All right, well, welcome back. There are notes available on the
back table to the message. If you want to grab those either
now as I'm teaching through or on your way out, feel free to
grab those. All right, if you have your
Bible, take it and turn to the book of Psalms.
And it's kind of right in the middle of your Bible.
You're going to find Psalms 150 chapters long, and the longest
chapter in Psalms is Psalm 119. It's very long and you can find
verse one O 3 is where we're going to start there.
So Psalm chapter 119. And let me just say, if you're
watching online, whether it's 1111 right now or sometime in
the near future, then welcome to you and I hope you enjoy our
service. But also we want to invite you
to come and be with us in person at 115 E Main St.
Our services are at 9:00 and 10:30.
Consider this your invitation. Hope to see you in person
sometime soon. All right, if you're in the
middle of your Bible, Psalm chapter 119, again, the longest
chapter in the Bible, quite long.
And I'm going to read from verses one O 3 to one O 5.
The psalmist writes how sweet are your words to my taste,
sweeter than honey to my mouth. And through your precepts, I get
understanding and therefore I hate every false way.
Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
This morning I want to continue in our series in the Psalms,
where we're looking at the what we're calling the original
playlist, the OG playlist. And I want to talk to this
morning about songs about the Word, songs about the Word
meaning God's Word, the Psalms that are written about God's
Word. Let me pray for us.
God, What a joy it is to be together on this snowy fall day.
And we've enjoyed singing to you and just being together in
Kononia and fellowship. And now our children are in
their respective classes and learning about you.
And here we sit also ready to dig into your word.
And this morning as we continue in the Psalms, and specifically
as we look to the Psalms that speak about your ways, your
Word, your truth, we pray that you'll inspire us and grow us in
the name of Jesus. And everyone together loudly
said Amen and Amen. All right, well, we have been
here in the book of Psalms. This is our 8th message.
And I have had a blast teaching through this.
Just a few more weeks and then we'll get into Christmas season.
Wade is going to be teaching next week, and we'll be in Texas
for Thanksgiving, looking forward to that.
And then I'll be back after Thanksgiving and we'll wind down
our series into the OG playlist. But what we mean by this is that
the Psalms are like the original playlist.
They're the OG, right? And God puts together this
playlist thousands of years ago. And the playlist that got put
together here, it's written over a period of 1500 years of songs
and God compiles them together through the Holy Spirit.
And they go from the era of Moses and Exodus all the way
through post exile, which you'll remember if you went to Sunday
school or you studied this. God's people are carted off into
exile into Babylon. And this is the era of like
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they're they won't bow before
the idol. And so they're thrown into a
fiery furnace. Some of these songs would have
been written in that era. So 1500 years and 150 songs.
And now we get to glean from them today.
And I consider it a playlist. Like when you, you know, from
those of us back in the cassette days, remember we would make a
mixtape on a cassette. How many of you remember burning
CDs? How many remember that right?
Burning CDs, right. You'd make a place.
But anymore, now it's just on your iPhone or wherever where
it's so much easier just to go and access playlist or make your
own. The book of Psalms is a playlist
that is put together by God, by the Holy Spirit.
And all of these years later we get to glean from them.
So I have really enjoyed teaching through this.
And let me just review what we've been teaching.
And you could go back by the way, and get these messages.
Someone was asking me specifically how to do this this
morning. You can find our podcast at
YouTube, on Facebook, at anywhere you podcast on Apple,
Spotify, Amazon, our our messages and services are on all
of those platforms. OK, so you could go back and
find the other messages in the series.
So we talked about initially just I gave you an overview of
the Psalms, but then the next week I mentioned that there are
several songs that talk about who God is and what he's like.
And so if you want to get to know God, a great way to get to
know him is through reading through the Psalms, because the
Psalms often explain the character, the goodness, the
nature, the personality of God. A great way to get to know God
is our Father. And there were songs of
repentance, particularly David after his sin with Bathsheba in
Psalm 51. He he comes along.
We talked on this several weeks ago.
He said created me a clean heart of God and renew a right spirit
within me. And repentance is part of the
discipline of a Christian life, right?
If you're going to fall after Jesus, then throughout our lives
there are times where we repent of sin and behaviors, and
repenting with these psalms is a good way to see, OK, this is a
model of right repentance, and David does it well.
Created me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within
me. And then we looked at the
sorrowful psalms, the idea that many of the songs are laments
and they're sorrowful. David finds himself hiding in a
cave from Saul and he cries out to the Lord, feeling forgotten
by God. That's something that ends up in
the Bible, David and other songwriters feeling forgotten
and abandoned by God. They're there to give voice to
those times where we feel abandoned.
