The verse that I wanted to focus on is there in verse number seven and eight where the
Bible reads, Only be thou strong and very courageous that thou mayest observe to do
according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee, turn not from it to the right
hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein
day and night that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein,
for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous and then shalt thou have good success.
Now tonight I want to preach on Psalm 119 if you would flip over to Psalm 119 and the
reason that I read that scripture in the book of Joshua is that it talks about the fact
that we should meditate in the word of God day and night and that is a lot of what Psalm
119 is about.
While you're turning to Psalm 119, I'm going to read for you from Psalm 1 where the Bible
reads, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth
in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in
the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night and he shall be like
a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.
His leaf also shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Now these are amazing promises when you think about it.
Making your way prosperous, having good success, whatsoever you do will prosper the Bible says.
You'll be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in
his season.
You'll not be barren.
You'll not be unfruitful.
You will be established.
You will be prosperous.
You will succeed in your Christian life and the key that unlocks these different elements
is meditating upon the word of God day and night.
Now another thing that's associated with meditating upon God's word is delighting in the law of
the Lord.
Why is that?
Well, if you don't delight in the law of the Lord, you're not going to meditate on it day
and night.
You know, in order for you to be focused on it and thinking about it, you would have to
like it.
You'd have to love it.
You'd have to enjoy it.
Anything that we do, we must enjoy it if we're going to succeed at it.
People that are really good at something, it's because they enjoy what they do.
If someone is a great musician, it's because they enjoy playing music.
If someone's a great artist, it's because they enjoy making art.
If someone is a great runner, it's because they like running.
You don't get good at things that you don't like and some people, it seems, are always
looking for some kind of a trick or technique where, you know, they're going to be able
to memorize the Bible and memorize God's Word that they might meditate upon it day
and night, but really, it's not as much a trick as just loving the Bible.
I mean, that's the trick.
No matter how you do it, and if you have a trick that works for you, great.
You know, maybe you put it to music or you use other techniques, but the bottom line
is, no matter what trick you use, it's going to take hard work.
It's going to take time.
It's going to take energy.
It's going to take effort, and the only people that are going to put in that time, energy
and effort, are people who love God's Word.
That's where it starts.
We have to love the Bible.
We have to love God's Word and delight in it.
Now, Psalm 119 is a really interesting chapter.
Let me just tell you a little bit about the chapter before we get into this.
First of all, Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, which is, of course, significant.
It has 176 verses, but you'll probably notice also that it's divided into these various
sections.
Each section has eight verses, and there are 22 sections, and those 22 sections are named
for the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
Now, pretty much every Bible I've ever seen, does anybody have a Bible that does not have
the headings, aleph, bet, gemel, dalet?
Does anybody have a Bible that does not have those headings?
All right, so every Bible has these in it.
Right there in your King James Bible, you'll see both the symbol for the Hebrew letter,
how it's actually written in Hebrew, and then the name of that letter.
Each section is named for a letter, because in the original, actually, each verse starts
with that letter.
When we think of poetry, we think of things that rhyme.
That's kind of the only poetry that we accept in 2015 America, pretty much.
Throughout history, that has actually been a very unpopular form of poetry.
Most poetry throughout history has been based on other elements, and a very common element
of poetry is starting with the same letter, which is known as alliteration.
That's the way this particular poem is.
All of the book of Psalms is poetry.
Other books in the Bible are poetry as well.
This particular psalm, each verse of this poem starts with the same letter.
The first eight verses start with the letter aleph, and the next eight verses start with
the letter bet, and so forth.
In fact, this is where we get our word alphabet.
Aleph bet is where we derive the English word alphabet.
If you're ever listening to preaching, and it's just a really boring preacher, and you're
just bored out of your mind, you can actually just turn here and just memorize the Hebrew
alphabet, and just increase your intelligence if you're bored by the sermon.
Anyway, another poem like this is in Lamentations.
You might notice that the chapters in Lamentations have 22 verses each, and then the chapter
three has 66 verses.
It's because of the same thing, you know, using different letters to start each verse
in Lamentations, and then they're tripled up in verse 3, which is why there are 66 verses.
So it's the longest chapter, and the subject of this chapter is delighting in loving God's
word and meditating upon it day and night.
It's about memorizing it, learning it, living by it, and in fact, virtually every verse
in this chapter mentions the word of God.
So it's just over and over and over again mentioning the word of God.
Now, the first seven verses of this chapter use seven different words for the word of
God besides word, okay?
Look at them, if you will, in verse 1.
It says, blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord.
So here it's called his law.
Look at verse 2.
Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, that would be the next word, and that seek
him with the whole heart.
Number 3, it says they also do no iniquity.
They walk in his ways, ways is the term used to refer to his word.
Verse 4, thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently, and then it says in verse
5, oh, that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes.
Verse 6, then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy commandments.
Verse 7, I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall learn thy righteous
judgments.
So in those first seven verses, we have seven different words that are introduced to refer
to God's word, whether it's his precepts, statutes, judgments, ways, commandments, law.
And those are the seven words that he uses throughout this passage to refer to his word
when he's not using the word word itself.
So there are eight words that he uses to refer to his word, and that's part of the poetry
and the way it's laid out here.
So over and over again, every single verse is teaching us about this.
Look at verse number 1, blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord.
