Psalm 119: Focus On God's Word Pt. 14 A Doer of the Word Obeys From the Heart!

Psalm 119:1-6  ALEPH. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD. 2)  Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. 3)  They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways. 4)  Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. 5)  O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! 6)  Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.  

We are studying Psalm 119, which is the longest chapter in the Bible. This chapter is singularly unique in that it is devoted to teaching us about God, His Word and the impact of His Word in our hearts and souls. 

The lessons we learn are simple, understandable and can be distilled to a few actions on our part: take God at His Word, trust and obey what He says.

This is the path to finding lasting happiness, having a joyful heart and receiving the blessing of God.

Learning His righteous judgments. 

Psalm 119:7  I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. 

So far in this verse we learned about the righteous judgments of God.

This text teaches us about the righteous judgments of God, our need to learn them, how our heart will be changed when we do learn them and how this impacts our worship.

Today, we want to discover what it means to learn them. This is the great blessing sought by the Psalmist, that of learning the righteous judgments of God.  

By definition, the learning that we need is not just an intellectual knowledge, but also putting that knowledge into practice. It is a cause and effect relationship that we build into our new man in Christ.

God teaches us so we learn about faith in Christ.

John 6:45  It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.

We learn these truths about righteous judgments from God and then we apply all that we learned to guide what we think, say and do. 

Jesus cited Isaiah 54:13 which He literally fulfilled each time that He stopped to preach and teach the Word. 

What is the purpose of being taught by God? Jesus tells us that when we hear and heed what the Father says in the scriptures, it's design is to bring us to Christ. The goal is to lead us to come and follow Jesus.

Learning doctrine and memorizing the Bible does us no good if we fail to put what we learn into practice. Thus, a disciple of Jesus Christ will be known for trusting and obeying; hearing and heeding.

Those who live by the Word and those who walk away. 

James 1:22-25  But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23)  For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24)  For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. 25)  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. 

The apostle James brings this very issue to the forefront. He paints a picture of two different groups of people. Both groups share this in common: they hear the Word of God. 

However, there is one group who only hears the Word of God. They represent people who gain an intellectual, or head knowledge of Bible truth. 

Intellectual knowledge of Bible truth is where their learning stops. This person does not allow the Word of God to govern his soul, renew his mind and change his actions. His practice and behavior remains unchanged.

All who hear the Word of God but are not "doers" of the Word, are like people who look into the mirror of scripture, and see the evil nature of their heart exposed. 

Yet, they do not respond with repentance or beg God to save their soul, and change their lives for His glory. They just walk away unchanged. 

Jesus' parable of the seed and the sower indicates that the one who hears the truth but walks away, is like one of the three fallow, non-productive soils (Matthew 13). 

No change is evident because a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit (Matthew 7:17-18). 

Then, there are people who do look carefully into the mirror of God's truth and are impacted by it. They become a "doer" of the word by exercising repentant faith in Jesus Christ. 

The church, which is the body of Christ, is full of people who profess saving faith in Jesus. However, the parable of the wheat and tares teaches us that unsaved and saved are mixed together in Christ's church. 

The difference between a saved saint of God and a moral man who is not born again, lies in the application of God's truth. Those who are saved, learn the will of God by studying the scriptures, and they dedicate themselves to living by what God says. 

Those who are unsaved but moral, are content to "know" about Christianity, but they do not "know" Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. There is a vast distinction between knowing about God and actually knowing Him.

A true disciple is one who spends time in the Word of God. 

John 8:31-32  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32)  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

The true believer in Christ is a hearer and a doer of the Word. This person will continue in the word. This is the idea of remembering truth that has been learned, for the purpose of obeying what God says. 

Jesus also taught about this. A true disciple of Christ continues in the Word of God. It means remaining in the Word, abiding in it by reading and studying the Bible. It means spending whatever time is necessary in order to understand and obey what God says to us. 

Learning to obey from our heart!

Romans 6:17-18  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 18)  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. 

Paul is expressing exactly what the Psalmist wants us to grasp. We used to be slaves to sin but the power of the gospel changed us. 

The word "form" means having the image of God imprinted upon us. This word has action like a metal smith striking a metal stamp on a brass object, in order to make an imprint. 

This same word also refers to apostolic doctrine that is put into writing to communicate it to other believers. 

We enjoy the blessing of old things passing away from our lives, as the Spirit of God works to remove our old sinful ways.  

When we embrace apostolic truth and live by what God says to us, then live to pursue righteousness and holiness instead of giving in to fleshly lust. 

We also enjoy the blessing as God makes us a new creation in Christ. The Spirit of God works to conform us into the image of Jesus Christ our Lord. 

The Psalmist urges us to learn the righteous judgments of God for this purpose: that we might obey them and glorify God with our actions. 

It is a change from having a head knowledge about the things of God, to actually embracing them and living by what He commands. 

These believers learn to "obey from the heart" not the head. This is like a servant standing quietly in the background, listening intently for the voice of his master. When his master speaks, the servant is ready and willing to do what his master desired of him.

God is working in us to make us into usable servants.

Philippians 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.  

Thus, the Lord leads us away from a superficial understanding of scripture, into a more intimate relationship with Him, so that we learn to trust Christ and obey His commands. 

This is the path that leads to blessing from God and experiencing true, lasting happiness and joy. 

God teaches us His promises so that we believe Him and receive hope for our soul. God teaches us His commands so that we trust and obey Him. 

This gives us great joy because we know we are honoring God, as we avoid falling into sin. 

Go forward for Jesus Christ, not backwards. 

Hebrews 5:12-14  For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 13)  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. 14)  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. 

Like an infant, all believers begin on the milk of the Word. As a baby is not ready to eat solid food, so a new, born again Christian is not ready for the meat of scripture. 

However, our spiritual growth is to mirror the physical growth of a baby. There must be progress or else we run the risk of regressing in our faith and practice.  

A new born infant progresses through various stages of life from becoming a toddler, a child, a teenager, a young adult and so on. 

This text warns about some believers who should have shown spiritual progress, but instead regressed to the point that they needed to go back onto the milk of the Word of God. 

They should have been ready to teach and disciple other new believers but instead they needed to be re-taught all that they previously learned. 

The goal stated by the author of Hebrews is the same goal that the Psalmist placed before us. 

Taking the apostolic doctrine and using our mind and senses to determine what is good and to follow after that which is good. 

At the same time we used our mind and senses to detect that which displeases God, in order to avoid  that which is evil.

Thoughts to Ponder...

So many good lessons in this text. 

First, we are learning the righteous judgments of God so that we are living by them. They are designed to change our heart and mind so that we know how we live reflects God's righteousness. 

Second, there are those who hear and read the Word of God and then walk away from it. Let us be among those who respond by faith when we hear God's truth and that we determine to live it out, with His help.

Third, let us be those disciples of Christ who hunger and thirst for His Word. Let us be those who learn God's righteous judgments in order to obey Him from our hearts. 

Fourth, let us each pray to the Lord that He will help us go forward in our walk with Jesus, that we might have the privilege of discipling other new believers. 

Bob