Sermon series: A SUMMER IN THE PSALMS

Psalm 119:65-72
"You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word.
Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe Your commandments.
Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word.
You are good, and do good; teach me Your statutes.
The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.
Their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in Your law.
It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.
The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver."

The writer of our Psalm is in love with God's Word. Over 170 times in this passage, He refers to the Word of God as the law, precepts, testimonies, statutes, commandments, ordinances and the Word.
When the Psalmist uses the word LAW to describe the Word of God, he is referring to God's law in general, whether it be that universal rule called the law of nature, or that which was revealed to His Church by Moses, and perfected by Christ. In strictness, the law means a plain rule of conduct, rather placed clearly in man's sight, than enforced by any command; that is to say, this word does not necessarily include sanctions. It reminds us that revelation is not simply for interest but for obedience.
The word TESTIMONIES is derived from a word which signifies to bear witness, to testify. The ark of the tabernacle is so called, as are the two tables of stone, and the tabernacle; the earnests and witness of God's inhabitation among His people. TESTIMONIES are more particularly God's revealed law; the witnesses and confirmation of His promises made to His people, and earnests of His future salvation.
Israel was told to place the book of the law beside the ark of the covenant, 'that it may be there for a witness against you' (Deut. 31:26). The outspokenness of Scripture, with its high standards and frank warnings is implied in this expression or designation. Also, this term reminds us of the dependability of the word of God.
PRECEPTS comes from a word which means TO PLACE IN TRUST, SOMETHING ENTRUSTED TO MAN, the appointments of God, which consequently have to do with the conscience for which man is responsible, as an intelligent being. This is a word drawn from the sphere of an officer or overseer, a man who is responsible to look closely into a situation and take action. The word points to the particular instructions of the Lord, as of one who cares about detail.

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Another word used by the Psalmist to designate the character of the Word of God is STATUTES. The verb from which this word is formed means to engrave or inscribe. The word means a definite, prescribed, written law. The term is applied to Joseph's law about the portion of the priests in Egypt, to the law about the Passover, etc. But in the Psalm which we are studying, it has a more internal meaning; -that moral law of God which is engraved on the fleshly tables of the heart; the inmost and spiritual apprehension of His will; not so obvious as the law and testimonies, and a matter of more direct spiritual communication than His precepts.
The STATUTES speak of the binding force and permanence of Scripture, as of laws engraved or inscribed, 'for the time to come as a witness for ever.
Another word is COMMANDMENTS. This word emphasizes the straight authority of what is said; not merely the power to convince or persuade, but the right to give orders.
And then there is the word ORDINANCES or JUDGMENTS.
This word is used to describe the decisions of the all-wise Judge about common human situations. Scripture is given as the standard for fair dealing between man and man. It is a word derived from a verb signifying to judge or determine, legal sanctions.
Lastly, another designation of the character of the Word of God is...WORD. It is a term which, in a most divine sense, refers to the Word of God...the announcement of God concerning His divine will; His command; His oracle; God's revealed promise of certain blessings to the righteous.
As indicated, these words appear frequently throughout the Psalm and it is David's way of showing us the various aspects and workings of the Word of God in our lives and in our world. I have briefly explained these words in a previous lesson, but before we leave the Psalm, I thought it wise to refresh our minds and remind our hearts of the wonderful book we hold in our hands...The Holy Bible!
"For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:12-13).
The writer to the Hebrews describes the Word of God in a series of great phrases. The Word of God is 'alive.' It is not just words on a page; the words of God are on the page; the message comes with God's authority. Wherever the Word of God is, the Spirit is present to make the words relevant, filled with life. The great fact about the Word of God is that it is a living issue for all men of all times. Other things may pass quietly into oblivion; other things may acquire an academic or antiquarian interest but the Word of God is something that every man must face, its offer something he must accept or reject!
The Word of God is "active"; that is, it actually has power. We've learned that it converts the soul; we