Now what does the word undefiled mean?
Well, to defile something is to make it dirty, to pollute it, to make it filthy.
That's what it means to be defiled.
And the Bible says, blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord.
Look at the first verse of the next section, verse 9, wherewithal shall a young man cleanse
his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word.
So both of these have the idea of living a clean life because you keep God's word.
God's word will clean up your life.
How does a young man clean up his life?
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy
word.
Now in Ephesians chapter 5, when it talks about Christ and the church, it says something
similar.
It says, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it.
And it says that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.
So the washing of water of the word.
God's word will clean you up.
Look what it says in verse 11 right there.
Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee.
So one of the reasons why you'll be a successful Christian by loving and memorizing and meditating
on God's word is that you'll live a clean life.
It'll clean up your life.
It'll wash you and keep you undefiled and it will cleanse your way.
I've heard it said that this book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this
book.
People living in sin, they don't really desire to read God's word.
You say, well, you know, if it all starts with loving God's word, how do I love God's
word?
You know, you'll find that sin kills the love that we have for God's word.
That's why the Bible says in Matthew 24 that in the last days, because iniquity shall abound,
the love of many shall wax cold.
Love will wax cold when iniquity and sin abounds in our life.
So it says in verse 1, blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord.
Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and that seek him with the whole heart.
Now what does it mean to keep his testimonies?
Well there are a couple of things that this means.
Number one, when we talk about keeping the word of God, what we mean by that is obeying
it.
You know, if you keep the law, you're obeying the law, right?
But then keep also has another meaning of just hanging on to it, retaining it, having
it with you, memorizing it, keeping it in your heart.
The Bible says in verse 3, they also do no iniquity.
They walk in his ways.
Thou has commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.
What does it mean to be diligent?
It means that you are working hard.
In fact in Proverbs, the diligent man is often contrasted with someone who is slothful, who's
a sluggard, who's lazy.
So a diligent person is working hard to keep God's commandments.
You see, it's not just something that's going to happen by accident.
You just, you know, you're saved and now all of a sudden you just find yourself, you know,
never wanting to sin again and it's just so easy and natural to do what's right.
Is that the case?
No, we still have the old man, the flesh, we still have that sinful carnal nature.
And so the Bible says that we are commanded to keep his precepts diligently.
That means we need to work hard at it, working hard to read and study and first of all, learn
what God wants and then work hard to actually carry out his word in our lives.
It says in verse 5, oh that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes.
So here David in verse 5 is even admitting the struggle that it is to keep God's word
because he's wishing, oh that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes.
He's kind of admitting that he doesn't always keep the statutes but he wishes that he would.
You know, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in
us.
Even the apostle Paul, probably the greatest Christian who ever lived, said that the things
that he did not want to do, he ended up doing.
And then, you know, he ended up not doing the things that he wanted to do.
He delighted in the law of God after the inward man but then there was another law in his
members, in his flesh, warring against the law of his mind.
There's a struggle to keep God's statutes which is why we've got to keep them diligently.
We've got to work at it.
The Bible says in verse 6, then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy
commandments.
And from that verse we should take the fact that when we don't keep God's commandments,
we ought to be ashamed of ourselves.
It's a shame.
We ought to be embarrassed.
We ought to blush at the fact that we have failed to keep God's commandments.
So many people have such a flippant attitude towards sin, like, well I sinned, so what?
No, no, we ought to be ashamed of ourselves when we sin.
And by the way, when we're talking about memorizing and meditating and learning God's word, the
Bible says unto preachers, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
It's a shame when we don't know the Bible, especially as a pastor.
It's embarrassing when a pastor does not know the material.
And the Bible is teaching us that in order not to be ashamed, we need to have respect
unto all his commandments and we need to study to show ourself approved unto God.
The Bible says in verse 7, I will praise thee with uprightness of heart when I shall have
learned thy righteous judgments.
I will keep thy statutes, oh forsake me not utterly.
Notice the language.
When I've learned thy righteous, you know, we've got to diligently study these things
and learn these things.
You see, we need to get back to an understanding that, you know, we need to know the Bible
and get educated in the word of God.
So many churches today do not emphasize this, the education aspect, the learning aspect.
They focus so much just on the spirit, just basically, you know, having the right attitude
or coming to church and sort of feeling close to the Lord or walking with God.
You know, I understand all that.
I understand walking with God and having the right kind of spirit and coming to church
and worshiping the Lord and the beauty of holiness.
You know, I get all that, but there's also a lot in the Bible about just learning what
this book says and becoming educated in the word of God.
See, church is not where we come just to have a religious experience.
It's not just where we come to get a spiritual pick-me-up, that vitamin tablet to kind of
get us through the week spiritually and pick us up when we're down.
Now, church will do that for you.
And I can't even tell you how many times I've been having a crummy day and been in a bad
mood and just upset and just discouraged and then I was glad when they said unto me, let
us go into the house of the Lord.
And I can't even count how many times where my attitude was turned around by going to
church.
In fact, I often wonder that what would happen without church because I'll notice myself
sometimes kind of going down a downward spiral in my spirit and then I get to church and
it's like I'm recharged and I'm back again, you know, and then you start to fade away
sometimes and then going to church revitalizes you.
