Why So Zealous? (Psalms 119:137-144)
Why So Zealous?
Psalms 119:137-144
January 1, 2011
I realize it’s been several weeks since we last walked through this Psalm,
So let me sort of pull us all back together here tonight
And continue in what proves to be a very encouraging study.
Our Psalmist has been carrying us through some predicaments in his life,
And throughout those predicaments he has been revealing
The importance God’s Word has played in his life.
• We have seen him struggle with personal purity…
• We have seen him hunger for total obedience…
• We have seen him in the pit of despair…
• We have seen him at the pinnacle of joy…
And in all of those circumstances the Psalmist has revealed
That God’s Word has been all that he needed.
Most recently we have found our Psalmist in the midst of oppression.
And we have said that this is quite different
From the affliction that he earlier wrote about.
The main difference is that his affliction was unavoidable,
Whereas he could stop the oppression whenever he wanted.
Affliction is the natural consequence of living in a sin-filled world.
Bad things happen and sometimes there is nothing (short of a miracle)
That can be done.
Oppression is different.
This is the hardship that our Psalmist was facing because of his commitment to the word of God.
And he could have stopped that oppression any time.
All he had to do was compromise.
If he would just soften his stance…
If he would just compromise his convictions…
If he would just give in to the masses…
Then those who hate him would actually love him.
But as you know, that is something that our Psalmist
Has been absolutely unwilling to do.
Regardless of the hatred he has faced
Our Psalmist has been determined to be steadfast.
In our stanza tonight he uses another word to describe himself.
And that word is “zeal”
(139) “My zeal has consumed me, Because my adversaries have forgotten Your words.”
Zeal is an interesting thing.
The same word here can also be rendered jealousy.
It speaks of passion and envy and indignation.
It speaks also of love and strong commitment.
It is the opposite of apathy.
And our Psalmist is zealous.
And this, by the way, can be a very good thing,
For God Himself is zealous.
Isaiah 9:7 “There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”
Isaiah 42:13 “The LORD will go forth like a warrior, He will arouse His zeal like a man of war. He will utter a shout, yes, He will raise a war cry. He will prevail against His enemies.”
You probably even remember that our Lord was very zealous.
John 2:13-17 “The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” His disciples remembered that it was written, “ZEAL FOR YOUR HOUSE WILL CONSUME ME.”
He was so zealous about the house of God that
He actually whipped the money changers and drove them out.
So God is zealous.
And by the way, zeal is something that
The church could definitely use a little more of.
Remember what Jesus told that lukewarm church at Laodicea?
Revelation 3:19 “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.”
The opposite of apathy.
Paul told Titus
Titus 2:11-14 “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, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”
It is definitely true that the people of God
Ought to be a passionate people.
This Psalmist certainly was.
In fact he said, “My zeal has consumed me”
“consumed” translates (SA-MATH)
It literally means “to put an end to; to terminate”
In other words, our Psalmist can think of nothing else.
We would say, “I’m so fired up I can’t see straight”
Our Psalmist is filled with zeal.
WHY?
“Because my adversaries have forgotten Your words.”
Back in verse 53 he said, “Burning indignation has seized me because of the wicked, who forsake Your law.”
Back in verse 136 he said, “My eyes shed streams of water, Because they do not keep Your law.”
And here, he apparently can’t get over it.
He is zealous.
His focus, his speech, his action, his conversation,
It is all about the importance of obedience
And the disobedience of the wicked.
He just can’t get around it.
We talked about this same kind of tunnel vision when we read the Kings.
And how regardless of the king, or if they did good or bad, the writer was only concerned about one thing; the high places.
He was zealous about it, nothing else seemed to matter.
Our Psalmist is like that.
God is like that, Christ was like that, and certainly it wouldn’t hurt the church to be a little more zealous as well.
But the downside to being zealous is that
It is almost always greeted with disdain.
Apathy hates zeal.
And so a person who becomes zealous about something
Can just expect that it will land him in hot water.
It certainly landed Jesus there didn’t it?
How about the disciples, what was the reward for their zeal?
Remember Elijah?
1 Kings 19:10 “He said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”
Elijah was zealous, but it certainly didn’t make him popular.
Our psalmist is there as well.
He is sounding an alarm for Biblical authority and Scriptural obedience, and it is getting him in a great deal of trouble.
BUT AGAIN, THE SOLUTION IS SIMPLE
STOP BEING SO ZEALOUS
But the Psalmist can’t and tonight he reveals why.
There are four things he shows us tonight about his zeal for the word of God.
#1 WHY I HONOR IT
Psalms 119:137-138
To say that the Psalmist honors God’s Word is an understatement.
He has penned here a 176 verse chapter, arranged alphabetically in an acrostic in which 174 verses directly reference the word of God.
Can you imagine the time and effort that takes?