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are "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (1 Peter 1:23). The Word of God is "effective."
It is one of the facts of history that wherever men have taken God's word seriously things have begun to happen. When the English Bible was laid bare and the Word of God came to the common people, the tremendous event of the Reformation inevitably followed. When people take God seriously they immediately realize that His Word is not only something to be studied, not only something to be read, not only something to be written about; it is something to be done! When the Word of God acts, God acts.
THE WORD OF GOD IS SHARPER THAN A TWO-EDGED SWORD. We should not be surprised that the Word of God is compared to a sword. The Roman sword had two edges; it cut both ways. God does not use this sword to destroy His people; He uses it to wound them that He might heal them. The Bible differs from other two-edged swords in this respect, it is "sharper" than they could ever be. In Greek, the word is TOMOTEROS, which comes from TEMNO, which means "to cut." It is the language of surgery, the language of dissection. The word PIERCING means "TO GO THROUGH." The Word of God does not divide the soul from the spirit; rather, it penetrates both the soul and the spirit. In other words, it goes to the heart of what we are all about. It lays us bare.
In Greek the PSUCHE, the soul, is the life principle.
All living things possess PSUCHE, it is physical life.
In Greek the PNEUMA, the spirit, is that which is characteristic of man. It is by spirit that man thinks and reasons and looks beyond the earth to God. It is as if the writer to the Hebrews were saying that the Word of God tests a man's earthly life and his spiritual existence. He says that the Word of God scrutinizes a man's desires and intentions. Desire is the emotional part of man, intention is the intellectual part of man.
It is as if he said: Your emotional and intellectual life must alike be submitted to the scrutiny of God.
Kenneth S. Wuest quotes Vincent as saying: "The form of the expression is poetical, and signifies that the word penetrates to the inmost recesses of our spiritual being as a sword cuts through the joints and marrow of the body. The separation is not of one part from the other, but operates in each department of the spiritual nature. The Word of God goes through both the soul and spirit; it goes through both the joints and marrow. It stops at nothing until it comes to reality. In the presence of this Book, there can be no pretense.
What we cannot do for ourselves. God's Word does for us. We cannot properly evaluate our lives without a divine standard that can set the record straight. Only the Bible can show us who we really are, rather than the person we perceive ourselves to be.
"And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13). Note the connection between this verse and the proceeding verse...the author of Hebrews passes easily from talking about God's spoken Word to God's INCARNATE WORD (Christ).

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Obviously, he wants us to understand that we are laid bare before the eyes of Christ. The Word of God, like an X-ray, reveals who we really are, and Christ examines the plates carefully, noting every speck. To put it differently, we lie on God's surgical table. The Word of God has separated reality from fantasy, the right from the wrong, the pure from the tainted. Our natural tendency is to run from someone who knows too much about us. But although God knows everything there is to know about us, there is no place to hide. But God does not leave us on the operating table unattended. Through His Word He shows us what He sees, not that we might run from Him, but that we might run to Him. He wants us to flee to His grace and mercy and forgiveness!
David, the writer of our Psalm, understands this great truth. "You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word." (v. 65). David makes it clear as to his waywardness..."Before I was afflicted, I went astray." To wander away from the path of obedience, to be disobedient to God's commands, to stray from the path of truth and righteousness...this is the lot of all the children of Adam's race! "I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commands" (Psalm 119:176). "Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies" (Psalm 58:3). "All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6)."A man who strays from the path of understanding comes to rest in the company of the dead" (Proverbs 21:16).
Jonah strayed from His God and his assignment to preach in Nineveh! "Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me." But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish, so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
But he did not flee from God's presence! God turns the sea into raging waves, and in order to save the ship, Jonah is thrown overboard. "Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish's belly. And he said: "I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me. Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice. For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me; all Your billows and Your waves passed over me. Then I said, "I have been cast out of Your sight; yet I will look again toward Your holy temple.' The waters surrounded me, even to my soul; the deep closed around me; weeds were wrapped around my head. I went down to the moorings of the mountains; the earth with its bars closed me forever, yet You brought my life from the pit, O Lord, my God" (Jonah 1, 2).
Jonah's testimony could be the same as David's..."Before I was afflicted, I went astray...but You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord.
The prodigal son decided that he would go astray and Oh! what a price, for he got more than he bargained for!
"A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them

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said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he spent all, there arose a severe famine in the land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything."
"Before I was afflicted, I went astray!"
Finding himself hungry, empty, poor and destitute, the prodigal made his decision to go home. His father received him with open arms and he was restored to his sonship.
And this young lad could join in the testimony with David and say: "You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord."
"There is another illustration in Scriptures that stands out in mind with this truth...his name is Peter!
When Christ was talking to him about dying on the cross, Peter assures the Savior that he would never let Him down. Though all might forsake You, Jesus, I will not! Soon, Jesus was led to the High Priest's house to be tried, but Peter is found, following Christ at a distance and eventually sitting with the enemies of the Christ in the courtyard around a fire!
"Before I was afflicted, I went astray." And in this situation of estrangement, Peter denies his Lord and Savior...three times! When the rooster crowed, Peter realized his terrible act of denial, and he went out and wept bitterly!
But Peter could join with David in his testimony..."You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord." After Christ had risen from the dead, he had a long discussion with Peter by the sea shore and the wayward disciple was given the opportunity to re-establish his friendship with his Lord.
Surely, when David was writing the words of our Psalm, he was thinking about the mercy of God that was granted to him after his terrible sin of adultery and murder.
There was no sacrifice available for adultery or murder, but God forgave him in mercy.
THANK GOD...HE DOES DEAL WITH US ACCORDING TO HIS WORD!
"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail" (La. 3:22). "For great is your love, higher than the heavens, your faithfulness reaches to the skies." (Psalm 103:17). "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him." (Psalm 103:8-13).

