Psalm 119: Focus On God's Word Pt. 30 Enjoying Our Blessed God!

Psalm 119:9-11  BETH. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. 10)  With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments. 11)  Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. 

The second eight verse section of Psalm 119 began by asking how a young man can cleanse his way. The answer supplied by the Psalmist, is by taking heed according to the Word of God. 

He stressed the importance of seeking God with all of our heart and praying for His strength that we do not stray from His Word. 

Next, the Psalmist taught us about our need to hide the Word in our heart so we benefit from it's restraining power when we are tempted to sin. 

We spent time to carefully study what the text means for us as individual believers in Christ. 

The choice to surrender our will to God's will is the clear path to blessing and true happiness, whereas, exercising self will leads to the hard life of a transgressor.

Psalm 119:12  Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes. 

We have studied the details about God being blessed in Himself. This is part of His character and being. We can bless Him by giving our heartfelt worship and praise to Him.

Now, we begin to understand the aspect of Jehovah teaching us His statutes, because this shows us the way that we can be blessed in our enjoyment of God. 

The glorious gospel of the blessed God

1 Timothy 1:11  According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. 

We begin with the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul calls it the gospel of the blessed God. He spoke of the law as being "good" but when he spoke of the gospel, Paul used the term "glorious."  

The word "glorious" is contained in the word "doxology" which is a Bible based expression of praise to God. The word "glorious" refers to a most glorious condition, a most exalted state of being enjoyed by God and those who are in His presence.

It is that glorious exaltation with God the Father in heaven, to which Christ was raised after he had achieved his work on earth.

It is also the glorious condition of blessedness in the heart of a believer in Christ, and the promise we shall receive fully at Christ’s return from heaven.

The gospel is glorious because it reveals the All Glorious God of heaven to those who read it or hear it. 

It is called the glorious gospel of the blessed God because God is revealed as ready to bless us. There is a way marked out how we may come to  be blessed by God and how He promises to be a fountain of blessing to all who put their trust in Him. 

The Psalmist connects knowing the blessed God with learning and living by His Word. If we are to benefit from the scriptures, we must go to God craving the scriptures and the strength that His abundant grace brings. 

In order to enjoy the blessed God, we must commune with God and His Word to draw us away from worldly things so that our affections can be set on those heavenly things of God. 

Nothing else will show us the foolishness of vain pursuits contrasted with the beautiful realities of spiritual blessings in Christ. 

Knowing our blessed God strengthens our faith. 

Psalm 16:5-8  The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. 6)  The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. 7)  I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons. 8)  I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 

King David chose Jehovah as his highest priority, his portion and inheritance. Seeking first the kingdom of God resulted in David blessing and praising God because He instructed him in the scriptures. He gave David Bible truth that reoriented his heart to God. 

Therefore, King David could declare that he set Jehovah always in the preeminent place in his life. No matter how his earthy fortunes changed or his external circumstances deteriorated, David said "I shall not be moved." 

This is the beauty of knowing the blessed God and being taught by Him and instructed in His truth. It makes us resolute in our faith so that we do not waver when things get hard.

If God opens our eyes to the marvelous mysteries contained in His Word, the affections of our heart and the thoughts of our minds will be focused on God alone. We will discover that He is all sufficient to meet any need that we may have. 

Our blessed God opens our eyes to draw us to Himself through Christ. 

John 6:44,45  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. 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. 

The Psalmist tells us we must first be taught about God before we are drawn to Him. The whole of the scriptures point us to the saving Words, Works and Person of Jesus Christ. Thus our Lord could say that those who are taught about God will be drawn to Christ. 

Wait at the gate of our blessed God's temple, seeking Him.

Proverbs 8:34-36  Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. 35)  For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the LORD. 36)  But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death. 

A Christian should begin each day anticipating communion with God. We wait upon God as we open His Word so that He might feed us our necessary spiritual food. We ask Him to open the doors of His blessings and to open our eyes that we might praise Him more passionately. We seek to catch glimpses of His beauty and holiness from the pages of scripture. We wait for Him to teach us and reveal Himself to us in the Person of Jesus Christ. 

