Psalm 119:1-8
The age in which we live is steeped in existentialism, a philosophy of life that seeks to define life primarily by one’s personal experience of it. The person who most exemplified that thought was Søren Kierkegaard, a great existentialist. Kierkegaard wrote, Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing, a very meditative book in which Kierkegaard guides readers through a process of shedding all other things in life in order to focus on one important thing. In this process of simplifying and focusing, we become “whole, integrated persons.” We all would agree that becoming a “whole, integrated person” with meaning and purpose is a good thing. It is what every person wants: We want to know who we are, why we are here and how to live within that great story of meaning. So, how do we do that?
I recently read of a lady who was interested in gaining more spiritual balance in her life. The fast-paced living of self-imposed deadlines, goals, expectations and consumerism made her feel as if she was being squeezed to the limit. So, in order to find a spirituality that could help her out of her suburban sprawl soul, she went on a spiritual tour of Sedona, Arizona. There, she was supposed to focus on the simple landscape of that beautiful area and find meaning, purpose and balance for her life. At the end of her trip, she left disillusioned. She returned to her busy life exhausted. She said: “I took a spiritual tour of sacred Sedona, Ariz., and all I got was this rock…and a mystical encounter with a mountain lion.”
Can we find God through a mystical encounter with a mountain lion? Can we find it by going to Sedona? By taking a nature walk? By pouring our lives into a really good cause? We are all seeking meaning for our lives, but will we ever find it from the starting point of self? Christianity is not existential; it is propositional. There is right. There is wrong. There is a way to God, and the way we know is through God’s revelation of Himself. That is what Psalm 119 is all about. When we are facing the greatest questions and needs of life, only the Word will do. We begin with verses 1-8.
What Now?
Headlines rage across our lives like a California brush fire in August: “Terrorist Plotting to Kill Thousands”; “Tapes Released from 9/11 Recount Horror of Those Trapped in Buildings”; “Terrorists Become Local Heroes in Northern Israel”; “Christmas Eve Murder of a Child by Disturbed Man who Admitted His Crime,” and regardless of guilt, exposing a sinister soul lurking beneath an otherwise mild-mannered person. The talking heads on the news shows had no clear answers. There were only questions: “What now?”
What now?” is the cry of human beings, not only in response to headlines such as these, but the headlines of our own lives. For every rocket launched by Hezbollah, there are a million rockets launched in homes by unfaithful husbands toward grieving wives; news of a disease attacking a vital organ; the cries of a child whose world is crashing down in front of them. Just spend one day in family court. You will leave, asking yourself, “What now?” This is the human condition, and it has not changed in 5,000 years. However, God answered the “What nows?” of life in a place we call Psalm 119.
Psalm 119 is at the very heart of the Word of God. It is the longest chapter in the Bible. Spurgeon sees in this Psalm the clear imprint of King David. Though the Psalm is anonymous, the styles, theme and the authentic, clear, openhearted approach to self and God make a convincing case for Davidic authorship. Regardless, this is the work of the Holy Spirit, arranged in 22 sections, with eight verses in each section, each line of which begins with the corresponding Hebrew letter. No other part of Scripture approaches the tight organization and literary structure of this psalm. Yet, paradoxically, it may seem random. It is like wisdom literature in that it moves from one theme to another. I rather like Matthew Henry’s thoughts on this. He said that this is not a string of jewels all lined out together, but a treasure chest of jewels.
I would say there are 22 treasure chests, filled with beautiful and rare finds. Of course, they all have a common theme. That theme is the Word of God. Even here, there is tight literary organization of this theme. There are eight synonyms used for Torah, or the Law. Each noun appears on average 22 times “and the eight verses of any given stanza will contain most if not all of them.” The Word of God is called command (or commands), decrees, law, laws (a different Hebrew word meaning judgments or rulings), precepts, promises and statutes. In the Heth section, all of these words appear; it is here that one of our favorite words, Hesed, appears. God’s love is expressed through His very Word. Here, I also want to talk about something else. This is really a word of caution for those who are familiar with this Psalm. We come to this Psalm, as David Powlison writes, with preconceived notions. Psalm 119 is the psalm for memory work. It is here we remember Psalm 119:105: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” or Psalm 119:11: “I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” It is true that Psalm 119 is a veritable gold mine for memory verses, or maybe you know it for its emphasis on the Word or its A-B-C divisions. Psalm 119 is a great source for biblical trivial games. Is Psalm 119 just a curiosity? Is it just information about the Word? Or did the Lord write in this way to communicate simply about profound subjects that He wanted us to understand? The answer is clearly that Psalm 119 is about the heart of a man who is seeking one thing, has found it and is sharing it with us.