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David admits that his life had been deeply affected by the discipline of God for his straying and disobedience.
"It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn Your decrees."
And he prays: "Teach me knowledge and good judgment for I believe in Your commands."
"Blessed is the man whom God corrects: so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty" (Job 5:17). "But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold" (Job 23:10).
"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" (2 Cor. 4:17).
"In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son."
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.
Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." (Hebrews 12:4-11).
Because God promises to discipline His children, believers must endure this divine discipline. The only other choice would be to refuse to endure it, to pout, to grow depressed, or to give up completely. How much better to remember that, when God disciplines you, He is treating you as His own children.
No life can have any value apart from discipline.
A father always disciplines his child. It would not be a mark of love to let a son do what he likes and have nothing but an easy way; it would show that the father regarded the son as no better than an illegitimate child to whom he felt neither love nor responsibility. We submit to an earthly father's discipline which is imposed only for a short time, until we reach years of maturity, and which at best always contains an element of arbitrariness. The earthly father is he to whom we owe our bodily life; how much more should we submit to the discipline of God to whom we owe our immortal spirits and who, in His wisdom, seeks for nothing but our highest good. WE must accept discipline as coming from a loving father. Jerome said a paradoxical but true thing: "The greatest anger of all is when God is no longer angry with us when we sin." He meant that the supreme punishment is when God lets us alone as unteachable. The Christian knows that "a father's hand will never cause his child a needless tear" and that everything can be utilized to make him a wiser and better man.

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"It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes." (v. 71) The Psalmist words are born of experience. No one would seek trouble because of the gains which it might bring. But it is one of the most common, as it is one of the most disconcerting, experiences of human kind that trouble, anxiety, and pain bring with them a clearer vision of the meaning of life and a saner judgment as to the value of the things upon which men set store than days of ease and security can offer.
Trouble and sorrow teach us to readjust our valuation of life's goods. Things essential and things indifferent come to be sharply distinguished. Money is found to be of little value to us if love has been wounded; comfort and luxury are as nothing when weighed in the balance of honor. And all this is very disconcerting because we find in the days of ease that our thoughts have been preoccupied with the lesser things, the things that really do not matter when we are face to face with the great issues of death and love and sin and judgment.
Man's greatest good is moral character, and in His dealings with mankind God acts invariably with a view to the development of moral character. If moral character be man's greatest good, then God is justified in using the means that are most calculated to secure that good.
In our Psalm, David has admitted that his natural proneness was to go astray, but because of the mercy and forgiveness of God, as well as the discipline of God, he could honestly say: "You are good, and do good..." (v.68).
"Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He instructs sinners in His ways" (Psalm 25:8).
"The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of His unfailing love" (Psalm 33:5).
"Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him" (Psalm 34:8)
"The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him" (Nahum 1:7).
The goodness of God means that God is the final standard of good, and that all that God is and does is worthy of approval.
Why is what God approves good? Because, as God, He approves it...that is to say...there is no higher standard of God's own character and His approval of whatever is consistent with that character.
God has given us some reflection of His own sense of goodness, so that when we evaluate things in the way God created us to evaluate them, we will also approve what God approves and delight in things in which He delights!
All that God does is worthy of approval. We see evidence of this in the creation narrative: "And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good" (Genesis 1:31).
Scripture tells us that God is the source of all good in the world.
"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning" (James 1:17)

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"The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works" (Psalm 145:9).
God does only good things for His children: "No good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11).
In the same context in which Paul assures us that "in everything God works for good with those who love Him" (Romans 8:28), he also says, "He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also give us all things with Him?" (Romans 8:32. Much more than an earthly father, our heavenly Father will "give good things to those who ask Him" (Matt. 7:11), and even His discipline is a manifestation of His love and is for our good" (Hebrews 12:11). This knowledge of God's great goodness should encourage us to "give thanks in all circumstances" (1 Thessalonians 5:18).
When the biblical writers call God GOOD, they are thinking in general of all those moral qualities which prompt His people to call Him perfect, and in particular of the generosity which moves them to call Him merciful and gracious and to speak of His love. The Bible is constantly ringing the changes on the theme of the moral perfection of God, as declared in His own words and verified in the experience of His people. When God stood with Moses on Sinai and "proclaimed the name [that is, the revealed character] of the Lord [that is, God as His people's Jehovah, the sovereign Savior who says of Himself, ‘I am what I am' in the covenant of grace]," what He said was this, "The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love, and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished " (Exodus 34:6-7). And this proclaiming of God's moral perfection was carried out as the fulfillment of His premise to make all His GOODNESS pass before Moses (Exodus 33:19). All the particular perfections that are mentioned here, and all that go with them—God's truthfulness and trustworthiness, His unfailing justice and wisdom, His tenderness, forbearance and entire adequacy to all who penitently seek His help, His noble kindness in offering believers the exalted destiny of fellowship with Him in holiness and love—these things together make up God's GOODNESS in the overall sense of the sum total of His revealed excellences.
"YOU ARE GOOD, AND DO GOOD!" This is our wonderful God!
David continues in our Psalm...
"The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of coins of gold and silver" (v. 72)
It is true of many who call themselves...children of God...prize so little their Bible! We will spend our time and energies to make a fortune that soon is gone...yet spend so little time mining the great and eternal truths of Scripture which will make us wise unto salvation. We will live our days in anxiety and fear when His Word promises us: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because He trusts in You "(Isaiah 26:3-4).
May we be able to say like David: "OH, How I love Your law! I meditate on it all day long" (Psalm 119:97).