The Promise of His Word

Introduction:  The ongoing discussion of stem-cell research could fill volumes if it was collected together and we would still not be any nearer to understanding for certain exactly what we are dealing with.  The majority of Evangelicals and Catholics are arguing that every fertilized cell has the promise of being and by sloppy theological extension: even salvation.  Yet they ignore Psalm 139: 15-16 where the Hebrew specifically may allow the folding over of the fetus as a special time for God’s knowing of the person being formed, who was providentially planned before time even began.  And so our arguments proceed from the technological and genetic considerations of academia to the spiritual realm where so few are knowledgeable or in even in agreement.  At this point, I am not prepared to wade any further into that discussion, so let me change the focus slightly.

There is also a misguided assumption that every single person born has a built in promise for potential salvation as well.  Certainly we must allow that anyone may be saved, but theologically we cannot teach that everyone can be saved!

Logical people would ask theologians who demand personhood at fertilization – what about identical twins?  Is a soul divided as well as the bodily design?  In the same sense of logic we must also ask – if everyone can be saved, why are there so few who choose life in Christ for now and eternity?  More importantly for our theme this morning:  is the promise of salvation in the creatures or does it reside somewhere else?  Now, we are closing in on the essential teaching in our psalm portion today.

What can we truthfully say of mankind, made originally in the image of the Creator?  One commentator observes: “We need no instruction in the way of sin.”  The ungodly have been saying ever since the time of Job, Solomon and Paul that they have no desire for knowledge of God’s eternal truth.  Well does Job 21: 14-15 report the wicked saying to the Almighty God of heaven and earth:  “Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us, for we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways.  Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him?  And what profit do we have if we pray to Him?’”

No, there is no apparent promise built into the personhood of mankind.  We do not realize fully the true extent of the fall.  The majority of the people are like the character in a joke that one of my friends tells about a man that burned a large old Bible found in his German born Grandfather’s attic.  When a relative suggested that possibly the book may have had some value, the fellow retorted that it was only printed in some funny language by some cat named Guttenberg, and there were hand written notes all over the pages by another dude named Luther!  So how could there be any value in that ancient printing and scribbling?  The same worldly ignorance and attitude is aimed at the contents of the Bible as well.

The premise of promise, we would teach, must be somewhere other than in the heart of mankind! 

Development:  We understand that that portion of the population called by God’s grace do indeed realize their fallen situation and the sinful bondage of will into which they were born.  If we are comfortable with that essential knowledge – then we are more likely to comprehend the promise of the Word as our psalmist develops it today.  Look ahead to verse thirty-eight “Fulfill your promise” the NIV translates it.  The promise begged is the keeping of his soul within the faith.  Perseverance, if you will have a name for the doctrine!

Our psalmist, David, like believers of all times and places needs and wants help in holding onto the free gift of salvation.  Preserve me Lord in the daily struggles of becoming sanctified, is his ongoing daily prayer.  Let us explore the promise of the word as the psalmist understood and cherished it.

“Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes;

                then I will keep them to the end.

The Hebrew here for teach, means to “point out”, “indicate to me”, point with your hand”, or show me.”  So we might translate the first phrase in this way:  “Show me, O Lord, how to follow your statutes.”

Richard Brooks tells us: “An important and abiding lesson is emphasized here – that of our complete dependence upon God in the vital business of walking in His ways and living according to His Word.  There is nothing we can do without His divine help. ... This is, of course, absolutely in line with the Saviour’s great and trenchant statement: ‘Apart from me you can do nothing’  (John 15:5)”

Some time ago I read an article about missionaries in Brazil who were discouraged by the fitful attempts of converts to grow into practicing the faith diligently.  Their people could believe correctly, they could desire to do right, but they could not change their lifestyles easily.  The problem was discouraging for all concerned.  Eventually, the missionaries realized that their new converts needed daily help and guidance.  Alcoholics Anonymous also realizes that deliverance from that addiction takes real perseverance over a long period of time.

In the same way is the daily struggle with sin for those who have not been conditioned by family and church since youth.  This is a real problem in the evangelization of the world today.  One summer, our church was regularly involved with one family trying to help them grow in grace and knowledge.  WE very quickly got tired and frustrated at the lack of change and the lack of growth.  Perhaps we can at least appreciate God’s view of our own individual growth and the necessity for the leading of the Holy Spirit and the need for patience on the part of family and friends.

It does take the radical method of daily contact and encouragement to help deliver people from bondage to sin.  When my brother was in college – he was amazed at the campus minister who walked across campus almost daily to work with him in daily devotions.  “Show me”, is the Psalmist’s cry just as it is the cry of every sinner who desires to persevere in grace.  If God will show us, then we may fulfill the second phrase of verse thirty-three:  “then I will keep them to the end.”