I'm all for that, but you know what, we also need to be going to church to learn something
because the Bible talks about how he gave us pastors and teachers so that we would all
come to the knowledge of the Son of God, that we would grow in grace, yes, but let's also
grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
We also need to be educated, diligently learning the Word of God.
We need to learn God's righteous judgments.
What does that mean?
God's righteous judgments are basically his opinions about everything.
A judgment is when you basically form an opinion about something.
You make a judgment, you pass judgment.
God's judgments are always right about everything.
So if we want to have the right view of the world we live in, the right opinion about
every subject, we get that from knowing the Word of God.
Why?
Because if our opinion matches the Word of God, we're right all the time, every time.
When our opinion varies from God's Word, we have the wrong opinion.
So the more we read and meditate in God's Word, we're going to be right about more things.
You know, people sometimes accuse fundamental Baptists, oh, you guys think you're right
about everything.
No, we think the Bible's right about everything.
And the more we know the Bible, the more we're going to be right about things.
And since fundamental Baptists tend to know the Bible a lot better than the liberal, you
know, rock and roll church down the street, yeah, it might seem like we're right about
everything.
Sorry, sorry for knowing the Bible.
Sorry for having so many opinions that are in line with God's Word.
Now, I know that I'm not right about everything, but every time I'm wrong, it's because I don't
have God's opinion.
It's because I don't have the biblical opinion.
Let's move into the second section here.
That was the aleph section.
Bet wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to
thy word.
The Bible says in the New Testament, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he
fall.
The Bible says in Hebrews 2, 1, therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to
the things which we've heard, talking about, you know, the Word of God, lest at any time
we should let them slip.
So we let things slip when we don't take earnest heed to what we've heard.
The Bible says, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
What does it mean to take heed?
You have to basically pay attention to what you're doing and beware and be on the alert
and take heed to your way.
How shall a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed thereto according to thy word.
Again, it's not going to happen by accident.
It takes alertness and it takes paying attention and vigilance.
Verse 10, with my whole heart have I sought thee.
Oh, let me not wander from thy commandments.
Verse 11, thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee.
Now how could verse 11 work practically?
Well, often people who have a sin in their life that seems to come up over and over again,
that's a pattern with them, they find that by memorizing a verse from the Word of God
that deals with that particular sin, they can overcome that sin.
So for example, every time they are tempted to drink, if that's something that they struggle
with in their life, they could have some scripture memorized like, for example, wine
is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
Maybe if they struggle with getting to church, maybe they struggle with being faithful to
the house of God, they could memorize a verse like, I was glad when they said unto me, let
us go into the house of the Lord.
They could quote a scripture about not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as we see the day approaching.
If they struggle with cigarettes, they could basically quote a scripture, something about
what?
Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, and that you're
not your own, you're bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in
your spirit, which are God's.
Be clean, ye that bear the vessels of the Lord, and that they should not be putting
all that junk into their body when they smoke cigarettes.
For example, if someone has trouble looking at things that they shouldn't be looking at,
then the Bible says, what does the Bible say?
I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes.
I hate the work of them that turn aside.
It shall not cleave to me.
Whatever the problem, maybe you're one who is soon angry, and you blow your top.
You could maybe memorize the verse that says, wherefore let every man be swift to hear,
slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
And we could go on and on, just all the sins that people have in their lives, and things
that they struggle with, and how they could memorize a verse, and when the temptation
comes, they could quote that verse and be strengthened by God's word.
Hide God's word in your heart that you might not sin against him.
Now you say, well I'm just going to write down a list of verses to help me in times
of trouble.
But here's the thing, that's not always handy.
Can't always go to that.
No, you need to hide it in your heart, you need to memorize the verses that you need
to help you.
The Bible says in verse 12, blessed art thou Lord, teach me thy statutes.
And this is a prayer that we could pray to God literally every time we read the Bible.
Teach me thy statutes, open thou mine, it says later in the same chapter, open thou
mine eyes, verse 18, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
These are prayers unto God, just asking him to show you things in the Bible.
You know, God will answer that prayer when you pray that prayer.
I can remember times in my life where I came to a passage that I struggled with, where
I came to a passage and I didn't understand it, it perplexed me.
And we've all had passages that perplexed us where they seemed to contradict other things
in the Bible.
And we know that the Bible is perfect and without error.
And so we're perplexed when something seems to contradict or not jive.
And I remember one time when I was a teenager there was a scripture that just really bothered
me and I just couldn't figure out what it meant.
And I had the Bible on cassette, you know, some of you kids don't even know what a cassette
is.
But anyway, you know, I had the Bible on cassette in my car and I just had that cassette just
looping that same cassette that had this portion of scripture that I was struggling
with and just looping and looping and looping.
And I remember just praying and just asking God to show me what it meant, show me the
truth here.
And I prayed that for two weeks and after two weeks I understood it perfectly.
And I thought, wow, how did I not see this before?
That's God teaching you the Bible.
But you know what's easier?
Just Google it.
But you know what?
Did you read the truth when you Googled it?
No.
But wait a minute, what about when you pray for weeks and then the Holy Spirit reveals
it to you?
You know, that's a better teacher right there.
And that's why the Bible says the anointing which you have received of him abideth in
you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of
all things in his truth and his no lie and even as it hath taught you, that anointing,
the Holy Spirit, even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
See the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit can teach us anything about the Bible.