• Try to take our alphabet and write a 26 stanza song,
• Compiling of 8 lines per stanza
• In which each line starts with the seceding letter of the alphabet
• And include a reference to God’s word in all but two lines.
This is a tremendous work of honor for God’s Word.
Beyond that, just look at what he has said:
Psalms 119:72 “The law of Your mouth is better to me Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.”
Psalms 119:103 “How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”
Psalms 119:127 “Therefore I love Your commandments Above gold, yes, above fine gold.”
Psalms 119:129 “Your testimonies are wonderful; Therefore my soul observes them.”
It is obvious that he has chosen to honor God’s Word.
And even in these first two verses the honor continues.
“Righteous are You O Lord, and upright are Your judgments. You have commanded Your testimonies in righteousness And exceeding faithfulness.”
Here he honors God’s word as “upright”, righteous, and faithful.
And as we have said it is that passion to continue
To honor God’s Word that is getting him in trouble.
WHY DO YOU HONOR IT SO MUCH?
He honors Scripture because of its author.
“Righteous are You O Lord”
And that is why His word is righteous.
Because “YOU have commanded [them] in righteousness”
The reason the Psalmist gives for the greatness of Scripture
Is the same reason you and I would use to evaluate other books.
You wouldn’t read a book on righteousness from someone who wasn’t.
This is what makes the Bible so wonderful.
It was written by Holy God.
We honor it because God wrote it.
2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;”
Charles Spurgeon said: “O Bible! It cannot be said of any other book, that it is perfect and pure; but of thee, we can declare all wisdom is gathered up in thee, without a particle of folly. This is the judge that ends the strife, where wit and reason fail. This is the book untainted by any error; but is pure, unalloyed, perfect truth. Why? Because God wrote it…Oh! Let us bend in reverence before it, for God wrote inspired it. It is pure truth. Here from this fountain gushes aqua vitae – the water of life – without a single particle of earth; here from this sun there cometh forth rays of radiance, without the mixture of darkness. Blessed Bible! Thou art all truth.” (Spurgeon’s Sermons volumes 1 & 2, page 31-32)
This book is righteous because God is righteous and He wrote it!
So when we evaluate whether or not to honor Scripture
What we’re really doing is evaluating whether or not to honor God.
Is God righteous?
Psalms 48:10 “As is Your name, O God, So is Your praise to the ends of the earth; Your right hand is full of righteousness.”
Is God righteous?
Psalms 71:15 “My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness And of Your salvation all day long; For I do not know the sum of them.”
Is God righteous?
Psalms 71:19 “For Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens, You who have done great things; O God, who is like You?”
Is God righteous?
Psalms 145:17 “The LORD is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds.”
Is God righteous?
Deuteronomy 32:4 “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.”
Of course God is righteous, just look at the cross.
Romans 3:23-26 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
And if God is righteous, then His word is as well.
And the Psalmist says, that is why I honor God’s Word, it is righteous!
Why I honor it
#2 WHY I LOVE IT
Psalms 119:139-140
Of course we see again in those verses the zeal that we talked about.
He is passionate about obedience to the word of God.
He wants men to love God’s Word as much as he does.
“My zeal has consumed me, because my adversaries have forgotten Your words.”
It kills him that men don’t love God’s Word
BUT WHY DO YOU LOVE GOD’S WORD SO MUCH?
(140) “Your word is very pure, therefore Your servant loves it.”
He loves God’s Word because it is “pure”
“pure” translates (SA-RDAF)
It means “to refine, or test” it refers to the purifying of metals.
One could easily say that God’s word is PROVEN
There is no flaw in it.
There is no impurity.
The Baptist Faith and Message says this about the Scriptures:
“The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.”
And that is correct.
It is pure, it is proven.
Psalms 12:6 “The words of the LORD are pure words; As silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.”
Proverbs 30:5 “Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.”
And this is why the Psalmist loves it.
God’s Word is always right, always trustworthy.
It never leads you astray.
It is never wrong.
Imagine having a book that if all you did was what it said,
Your life would guarantee to be blessed.
WE DO
And the Psalmist can’t believe that men would forget it.
The Psalmist can’t believe that men would ignore it.
I saw a movie once where a man went to the future (I think it might have been a true story). In the future he bought a sports almanac. When he came back to the past he had a guide for betting on sports. It made him rich.
Do you think the guy loved it?
WE HAVE THE WORDS OF GOD THAT NEVER FAIL,
PROVEN TRUE, WITH NO ERROR!
That is why the Psalmist loved it.
Why I honor it… Why I love it…
#3 WHY I REMEMBER IT
Psalms 119:141-142
Obviously the first thing we must notice is that there is tremendous temptation to forget God’s Word and never go there again.
And that temptation comes in the form of derision and hatred.
“I am small and despised”
One meaning for the word “small” is “young”
Job 32:6 “So Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite spoke out and said, “I am young in years and you are old; Therefore I was shy and afraid to tell you what I think.”