Well did Francis Schaeffer plan a place of refuge, a sanctuary if you will, for the lost and discouraged in the Alpine mountains of Europe!  In a similar vein, we may hope and pray for a similar type of ministry here in the Midwest, a sanctuary where new converts can go to learn the habits and sanctification of the faith.  One of the frustrations in the public sector for people released from prison is that too often they go back to the same neighborhood where they learned their bad habits and hang out with the same crowd that taught them advanced courses sin in the first place.  One of the great tragedies of the twentieth century is that the liberal do-gooders have so undermined the small towns, that godly and righteous towns no longer have a legal leg to stand on to encourage a healthy community.

The next three verses show us the means of perseverance:

Give me understanding, that I may keep Your law

                and observe them with all my  heart.

Guide me in the path of Your commandments,

                For there I find  delight..

Turn my heart to Your testimonies,

                and not to selfish gain.”

In verse thirty-four the request is for mental comprehension.  Here the psalmist desires not only the teaching of God but begs for the power to learn.  This is how low man has fallen into sin.  We lack the faculty to understand spiritual things, and are quite unable to know them until we are endowed with spiritual discernment.

But, we must not be satisfied with the knowledge of understanding.  In this verse the psalmist understands that it is not enough to believe what he understands, but he must go on to keep and obey the law with his whole heart.  It is not enough to keep the law out of fear.  I once heard of a man who gave the Church a tithe for years because he was afraid of the Creator.  This is not enough.  Reader’s Digest once summed up the man’s attitude in a bulletin board notation:  “God loves a cheerful giver, but we will accept money from a grouch!”  God indeed loves a cheerful giver, and when it comes to His law of the tithe he wants us to go that far, but he also wants us to enjoy giving not only our resources, but also ourselves to His work and witness.

In verse thirty-five the meaning of the words imply that He would direct our walk in His paths.  Here I am reminded of the first few months after I was released from the military.  When Sherry and I were walking together I would catch myself getting into step.  Every once in a while you can still catch an old veteran doing the same thing if he or she has been reminded of those years of service.

This is the sense of the words here; the psalmist asks to be kept in step with God’s commands.  Again, there is the implication of delight in conformity.  Now, if you think that these images are a little more than you have in mind for your walk with Jesus, perhaps the next petition in verse thirty-six is for you.  You see neither of the first two means of perseverance is effectual unless your heart is so inclined.  Well indeed, does the Apostle Paul write, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”  (Romans 10:10).

“Turn my heart”, pleads the psalmist.  As the twig is bent so grows the tree.  The fabled bonsai trees of the Orient are carefully crafted with the purpose of their designer in view.  So too does our psalmist plead to be turned to God’s design.  No longer Lord do I want to walk in my own way for my own purpose.  Can you pray that?

Notice the second phrase that indicates the turning of the heart:  ”and not to selfish gain.”  There must be a final turning from selfishness.  The older translations use the word covetousness here to indicate the natural desires of the human heart.  This is a special problem in our time since selfishness is especially celebrated in our current “Me generation.”

Conclusion:  Ever since the lottery craze was generated in Ohio by governmental authority, the assumption is that everyone must voluntarily participate in the fun of such indirect taxation.  One news commentator shared some fictional statistics that 100% of the men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five had purchase lottery tickets in the hope of getting rich.  I would think that 100% is a brazen claim.  I know of quite a few people with enough sense to avoid wasting their money, even the small portion that is flushed into public spending!

Unfortunately, the media popularization of covetousness convinces to many people that there is no other way to live.  “Turn my heart” Lord, we can pray with David, turn my heart from fallen selfish goals.  Richard Brooks tells us:  “When John Bunyan’s pilgrims were obliged to pass through Vanity Fair, beset on every side with all sorts of temptations and allurements, they stopped up their eyes and ears and quickened their pace – a striking reproof to us, who so often loiter and gaze and covet those things to which, as Christians, we should be dead. “

“Matthew Henry observes that the psalmist prays for restraining grace, that he might be prevented and kept back from that which would hinder him in the way of his duty; and for constraining grace that he might not only be kept from everything that would obstruct his progress heavenward, but that he might have the grace that was necessary to forward him in that progress.”

Every once in a while a family well goes dry.  While there are many reasons for this happening, the usual solution is to dig deeper into the earth to find a vein of moisture.  In the same sense, the psalmist would encourage us to dig deeper into the Word of our God to tap therein the wells of salvation.  May our present survey of the depths of love and perseverance promised by our Sovereign God encourage us to find the water of life in this psalm as well as in all the other portions of His holy word.  Amen.