David Powlison writes in his book, Speaking Truth in Love, words in Psalm 119, such as “law, commandment, precept, testimony, statute, judgment” run a distant second to words such as “I, me, my, mine, you, your and yours.” Psalm 119 is about how we can know how to relate to God personally and enjoy the life He has given us. We do that by knowing His Word, the revelation of Himself.
This brings us back to the “what nows” of life. I suspect some today are facing the “what nows?” or soon will. When you do, only the Word will do. This is the message for our lives from Psalm 119. Here we launch out in verses 1-8. This is the Aleph section, and it deals with three basic principles about what knowing this one thing, God’s Word, does in our lives.
1. Seeking that one thing—God’s Word—brings great blessings (vv. 1-3)
The psalmist begins by talking about blessedness. It is a Hebrew word that begins with aleph, so it is the right start, but also the best start and God-intended beginning for what God wants us to know in this Psalm. He wants us to know that His Word brings blessing. Somehow we get that wrong. We think the Word brings bondage, not blessing. We think that to go to God’s Word is like volunteering for duty in the military: You are going to get into a lot of work. If you go to God with your problems, you will end up as some religious kook, out of touch with reality. The psalmist, obviously a man who has tried out the wisdom of the world, emphatically begins by saying, No! “Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the Law. Blessed are they who keep His statutes and seek Him with all their heart.”
He is not saying they are perfect because they seek God’s Word, but that there is a purity, a loveliness and a blessing that comes in following the way of the Lord, revealed in His Word, rather than in following the ways of the world, which do not bring purpose, much less lasting joy. Perhaps more than anyone else, John Piper has popularized the works of Jonathan Edwards. Piper writes much about what he calls “Christian Hedonism.” That is the person who seeks joy through knowing God. To know God is to have joy; and to know Him we come to Him on His terms, which is His Word. This is pure Edwards. Edwards, arguably the greatest thinker America ever produced, was a man who sought God. Thus, for Edwards as a student, husband, father, pastor and the president of Princeton, his life was consumed with going deeper and deeper into the Word of God. Despite the trials of his life, which were many, he was first and always a man of joy.
We sometimes think of Christians who walk around with their Bibles wherever they go as dour, unbalanced, joyless people. If they are, it is because they are reading for information, not diving for blessings. How about you? God has made you to desire joy. You cannot deny it! You want blessing in your relationships, in your work, for your children, for your own sense of personhood! God made that. God fulfills that with the revelation of Himself in the Bible. Take it from a guy who has tried. There is no fulfillment, no answer anywhere else than here. Are you reading this Word for information, or mining for blessings?
The psalmist then makes a move from blessing to demands. This is the second principle of this passage.
2. Seeking that one thing—God’s Word—requires true obedience (v. 4)
“You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed” (Ps. 119:4). The psalmist does this throughout Psalm 119. He alternates between the blessings of God’s Word and the demands of God’s Word. In these primordial verses of this longest psalm, we see that blessing comes from God’s precepts being fully obeyed. Blessing comes from obedience. To obey is not a very popular phrase. In postmodern thought, in existentialism, purity of heart, freedom and purpose and meaning are to be found through truth, but truth is personalized. Obedience to God and specifically to His special revelation is not popular. Still, as Al Mohler wrote, a postmodern airline pilot, who may abhor obedience to God’s Word and resist anything that has to do with God and His requirements on his life, is not consistent with that line of thought. For that same pilot at 30,000 feet is trusting fully in the laws of aerodynamics. He is trusting in the laws of gravity. He is seeking obedience to all of these laws.
I remember a funny line by Bob Newhart in which he played the part of an airline pilot. The pilot’s voice was calm and reassuring as it came across the PA system of the plane bound for Honolulu. “Welcome ladies and gentlemen. We hope you sit back and enjoy this flight across the Pacific to beautiful Hawaii.” There was a pause. Then his voice came on again. “We are proud to have our new navigator aboard. This is his first flight.” Another pause. “Ladies and gentlemen, if there is anyone aboard who has ever actually flown to Hawaii, will you please come forward and meet with our navigator. Thanks, and enjoy your flight.”
The point is that we all depend on obeying certain laws in order to find our way to our destination. God’s Word shows us that natural revelation, the stars and sky and trees and lakes, are beautiful. Theologians call that God’s general or natural revelation. General revelation shows us there is a God, but it is only in His Word that we learn what He requires of us. What He requires is what brings us blessing. He requires obedience to the laws of redemption. Here we learn our plight and God’s power and God’s precepts for being saved from our plight. This book is about God’s love, our sin, our need and God’s provision. Do you think of obedience to God as bondage or freedom?