Now a lot of people would misuse that verse and say, oh, we don't need preaching.
No, God did give us pastors and teachers to edify us and bring us closer to him in the
knowledge.
And God did command us to go to church.
But here's what that verse is saying.
There's nothing that Pastor Anderson could teach you at church that you couldn't learn
on your own.
Anything I teach behind this pulpit that's true, you could have learned on your own.
If there's some doctrine that only I can teach you and you'll never figure it out on your
own with just you and the Bible and the Holy Spirit, that's a false doctrine because we
all have the same Bible, we all have the same Holy Spirit and therefore you don't need any
man to teach you because you have that anointing.
Now when you come to church and Pastor Anderson teaches you the Bible, that is going to accelerate
your learning.
That's going to teach you more than what you're learning on a daily basis in your home Bible
reading.
But honestly, the majority of your knowledge should come from your personal Bible reading.
And then you learn even more on Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night.
Or if you listen to a preaching cassette or if you listen to, you know, some other preacher
and you get some kind of a bonus material, that's all fine and dandy if you're listening
to men of God.
But wait a minute, it's the Bible that teaches us.
And anything that those men are preaching or that I'm preaching, you could learn it
on your own from the Bible.
It just is faster when you get it from the pastor.
And I'm not trying to write a poem here, but I just did.
The kind that you like that rhymes, you know, but the bottom, but the bottom line is though,
you know, we do need to get teaching from the word of God by ourselves also so that
we're not a babe in Christ, because the babe in Christ is the one who has to be spoon fed,
just like a physical baby, strong meat belonging to them that are a full age, even those who
by reason of use have their senses exercise to discern both good and evil.
The Bible says in verse 12 there, blessed art thou, O Lord, teach me thy statutes.
That's a prayer that we should pray as open now mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things
out of thy laws, a prayer that we should pray.
Verse 13, with my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.
I wonder if a lot of preachers could ever quote that verse.
I wonder how many preachers in 2015 could actually get up and with integrity say, with
my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth, or how many of them have skipped
certain judgments of God's mouth because they're not politically correct.
It's Passover, certain judgments that have come out of the mouth of God, and they did
not declare them because they were afraid of offending someone.
This is a verse that is the declaration that should be able to come out of every pastor's
mouth, every preacher's mouth.
Said in verse 14, I've rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies as much as in all riches.
What's the Bible saying there?
The Bible is saying that when we find some great truth in the word of God, that's greater
than finding a hundred dollar bill laying on the sidewalk.
I remember one time my son Solomon, he bought, I think it was a wallet at a thrift store.
Is that what it was?
Was it a wallet or was it an article of clothing?
And it had a hundred dollar bill in it.
And you know, he told the story, he got home and he opened the wallet and had a hundred
dollar bill in it.
So you know, he zipped it shut real quick.
He went into the bathroom, locked the door, and just to check and see, is it real?
You know, he's kind of checking all the water, you know, you know, because he had to think
it through, you know, he didn't want anybody to see it until he'd thought about it and
processed it, you know, and then he came to us and showed us and everything.
And you know, you better know that a little kid, when they get a hundred dollars, I mean,
it's a lot more to them than it is unto us as adults.
We're, you know, we, we would think it was pretty cool to find a hundred bucks like that.
One time somebody gave me a sweater and I opened it up and there were $300 cash hidden
in a secret pocket, but I called the person and gave it back.
But anyway, you know, this one from the thrift store, he just got to keep it because nobody
knew where it was from and had gone through so many hands.
But you know what, getting excited about that should only be just if you, if you have an
attitude that says, well, God gave me this, praise the Lord, but you know what, we should
get more excited or at least as excited when we find some great truth in the Bible.
As much as in all riches, think about how excited people get on these game shows, you
know, when they win my, you know, we're supposed to get excited and rejoice about God's word.
And again, that's what this whole chapter is about, loving God's word, studying God's
word, meditating in God's word, delighting in it.
He says in verse 15, I'll meditate in thy presets, precepts and have respect unto thy
ways.
I will delight myself in thy statutes.
I will not forget thy word.
And let me tell you something, the two halves of that verse go hand in hand.
The people who delight in the statutes are the same ones who don't forget God's word.
You know, you say, I want to have success at memorizing the Bible.
Love the Bible.
Number one advice.
Love it.
You have to.
It's essential.
You don't love it.
You will fail at memorizing it.
The Bible says in verse 17 in the next section, gimel, deal bountifully with thy servant
that I may live and keep thy word.
It's almost like he's saying that his whole purpose to be alive is to keep God's word.
You know, I just want to live and keep your word.
He says in verse 18, open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
I am a stranger in the earth.
Hide not thy commandments from me.
Now let me ask you this.
Does God hide his commandments from anybody?
Absolutely.
He does actually, because, you know, the Bible says in Matthew chapter 11, for example, Jesus
prayed and said, I thank the old father.
He said thou has hid these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto
babes even so father for so it seemed good in thy sight.
You know, there are people out there that God deems unworthy of understanding his word.
He hides it from them.
They're not worthy.
He says, I've hidden it from them that seeing they might see not hearing they might hear
not.
They see it, but they don't understand it.
They hear it, but they don't comprehend it.
Why?
God hides these things from people.
When he says I hid it from the wise and prudent, what he means there is the people that think
they're wise and prudent.
