Thinking About Obedience
Psalms 119:1-8
September 19, 2021
Tonight we enter familiar territory.
As we are studying through the Psalms we now come to Psalm 119.
It is a chapter that have previously studied together on Sunday nights.
Granted we went through this study around 10 years ago,
But I’m sure you’ve not forgotten a single thing that was said.
That’s probably not the case, but those sermons are available
On our website from when we last looked at them
And so I have no desire to just re-preach old notes.
Our objective in that study was to exposit each stanza of that Psalm
And listen to David as he spoke of the invaluable treasure of God’s word.
Tonight we are going to begin retracing our steps,
But we may indeed look at these stanzas a little differently
The second time through.
Often times when we study a Psalm
I am compelled to study it in one setting if it is possible
Because it is important to me to give the overall point of the Psalm.
However, when you do this, there are always statements or verses
That could receive more attention if you had the time to do so.
So, since we EXPOSITED the Psalm the LAST TIME we studied it
And since those sermons are still available to you on our website,
THIS TIME WE MAY TAKE A DIFFERENT APPROACH.
My goal and my intention is to recap certainly the overall theme,
But then perhaps to dive in a little more focused on some aspect.
You might say the first time through we looked at the forest,
This time we may look at some of the trees.
Hopefully we’ll not only be encouraged again by the truth of the chapter
But also be taken a little deeper into some of those truths.
So we begin Psalms 119 again.
You know it as the longest chapter in the Bible.
• There are 176 verses in Psalm 119,
• It is said that 174 of them mention directly the word of God.
• We are confronted with words like “law”, “precepts”, “testimonies”, “statutes”, “ways”, and “judgments”
Those are all synonyms for God’s word
They give us a panoramic view of the God’s word for our lives.
And Psalm 119 opens with a stanza that recognizes
The absolute blessing associated with having, understanding,
And obeying God’s commands.
And let’s ponder that for a moment as we get started.
IS OBEDIENCE A BLESSING?
That is a good question to think about to start.
Often times the word obedience carries a NEGATIVE CONNOTATION,
Just as words like “repentance” or “patience” or “submission”
None of those words are things we like to be told to do.
And more times than not “obedience” is thrown into that category.
Indeed this was the FIRST ATTACK of the enemy against humanity.
• His very first temptation sought to influence humanity that obedience was a negative thing.
Genesis 3:1-5 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Now if you remember the command of God,
It was only that from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that Adam and Eve could not eat.
• Every other tree was free for the picking.
• Every other tree was for them.
• Only that 1 tree was off limits.
That was the only command that humanity had to deal with.
All of humanity had 1 command and 1 command only.
Genesis 2:15-17 “Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
But when Satan comes onto the scene
His logic is somewhat twisted and his temptation becomes obvious.
When he spoke to Eve he said, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”
Well that is not at all what God said.
But you can see how Satan is trying to cause Eve
To think severely about God’s commands.
In his wording he paints God’s commands to be restrictive
And prohibitive and that which will restrain satisfaction.
Our world has bought that lie hasn’t it?
Our world tends to see Christianity as a religion
That keeps them from doing the things they want to do.
That is how Satan operates, he wants you to think that
Obedience is a cruel trick of God to keep you from enjoying life.
But Eve saw through that first attempt of the enemy.
She responded, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”
Eve survived the first attempt,
But Satan didn’t stop.
He responded again saying, “You surely will not die!”
There Satan sought to get Eve
To overlook the consequences of disobedience.
You won’t get caught, you won’t get in trouble,
You can talk your way out of it, etc…
He continued: “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
There, Satan introduces the thought process that
DISOBEDIENCE IS ACTUALLY FUN AND WORTH IT.
And our world has bought that too.
Look at the way our world advertises
Drinking or sex or gambling or self-centeredness…
Las Vegas represents this land of extreme fun that is just waiting for you!
New Orleans has pleasures a plenty for you to enjoy!
But do you see how Satan works.
