally fulfilled in the inspired New Testament. In this way, Jesus directly confirmed the inspiration and divine authority of the Old Testament and promised the same, indirectly, for the New Testament.
THEREFORE, IF CHRIST IS THE SON OF GOD, THEN BOTH THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW TESTAMENT ARE THE WORD OF GOD.
I have gone to great lengths to give us reason to believe our Bible, to accept it without doubt, to love it and study it...to totally trust its teachings as the authoritative, eternal Word of the Almighty God of the universe!
It is this love, this confidence, this loyalty that is expressed by David in the Psalm we are studying.
Now we turn attention to the exposition of verses 57-64.
David says: "You are my portion, O Lord; I have said that I would keep Your words."
When the Psalmist wrote that God was his "portion," he was using a word that had rich meaning in Jewish religious history. When the Israelite tribes came out of the desert and made their conquest of the land of Canaan and every tribe received its appointed portion, the priestly tribe of Levi did not receive land. Instead they were given forty-eight priestly cities scattered throughout the land and were to live there so that their priestly service would always be available. They had no land, but they were given something better. It was said of them that they had "no inheritance [portion] in the land because "their inheritance [portion] was the Lord" (Josh. 13:33).
The Psalmist is saying that, like the Levites, he wants his portion of divine blessing to be God Himself since nothing is better and nothing will ever fully satisfy his or anyone else's heart but God Himself. To possess God

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is truly to have everything! What is really involved in a prayerful study of God's Word is not finding comfort only or even getting to know one aspect of God's character, even one as important as love, but rather getting to know and possess God Himself. Spurgeon wrote wisely of this stanza in our Psalm: "In this section the Psalmist seems to take firm hold upon God Himself; appropriating Him (v.57, crying out for Him (v.58), returning to Him (v.59), solacing Himself in Him (vv. 61-62), associating with His people (v.63), and sighing for personal experience of His goodness (v.64).
Please let me say it again...TO POSSESS GOD IS TRULY TO HAVE EVERYTHING!
Our Psalmist is saying...Lord, you are my everything. You are the source of my joy. You are my most cherished possession. You are the object and thirst of my soul. To know You is my great ambition.
J. I. Packer is his classic book entitled...KNOWING GOD, opens with these words:
"On January 7, 1855, the minister of New Park Street Chapel, Southwark, England, opened his morning sermon as follows:
It has been said by someone that "the proper study of mankind is man." I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God's elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.
There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, "Behold I am wise." But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumbline cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass's colt; and with solemn exclamation, "I am but of yesterday, and know nothing. No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God..."
The preacher was C. H. Spurgeon, and he continued his sermon with these words:
But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe. The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity. And, whilst humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; a musing on the Father,

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there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead's deepest sea; be lost in His immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subject that I invite you this morning?"
And to these truths, I say...AMEN!
As David expressed his heartbeat to know God and possess Him as his most prized possession, so the Apostle Paul wrote of his sacred ambition...
"But whatever former things I had that might have been gains to me, I have come to consider as one combined loss for Christ's sake.
Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege, the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish, in order that I may win and gain Christ, the Anointed One. And that I may actually be found and known as in Him, not having any self-achieved righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the Law's demands, that is, ritualistic uprightness and supposed right standing with God thus acquired, but possessing that genuine righteousness which comes through faith in Christ, the Anointed One, the truly right standing with God, which comes from God by saving faith.
For my determined purpose is that I may know Him, that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly, and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection which it exerts over believers, and that I may so share His sufferings, as to be continually transformed in spirit into His likeness, even to His death, in the hope that if possible, I may attain to the spiritual and moral resurrection that lifts me out from among the dead, even while in my body" (Philippians 3:7-11 Amplified Bible).
Paul, like David, had that supreme desire to know the Sovereign of the Universe, God Almighty, who manifested Himself to mankind in the person of Jesus Christ. It is not a futile pursuit after the vague or the visionary, but it is the true teaching of the historic Christian position that man can attain knowledge which goes beyond or transcends pure reason.
The first step to a knowledge of God is a personal encounter with Jesus Christ. This must, of necessity, include the experiential knowledge of Christ as Saviour and Lord. Philip said to Jesus: "Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us." Jesus answered him, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father" (John 14:8,9).