It has got abandoned, the snow. But there are times where we
feel that way and these songs give voice to it.
And we looked at songs of grief, maybe a death in the family, a
divorce, something very tragic can lead to, again, just
overwhelming, even physical grief.
And the Psalms have several songs that are like that.
They give voice to grief instead of us just burying our grief and
denying it. Instead, these Psalms that we
went through go find the message again.
They give voice to those seasons and times of grief.
And then finally, last week, we looked at a song that's
misunderstood. It's Psalm 137, where the
psalmist ends that Psalm by saying, blessed is he who takes
my enemies babies and dashes them against the rocks.
What a crazy idea is that? Well, that one's often
misunderstood. So if you were, if you missed
that one, go back and get it. The psalmist is saying, God, I
trust vindication to you. I'm not going to take revenge.
I'm not going to be vengeful. They're trusting God and His
sovereignty to bring justice. And it's OK to cry out and pray
for God's justice to come. We see in the revelation there
will be final judgement. When it comes, God's people will
celebrate and rejoice. So this morning, after all of
those weeks, now we're going to go through and see how often it
might be surprising to you how often the psalmist promote God's
Word and honor God's Word. They honor Scripture over and
over and over again. And sometimes it's called the
Word, and we'll find that there are other times that it's called
something else. But All in all, and we found it
right here in Psalm 119, initially it's called, How sweet
are your words to my taste, word meaning Scripture through your
precepts here they're called precepts.
I get understanding and then he goes back to calling Scripture
God's Word. Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light into my path. We're going to see how often the
Psalmist are honoring and revering and promoting God's
Word, His pathways, His precepts.
Now you must know that when the psalmists are writing their
songs, they only have a fraction of the Bible that we have,
right? Especially the early Psalms.
So remember, the first five books of the Bible are called
the Torah, and it's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and
Deuteronomy. And Genesis, of course, is the
story of creation and Noah's founder and Abraham, who's the
father of our faith, and Jacob, who has twelve sons, have become
the tribes of Israel. All of those stories are found
in Genesis. And then Exodus is the story of
Moses going to Egypt where the Jewish people are enslaved by
the Pharaoh. And Moses goes by the direction
of God to say, let my people go. And then Exodus, we, we get a
lot of the laws of God that God speaks through Moses.
And Moses also writes again, the Leviticus numbers in
Deuteronomy. And so when the psalmist are
talking about God, your word is a lamb to my feet.
It would have been those five books.
That's all that they had. Now we have the rest of the Old
Testament to go on. We have the stories of Jesus in
the New Testament, the teachings of Jesus, the Gospels.
And we have the New Testament letters.
We have so much more scripture to lean into than those who were
writing these songs thousands of years ago.
And because of that, we could be grateful.
Again, more, more scripture to go on.
But they just had the tour. And be aware of that as you read
through the Psalms. Now look, let's look at a
variety of words that are used when referring to Scripture.
In the Psalms we see that law or instruction not just rules.
The laws of God were not just rules to hold us back, but
instead they were guidelines that led to a blessed life.
And there are 25 times in the Psalms where the psalmist are
honoring God's law. Psalm One, verse 1 and 2 is an
occasion of this. It says blessed is the man who
walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of
sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in
the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
The Psalms kicks off this way. This is the first of the Psalms
encouraging us to delight in the Lord and to delight particularly
in the laws of God. Did you know you could find
delight in the laws of God? They're not intended to be a
weight around our neck. Instead, we can find delight in
the life that we live when we follow after God's principles
and instructions. Then the word Word is found 39
times in the Psalms. An example again from Psalm 119
that we read. Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path. 3939 * 39 times the psalmist are
promoting the word of God. And then there are 9 times where
the psalmist referenced the words of God.
Psalm 12 verse 6, it says the words of the Lord are pure words
like silver refined in the furnace on the ground, purified
7 times honoring the words of the Lord.
Then then the term testimony, which again is like the truth of
God. It's found 23 times, precepts is
found 21 times and commandments are found 22 times.
Here's an example. That's Psalm 19, seven and
eight. The Psalm writer says the law of
the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
The testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple, the
precepts of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart, and the
commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening in the eyes. 23
other times they use the term rules, the rules of God.
Other 23 times they talk about the statutes of God, four times
they talk about the judgment of God, and 14 times the songs in
the Psalms speak of the promises of God.
So all told, in the Psalms there are 203 times where God's word
is mentioned again in all these different forms, precepts, laws,
rules, word 203 times. Now that being the case, that
means that it's important that it's mentioned that often.
God's Word being promoted in the Psalms numerous times.
