Psalms 119:49
Psalms 119:49, “Psa
119:49 ZAIN. Remember the word unto thy
servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.”
One of the
great things to know about God is that He remembers. We know that God forgets.
He forgets our sins when we confess them to Jesus. But God also remembers. He
remembers His Word. In the Word of God are many great and precious promises and
plans that God has for us.
The day that we see Jesus is the day that we will
fully understand just how strong and sure is God’s memory and God’s ability to
keep His promises. Because when we see Jesus we will see the nail prints in His
hands and the place where the spear pierced His side. Thomas saw these things
in Jesus after the resurrection in Jesus’ glorified body.
John 20:25-28, “John
20:25
The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But
he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and
put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I
will not believe. Joh
We don’t have to ever worry that God will ever
forget what Jesus has done for us in dying on the cross for our sins. The marks
of the crucifixion will forever be part of Jesus glorified body.
Sometimes we forget the promises of God, promises
about prayer and fellowship, promises about all the great things that is going
to do for us in eternity. But God never forgets. The truth His promises are
always on His mind. He looks down at the world and sees a sinful world and then
God the Father looks at Jesus His Son. He sees the nail prints in the hands. He
remembers, He never forgets just how much Jesus suffered and a sacrificed His
own life that sinful mankind might have mercy and grace and the opportunity to
trust in Jesus and to stand before God justified.
These things are ever on God’s mind. We on the
other hand often and easily forget them. If only we could remember the way God
remembers then would the hope which we have in the word of God always be sure
and burning bright.
Psalms 119:49, “Psa
119:49 ZAIN. Remember the word unto thy
servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.”
Hope, not as the world hopes When the world hopes
it is saying well maybe. When a Christian hopes in the Word that hope is a
definite expectation about the future and what God is going to do. You see our
hope is in the word of God. Such hope is the anchor of our soul. The plan and
hopes and dreams of this life are often dashed to pieces because life is filled
with uncertainly and tragedy and sorrow and sin. Things do not always work out
the way we plan or the way we hope. But if you cast aside your earthly hopes
and make your and make Jesus your only hope you will never be disappointed.
Psalms 119:50 says, “Psa
119:50 This is my comfort in my
affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.”
An affliction is a sorrow, a suffering, a
tragedy. There are many afflictions to face in life and you will need comfort
to be able to endure them. Comfort is like the pain medicine that person takes
to ease their pain. There is only one kind of comfort though which lasts and
endures and does not disappoint nor fade away. And that is the comfort found in
the Word of God and the comfort in knowing a person has their sins forgiven and
has eternal life.
Why what comfort can a person have who finds
themself facing life in prison, or when tragedy strikes and those that they
love die or get a terminal disease? What comfort can a person have who has
their heart broken when their spouse cheats on them? What comfort can a person
have if that person has children and some terrible tragedy or injustice happens
to those children? What comfort can a person have who looks at the world and
watches in horror as so many turn away from truth and righteousness?
There is the comfort of God’s Word. If you need
comfort for your sorrows and your afflictions then turn to the Word of God and
you will find the word which have the power to renew your Spirit and renew your
joy and to ease the pains of this life as you endure your afflictions and hope
towards the future expectantly waiting for God to fulfill the promises which He
has made.
That is why a wise person will learn the Word of
God and will learn the promises of God so that they will know the things that
God has planned for them in the future. If you know the promises of God then
you can have comfort and hope and joy and peace amidst this world of woe.
Psalms 119:51, “Psa
119:51 The proud have had me greatly in
derision: yet have I not declined from thy law.”
The word derision means to mock, to scoff, to
scorn. The thing about this world is there are a lot of prideful people. Human
beings are sinners. Most do not know Jesus as their savior. O how much pride
men have. In their pride they will oppose what you try to do for God. They will
oppose the truth and the spreading of the truth. They will oppose your
testimony. One of the ways they will oppose you is by mocking you and
belittling you and railing on you and talking and treating you without respect.
Such treatment can put great pressure on a human
being to compromise on the truth. But for those who do not compromise on doing
what is right or on keeping the word of God or on speaking the truth there is
great rewards to be earned in heaven.
Psalms 119:52, “Psa
119:52 I remembered thy judgments of
old, O LORD; and have comforted myself.”
In the beginning of this sermon we talked about
God remembering. God remembers and we should remember too. Above all things we
should remember the gospel and what Jesus did or us. After all that is the
foundation of all things. As you progress through the Christian life you will
discover that a big part of it is remembering: remembering the promises of God
and the things that you have learned over the years about God’s Word, and also
remembering the things that God has done for you in the past, the answers the
prayer, the way He has worked in circumstances of your life, the many blessings
you have received over the years.
Now if you are a new Christian and have not
walked with the Lord a very long time there is still always your salvation
experience to remember. It can be one of your most important and precious
memories. How God saved you from sin and changed your life when he touched your
heart and brought you to Jesus.