This leads us to the third principle in this passage.
3. Finding that one thing—God’s Word—requires a purity of heart that we don’t have, but that God gives (vv. 5-8)
Every now and then, we will hear of a plane, maybe in the mountains of South America that takes off, looses its instrumentation and slams into a mountain. Frequently, we know of people who are like that. The instruments fail, the internal power systems of morals and choices all fail. They slam into the mountains of life and crash. We all want to clear the mountain, get the blessing and find our way home; but how do get there?
The psalmist in verse 5 responds to all of this. He wants the blessing. He wants to know obedience. “Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees! Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands.” This is the crux of the matter. It is the major difference between philosophy of man and the Word of God. In man’s philosophy, you seek answers, and you look within yourself to find the power to grab hold of the answer. In God’s Word, the power is outside of yourself and comes to you as you submit to God’s Word. In other words the power to obey and get the blessing comes not from yourself but from God. What is that power? It is not a religious experience, though one certainly enjoys experiences of God.
No, it is a Person.
John wrote: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (
When John was exiled on the Isle of Patmos for preaching the Word, Jesus Christ came to him and showed him the victory that would be his.
We read in
The Word is God—not simply a book, printer’s ink, paragraphs or verses. The Word is God, and God the Word is the Son. To receive the blessing, to obey the Lord, is to receive the Son. For the psalmist, it results in praise: “I will praise You with an upright heart as I learn Your righteous laws. I will obey Your decrees.” It ends suddenly in this first section: “Do not utterly forsake me” (Ps. 119:8). This is an honest cry. We are found by God, and we must be kept by God. The joy we seek is to be found through God and His Word, through the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. He is our power for living. Only in Him are we kept on the way to blessing, now and forever. The good word of Jesus is this: “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” What the psalmist has experienced we, too, can experience.
Finding Our Way to Wherever We’re Going
If you want blessing, you must seek one thing: the truth of God in His Word, the Bible. That is what I told my friend who came to see me. We talked about his own journey from New Mexico to searching for his identity to being led to this city. We talked about the only way we ever can find our way to wherever it is we are going is through the Word made flesh. We talked about how, if Jesus is who He says He is—the Son of God who came to die for our sins on the cross and rise again from the dead—then all of the Bible is true. If that is so, then we are loved. If we are in Him by faith, we are not lost at all. What I said to him the Lord says to us. When “What now?” comes to you, don’t look inside yourself. Don’t look to another person. Only the Word will do. The Word became flesh. I wrote a song about this and would like to share it with you. It is called, “When Only the Word Will Do.”
When Only the Word Will Do
(Based on sermons from Psalm 119)
© 2009 Michael Anthony Milton and Bethesda Words and Music, BMI
The song is available on the album, Follow Your Call, distributed by Music for Missions, or on iTunes. Learn more about the album at Follow Your Call.com
A little boy crying, his old Snooper lies still
Then a woman gently carries him home
The child asks a question about heaven and dogs
And his sobs thankfully muffle her own
In such times, we feel helpless
In such times, we need truth
In such times, our own wisdom will fail us
These are the times, when only the Word will do
A father looks into the eyes of his daughter
But another man is making her smile
And he’s happy but sad as the people all rise
And he walks her down the aisle
In such times, we feel helpless
In such times, we need truth
In such times, our own wisdom will fail us
These are the times, when only the Word will do
(Bridge)
Late in the night as you drive through the country
You look into the star-studded sky
And you wonder where you are going
And you wonder why
The room is quiet, your life is now reflection
On years like a river rushed by
You clutch an old picture of a woman and a dog
Now where will you go when you…
In such times, we feel helpless
In such times, we need truth
In such times, our own wisdom fails us
These are the times, when only the Word will…
In such times, we feel helpless
In such times, we need You
In such times, human wisdom will fail us
These are the times, when only the Word will do, Only the Word will do, Only the Word will do.
References
Kierkegaard, Søren, and Douglas V. Steere. Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing; Spiritual Preparation for the Feast of Confession. New York and London,: Harper & brothers, 1938.
Powlison, David. Speaking Truth in Love. Winston-Salem, NC: Punch Press, 2005.
Schuman, Wendy. Stalking the Energy Vortex Beliefnet, 2006 [cited Aug. 13, 2006]. Available from Beliefnet.com/story/195/story_19551_1.html.
Wilcock, Michael. The Message of Psalms 73-150. Edited by J.A. Motyer, The Bible Speaks Today. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2001.