Daleth
Psalm 119 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 6 viewsThis message will explore the longing the Psalmist expresses for the Word of God and his trust in God’s person.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
Introduction:
Through the initial three octads, we have seen themes emerge from the text.
The Psalmist experiences suffering.
He focuses on the purpose and value of the scriptures.
He has expressed his commitment to live his life based on the scriptures.
This comes with meditation too.
The Word of God is to be obeyed, but it is also to be used for meditation, or deep thought.
Through it, we learn of God’s person, his nature.
Through it, we hear His voice, we learn His instruction.
Two concerns:
Exhaustion from misunderstanding.
Loathing
In the Daleth section, the Psalmist will not recapitulate all of these themes, but he will hit on many of them.
He dwells less on what the Word of God is and its value to him personally.
Instead, he expresses his longing to be taught, to understand, and to saturate his life in God’s law.
This section will give us expressions that transcend personal circumstances.
“Way” (DeReK) appears 5 times in the 8 verses as the initial word.
A Request for Life
A Request for Life
Yet again, the physical situation of the Psalmist forms the backdrop of an octad.
This time, though, the Psalmist makes a statement about the toll his tribulation has taken on him.
He uses vivid terminology to say his “soul” adheres to dust.
Dust = topsoil, or it can be a metaphor for death.
The term has a wide-range of meanings.
He either considers himself near death, or he expresses that he is physically exhausted from the predicament he now has.
The issue appears to be that true life is based on God’s word even when the physical life is exhausted or even near death.
Indeed, while the physical life faces danger and even wearies, God’s word serves as the true source of life.
The Psalmist may have in mind the comfort and reassurance that comes from the Word of God because of its reminders, through recording God’s acts, of God’s compassionate and gracious person.
Ps. 119:107 would seem to confirm this interpretation.
What is clear is that he does not have a death wish.
If he lives, he will serve the Lord.
A Request for Instruction
A Request for Instruction
The Psalmist recounts the faithfulness and reliability of God’s person.
He has instructed (taught) God of “his ways.”
Ways can be understood from two points of view:
His condition, that is, his persecution and suffering.
His way of life, how he lives.
In some undisclosed way, Jehovah responded to him.
He may be expressing confidence in the reliability of Jehovah.
What appears to come forth, here, is the very personal relationship that he knows exists between himself and God. God is personable, and he is confident that when he explained to God “his ways” that the Lord answered him.
Jehovah’s trustworthiness, or its confirmation, generates the desire for learning more of his instruction.
Introduction (Part 2):
Introduction (Part 2):
Three areas of vulnerability:
Exhaustion from misunderstanding.
Loathing for inaction
To remove themselves from affliction, those who identified with the truth:
Blend in with the culture through false doctrine and/or disobedient lifestyles.
We are affected by false ideas and false behaviors.
It becomes difficult for us to separate truth from error especially when the culture itself has normalized error.
Perhaps what this section confronts us with most of all are the different areas of concern:
Exhaustion/Fainting
Falsehoods and deceptions
Immorality
A Request for Understanding
A Request for Understanding
The Psalmist expresses a desire for the Lord to “cause him to understand the way of your precepts.”
He places the Lord as teacher.
He wants to understand “the way” of God’s revealed precepts.
He then, will meditate on the wondrous works of God.
Perhaps, only through understanding the moral and personal responsibilities that come with understanding God can we meditate upon the great acts that he has done to reveal his nature.
God’s person places burden of responsibility on us.
What also seems apparent is his understanding that knowing the Word of God, like knowing God himself, is an inexhaustible endeavor. Understanding its meaning or what it reveals, now, generates a hunger to know more.
A Request for Strength and Protection
A Request for Strength and Protection
In what appears to be a restatement of Ps. 119:25 but using a different metaphor.
Notice the parallels with the word “soul.”
Now, we see an expression of grief that provides greater clarity for the first verse of this octad.
“according to your word” carries over, but now the request is for strength or being “made to rise.”
The Psalmist understands his vulnerability to ways of falsehood.
He requests the Lord to turn away those ways from him by putting them at a great distance from him.
He does not wish to be affected by those modes of living that contravene the teaching of the Word of God.
These ways represent a danger because they are false, therefore, they are inherently unreliable.
His last request, in this transition section, is for the Lord to “graciously grant me your teachings.”
He longs for access to the Word of God and for protection against those ways that are false.
Moral danger is real danger.
Doctrinal danger is real danger.
He may understand that through access to God’s law clarity about truth and error increases causing false ways to lose their appeal.
Three Personal Assessments:
Three Personal Assessments:
. He has chose for the dependable way.
He could mean that he has committed himself to faithfulness to the Lord, and thus he has built his lifestyle based on the Word of God.
A more natural understanding could be that he trusts the ways of the Lord to be the reliable foundations for how to live his life.
Hence, he places the rules in front of him (hear the parallels with Dt. 6).
In another echo to Ps. 119:25, he states that he clings to the testimonies.
This in spite of what he has said about his grief and exhaustion.
He requests, yet again, for him not to be put to shame for this commitment.
He will run in the way defined by the commandments.
This will occur when the Lord broadens his heart.
The expressions using the term “enlarge” have no equivalent English terms. They are untranslatable.
The meaning seems to have something to do with either increased understanding of the Lord’s word or with a greater receptiveness of His word.
He stands ready to live in the way of the Lord even more.
