Psalms 119:10

Psalms 119:10-11 says, “With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

These two verses talk about the heart. Serving God must be done not just with the mind but with the heart. The heart refers to the epicenter of human desire and human will.

Jesus said in Mark 12:29-30, “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”

God wants us to give our all to Jesus. Jesus gave His all for us even His life. God looks for those who will love Him and serve him this way. Those who will separate themselves unto the gospel of Christ, those who will count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord. The truth is its very rare to find such an individual even among those whom are deeply involved in religion.

Why is this? Well the cares of this world creep in and choke the heart. Pride and selfishness, the desire to uplift oneself often gets in the way. But O when God finds a person with a heart that seeks Him wholly, how He rejoiced in that person, How He will come to that person in special fellowship, and what great opportunities He will give that person to serve Him.

This principle is the reason that most preachers are mediocre preachers. In other words they feed the sheep but they don’t feed them a full meal. They might know the gospel and a few things about serving God but they never come to understand the different between law and grace or how to emphasis the love of God and the grace of God in the proper way. You can go to a bible college and a seminary and get an education but no one can teach you to seek God with all your heart that is a matter of individual choice.

Just think of what would be accomplished if just one preacher loved God with all the heart. God would come to that preacher and teach Him his Word. Over the years He would learn the word of God and would have pure doctrine, no false doctrine. Such a preacher would not have false doctrine because such a preacher would walk close with God and would have the discernment to recognize what is true and what is false. Such a preacher would not teach his own ideas. Such a preacher would not speak of himself but of Jesus. Such a preacher would be one that truly feeds the sheep and those sheep being fed would grow into great giants of the faith, such sheep would become dedicated and burdened to bring the gospel of Christ to the lost of the world. Such sheep would be faithful prayer warriors. Such sheep would gain the wisdom to know their spiritual gifts and how to use them. Such sheep would walk in unity one with another and in that perfect unity they would be stronger and would be a brighter testimony for Christ in the world.

Of course everything is not dependant upon the teacher. The listeners, the sheep have to have a willing and open heart to the truth. But this is just an example where we are assuming that the sheep have such a heart.

Psalms 119:10-11 says, “With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

The question is why is it that there are so many people that do not seek the Lord with the whole heart. The answer is very simple. It is very easy for us as human beings to love something more than God. Just think of how much of a temptation it can be for a person to love their spouse and their children and their family more than God. Just think of how many people but priority on their jobs and their careers and making money. Just think of how many people put priority on seeking entertainment and the pleasures of this world. Or just think of how many people get misled by false teachings and those false teachings get into their mind like a brain cancer and become so important to them.

It’s a challenge to love God. It’s not easy. Even for those who come to Christ for salvation and begin with a great thankfulness in their hearts to Jesus for the forgiveness of sins which they receive, yes even for such Christians as these loving God faithfully day by day is a great challenge. There are so many things in this life that can creep into the heart and prevent us from loving God with all the heart. To love God with all the heart requires a sacrifice, the sacrifice of your own will the giving up on your own dreams and plans for the future. If only people could see just how much honors a person and rewards a person who sacrifices and gives up the things of this life and loves God with all the heart can receive. For such a person there is no limit to the amount of grace God will shed upon their lives and there is no limit to the opportunities that God will send that person’s way. The opportunity to learn the Word of God and to draw close to God and the opportunity to serve Jesus and to spread the gospel and to accomplish great things for the glory of Christ. Oh yes loving God with all the heart has its rewards both in this life and in eternity.

Psalms 119:12, “Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.” Verse 12 says a very interesting thing when it says, Blessed art thou, O LORD. Most of us have probably heard the phrase or had someone say to us, God bless you. When we use the phrase God bless you what we are sayings is I hope God does good things for you and to you.

But the phrase Blessed art Thou, O LORD implies something very different. To be blessed means to be happy. It almost seems like stating something that should be very obvious by saying Blessed art Thou, O LORD. Of course God is blessed. God is God. God is Holy. There is no being in the universe as happy as God is. God always does the right thing. God has an unlimited free will. God can do and does do whatever He wants to do with His unlimited time and resources and knowledge and power. Of course God is blessed much much more blessed than we ever will be.

The important thing about this statement, Blessed art Thou, O Lord, is that it is an act of worship. It is important for us to understand how God feelings, to think about and to know God’s emotions. God is blessed because He is God. There is no limit to how much God is blessed and therefore it makes sense to understand that all blessings come from God.

To say Blessed art Thou, O Lord is really a way of praising God. By saying this a person is recognizing the goodness of God. Recognized that Jesus has plans for the world and for individuals and those plans and those he wants to do are good things and great things and wonderful things.

There are not many people in the world than can sincerely make this statement, “Blessed art Thou, O Lord.” It’s very sad to see so many people confused about the truth, so many people lost in their sins and pointing a finger at God accusing His anger over sin as being unjust or misunderstanding the circumstances of their lives when tragedies and sorrows strike them and they lash out by blaming God of being unjust and unloving.

Psalms 119:12, “Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.” Also in this verse notice the connection being blessed and the statues of God. The word statues refers to commandments. Or could simply say it refers to the Word of God. There is a direction connection between how well a person understands, knows, and follows God’s word and how blessed that person is.

