Of all the Psalms
119 is the Most Awesome!

Of all the Psalms

119 is the Psalm that is the

most amazing, most practical, and

most obviously God given.

Psalm 119

is a beautiful and remarkable psalm.

This psalm is the

longest psalm in the Bible with 176 verses.

(We will not go through all 176 verses!)

Note:

Many people

do not know that

Psalm 119 is written in ABC order.

The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters.

In Psalm 119 the first 8 verses

begin with

the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet –

which is Aleph.

The next 8 verses

all begin with the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

The next 8 verses

all begin with the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

This pattern continues

for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet

throughout the entire psalm.

Because of its ABC order,

and

its beauty

and

its practical teachings -

this psalm is one of the most

dramatic examples

of the hand of God.

I have often pondered

how difficult it would be

to write something this meaningful in ABC order.

-

As a teacher,

I once gave that assignment to my Sunday school class.

They tried hard - but the results were rather pitiful

and proved my point to the class.

No one

but

God

could write Psalm 119.

This is one of the many proofs

I point to

when someone says that the Bible was written by men

only

and not by God.

I am going to highlight

parts of Psalm 119

and

make comments.

I especially

love this psalm in

The Living Translation,

and so I’m going to use that translation today.

Verse 1

It begins……

“Happy are all who perfectly follow the laws of God.

Happy are all who

search for God

and always do his will.

Rejecting compromise with evil and walking only in his paths.”

Rejecting compromise with evil –

That is what God wants us to do.

It reminds me of Proverbs 10:10 TLB

which says:

“Winking at sin leads to sorrow but bold reproof leads to peace.”

Many Christians

are living their life

as close to sin as they can get…

without actually sinning.

That is not the will of God.

That is winking at sin.

Many people live life

as one

walking on a narrow painted line

in the middle of the road

or

as one on a balance beam...

with sin on one side

and

obedience to God on the other.

Whenever they lose their balance,

they fall into sin.

Psalm 119 tells us

to reject compromising with evil.

James 1:22 says...

The Words of God

are messages

to obey

not just to listen to.

Jesus

tells us

"If you love me,

you

will obey me."

 John 14:21.

And again in John 14:23.

We see God reaffirm this idea

in the next verse which is

Psalm 119:4

which says,

“You have given us your laws to obey.”

It is obvious

in these first few verses

and

throughout all of the verses of Psalm 119 –

that this psalm

is clearly about

reverence, respect for God's Word

and dedication to God’s word.

Verses 4 - 11

Verses 4 - 11

“You have given us your laws

to obey

oh, how I want to follow them consistently.

Then I will not be disgraced,

for I will have a clean record.

After you have corrected me,

I will thank you

by living as I should!

I will obey!

Oh, don't forsake me and let me slip back into sin again.

How can a young man stay pure?

By reading your Word and following its rules.

I have tried my best to find you -

don't let me wander off from your instructions.

I have thoughts much about your words,

and

stored them in my heart

so that

they would hold me back from sin.”

In verses 4 - 11,

the psalmist shows his love for the word of God.

The psalmist

shares that

he has

memorized much of the Word of God.

He lets us know that

this

will keep him more obedient to God.

We see again

that this psalm

has a

great love for God’s laws and his commands.

Recently in the Christian world

there have been many teachers and preachers

who have

taken the message of

grace

and mis-used

grace

to water down all the verses

in the

Old and New Testament

about obedience to God.

Jesus never meant for us

to be

indifferent toward sin.

Many people entertain themselves
with the very sins that put nails in the hands of Jesus.

Jesus never meant for us

to disregard or downplay our sins.

Jesus never meant for us

to be

lukewarm

in our obedience

to the commands of the Bible.

In Matthew, the first recorded word(s) of Jesus as he was preaching was “Repent.”

The first word(s) of Jesus as an adult in Mark was “Repent.”

Jesus told the woman caught in adultery to go and sin no more.

And the words of Jesus

to the 7 churches in Revelation,

show that

our risen Lord

is very serious about us obeying his Words.

These are a few of the myriad of verses in the Old and New Testament about rejecting sin.

God

takes sin

very seriously.

Note that I am very grateful to God that forgiveness is available to us.

I am very thankful that we have verses like 1 John 1:9 which says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

That is one of my favorite verses in the Bible.

I need the forgiveness of God daily.

I need God’s gift of grace.

Yet

I am

careful to

 refuse to let

1 John 1:9

make me

disrespectful

about the

importance

of doing my best

to obey the commands of God.

Yes, God IS love……… but God’s love doesn’t dismiss obedience.

God expects us to make a serious effort

to be obedient to him.

God was not careless

in how

he drew the lines of morality,

and may we not

be careless

in how we interpret his commands.

Obedience

is a main message of every book in the Bible.

The New Testament

does NOT present grace

as an excuse to sin.

In fact,
Romans 6:1 says,

“What shall we say then?

Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

God forbid.”

At this point in the teaching,

I encourage you to read

Psalms 119 verses 12 - 24.

Highlighting Several Verses

Notice verse 25

it tells us that

the Word of God

is a needed answer to discouragement.

Skipping to

verse 28,

we see that it tells us

that the

Word of God

is a needed answer to sorrow and grieving.

The first part of

verse 29 says,

“Keep me far from every wrong.”

Here again we see this attitude of respect for God’s commands.
I will add that it also implies that we are to seek to please God in everything we do.

Life is not about

trying to get away with something.

It is about

creating a great relationship with God

and

desiring to please him.

God delights in us and he wants us to delight in him.

Choices

Verses 29-30

“Keep me far from every wrong;

help me,

undeserving as I am,

to obey your laws

for I have

chosen to do right.”

Right choices

are vital

to a

joyful life here

and

a happy eternity.

Verse 30 ends with the words - “I have chosen to do right”

Each one of has a mind, will, and emotions.

Have you chosen in your will to do God’s will?

The psalmist models for us to say the words: “For I have chosen to do right.”

It is important for us to firmly make a commitment to God to choose to do right.

Even if our society thinks differently – even if people make fun of us or shun us.

To make sure we stay firmly committed to Christ, we have to make a conscious commitment to not let the opinions of others sway us away from what the Bible says.

Verse 31 says,

“I cling to your commands and follow them

as closely as I can.

Lord don't let me make a mess of things.”

Verse 32 says, “If you would only help me to want your will I will follow your laws even more closely.”

This inspires a great prayer to pray, "Lord help me to want your will!”

Verses 33 - 35 say, “Just tell me what to do and I will do it, Lord. As long as I live I'll wholeheartedly obey. Make me walk along the right paths for I know how delightful they really are.”

Sometimes it helps us spiritually to remember that we are children of God, and as children we do not know everything. Sometimes we don’t view God’s laws as delightful. But here the psalmist is stating that he understands that when he is given more wisdom, he will later realize how delightful and right the laws of God really are.

Verse 36 is very important for each of us,

“Help me to prefer obedience to making money! ”

Every verse in Psalm 119

is a wisdom diamond.

I will end this teaching by highlighting two short verses:

“Nothing is perfect except your words.”
Verse 96

“Give me common sense

to apply your rules to everything I do.”
Verse 125b

I urge you to consider re-reading and meditating on

Psalm 119.

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