1) Obedience is unfair and unfun.
2) Disobedience is not as costly as you think.
3) Disobedience holds satisfaction beyond your wildest dreams
And with that, Eve was sunk.
Genesis 3:6 “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”
So you understand the argument:
OBEDIENCE IS A BAD THING
The only people who obey God
• Are either those who are fooled into believing this fairy-tale of nonsense…
• Or those who are hypocritical and judgmental do-gooders…
• Or those who are miserable but afraid of some mean-spirited God of judgment…
And so when someone tells you that you should obey God,
It can often hit you in the forehead like that is a bad thing.
Well, certainly the garden alone taught us otherwise.
Genesis 3:7 “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”
• In a moment innocence was gone…
• In a moment intimacy was gone…
• In a moment shame had arrived…
And we haven’t even gotten to the part
Where the curse was released and death began.
But you understand even from the creation account that
Obedience was not to hinder Adam & Eve but to protect them.
And yet Satan somehow convinced them otherwise.
But it forces us again to REVISIT THE QUESTION:
IS OBEDIENCE A BLESSING?
Well, the Psalmist in these first 8 verses
Would answer that question with a resounding YES!
Let me sort of RECAP the exposition for you first.
The key to this opening stanza is actually found in the last line of verse 8
Where the Psalmist says, “Do not forsake me utterly!”
When you add the word “utterly” it would seem to insinuate that
The Psalmist already feels some degree of having been forsaken.
• There is already a kink in the relationship.
• There is already a break in the intimacy.
The fear is that this division will escalate and he will be utterly forsaken.
Most agree that David is the author of this wonderful chapter
So it is not hard to find times when he would have understood this.
We remember after the Bathsheba incident that David had a terrible fear.
Psalms 51:10-12 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation And sustain me with a willing spirit.”
What did David mean by that: “Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”?
Well, I think all we have to do is look to David’s predecessor.
God had chosen Saul and anointed him as king,
But there was a disobedience problem with Saul.
• It started when Saul was on the verge of battle with the Philistines and he wanted Samuel to come and offer sacrifice and seek the LORD.
• But when Samuel was delayed,
• Saul did what was forbidden for him and offered the sacrifice himself.
And God’s response:
1 Samuel 13:13-14 “Samuel said to Saul, “You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, for now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. “But now your kingdom shall not endure. The LORD has sought out for Himself a man after His own heart, and the LORD has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you.”
Clearly God was displeased.
• Saul would remain king but any notions of a kingly line were now gone.
• Disobedience did not pay off.
But Saul apparently didn’t learn.
• In 1 Samuel 15 Saul was commanded to go to war against Amalek.
• He was to kill Agag the king and all his people and all his livestock, but again Saul disobeyed.
He spared Agag and some of the animals and it displeased God.
1 Samuel 15:10-11 “Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying, “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands.” And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all night.”
When Samuel went to Saul he confronted him for his rebellion and gave that famous statement:
1 Samuel 15:22-23 “Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king.”
God rejected Saul.
Follow the story along and we read:
1 Samuel 16:14 “Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD terrorized him.”
1 Samuel 18:12 “Now Saul was afraid of David, for the LORD was with him but had departed from Saul.”
I think it’s clear what David may have had in mind in Psalms 51
When he said, “Do not cast me away from Your presence
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”
Because of his own failure to obey God he knew the possibilities.
• His disobedience to God had caused a hindrance to his intimacy with God.
• He felt a little forsaken by God.
• His fear was that God would “forsake me utterly”
He is a man living under the dreadful consequences of disobedience
• There was a time when looking at Bathsheba as she bathed was fun.
• There was a time when eliminating her husband seemed like a good idea.
Satan may have whispered in his ear
• “Has God told you that you can’t be with a woman at all?”
• Or perhaps “Go ahead, you’re the king, nothing will happen to you.”
• Or perhaps “Look, you’ve never been with a woman like Bathsheba, you don’t know what you’re missing!”