He's talking about those who are puffed up of this world.
The arrogant and proud is what he's talking about there.
He'll hide it from them and reveal it unto babes, meaning those who are meek, those who
have been come converted and become as little children in their heart.
They're the ones who God reveals his word to.
So this is a great prayer from David's mouth where he says, I'm a stranger in the earth.
Hide not thy commandments from me.
You know, God reveals things to those that he chooses to reveal things to.
And if you please God, then God will reveal more to you.
And you ever wonder why certain people, it's like they just, they have all these revelations
from God's word.
It's like they just understand so much about like, wow, how did you get so much out of
that passage?
How do you understand so much of the Bible?
You know, that's because God chose to reveal it to that person.
Other people God hides things from because he does not consider them worthy.
So David here is begging God for money.
No, he's begging for fame and recognition.
No.
What's he begging for?
Don't hide your commandments from me.
Why?
Because he knows that the most important thing is to understand God's word.
Then everything in your life falls into place.
I mean, look, if you know God's word and keep God's word and meditate there in the night,
everything you do shall prosper.
Everything else falls into place.
So he's just saying a hide not thy commandments from me.
Verse 20, my soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.
That's a pretty strong statement.
My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all times.
This is a constant craving of God's word, desiring of God's word.
Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed which do err from thy commandments.
Move from me reproach and contempt, for I have kept thy testimonies.
Princes also did sit and speak against me, but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.
Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.
You see, the Bible says in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
And here the Bible says thy testimonies are my counselors.
You know, you need to get some counseling, buddy.
You know, here's the counseling.
These are my counselors.
He says in verse number 25 in the next section, Dalet, it says, my soul cleaveth unto the
dust, quicken thou me according to thy word.
I have declared my ways and thou hurtest me.
Teach me thy statutes.
Make me to understand the way of thy presets.
So shall I talk of thy wondrous works.
And again, this might seem repetitive.
It is repetitive.
It's 176 verses about God's word.
And a lot of the same themes come up over and over again.
But God says things repeatedly because he wants to really drive them in.
When he repeats something two times, three times, it's for emphasis.
It's important.
But I like what it says in verse 27.
Make me to understand the way of thy precepts.
So shall I talk of thy wondrous works.
It's always good to understand things before you talk about them.
Think about it.
Some people, it's like they just like to hear themselves talk.
So they talk about things they don't understand.
Now it's great to talk about the Bible.
Love it when people talk about the Bible.
But first they should understand something before talking about it.
You know, we should try to seek for understanding and learn the truth.
And some people, they're real lean on learning and real big on talking.
And we need to spend more time learning, more time reading, more time meditating.
And then let's talk about God's wondrous works.
And let's know what we're talking about.
The Bible says in verse 28, my soul melteth for heaviness.
Strengthen thou me according unto thy word.
Remove from me the way of lying and grant me thy law graciously.
Notice that word and grant me thy law graciously.
Like having God's law is a privilege that is granted.
It's not something to be taken for granted.
It's something that's granted unto those who actually appreciate it.
Verse 30, I've chosen the way of truth.
Thy judgments have I laid before me.
I've stuck unto thy testimonies, O Lord.
Put me not to shame.
I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
Now verse 31, he says, I've stuck unto thy testimonies, O Lord.
Put me not to shame.
He's saying, you know, the way that I live my life, the choices that I've made were based
on your word.
Put me not to shame, meaning I don't want to fail in the presence of others.
And then people will say, well, he stuck unto God's word and he failed.
He said, no, no, no.
I've stuck unto your word, Lord.
Put me not to shame.
Basically, come through for me that it might be a testimony unto others that those who
stick unto your word actually will prosper and have good success and will succeed in
their Christian lives.
And by the way, when you use the word prosper, some people just, they hear the word prosper
and they just think, oh, money.
Oh, it's the Mercedes.
It's the Lexus.
Oh, yeah, money.
No, no, no.
Prosperity in the Bible is not just talking about financial gain.
Because honestly, that's not really the best thing that could happen to you is to get a
bunch of money.
It could ruin your life, in fact.
You know, prospering is succeeding in all areas of life.
It could be succeeding spiritually, succeeding at soul winning, raising godly children, having
a godly marriage, having joy unspeakable and full of glory in your heart.
There's a lot of ways that you could prosper.
But the Bible says in verse 32, I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt
enlarge my heart.
You know, one thing that's interesting, I love running.
And I run virtually every single day.
The only time I don't run is if I'm sick or something like that.
But I pretty much run every single day.
I run at least one mile every day.
But a lot of times I run a lot further than that.
But it's funny because I read up on, I've read a lot of stuff about running because
it's a hobby of mine.
And I read about this condition called runner's heart.
And runner's heart, you know, is a condition where the heart becomes enlarged.
You can look this up in a medical journal and you'll see that this is the truth that
I'm telling you.
And I just thought this was so neat that the Bible actually says, I'll run the way
of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart.
When runners literally get an enlarged heart.
Just another little nugget there in the Bible where we see that, you know, God knows all
the science even before man figures out the science.
You know, it's all in the Bible.
But I just love the concept of running toward God's commandments.
I love how when you read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, so many people are always running
to Jesus, running to Jesus, running in the way of God's commandment.
What does it show?
Urgency, desire, intensity.