Why one of the greatest and most dramatic events
of your life will be your salvation experience whether it was a moment of great
emotion or whether it was a moment of deep peace and quiet it is the moment
that your sins were wiped away and your received eternal life and the Spirit of
God came to dwell inside you. What a moment worth remembering. What a miracle!
That God could save such a sinner such as you or I or anyone.
Now notice how in this verse remembering and
comforting are mentioned together.
Psalms 119:52, “Psa
119:52 I remembered thy judgments of
old, O LORD; and have comforted myself.” To be comforted sometimes we
have to comfort ourselves. We cannot always expect others to comfort us. And
one of the ways that we comfort ourselves is by remembering the things of God
and the things that God has done.
There is great peace of mind and peace of spirit
to be found in the knowing and believing of the truth. There is great comfort
in experience the peace of God which passeth all understanding. The lost people
of the world do not have this peace. Life is a mystery to them with many
unanswered questions. Where did life come from? How was the world created? What
is the purpose of life? And of course there is always an emptiness inside the
man that is separated from God. But for those who know Jesus Christ as their
savior what comfort what peace there is to be had, a peace and a comfort that endures
despise your circumstances in life
Psalms 119:53 says, “Psa
119:53 Horror hath taken hold upon me
because of the wicked that forsake thy law.”
The word that is here translated horror means a
glow of wind or anger or famine. So I think the idea of the word is something
terrible and devastating in its effect.
It’s interesting when you study people and what
they are like to notice the types of things that trouble people. Most people
are troubled and upset very easily. All it takes is to say something the wrong
way or to be misunderstood in what you say and people get angry and offended.
Or all it takes is to say something good and true and to promote morality that
will offend most people in some kind of way and they will take it as you
judging them and being harsh against them. They will take it as a personal
attack.
It’s also very interesting to notice how a
spiritual minded person is very different. A Spiritual minded person is not
easily offended but instead of being offend at the truth what horrifies a
righteous person is when a human being turns away from the truth. Why the
turning away from the truth that is the most horrible thing that you can
witness in this life is to watch another human being turn away from the truth
and reject Jesus.
Now Psalms 119:53 says a very interesting thing
Psalms 119:53 says, “Psa 119:53 Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the
wicked that forsake thy law.”
Pay close attention to the last part of verse 53
which says, “the wicked that forsake thy law.” This teaches us something very
important about human beings and the human life and the way human life beings.
To explain it further lets read Romans 2:15 which
says, “Rom 2:15 Which shew the work of the law written in
their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts
the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)”
Man is born with a conscience. Your part of the
function of the conscience is the ability to discern the difference between
right and wrong. Even a little baby has some discernment. For example if you
mistreat a little baby it will start to cry. Why will It cry? Because it has a
conscience and that little tiny baby understands that somehow it is being
treated wrongly.
So you see even though all men are born in sin,
we are also all born with some measure of understanding in regards to God’s
law, the universal laws of truth of right and wrong. Why serial killers are not
born serial killers. The vile and perverted homosexuals are not born that way.
But they make decisions as they being to grow and as they go through life, they
make decisions in regards to the truth. And of course the worse thing that can
happen to a human being is not financial ruin, or getting cancer, or getting a
divorce, or your spouse cheating on you, or your children dying at a young age,
or war coming across your land and destroying your country, no the worst thing
that can happen to a human being is that they turn away from the truth.
Psalms 119:53 says, “Psa
119:53 Horror hath taken hold upon me
because of the wicked that forsake thy law.”
If you want to understand true horror you won’t
find it by watching a horror movie or by looking the gruesome pictures of a
crime scene but you will understand true horror when you come to greatly love
the truth and the righteousness of God and you look out across the world and
you see those who lives are destroyed because they turned away from the truth.
It is a horror to behold. And it happens to so many people.
If only they would come to Jesus. If only they
would appreciate the love of God instead of loving their own sins. That is the
story of the human race, if only. That is the story of the human, what could
have been. The billions of lives that have been wasted in their own lusts for
things thing that are temporary and not eternal.
Yet despite the great horror of this story God is
able, able to touch hearts and able to soften the clay and to bring a sinner to
Jesus for salvation. Not only is Jesus able to save a soul but Jesus is able to
restore things. To restore the wasted opportunities of life.
There may be no story of greater wasted
opportunity than the story of the nation of
Joel 2:25-26 says, “Joe
2:25 And I will restore to you the years
that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the
palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. Joe
That’s right there is answer, an answer to all
the horrors of sin and the destruction that it causes in a persons life. The
answer is to come to Jesus and ask Him for forgiveness. Jesus is God and
therefore He has the power to do all things. The power to touch a heart and
change a life and the power to restore the years that have been wasted. Jesus
has the power becuae Jesus died on the cross and Jesus rose from the great
defeating death.
Once you come to Jesus you will never be
forgotten or cast aside or left unloved or left uncomforted amidst the
afflictions of life. He died for your sins and He loves you. O that you would
come to Him today and find salvation.
___________________________________________________
Copyright; 2017 by Bruce
Creech
All Rights Reserved