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Again He said: "He that seeth Me seeth Him that sent Me." (John 12:45). If a man would know God he must begin with Jesus Christ, for He was God manifest in the flesh.
When we examine Psalm 119, we see that the Psalmist's concern to get knowledge about God was not a theoretical but a practical concern. His supreme desire was to know and enjoy God Himself, and he valued knowledge about God simply as a means to this end. He wanted to understand God's truth in order that his heart might respond to it and his life be conformed to it.
In the passage which we quoted from Philippians, Paul uses the phrase...THAT I MIGHT KNOW HIM. It is important to note the verb he uses for TO KNOW. It is part of the verb which almost always indicates personal knowledge.
It is not simply intellectual knowledge, the knowledge of certain facts or even principles. It is the personal experience of another person. We may see the depth of this word from a fact of Old Testament usage. The Old Testament uses TO KNOW of sexual intercourse.
"Adam KNEW Eve his wife; and she conceived and bore Cain." (Genesis 4:1). Thus, the verb that Paul uses indicates the most intimate knowledge of another person. It is not Paul's aim to know about Christ, but personally to know him. To know Christ means for him certain things.
(a) It means to know the power of His resurrection. For Paul the Resurrection was not simply a past event in history, however amazing. It was not simply something which has happened to Jesus, however important it was for Him. It was a dynamic power which operated in the life of the individual Christian.
At first it might appear that Paul is illogical in his reasoning. "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death." "Resurrection...suffering...death!" Are these in their proper order? If Paul is here speaking historically and chronologically then the arrangement is incorrect. But there is no mistake since the apostle is speaking experientially and psychologically.
Christian experience commences with the believing sinner's tasting first of Christ's resurrection power in regeneration. Throughout the New Testament, conversion is described as a passing out of death unto life.
Jesus said: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life...Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live" (John 5:24; 11:25).
Writing to believers, Paul said: "And you hath He quickened [made alive], who were dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1).
The first stage, then, in Christian experience is to receive new life, to be "born again." (John 3:3,5).
Saving faith begins with the Resurrection and produces spiritual life. "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be

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saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:9-10).
To what extent did Paul desire to know Christ and the power of His Resurrection? The Christian life not only commences with the believing sinner's receiving the life of the risen Christ but it continues in exactly the same way. We are sustained by the same life that saves us.
In his Ephesian letter Paul wrote: "That ye may know...what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead" (Ephesians 1:18-20). "And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you" (Romans 8:11).
PAUL SAID HE WANTED TO KNOW CHRIST IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS. I believe that what Paul was referring to in this statement was that spiritual process that is carried on in the soul of a man who shares the Saviour's burden for a lost world. Our Lord suffered in His soul as He wept over Jerusalem. His heart was broken as He saw the multitudes as sheep having no Shepherd.
Such anguish made up a substantial portion of His suffering. One who does not know Christ in the fellowship of His sufferings is not prepared to serve Him. He took upon Himself the form of a servant and was willing to be disowned by the world. He paid whatever price was necessary in order to be the Servant of all.
Paul concludes his pursuit for knowledge with the expressed desire to be made conformable unto His death.
Now the apostle was not expressing a desire to die as Christ died, that is, on a cross if need be. We will find Paul's meaning in such phrases as "crucified with Christ" (Galatians 2:20), "I die daily" (1 Cor. 15:31), and "always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus" (2 Cor. 4:10). Being made conformable unto Christ's death is something we all shrink from. We do not surrender our lives easily; we die hard. We struggle frantically to keep the old man alive. But what does God's Word teach us? "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him...Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:6,11).
IF WE, LIKE THE PSALMIST DECLARE THE LORD TO BE OUR PORTION...OUR HEART'S DESIRE, OUR HIGHEST AMBITION IN KNOWING HIM...It will result in loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, body and strength! Our Psalmist, in declaring God as his portion, set his heart to keep God's words, consider his ways and turn again unto Him should he stray. He promised God that he would keep company with those who also had, as their life's chief purpose, a desire to know God and live for Him. He pledged to frequently lift his voice in thanks to the God who was the center and circumference of his being.
My prayer that it is your deepest desire to come to know and love God, and to be a person after God's own heart as were David and Paul.