He says in verse 33 there in the next section, teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes
and I shall keep it unto the end.
Give me understanding and I shall keep thy law.
Yeah, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
Make me to go in the path of thy commandments for therein do I delight.
Incline mine heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness.
You know, is this the way we pray?
Do we pray to God and say, God, help me to keep your commandments, Lord.
Help me to learn the Bible.
Show me what it means, Lord, and just help me to obey today.
Help me to follow you today.
Help me to obey your commandments today.
This should be a part of our prayer life.
This is a sample of a prayer life of somebody who loves the Word of God.
He says in verse 37, turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity.
What is he saying?
Vanity.
You know what vanity is?
Things that are just worthless.
Things that don't matter.
Things that are empty.
And, you know, a lot of people spend a lot of time looking at vanity, just looking at
stupid things that don't, you know, just staring at the TV, just, just rotting their brain
on the TV as the Bible sits on the shelf.
Watching the idiot box, the boob tube, you know, and just becoming more foolish with
every minute that goes by and just wasting valuable time that God has given them.
Not redeeming the time, but just wasting the time.
Just flushing it down the toilet.
I mean, will anybody make the argument that watching TV is a good use of your time?
I mean, even the most non-Christian person would agree that watching television is just
kind of a way to just kill some time and instead of killing time, we kill our television.
I mean, people just sit there and just rot their brain and your brain is like a muscle
that atrophies when you don't use it.
And you just get more and more foolish and brutish and you will not get smarter watching
it.
Oh, but I watched that, which is educational.
No, no, no.
Books are educational.
Well, I don't understand what the difference is.
Well, if you don't understand what the difference is, it doesn't matter.
You know, I don't understand everything about the engine in my car and how it operates,
but I still know that when I push the gas pedal, it makes the car go faster.
When I push the brake, it makes the car go slower.
I don't have to understand why.
And I'm just telling you right now that it's just a fact that reading books makes you smarter
and watching TV makes you stupid.
It's just a fact.
You know, I don't get it.
I don't understand.
What's the difference?
Well, it doesn't really matter whether you understand, though.
That's just life.
People who say, oh, I don't like reading.
They're dumb.
It's true.
Dumpy.
And you say, well, you're hurting my feelings because I've said that before.
Well, I'm sorry.
Stop being dumb.
And people are just like, they just, oh, I just, I just love watching, you know, TV and
I love watching American Idol and I love watching, you know, reality shows and everything.
You know, you're just, you want to say I'm dumb.
I'm shallow and dumb.
It's true, though.
I'm vain.
I live a life of vanity.
Okay.
And then the person who likes to read is the person who loves learning, loves education,
loves knowledge.
The person who loves to read the Bible is the person who loves the Lord.
They love understanding.
They love the things of God.
They love his righteous judgments.
And maybe these are harsh words, but they're reality.
Sometimes we need somebody to shake us and say, hello, quit being stupid.
And you know what, honestly, I don't believe that those who are wise and those who are
foolish are determined by their DNA.
I think that's a real small part of it.
I don't think that DNA is the big determining factor, like, well, this guy is just a mouth
breathing idiot because of bad genes.
You know, usually that's not the case.
And I don't think it has anything to do with it.
I think it has to do with upbringing and what you do with your time.
You know, people that are smart are smart because they spent time learning and spent
time studying.
And the Bible says that God's word makes wise the simple.
And people who are smart are smart because they spend time reading the Bible and because
they spend time reading books and learning and they don't spend time just wasted with
vanity.
That's the difference.
You know, people who don't have any money in the United States of America, the land
of opportunity, is usually because they don't go to work.
You know, and then people who have money, they go to work a lot.
You know, I mean, these are just kind of general no brainer kind of, you know, and it's the
same thing with knowledge.
You know, you get it from reading.
It doesn't get in there by osmosis.
It doesn't get in there by accident.
I talk to somebody and they know the Bible real well.
It's because they love the Bible and read the Bible a lot, period.
Memorize the Bible a lot.
And you can tell when people know the Bible and when they don't.
I can tell who reads the Bible and who doesn't because you just start talking to them about
the Bible and they don't have a clue what you're talking about.
They don't read it.
And then you talk to other people and they know exactly what you're talking about and
they exhibit great understanding of the word and you know there's a guy who reads his Bible.
There's a woman who reads her Bible.
It is apparent.
You don't even have to ask that person, hey, how many times have you read it cover to cover?
And I've heard preachers get up and say, oh, I've read the Bible 175 times cover to cover
and I know for a fact that they're lying because they lack knowledge and because they constantly
misquoting everything and they clearly don't know the scripture.
They don't know the subject.
They don't know what they're talking about.
And I just say you're a bold-faced liar.
No one could read the Bible that much and know so little.
Fact.
It's true.
And then plenty of other preachers, I hear them preach and they don't have to tell me
how many times they've read the Bible because I just know that they've read it.
Many times.
A multitude of times.
Fifty times.
A hundred times.
You know, and I've heard a preacher say that he'd read it, you know, a hundred and some
odd times and I believed it because of the quality of the word that he was giving and
the fact that he knew the scripture so well.
It, you know, the proof's in the pudding.
You don't just read the Bible a hundred times and be an idiot.
You know, it just doesn't happen that way.