The New Testament also quotes the Psalms mention of God's
Word. So watch it.
The Bible is promoting itself. The Psalm writers are promoting
God's truth in God's Word in all of these occasions.
And if you've been reading through the Psalms, maybe you've
seen this. If you haven't seen it, then I
want to encourage you, keep reading through the Psalms, keep
listening to them. Some of you have found YouTube
links or other links to listen to them.
I mentioned weeks back that I love one by Kristen Getty, who's
from Ireland, and it's the ESV that she reads.
You can hear it on YouTube or the Bible app.
If you're not into reading, then you can find audio versions of
it. And just her reading through the
Psalms with her Irish accent, it's so cool.
So check that out. Someone friend sent me a, he was
in his deer stand hunting, listening to the Psalms that she
was reading. It was really sweet.
So find ways to absorb the Psalms.
And when you're reading or listening, be aware of how often
203 times where God's word is elevated.
Now Jesus quoted from the Psalms and his prayers in the Garden of
Gethsemane. Remember the night that Jesus
was betrayed before he's arrested in the garden.
He's praying and John overhears his prayer and puts it in John
chapter 17 and it's quite beautiful Jesus heart for his
followers and John 1717 Jesus is praying this over his followers.
He says sanctify them in the truth.
Your word is truth. Here again, Jesus now is
promoting in the tradition of the Psalms.
He's promoting God's Word and he's quoting particularly from
Psalm one 19160 that says the sum of your word is truth and
every one of your righteous rules endures forever.
Jesus quoting and praying in the fashion of the Psalms, which are
promoting again God's Word and truth.
Paul tells us how to del how to dwell richly in the word.
If you want to have a deep relationship with Jesus, then
Scripture is how you grow and knowing who God is.
And the Psalms are encouraging God's God's word.
Colossians 3. This is Paul's instructions, he
says, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to
which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful.
We're going into Thanksgiving time.
Be thankful. And let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all
wisdom. And watch this singing psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts
to God. Paul in the New Testament is
encouraging. You want to dwell deeply in
Jesus. Well then, sing the Psalms and
the hymns and the spiritual songs, and as you sing the
psalms often you're going to see a promoting of God's Word.
And it should raise an awareness and appreciation, a love and
admiration in us for God's truth.
We're made to connect with God richly through His Word.
We connect with Him. And reading and listening to the
Psalms remind us often about the depth and value of Scripture.
And we can grow to delight in God through the Psalms.
And that is the goal for us. We want to get to a place where
we delight in God and knowing His truth that comes through
Scripture is even the more a way to like, grow to know who God
is. I love what CS Lewis says in his
writings Reflections on the Psalms.
He says the psalmist delight in the law, not because they find
it restrictive, but because they see in it the very mind of God,
something beautiful and life giving.
That's why the psalmist is delighting in the Lord in the
Word, because it leads to closeness, beautiful and life
giving. I didn't put in your notes who
said this, but it's Timothy Keller.
He says delighting in God's Word is delighting in God himself.
You want to get to know God, You get to know him in his Word and
this is a big principle that that we just have to lean into
you if you want to know God and dwell on him richly.
The way to do that is through reading, listening to,
absorbing, hearing it taught about reading God's word.
The Psalms promoted all of those times.
Now I want to clarify something for you, particularly the use of
the of of the word in John's gospel.
OK, when John in the New Testament, John was a disciple.
If you're new to the Bible, John was one of the followers of
Jesus in the New Testament. He writes his account, his
gospel story, telling the miracles, the teachings, the
death and burial and resurrection of Jesus.
OK, so John introduces Jesus in a unique, profound way.
John 11 at the start of his gospel, he says in the beginning
was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.
And then in verse 14 he says, and the Word being Jesus became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as
one of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Now when John is talking about the Word in this occasion, do
you think that he's talking about the Bible?
Is he saying Scripture became flesh in the beginning with
Scripture? If he means Word, does he mean
the Bible in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with
God and the Word was God? Well, of course he's referencing
Jesus here and he's using the language of Genesis one, one
that says in the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth, but he's speaking he's he's certainly using Genesis
language. But additionally, John is using
a unique introduction of Jesus to draw people in who were watch
this. They spoke Greek and they were
Greek in their thinking. OK, now you remember that when
Jesus is walking in the face of the earth, the Roman Empire is
in charge. They've conquested and conquered
all of these area in the ancient world, but before the Roman
Empire was the Greek Empire. And the Romans come along and
they defeat the Greeks, but they continue to speak Greek and they
continue to admire the Greek culture, the Greek philosophers,
the Greek way of life. And so when John comes along, I
want to clarify that John is not saying in the beginning was the
Bible. He's saying in the beginning,
the Greek word that he uses in this occasion is the word logos
or logos. And John is leaning into a
philosophical term that those who spoke Greek and those who
thought like Greeks would have appreciated and understood.