• In short, OBEDIENCE IS HOLDING YOU BACK!
But now, David is on the other side of disobedience
And he is sitting here in fear because he has blown it.
BUT THAT’S NOT ALL.
Look at what David says in verses 5-6
(5-6) “Oh that my ways may be established To keep Your statutes! Then I shall not be ashamed When I look upon all Your commandments.”
Have you ever felt that?
• Shame in reading the Bible because it condemns you?
David says, I can’t even look at Your commandments without shame.
• I wish I was an obedient man so I could enjoy reading the Bible.
• I wish I was an obedient man so I could enjoy listening to sermons.
• I wish I was an obedient man so I could enjoy corporate worship.
I have a pretty good idea what disobedience promised David,
But I am also well-aware what it actually delivered.
David was miserable.
• He was ashamed, he was convicted,
• He felt at enmity with God,
• He was afraid that God would forsake him permanently.
And not only that, but David could sit in church
And look around at other people.
Other people seemed to be truly enjoying church.
Other people seemed to be truly enjoying the preaching.
Other people seemed to love reading the Bible.
These people who obey God seem much happier than me.
That is actually how David started the stanza.
(1-3) “How blessed are those whose way is blameless, Who walk in the law of the LORD. How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, Who seek Him with all their heart. They also do no unrighteousness; They walk in His ways.”
Look at how happy they all are!
• Those people who “walk in the law of the LORD”
• Those people who “observe His testimonies”
• Those people who “seek Him with all their heart.”
• Those people who “do no unrighteousness”
• Those people who “walk in His ways”
They are “blessed”; they are happy!
They don’t seem to have any shame when they study the Scripture.
They don’t seem to have any fear that God will forsake them.
They didn’t get a night with Bathsheba
BUT they didn’t get the remorse that came with it either.
In essence it is as though David is saying,
“I got to taste the fruit, but they got to stay in the garden.”
It’s no wonder that now, after the fact,
David wishes he had never disobeyed God.
Psalms 1 “How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the wicked will perish.”
And so you see HIS DEEPEST DESIRE.
• He no longer wants Bathsheba…
• He no longer wants the forbidden fruit…
(5-7) “Oh that my ways may be established To keep Your statutes! Then I shall not be ashamed When I look upon all Your commandments. I shall give thanks to You with uprightness of heart, When I learn Your righteous judgments.”
I just want to be obedient to You.
• I want to not have shame when I study the Bible.
• I want to have gratitude in my heart.
• I want to enjoy gazing upon Your righteous judgments.
Do you see him?
Maybe you can identify with him.
• Sin does that to a person.
• It offers endless satisfaction and no consequence,
• But it never delivers.
The fruit was indeed initially good.
• It was a delight to the eyes
• It was able to make one wise
But was it worth leaving the garden?
Was it worth losing intimacy with God?
Was it worth bringing shame and enmity to your marriage?
Was it worth introducing death into the world?
OF COURSE NOT.
Obedience isn’t a restriction meant to keep you from the good life,
Obedience is a restraint meant to protect you from judgment.
David learned that didn’t he?
But that is not all he learned.
There is a statement in the middle of this stanza
And it is the one I want us to consider tonight.
Look at verse 4
(4) “You have ordained Your precepts, That we should keep them diligently.”
When we studied this verse ten years ago it came with the heading,
“GOD IS SERIOUS”
And that is still a great way to put it.
• When God commands obedience He is not joking around.
• When God gives a command it is not optional.
• We don’t get to receive a command from God and then pass it by our judgment seat to see if we agree or not.
It is a matter of Divine authority and there is no room for argument.
There are many things which God commands that I do not understand.
(We’ve been talking about one the last 2 weeks with submission to civil authority)
But what other option do I have but obedience?
David learned that.
There was no amount of reason that justified disobedience.
And Scripture is clear that there is NO EXCUSE for it.
ASK SAUL.