And you don't just read the Bible three times your whole life and be a Bible expert.
Doesn't happen.
These things seem very basic, but they are the truth.
You know, it'd be like, it'd be like if you saw somebody with huge muscles that, you know,
and you just, oh, they just got that way by sitting around watching TV and eating bon-bons.
You know that's not true, right?
You look at somebody who's strong and you say, well, that person obviously put work
into that.
But you know what bodily exercise profit little, exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
You know, some of you need to bulk up spiritually.
You need some spiritual weight gain.
You need to do some spiritual mass building and get some muscle, get some strength on
you.
And you know what?
It is obvious.
You know, I talked to, I talked to Pastor Roland Rasmussen yesterday, the guy who does
the narration at the beginning of After the Tribulation.
And you know, it was nice to talk to him because he was actually the one who won my father
to the Lord and my grandfather to the Lord back in the 1960s in Los Angeles, California.
And so I was talking to him and he was, he told me some stories about my grandfather.
But then I, you know, I spent over an hour with him going through a lot of biblical doctrine
regarding Bible prophecy.
And we were going through the book of Daniel and going through the book of Revelation.
You know, and, and just talking to him, even though we didn't agree on every point, there
were a couple of things that we didn't see eye to eye on, but you know, we agreed on
the vast majority of what we talked about.
And I'll just tell you right now, it was just real obvious, this is a guy who knows
the Bible.
You know, this is a guy who reads the Bible because you could talk to him and he knew
the subject.
You refer to a verse, he knows exactly what verse you're talking about.
He can expound on it even without even the Bible in front of him.
And here's the, I don't know how old he is, but I believe he's about 90 years old.
He's either in his late eighties or he's 90 and yet sharp as a tack.
And you know what?
You could have a way better conversation with him than you would have with a lot of young
guys because of the fact that he does the reading and it comes out of his mouth because
he knows the subject from reading it.
It's not by accident, it comes through hard work.
And why do people work hard at something?
Why do you work hard at your job?
Because you're getting a paycheck, right?
But what about things that you don't get paid for?
What about hobbies?
Why would you work hard at playing the piano?
Only if you love playing the piano.
Why would you work hard at running?
Only if you love running.
I mean, you're only going to work hard at things that you like and you have to love
God's word to spend time reading it, studying it.
That's why it's like he rotates back and forth in Psalm 119 between delighting in it
and learning it.
Delighting in it, knowing it, loving it, learning it, loving it, meditating in it.
In the next verse he says, well, let's read it again in verse 37, turn away mine eyes
from beholding vanity and quicken thou me in thy way.
Establish thy word unto thy servant who is devoted to thy fear.
We've got to be devoted to the fear of God, the Bible says.
Verse 39, turn away my reproach which I fear for thy judges are good.
Behold I have longed after thy precepts, quicken me in thy righteousness.
And we'll stop there for tonight as far as going through this scripture because it's
a very long chapter.
It would take many hours to go through this whole chapter verse by verse.
But you know, I just wanted to show you just even in those first, what, five sections that
we went through there, what the gist of the chapter is.
It's a desire and a longing and a love for God's word that manifests itself in time spent
memorizing, meditating, learning, and keeping God's word.
Now we need to make this a practical application in our lives.
How do we apply this practically in our lives?
We need to get sin out of our lives so that we can love God's word more, number one.
But as we seek to incorporate God's word into our lives more and more, here are just some
quick tips just to close out the sermon on how to read the Bible, how to spend more time
meditating on the Bible.
Number one, you need to keep the Bible with you at all times.
Now technology even makes this easier too.
Sometimes you can just have it on your phone and everybody pretty much has their phone
everywhere they go.
Get the Bible installed on your phone.
Get a King James Bible app where you can pull that thing up and read it anytime.
Or better yet, just a New Testament, pocket New Testament in your pocket everywhere you
go, in your purse ladies everywhere you go.
I like to have Bibles in different parts of the house, coffee table, bedroom, bathroom,
everywhere, one in the car, one in the lunchbox when you go to work.
Just having the Bible available, you'll read it more.
Because how many times do you think like, oh, I could read some Bible and it's like,
oh, I don't have it with me.
Move on to something else.
Get the Bible and just get it everywhere, have it with you at all times.
Secondly, spend time memorizing the Bible because memorizing the Bible is something
that you can do sometimes when you can't read it.
Because to read the Bible, sometimes you have to sit down with the book and read it and
you can't necessarily multitask as well.
So by memorizing the Bible, you can do other things, like sometimes when I have menial
tasks to perform, I would have Bible verses on a note card and then I can pull out those
Bible verses and just get a small phrase from that Bible verse and then put that in my pocket
and just meditate on that for a while, while I do fire alarms or whatever I used to do
for a living or just nowadays if I'm just doing menial tasks and other aspects of my
life.
So for example, if I were going to be learning, let's say, Psalm 119, if I wanted to memorize
that chapter and I started out with the first verse, blessed are the undefiled in the way,
I just get that phrase in my mind, put that back in my pocket and just as I go about mowing
the lawn or whatever activity, just blessed are the undefiled in the way.
Blessed are the undefiled in the way.
Well that's not a very fancy memorization method, chanting it over and over again, yeah
but you know what, that's really the only method I've used.
