The Quest for Purity (Psalms 119:9-16)
The Quest for Purity
Psalms 119:9-16
August 14, 2011
As you know, we have begun studying the 119th Psalm.
For those who weren’t here for our introduction,
This is far more than just the longest chapter in Scripture.
• 176 verses – 174 directly refer to the Word of God
• An Acrostic – each stanza begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet
• Rich in Value – each stanza comes from a different circumstance.
And we have said that as we study this Psalm,
Not only will we learn to love the Word of God more,
We also learn that God’s word is sufficient for every circumstance.
Last week we saw that God’s word is sufficient to bring blessing to a life.
We saw a Psalmist who had committed sin and because of that sin
Was now walking in guilt, was somewhat severed from God,
And actually lived in fear that God would forsake him to the uttermost.
And from that floor of brokenness, he looked up
And saw that there were people in life however who were blessed.
It was those who had been obedient to God’s Word.
In the end it wasn’t those who engaged in sin who were the happiest,
It was those who had chosen to obey God.
This brought about an epiphany for the Psalmist.
(4) “You have ordained Your precepts, That we should keep them diligently.”
In other words the Psalmist learned that God’s commands
Were not merely suggestions or alternate ways of living.
God spoke because He expected mankind to do what He said.
The Psalmist learned that and actually made a determination
That from now on, he would obey God.
(7) “I shall keep Your statutes;”
And so while his sinful choice had not brought about blessing
God’s word was sufficient to bring blessing to a life.
Tonight we come to a new circumstance
In which we find God’s word sufficient.
And this circumstance is not hard to spot.
(9) “How can a young man keep his way pure?”
Here we have a man on a quest to be pure.
So we understand that the context of this Psalm
Is to help you and I find purity.
Now of course that presupposes that purity is the desire of your heart.
It most certainly should be, as purity or holiness
Is in fact the desire of a true believer.
Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
The attitude of the redeemed is a hunger and thirst for righteousness.
• It is this initial hunger that first drives them to Jesus for salvation.
• It is the continual hunger even after salvation that causes a true believer to long for a life of purity.
This was the context behind Paul’s infamous 7th chapter of Romans.
Romans 7:21-24 “I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?”
Paul may not have achieved perfect righteousness in this life,
But it is clear from that chapter that he wanted to.
And of course having studied Romans, you are aware that at this point Paul has already confronted all “so called” believers who don’t desire purity.
Romans 6:1-3 “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?”
Paul saw an obvious contradiction to anyone who
Claimed to be dead to sin, yet who still desired to live in it.
In effect Paul was asking, “Did you die with Christ or not?”
Romans 6:12-14 “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
And so we understand that the supernatural desire
Of every true believer is in fact purity.
They are those who have seen their sin, mourned over their sin,
Repented of their sin, trusted in Christ,
And now who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Furthermore, we know that purity is God’s desire for us.
1 Thessalonians 4:3a “For this is the will of God, your sanctification…”
Titus 2:11-12 “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,”
And really it is summed up the best by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:48 “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
God desires holiness,
God desires purity,
God desire sanctification in our lives.
And so it also stands to reason that this is the desire of Christ in our lives.
Ephesians 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”
Christ literally washes us over and over
In order to make us clean, spotless, and blameless.
Of course the water Christ uses is “the word”,
And that is a great segue to this stanza of Psalm 119
Here we find a “young man” wanting to know how
He can achieve and maintain the purity that he desires,
That God desires, and that Christ desires.
PERHAPS YOU HAVE HAD THE SAME QUESTION.
In a carnal world where sin bombards us…
A world with temptation on every corner…
HOW IS A BELIEVER SUPPOSED TO BE PURE
IN THE MIDST OF SUCH A VILE SOCIETY?
That is the question of the Psalmist.
And I hope you clearly see his answer tonight.
Four things
#1 HIS CONCERNS
Psalms 119:9-11
When you read those three verses, one of the first things that pop out at you are the concerns that this young man faces.
He actually lists three.
1) PURITY
(9) “How can a young man keep his way pure?”
It is a simple desire to be holy and to maintain holiness.
He not only wants to be pure, but he wants to stay pure.
He wants to “keep his way pure”
But obviously with such a fallen world around him,
He’s concerned he can’t maintain this level of purity.
We have all had times in our lives when we hit the spiritual mountain top.
A revival…
A retreat…
A mission trip…
And during the event God was able to deal with sin in our lives
And through it we found forgiveness and healing,
And ultimately a mountain top of praise.
And really one of the main concerns we have coming back
Is that we never again stumble in sin
And have to return to that floor of shame.
We are thankful to be pure and we want to remain pure.
That is also a concern of this young man.