Because the Greek philosophers like Socrates and Pluto, and I
mean Plato, Plato, Pluto's the dog, right?
So he was a philosopher too, but different era.
So the the philosophers, the Greek philosophers, they spoke
of the logos and to them the logos is what what people were
chasing after. It meant like the meaning of
life, the purpose that we're all filled, we're all arrive with
this void and something is needing to fill it and we
believe it's relationship with God through Jesus.
But the Greek philosophers, they were looking for other things to
fill that void and they called it the logos.
They would sit around and talk about the logos.
So when John says in the beginning was the word, he's
saying in the beginning that purpose that you're looking for,
the meaning of life that you're looking for.
It's Jesus. And he was there in the
beginning, and then he put on human skin and he came to this
earth and he dwelt among us. Jesus is not the Bible, so to
speak. I mean, he's the fulfillment of
Scripture, yes, and we get to know him in Scripture.
But John is saying that in this occasion when he uses the word,
the word he uses logos. He's saying Jesus was there in
the beginning and the purpose for life that you're looking
for, It is Him. Now, certainly we find truth in
Scripture and Jesus again, fulfill Scripture.
But John is saying Jesus is the meaning and purpose for life
that we're all looking for. And in your notes, I have the
Greek way of spelling it out there Logos.
Now while it's true we grow to know Christ more to his word,
John is not calling Jesus scripture, but instead the
meaning of all that the Greek philosophers were seeking.
Now Psalm 37 verse 3 for go back to the Psalms again, back to the
idea of delighting ourselves in the Lord.
The psalmist says trust in the Lord and do good.
And dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of
your heart. In this occasion, we're being
commanded to delight ourselves in the Lord and we delight
ourselves in Scripture. We find God in Scripture, we get
to know Him. We grow in our understanding of
who God is by being faithful to Scripture.
Whether you're reading or listening or hearing it taught
about that is the way that you're going to grow in your
faith and in your walk with Jesus and a hunger for God's
truth found in His Word, a delighting in it.
That is the discipline that we're trying to grow as
Christians and it takes work. It takes discipline and the
Psalms obsession with the word reminds us often of how
important the word is and we are wanting to delight in God and
it's going to take effort and work.
Now I wore these boots today, these boots, I've had them for
like 4 years, 3 or 4 years. And and when I got these boots
initially 3 or 4 years ago, I got them here at Jays.
They're thorough, good boots. They're really, I love them.
I think they're great boots, but I went to get them and the guy
at the young man at Jays that was helping me, he went, brought
the shoes and I've tried them on and he looked at me kind of
sideways and he's like, so he goes, are you a working man?
And when he said that I was like, well, yeah, I'm a working
man. Of course I work, I have a job,
right? But he buddy, what he meant I
think was are you a Carpenter? Are you construction guy?
Are you in the trades? Why are you buying these boots?
I'm like because I like them. I'm a working man, right, But
not in the tradition that maybe he thought, right.
So I call these my working man boots, right?
So here's The thing is that if we're going to grow in our
relationship with God, if we're to get to a place where we
delight in the Lord, then we have to become working men and
women. We have to put the work into
growing in our delight of God and learning God's principles
and ways. And again, the Psalms, as you
read through the Psalms those 203 times that you're going to
see them just talking about how great God's laws are and how
great his word is in his precepts.
It's reminding us that yes, this is God's truth is great and it's
life changing. And again, they only had the
first five books of the Bible to go on when they were bragging
about how great God's truth was. We have more the teachings of
Jesus, the New Testament, we have all of this and we should
be leaning into it. Now.
I'm going to end with a song this morning.
And this is a, this is a song that I wrote like, gosh, like in
2002. And it still resonates with me
just thinking about our love for God's Word and our love for
God's truth. And some of you might remember
there was a group in like the 70s and 80s called Harvest.
It was Jerry Williams and Ed Carr.
Anybody remember the group Harvest?
Yeah. So Ed Carr was one of the, it
was like Simon and Garfunkel for a while.
It was two of them. And they were just really great.
And my parents, who are I'm sure watching right now, had Harvest
Records in our home when I was a boy.
And then I saw them in concert like in the 5th grade.
And then I saw him like the 7th grade in a concert.