Other people have better methods, that's my method and I've memorized hundreds of chapters
like that and it's tedious, not if you love it and so you just chant blessed are the undefiled
and then after I've just ran that into the ground for a few minutes, then I just pull
out the card and get the next part of the verse, who walk in the law of the Lord, who
walk in the law of the Lord, who walk in the law of the Lord, who walk in the law
of the Lord, who walk in the law of the Lord, you know, you know, who walk in the law of
the Lord, who walk in the law, whatever you do, you know, you just recite it.
I mean that's just a way to just get more Bible into you, just pull out a, and sometimes
even if I'm just busy and I wasn't really planning on memorizing the Bible so I didn't
really have any cards or anything planned, sometimes if I just get somewhere and my mind's
just kind of wandering and I'm just kind of bored and don't really have anything going
on, sometimes I'll just pull out my pocket New Testament and just open it to a random
chapter that I don't know and just pick a verse and just learn that verse right there
just for no reason.
It's just another Bible verse into my heart.
Just I mean it's all good, right?
It's all of God's word.
Just learn it.
Number three, besides having the Bible everywhere, besides using flashcards or a New Testament
to learn scripture by memory, another thing you can do is have the Bible on audio.
This is a major way to increase your Bible reading.
Now some people will say, yeah, but you know, if you listen to it, is that really the same
as reading it?
You know what?
I think it's better.
Now some people get more out of it reading and they say, well, when I listen to it, I
zone out, they say.
I zone out.
But you know what?
I find that I zone out more reading it than listening because everybody's different.
Some people are more auditory.
Other people are more visual in their learning style.
I find myself zoning out when I read it where I'll read and then I'll be like, whoa, I don't
even know what I read for the last four verses.
I kind of zoned out and they have backup.
You know, and sometimes you have to back up the audio because you zone out.
But honestly, I zone out less with the audio.
I get more out of the audio.
Other people say they get more out of reading it.
But you know what?
Getting something out of it is better than getting nothing.
I mean listening to it is better than nothing by any way you slice it.
And so just get that Bible cassette, that Bible CD, that Bible MP3 and just have that
thing in the car and have it set to where when you turn on the engine, it's already
running.
You know, just come right on.
You don't even have to decide or think about it.
And I remember as a teenager a lot of the time there was always that decision between,
you know, you got the rock music CD, you know, when you're a teenager and then I had the
Bible CD.
And you knew you're supposed to listen to the Bible.
And then it's kind of, you know, the spirit's willing and the flesh is weak and, but you
know what I found?
And, you know, sometimes you made the right choice, sometimes you made the wrong choice,
but here's the thing though.
You know what I always found though?
Even though sometimes it was kind of like, you know, put in the Bible CD, once it was
on though, you were always glad that you did.
Like you always enjoyed it, but it was just fighting that battle with the flesh to want
to turn it on in the first place.
But once it was on, you got into it.
You got entertained by it.
You enjoyed it.
You liked it.
It's just that struggle to get the thing turned on.
That's why it's good sometimes just having a CD player and just have it turned on, just
have the thing running and looping.
And you know what I would do?
I would just have one CD.
I'd leave that CD in for weeks and let it loop a few times so I could kind of just really
drill in that one part of scripture, that one hour of reading.
And then, you know, switch it out after a little while.
You know, if you just do the math, 15 minutes a day gets you through the Bible in one year.
So let's say Monday through Friday.
Let's say you drive Monday through Friday.
So then, you know, it'd have to be a little more than 15 minutes.
Let's say it's 22 minutes.
Let's say your work is 11, 12 minutes there and 11, 12 minutes back.
Just your driving to work and driving home from work alone could get you through the
Bible cover to cover in a year if you did that, if you kept that thing cranking all
the time.
And you just told yourself, you know what, it's just a rule that on my way to work and
on my way from work, this is all I listen to.
And then God might even stick you in traffic on the way home just because, you know, you
need to listen to the Bible more.
No, I'm just kidding.
But the bottom line is that you'll get a lot more done.
You can multitask.
Again, turn on the Bible audio and you can do other things.
You can take a walk.
You can go running.
You can do chores, whatever, and learn the Bible, meditate on the Bible at the same time.
You know, an idle mind is the devil's workshop.
And listening to the Bible can keep your mind occupied with the right things.
So those are just some practical tips, how you can incorporate the Bible more into your
life.
If you have a physical book with you more places, more often, use Bible memory as a
way to have God's word with you all the time.
I mean, I don't have a Bible with me.
No problem.
Quote some scripture.
Quote a chapter.
And then thirdly, get it on audio and listen to it.
You know, I like the Alexander Scorby reading of it, right?
And all God's people said, yeah, Alexander Scorby.
But you know what, now, you know, with YouTube, even if you don't have the Scorby CDs, you
can just type into YouTube, KJV audio Bible, in case you get a little burned out on Scorby's
voice.
You can just go on YouTube, just KJV audio Bible, and there are all different narrators.
You know, pick a narrator that you like, all different narrators on there, doing it in
case you get burned out on the Scorby edition, or you say, well, I can't afford it.
I can't buy it.
Well, you know, just stream it on YouTube.
It's free.
So you know, there's really no excuse.
It's just making the effort.
And what is the word associated with making that effort?
Diligence.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, Lord.
Help us to put these things into practice that we might prosper in all that we do.
And in Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.