2) APATHY
(10) “Do not let me wander from Your commandments.”
And this is a very honest statement.
He doesn’t blame all of his sin on the devil.
• There are times in his life when he grows complacent to purity.
• There are times in his life when he grows tired with obedience.
• There are times in his life when apathy sets in.
And maybe you’ve seen this in your life as well.
There were times when the slightest sins nauseated you,
But then there are times when they don’t bother you quite so much.
We are prone to grow apathetic toward sin,
And although we may not defiantly break God’s word,
We sort of drift away slowly through apathy.
Like the hymn, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love, here’s my heart, O take and seal it. Seal it for thy courts above.”
He is concerned about apathy.
3) INIQUITY
(11) “That I may not sin against You.”
And this is a legitimate concern as well.
It reveals the most negative of the three concerns.
This is a person who just defiantly and adamantly chose to do something that they knew wasn’t pleasing to God.
The Psalmist certainly knew he was prone to this type of sin.
And now he stands with these concerns.
Purity
Apathy
Iniquity
And let me just say that these are healthy and Biblical concerns.
You and I ought to be concerned about purity.
You and I ought to be fearful of sinning.
You and I ought to be guarded against apathy.
This is at the very heart of spiritual warfare.
Contrary to popular belief, Satan isn’t trying to steal
Your money, or your health, or your happiness.
Satan is trying to steal your purity.
(In fact he’ll give you money in exchange for purity)
AND SO WE GUARD OURSELVES AGAINST SIN!
Listen to what Peter says;
1 Peter 1:13-19 “Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”
After telling us to be holy, Peter actually tells us to “conduct yourselves with fear”. He is telling us to be afraid of falling into sin.
We live our lives afraid of cancer…
We live our lives afraid of cholesterol…
We live our lives afraid of cellulite…
But Scripture says we should be afraid of sin.
Remember Paul’s admonition to publicly rebuke a sinning elder?
Do you know why we are to publicly rebuke them?
1 Timothy 5:20 “Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.”
And so this man’s concern is dead on target.
But his question is still the same, “How..?”
And if you noticed he actually answers the question.
(Perhaps God answered it for him)
IN REGARD TO PURITY?
(9) “How does a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word.”
The simple answer is OBEDIENCE.
He knows that God’s word is sufficient
To lead you to a life of perfect purity.
2 Peter 1:2-4 “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”
It is the Scripture that allows us to maintain pure lives.
God’s word is a road map of instruction on how to live this life.
BUT HOW ABOUT APATHY?
(10) “With all my heard I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments.”
• There we see that it is actually God who keeps us focused.
• It is actually God who keeps us from growing apathetic.
So the answer to apathy is to have a relationship with God.
And here the Psalmist seeks it.
He is seeking God with all his heart.
BUT WHERE DO YOU SEEK FOR GOD?
Do you go to the highest mountains?
Do you go to the lowest valleys?
Romans 10:6-8 “But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), or ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART” — that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,”
We seek God out in His word.
It is in God’s word that you commune with Him.
It is in God’s word that you hear Him.
It is in God’s word that you see His heart.
So the Psalmist knew he would run to God’s word not only for a guide of what to do, but also because it was there that he would find God.
It is impossible to be close to God and be apathetic about purity.
God is a consuming fire, and when you are around Him,
Trust me purity is all you thing of.
(Remember Isaiah when he was close?)
(What do the four living creatures cry?)
BUT WHAT ABOUT INIQUITY?
(11) “Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.”
• How do you handle temptation when you aren’t in church?
• How do you handle situations at work when your Bible isn’t with you?
You put God’s word in your heart before you ever go.
God’s word is living and active.
And God’s word can get inside of you and go with you wherever you go.
Remember the promises Jesus made to those who witness for Him?
Matthew 10:19-20 “But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. “For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.”
John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
And that is our safeguard from iniquity.
The best illustration of this is Jesus when He was tempted by Satan.
He didn’t have a bible with Him,
But He did have God’s word written on His heart.
At those moments when He had access to it, He treasured it,
And that aided Him while in the midst of the battle.
The Psalmist decided that to answer his concern about purity,
He needed to treasure his access to God’s word, he needed to read it in search of God, and he needed to do what it said.
This is how he would “keep his way pure”
His Concerns
#2 HIS DESIRE
Psalms 119:12
And doesn’t this statement make perfect sense.
If God’s word is the answer to living the life of purity that he desires,
It only makes sense that he would now desire more of God’s word.
And this is an obvious revelation to our own lives.
If we claim to desire purity, but do not desire to learn God’s word,
Then somewhere we are deceiving ourselves.
This man wants purity so he sets out to learn God’s statutes.
But beyond that, notice what he says.