And then years later, as I grew up, I got to meet Ed and we
started touring in a band together called Mirror Out the
Praise Band in my late 20s and got to write some songs with
him. And he's just a legend and was
in touch with him this week. And it just kind of reminded me
of the song. But the heartbeat of the song
has got, I want to learn more about you.
And then I want to live what I learn, and I want to become more
like you with every page, every page in Scripture and His word
that we read and lean into it should cause us growth as we
delight in the Lord. So Tani has the lyrics for this.
Maybe I'll have you sing it with me.
And you, by the way, you can find us online if you just
Google Kirk Caulfield. I want to learn more.
You'll find it like Amazon or iTunes or wherever you stream
your music. It goes like this.
I want to learn more about you and live what I learn.
I want to be calm more like you. With every page I turn, with
every story in every verse. Show me treasures from your word
more about you. I want to learn more and I find
a light Lord. As a.
Student of your truth. And I.
Seek the wisdom that can only come from you and I will finish
what I started. Help me follow through and fill
my heart with words of life to guide me.
Will fill my heart with words of life to guide me.
I want to learn more about you and then then what I'll learn.
I want to become more liking with every page I turn or with
every story in every verse. Show me treasures from your word
more about you. I want to learn more.
And. I have a promise.
That your word. Will be my life here on this
pathway as I travel through this life and help me hear you.
I am listening and opened up my eyes.
Fill my heart with words of life to guide me.
Oh fill my heart with words of life to guide me.
I want to learn more about and then what I learned.
I want to be calm. More like you with every page I
turn. Oh, in every story you never
reverse. Show me.
Treasures from your word more about you.
I want to learn more. Tony, maybe you can back that up
to the course. And would you sing that with me?
Can you make that your prayer this morning as we finish up,
say I want to learn more about you.
Here we go. Let's try it together.
But I want to learn more about. You and then live.
What I learn I want to become more like you.
Or with every page I turn O in every story and every verse.
So many treasures from your word.
More about you. I want to learn more.
Oh. Say.
More and more, more and more and more and more about you.
More and more and more and more and more and more and more about
you Jesus. More and more and more and more
and more and more about you. I want to learn more.
God, it's our prayer that as we delight in your Word that you
will guide our path. You will grow within us an even
greater love and understanding of the depths of your truth.
Lead us God to greater depths in your word as the Psalms
encouragement. We pray this in Jesus name and
everyone together said Amen. Hey, before we go, I just want
to take a moment. If you're here this morning and
you've been wrestling with the decision to become a Christian,
and what does that look like, what does it mean?
Well, the Bible says that if you believe in your heart and
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, then you shall be
saved. And maybe you're here this
morning and you've never made that commitment, then I want to
give you an opportunity to do so.
And you don't have to understand all of the doctrine and theology
of our faith. You just need to know that Jesus
is calling you to come and spend eternity with Him.
And it can happen because of the price that he paid on the cross
and the fact that he rose again and that he is God.
He's calling us to repentance, to turn from our own selfish
ways, and to invite Him to be the Lord of our lives.
So I'm going to pray. And if you've never done that,
or maybe you've just been far from God and you want to say,
God come and reign in me again, then I encourage you to pray and
echo this prayer with me. And then I would encourage you
to tell somebody, go in and let a friend or relative know you
can reach out to me and let me know that you made that decision
so that you can be encouraged in your decision to follow and
chase after Jesus. I'm going to pray and I
encourage you to echo this prayer.
Heavenly Father, I come to you in Jesus name and I say I want
you to be the Lord of my life. So I surrender to you.
I surrender to you reigning and ruling in my life.
So I repent of my sin and I thank you for forgiveness that
comes to the cross and the resurrection of Jesus.
And I thank you for eternal life.
Now that comes in the Holy Spirit, come and abide in me and
I thank you that that eternal life that I received now will
last forever and I will spend eternity with you.
Help me to grow in your ways, to grow in your word as we talked
about this morning. Come and be the Lord of my life.
I pray in Jesus name and everyone together said Amen and
Amen. All right, well, again, thanks
for coming this morning. Before we go, I want to say a
blessing over you. So if you'll stand together and
prepare your heart to receive this blessing, and then we'll
go. And now may the Lord bless you
and keep you, and may he make his face to shine upon you.
And may the joy of the Lord that is unspeakable and full of
glory, may it have bound to you. May the peace of God that passes
all understanding, may it surprise you in the midst of all
of the challenges that life brings.
And then may the mercies of the Lord, in other words, the
forgiveness of God, that is new every morning.
May it be especially new to you now and your mornings to come.
And now may the Lord Jesus Christ guard your heart and your
mind. You are salt and you are light.
Go now and be salt and light unto the world, you.
Are blessed. Hey if you have time to help.