And so one of the reasons our Psalmist is derided
Is quite possibly because he is young.
The older men don’t want to listen to his passions about Scripture
Because he is young.
We already knew that our Psalmist was a young man.
Psalms 119:9 “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word.”
Psalms 119:100 “I understand more than the aged, Because I have observed Your precepts.”
He had been facing opposition, not because he was wrong,
But because he was young.
You may remember that Timothy faced similar issues in his ministry.
And so Paul wrote to him:
1 Timothy 4:11-13 “Prescribe and teach these things. Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. Until I come, give attention to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation and teaching.”
Another meaning for that same word is “insignificant”
Micah 5:2 “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Too little to be among the clans of Judah, From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, From the days of eternity.”
People ignored what he said because they deemed him
An insignificant messenger.
Paul faced this in his ministry:
2 Corinthians 10:10 “For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.”
They disregard our Pslamist because he is young and
Insignificant, and because he continues to speak to them
And hold to his convictions they actually despise him.
Remember when Isaiah tried to confront his peers?
Isaiah 28:7-10 “And these also reel with wine and stagger from strong drink: The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink; They reel while having visions, They totter when rendering judgment. For all the tables are full of filthy vomit, without a single clean place. “To whom would He teach knowledge, And to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast? “For He says, ‘Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there.'”
And certainly it was the same derision the Lord received
For being from Nazareth.
Or remember the Pharisees?
John 9:29 “We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where He is from.”
This man’s adversaries hate the fact that such a young and insignificant man would actually hold to his convictions,
And they wanted him to drop it.
But he wouldn’t
“Yet I do not forget Your precepts.”
And the question is WHY?
(142) “Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Your law is truth.”
The reason he wouldn’t forget God’s Word, even though heavily oppressed, is because it is the truth.
Psalms 119:160 “The sum of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting.”
John 17:17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”
• It wasn’t a matter of choosing which opinion he liked the best…
• It wasn’t a matter of politics (republican or democrat)…
• It was a matter of truth or error.
And even though the truth got him in trouble, it was still the truth.
He couldn’t leave it…
He couldn’t forget it…
IT WAS THE TRUTH
HOW COULD ANYONE ASK THE PSALMIST TO FORGET IT?
He honors God’s word because of it’s Author.
He loves God’s word because it is pure and proven.
He remembers God’s word because it is the truth.
#4 WHY I RETURN TO IT
Psalms 119:143-144
There again we see the hardship he is facing.
“Trouble and anguish have come upon me”
“Trouble” is usually translated “adversaries” (it is the same word translated “adversaries” in verse 139)
It can also mean “tight”
2 Kings 6:1 “Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “Behold now, the place before you where we are living is too limited for us.”
Today we would call it “Being caught between a rock and a hard place”
And no doubt this anguish was the result of his adversaries.
And yet he still seemed to return to God’s Word.
“Yet Your commandments are my delight.”
WHY?
“Your testimonies are righteous forever;”
• Why does he delight?
• Why does he continually choose God’s Word?
• Why does he continually return to God’s Word even when it causes him trouble?
BECAUSE GOD’S WORD NEVER EXPIRES
God’s Word is never out-dated.
God’s Word is never irrelevant.
God’s Word always fits.
It is never limited.
Psalms 119:96 “I have seen a limit to all perfection; Your commandment is exceedingly broad.”
• Books today continually become outdated.
• Textbooks are thrown out after a few years of use…
• Medical books become insignificant after new technology is found…
• Any number of books become out-dated in an advancing culture…
BUT GOD’S WORD NEVER DOES.
Written thousands of years ago and it still remains the most relevant, accurate, necessary book on the face of the planet.
• Nothing is more relevant to life
• Nothing is more relevant to relationships
• Nothing is more relevant to righteousness
• Nothing is more relevant to eternity
They are “righteous forever”
And so the Psalmist continues to return to it.
In fact, look at the only request of the stanza:
“Give me understanding that I may live.”
He still wants to know more.
He still seeks it out.
Certainly if God grants that request
It will only result in more trouble and more anguish,
But the Psalmist wants it anyway,
Because nothing is more relevant than the word of God.
He is passionate about it.
• God’s Word is actually written by God!
• God’s Word is proven and pure!
• God’s Word is absolutely true!
• God’s Word is always relevant!
And he can’t believe that in spite of that
People could so easily disregard it!
“My zeal has consumed me, Because my adversaries have forgotten Your words.”
He is zealous, and now we know why.
GOD’S WORD DESERVES ZEALOTS!
If we can’t get passionate about the word of God,
Then there is something wrong with us.
Zeal for God’s word ought to consume us just like it consumed this man.
It is written by God!
It is proven and pure!
It is absolutely true!
It will always be relevant!
We ought to love it like he does!
Psalms 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.”