“Blessed are You, O LORD;”
First he indicates that God is “blessed”
In other words God is the best, God is where he wants to be.
And since God is the best, the Psalmist says,
“Teach me Your statutes”
To put it plainly, he says I want to learn what You have to say
Because You are the best.
It is like asking Tiger Woods to teach you to hit a golf ball.
That’s not only a statement of SUFFICIENCY, but one of PRIORITY.
There is nothing I could learn more valuable than what You have to say.
There is nothing I could read more reliable than what You would tell me.
Certainly this should be our desire as well.
To desire God’s words over those of anyone else’s.
His Concerns, His Desire
#3 HIS SATISFACTION
Psalms 119:13-14
Here we have a small statement of contentment.
It is a testimony to how fulfilling he has found God’s word to be.
• He has read God’s word…
• He has searched out God’s word…
• He has obeyed God’s word…
• He is learning God’s word…
Now he makes a statement to let you and I know that it is worth it.
It is so much worth it,
That he has given God’s word a full endorsement.
“With my lips I have told of All the ordinances of Your mouth.”
He says that what he has found in God’s word was of such value
That he has determined to spread it to others.
“I tried God’s word, and you should try it too!”
I love going to my parents house
Because this is the type of conversation that continually goes on there.
(A bunch of preachers preaching)
But it is not just satisfaction in what he has learned.
This man has also found satisfaction in what he has tried.
(14) “I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches.”
That is from the heart of a man who did what God said,
Reaped the benefits of his obedience, and rejoiced in it.
Many times in life we do things we shouldn’t have done,
Only to regret it later.
But have you ever done something God said to do,
Even when it was hard, and lived to rejoice in it later?
It is the joy and praise of saying,
“Wow God, you really were right, it worked great!”
• This psalmist desires purity
• He went to God’s word for it.
• And he is satisfied with what he found.
His Concerns, His Desire, His Satisfaction
#4 HIS PLAN
Psalms 119:15-16
And again this makes perfect sense.
If God’s word has always been worth it…
If God’s word is valuable to keep you pure…
THEN HOW SHOULD I DEAL WITH GOD’S WORD FROM HERE ON OUT?
And what follows is absolutely profound.
He gives the answer as to
How every believer should treat God’s word.
He gives the answer as to how every person
Who longs for purity should approach God’s word.
Let me give you four words
As to how a believer should approach God’s word.
1) MEDITATION
“I will meditate on Your precepts”
Don’t just read it to get through with it, read it to learn something.
(There is so much more to say here, but I feel confident we’ll make it back here before we are done with the Psalm)
But don’t just swallow God’s word whole,
Chew on it a while, ponder it a while.
2) EXAMINATION
“And regard Your ways”
“ways” refers to how God walks, or what God would do.
The Psalmist always approaches God’s word to find out
What God would do if He were in this man’s shoes.
That is how a believer approaches the Bible.
• We go to it to find out how God would handle my situation.
• We want to know what God would do.
3) ADORATION
“I shall delight in Your statutes”
1 John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”
A believer cannot view God’s word as burdensome.
If he does, he has listened too much to the enemy,
Who told Eve that God’s commands were killing all her fun.
• God’s laws are not a “drag”, they are not a “kill-joy”
• God’s laws are for our good.
• God’s laws are a benefit.
• God’s laws are our safeguard, they are our solution.
That means that instead of reading the Bible and saying,
“O no, God said I can’t do that.”
We should say,
“Hallelujah, God has spoken in regard to this situation!”
We ought to rejoice to find that God has given and answer.
4) RECOLLECTION
“I shall not forget Your word.”
On one hand this speaks of the memory,
And a desire to hide God’s word in your heart
(which every believer should)
But it also speaks of influence.
When I face a situation and God’s word is brought to my attention,
I will not disregard it.
I won’t forget what God has to say.
It is a promise to always keep God’s word at the pinnacle.
It is a promise to always let God have the last say.
And this is how a believer approaches God’s word.
He meditates on it, He examines it, He adores it, He recalls it
And gives it preference in every situation.
WHY?
Because it is God’s word that will protect him
From the sin that he dreads.
“How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word.”
If you wonder how you will ever escape
The bombarding temptations of this life unscathed…
The answer is you won’t,
Apart from a relentless commitment to the word of God.
The only way to achieve the life of purity
(which we learned last week is the blessed life)
Is to dive into the word of God.
GOD’S WORD IS SUFFICIENT TO BRING ABOUT PURITY IN YOUR LIFE.
• Obey it
• Seek it
• Treasure it
• Learn it
• Tell it
• Rejoice in it
• Meditate on it
• Examine it
• Delight in it
• Never forget it
Psalms 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.”