Samuel told him he was not allowed to give the sacrifice.
Saul said:
1 Samuel 13:11-12 “But Samuel said, “What have you done?” And Saul said, “Because I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the appointed days, and that the Philistines were assembling at Michmash, therefore I said, ‘Now the Philistines will come down against me at Gilgal, and I have not asked the favor of the LORD.’ So I forced myself and offered the burnt offering.”
Was that acceptable to God? No, God rejected his line.
What about when God told him to kill Agag and everything else that lived, but Saul didn’t do it?
Saul said:
1 Samuel 15:20-21 “Then Saul said to Samuel, “I did obey the voice of the LORD, and went on the mission on which the LORD sent me, and have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. “But the people took some of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the choicest of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the LORD your God at Gilgal.”
Was that acceptable to God? No, God rejected Saul.
Adam said:
Genesis 3:12 “The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”
Even said:
Genesis 3:13 “Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Did that make everything ok?
No, they both were covered in shame and forced to leave the garden.
DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD IS NOT OPTIONAL.
But let’s ask the question.
WHY?
Why is disobedience to God’s word not an option?
Because it is God’s word!
“You have ordained Your precepts…”
It is very simply because God said so.
It is one thing to disagree with another person.
• Human logic and experience and education can all be flawed variables that make a person wrong in their thinking.
But God Himself “ordained” His word
And man has no right to disobey it…EVER!
The Hebrew word for “ordained” there is SAVA (tsaw-vaw)
Do you want to see another place it is used?
Genesis 2:16-17 “The LORD God commanded (SAVA) the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”
• It didn’t matter how good the tree looked…
• It didn’t matter if Satan told you to go ahead…
• It didn’t matter if your wife offered you a bite…
You couldn’t eat that fruit because God said you can’t eat that fruit.
He ordained it!
He commanded it!
And this applies to every facet of life.
This applies to every facet of the church.
Disobedience to God’s word is not an option.
Just ask David.
BUT THAT ISN’T ALL HE SAID.
David said, “You have ordained Your precepts…”
“precepts” there is certainly a synonym for God’s word.
But it is a very telling and unique synonym.
The word in the Hebrew is PIQQUDIM (pik-koo-deem)
And it speaks of a command.
It comes from the root Hebrew word PAQAD (paw-kad)
Which can mean “to trust” or even “to deposit”
Psalms 31:6 “I hate those who regard vain idols, But I trust in the LORD.”
Isaiah 10:28 “He has come against Aiath, He has passed through Migron; At Michmash he deposited his baggage.”
What we are talking about then is
NOT JUST a command which God has given to man,
But a command which God has entrusted to man;
A command which God has deposited with man.
It is something man did not deserve, but God has given him.
It is something of extreme value which God had entrusted to man.
Paul spoke of God’s word in this way:
1 Timothy 6:20-21 “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge”— which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you.”
We certainly remember:
Psalms 19:9-10 “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.”
God didn’t just determine to authoritatively put His thumb on us
And give us a bad command and tell us to “Do it or else!”
(though He could have)
Instead, God entrusted His commands to us.
Look at the garden.
• God was not withholding anything from Adam,
• God put Adam in charge of all creation.
• Adam was entrusted with the order and care and management of the garden.
• That command not to eat from the tree was entrusted to Adam.
David was the king of Israel.
Remember when Nathan the prophet confronted David for his great sin and told him the story about the rich man who took the poor man’s lamb and then gave David the famous “You are that man!” sermon.
Remember what else Nathan said:
2 Samuel 12:7-9 “Nathan then said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘It is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. ‘I also gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these! ‘Why have you despised the word of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.”
Was God seeking to cheat David in this life?
Of course not!
God was seeking to bless David and would have even more.
But David “despised” God’s word.
David failed to treasure that which God had entrusted to him.
But David gets it now.
“You have ordained Your precepts…”
• You commanded us.
• You entrusted Your word to us.
• It is from You and it is wonderful.