People want good things to happen to them in life. This is the very reason so many people have itching ears when it comes to religion and they chose to listen to these false preachers that preach a message where they only say positive things only in the sense of how a person will be blessed materially for following God.

Its pretty common knowledge that if you truly and sincerely in your heart follow Jesus you will have a cross to bear, there will be persecution to face, there will be suffering, there will be spiritual warfare and opposition from the forces of evil.

But maybe people just don’t quite have the right perspective on things. Maybe people just don’t understand what it means to be truly blessed. Maybe to really understand you have your eyes and your heart wholly fixed on the things of heaven and not on the things of this earth.

Consider Ephesians 1:3 which says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” And consider these verses in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 which says, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Why if we had a proper understanding of the truth then we would realize that the things which we suffer in this life are but a light affliction and if the things of this world are temporary then what worth are they when we know that they are going to fade away? Why we have all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, we have a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory to look forward too. If you only understood love and the pleasures of intimate fellowship with Christ and the glorious rewards and inheritance that Christ has waiting for those that serve Him. If you could understand these things you would serve God. If you could understand these things then you would realize that in a way from a heavenly perspective only good things happen to a Christian there is in a way no such thing as something bad happening to a Christian because all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to His purpose. Why this means even the sufferings and the tragedies are good things for me because God is in control. He allows those things to happen. He has a great and wonderful plan and purpose and there great rewards and blessings to be earned by enduring faithfully through the sufferings and joyfully carrying my cross for Jesus.

No matter how you look at it once you understand these basic principles of faith then you can begin to realize there is nothing to say except, “Blessed art Thou, O LORD.”

Psalms 119:13, “Psa 119:13 With my lips have I declared all the judgments of thy mouth.”

This verse is teaching a principle which Jesus taught when He said, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. The apostle Paul said something similar in 2 Corinthians 4:13, “2Co 4:13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;”

The result of believing, receiving, meditating on and thinking a bout the Word of God is that you will speak it you will talk about it you will share it with others. This is an important principle to understand because God wants Christians to share the truths they have learned about the Bible with other people. We should share the gospel with the lost and we should teach other Christians the things that we have learned about the Word of God. God made it to be this way. If you are not doing this then you are failing to do something very important that God wants you to do.

This does not mean you have to be a bible preacher or teacher to share the things that you have learned. You can find ways in your every day conversation with other believers to share what you know about God and His promises.

Psalms 119:14 says, “Psa 119:14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.” This verse describes how much the Word of God should mean to a believer. If you rejoice in something it brings you joy. If you rejoice in something as much as all riches it means that the Word of God means more to you than the things of this world. The word is more important to you than money or food or clothing or material possessions or social status, anything that you can think of.

If the Word of God truly means that much to you then you will make time every day to study it. You wind ways to think about the Word of God as go through thru your daily circumstances in life. You can tell how much you really rejoice in the Word of God by how much you study it each day and how much you think about it moment by moment and how much you memorize it and hide in your heart.

A wise person will recognize and realize how much God’s loves them, that God has made many precious promises and that God keeps those promises and a wise person will want to think about those promises every day and apply them to their thinking and use them to control the way they react in every situation of life that comes their way.

A lot of people say they believe God’s Word or that they love God’s Word but then they don’t study it every day. They don’t think about it moment by moment. Sometimes even they let themselves be lead astray by false teachings. There is something wrong with a person who read commentaries and books of men more than the words of God. That means that person values what other men have to say more than what God has to say. There is something wrong with a person who gets involved in false religions and false religious writings that teach things the Bible does not teach.

Why would a person turn away from the wonderful promises of God and choose instead to listen to false teachings. Many reasons. But it always has to do with the message and the teachings. Some people get involved in false religious teachings because of the sexual immorality that is taught. They like the teachings because they are sexually immoral and so they cling to those false teachings and they accept them. Some do so for other materialistic reasons because they like materialism and their focus is on this life and financial gain and materialistic gain and so they listen to and cling to those teachings. Some people listen to false teachings instead of the Word of God simply because they do not love God and they do not value the precious shed blood of Jesus Christ. So they prefer teachings that take away from and water down the divinity of Christ or that emphasis works instead of grace.

But you will know a person who values and loves the Word of God, who desires the truth, and who understands their own sinfulness and appreciates what Christ has done for them because such a person will reject false teachings and the writings of men and such a person will stand alone on the Word of God, they will read it, they meditate on it, they memorize it, and they will find ways to make the Word of God become a part of their every day lives and every day speech.

Psalms 119:14 says, “Psa 119:14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.”

Well we have come to end of our sermon. Next time we will continue in Psalms 119 starting at verse 15. But I just want to say this. If you have never turned from your sins to Jesus Christ you can do so today. There is no greater joy than to have your sins forgiven to have you’re soul washed clean from the filth of unrighteousness. There is no greater joy than to know that you are forever in the love of God and that you have eternal life. Today is the day of salvation. If you have never trusted in Jesus, the one true living God, then you can do so today. Simply open your heart to Him and pray to Him and He will save you.

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