Those who seek God will find Him and obtain His limitless grace and salvation. They will be blessed by receiving eternal life because repentant faith brought them to Jesus Christ. 

Enjoy our blessed God who turns us away from sin. 

Acts 3:26  Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. 

Peter preached his powerful sermon on the day of Pentecost and specifically pointed out that the Father sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to bless them and to turn them away from iniquity and sin. The great and beautiful work of Christ Jesus is to make us blessed in the enjoyment of God. 

How so? By turning us away from immorality and iniquity. Thus, it is not just learning doctrines of the faith, or knowing all the narratives in scripture. It is knowing God by communing with Him in His Word, with His indwelling Spirit. 

The more that the Word of God takes root in our hearts, it will bear more fruit in us. We will experience more of the joy of being blessed by our position "in Christ." 

A worse state is having knowledge of God but failing to be brought under the power of it. 

Thus, it is a grave error for a believer to neglect the plain and clear teaching of the scriptures. The Bible tells us the way we may enjoy our blessed God and how to receive temporal blessings from His hand. 

We must seek a fulness of that which makes us blessed. We can never be full of spiritual happiness and contentment until we have taken in as much as we can of God's blessedness. 

We must fill our hearts with His blessedness in order to keep seeking those things which are above, where Christ is seated at the Father's right hand. 

Enjoy the fulness of our blessed God. 

Psalm 16:11  Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. 

Here the Psalmist declares that Jehovah will show him the path of life. This is what we are learning in Psalm 119. God will teach us His Word and this will help us see and enjoy our blessed God.

We come into the presence of God because of being born again and the Spirit of God puts us in Christ. There is a rich and overflowing fulness of joy because we can rejoice in our blessed God as we enjoy Him, experientially. His good things are abundant and He is ever ready to bless us. 

This connects with the fact that only the blessed God in all His splendor and fulness, can satisfy the heart of man. 

We can drink a cup of water and quench a momentary thirst, but if we plunge into the Mississippi River, it's  vast supply of water far exceeds our capacity to take it in. So the vast  joy and happiness and blessedness of God overwhelms our soul. 

Enter into the joy of our blessed Lord. 

Matthew 25:21  His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. 

Jesus taught about future judgment and how believers are judged according to how they used talents entrusted to them by their Master. 

Faithfulness to deploy heavenly resources for the glory of God brings us to a state of blessedness whereby we may enter in and enjoy our blessed God. 

Thoughts to Ponder...

We see a contrast to lasting, blessed joy from God, in the life of wicked King Ahab. He had everything he could possibly desire, yet his evil heart coveted the vineyard belonging to his neighbor. He killed Naboth, took his property for his own, but God judged Ahab and he was later killed in battle. 

Proverbs 14:13  Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.  

King Solomon put his finger upon the ways of the world and the pursuit of vain things. Laughter gives way to sorrow and mirth changes to heaviness of heart. 

This is why the Psalmist urges us to learn and live by the truth so that we might enjoy our blessed God who is ready to bless us. 

Luke 12:20-21  But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? 21)  So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

A certain rich man had abundant harvest and filled up his storage capacity. Rather than share his abundance with other people who were less fortunate, he was selfish. His idea was to build even bigger barns to store his abundant harvest. 

God spoke to that certain man and called him a fool because he would die that night and all his worldly treasures would belong to someone else. 

Matthew 6:19-21  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20)  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21)  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 

Therefore, we must lay up treasure in heaven by enjoying our blessed God and blessing Him with all the songs, praises and blessing that we can offer. 

Too many people, professing Christians in particular, are madly pursuing earthly treasures instead of learning to live by the Word of God and seeking to accrue heavenly treasure. 

May the Spirit of God teach us these truths and open our eyes to the beautiful and blessed God that we serve. 

May we be eager and ready to enter into His presence, to enjoy our blessed God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Oh, how much we need to enter into the joy of our Lord and to seek His blessedness.

Bob