And notice what else he says.
“That we should keep them diligently.”
That is to say God’s word is not a suggestion.
It means that God’s word should be kept
“greatly” or “exceedingly” or “to a great degree”.
God’s commands certainly are not optional
But they also are not secondary.
• They are to have preeminence…
• They are to have priority…
They are to be valued and sought and obeyed over every other thought…
Nothing should have mattered more to Adam and Even in that garden
Than the word of God.
But when God’s word took second place to the reasoning of Eve,
Everything fell apart.
God’s word is meant to be kept and kept diligently.
• Strive for it.
• Work at it.
• Focus on it.
• Don’t quit.
David certainly now understood the ramifications for not doing that.
In a moment of insolent rebellion
• David despised God’s commands.
• He saw obedience as a negative thing.
• He decided to do what he wanted instead of what God commanded.
And in return he got fear and dread and confusion and shame.
And now David could look around and see those who did obey
And with every fiber of his being he wished he had done what they did.
They were the blessed ones.
They were the joyful ones.
They were the steadfast ones.
They were the satisfied ones.
It is a tremendous lesson.
Obedience is not a negative thing, it is a blessing from God.
And while we strive for it in life, the tragic reality is that
WE ALL HAVE HAD OUR DAVID MOMENTS.
Not a single one of us has ever earned the blessing which David speaks of here.
• We all know what it is to feel the shame of our sin…
• We all know what it is to feel the fear of condemnation…
• We all know what it is to dread being utterly forsaken by God…
But the Bible presents a solution to us.
Hebrews 10:5-10 “Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “SACRIFICE AND OFFERING YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR ME; IN WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE TAKEN NO PLEASURE. “THEN I SAID, ‘BEHOLD, I HAVE COME (IN THE SCROLL OF THE BOOK IT IS WRITTEN OF ME) TO DO YOUR WILL, O GOD.’ ” After saying above, “SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS AND WHOLE BURNT OFFERINGS AND sacrifices FOR SIN YOU HAVE NOT DESIRED, NOR HAVE YOU TAKEN PLEASURE in them” (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, “BEHOLD, I HAVE COME TO DO YOUR WILL.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
It was Samuel who asked Saul, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD?”
And it is apparent that Jesus knew that.
When He came, He took on a human body
And He did so that He might obey God.
“I have come to do Your will, O God”
And then Jesus offered this body to God on our behalf.
That is to say that Jesus gave this righteousness to God to settle our account.
“By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
He secured for us the blessing that David greatly desired.
He secured for us the security that David so badly wanted.
He secured for us the peace that David was missing.
Jesus did it for us.
He obeyed for us.
Does that mean now that obedience means nothing to us?
Paul can answer:
Romans 6:1-7 “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.”
No one who values the righteousness which Jesus has provided
Would disrespect that sacrifice so as to return to sin and disobedience.
We say that died with Christ.
We say that we were raised with Him.
We say that we have new life in Him.
And if obedience was important before Him,
Then it is even more so important now!
The simple point tonight is this.
OBEDIENCE IS A CHRISTIAN DESIRE
It is not just a Christian obligation…
It is not just a Christian duty…
It is a Christian desire.
It is not negative, it is positive.
It is not something we run from, it is something we pursue.
God’s commands are not burdensome to us,
They are a treasure meant to protect us from our own logic
And desires and the destructive consequences of sin.
Obedience is important to Christians.
And it is our desire for obedience that continually drives us to Christ
In gratitude for what He has accomplished on our behalf.
So where do you stand?
• Does God’s word matter to you?
• Do you read it so that you might know His will?
• Do you disdain His commands or do you eagerly seek to obey them?
• And have you trusted the One who has obeyed on your behalf?
Psalms 119:1-3 “How blessed are those whose way is blameless, Who walk in the law of the LORD. How blessed are those who observe His testimonies, Who seek Him with all their heart. They also do no unrighteousness; They walk in His ways.”
