Psalms 19

Blessed be your name. In the land that is plentiful where streams of abundance flow. Blessed be your name.

Blessed be your name. When I'm found in the desert place. Though I walk through the wilderness. Blessed be your name.

Every blessing you pour out turn back to praise. And when the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your glorious name.

Blessed be your name. When the sun's shining down on me. When the world's all as it should be. Blessed be your name.

Blessed be your name. On the road marked with suffering. Though there's pain in the offering. Blessed be your name.

Every blessing you pour out, I'll turn back to praise. When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I will say. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your glorious name. You give and take away. You kill and take away. My heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be your name.

Every blessing you pour out, I turn back to praise. When the darkness closes in, Lord, still I'm going to say. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name, Jesus. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Blessed be your glorious name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your glorious name. You kill and take away. Oh, you kill and take away. My heart will choose to say.

Oh, blessed be. Amazing.

The battle rages on a storm and tempest roar.

We cannot win this fight Inside our rebel hearts. We're laying down our weapons now. We raise our white flag. We surrender all to you. All for you.

We raise our white flag. The war is over. Love has come. Your love is one.

Here on this holy ground.

You made a way for peace.

Laying your body down you took our rightful place.

This freedom song is marching on. We raise our white flag. We surrender all to you, all for you. We raise our white flag. Doors over Love has come.

Your love is one.

We lift the cross Lifted high, lifted high. We lift the cross Lifted high. Lifted high. We lift the cross Lifted high. Lifted high.

We lift the cross did high high. We lift the cross Lifted high. Lifted high. We lift the cross Lifted high. Lifted high.

We lift the cross Lifted high. Lifted high. We lift the cross. We lifted high, lifted high. We raise our white flag.

We surrender to you all for you. We raise our white flag. The war is over. Love has come. Your love is one.

We raise our white flag. We surrender all to you over you. We raise our white Flag through over Love has come, your love has won we lived the cross lifted high Lifted high We lived the cross lifted high Lifted high oh we lift the cross lifted high Lifted high We lift the cross Lifted high Lifted high Sa O Lord my God When I an awesome wonder Consider all the world thy hands have made I see the star, I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe display Then sings my soul My saviour God to thee how great thou art how great thou art Then sings my soul My saviour God to thee how great thou art how great thou art when through the woods and forest glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze Then sings my soul My savior God to thee how great thou art how great thou art Then sings my soul My savior God to thee how great thou art how great thou art and when I think that God his son not sparing sent him to die I scarce can take it in that on a cross my burdens gladly bearing he bled and died to take away my sin Then sings my soul My saviour God to thee how great thou art how great Thou art Then sings my soul My savior God to thee how great thou art how great great thou art When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation and take me home what joy shall fill my heart Then I shall bow in humble adoration and there proclaim my God God, how great thou art Then sings my soul My saviour God to thee how great thou art how great Thou art Then sings my soul My Savior God to thee how great thou art how great Thou Thou art How great Thou art How great Thou art Father, thank you for this day, Lord. Thank you for your greatness. And we thank you Lord, for how great you are.

Father, we thank you that you did send your son, that he did take on the cross and die for our sins and that he did rise again. And we thank you that we get to be here today and worship you and hear from you. Because of that, I ask as we do so, that you'll transform us to the image of your Son. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Well, good evening everyone. Welcome back to Church of the Bible. I'm happy to be here today, happy to be with you all. And I'm just happy that we get to continue our study through the book of the Psalms. Before we begin announcements, Wednesday at 6:30 we will meet.

We'll be together. I believe that we are going to be in Luke chapter 20 this week. So we're working our way through the book of Luke. And then I've kind of mentioned that I've been working on a church devotional and podcast. I hadn't heard back from anyone on whether or not they wanted notifications in the app for that or not.

So a little bit of feedback there would be great. If you guys want me to send a notification when I post a devotional or episode or not, those are gonna be coming live this week, so just send me a text and let me know.

And then other than that, let's jump into the Psalms and pick up where we left off last time. I'm gonna bring up our slides here. We're gonna jump. Last week we were in Psalms 19, and this week we're gonna jump way up into Psalms chapter 119. So we're making a huge jump.

A little bit of information about this chapter before we begin. It is the largest chapter in the book of Psalms and the largest chapter in the entire Bible. It also sits there right in the middle of the Bible. And I don't think that's an accident. I think that's intentional, that it's right in the middle where it is.

This chapter is arranged in 22 sections, each beginning with the next letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. So the first beginning with Aleph or the first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. So each of these sections begin with a letter of the Alphabet, 22 sections, and they all have a theme around them. Each of these sections are eight verses. So it is my hope today to get through seven or eight of them.

Them. And then next week to get through seven or eight, and then the final week to get through the final seven. So this is going to take about three weeks to get through this chapter. It's really long.

And then one other quick note before we begin. Every verse in this chapter, with the exception of the first three and verse 115, like I said, long chapter. So every verse, with the exception of those four verses, directly address God, which means this psalm is really one very large prayer. And we got dogs barking. Sorry.

All right, we're going to begin here. We're going to look at the first section, which is verses 1 through 8, says, how happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk according to the Lord's instruction. Happy are those who keep his decrees and seek him with all their heart. They do nothing wrong. They walk in his ways.

You have commanded that your precepts be diligently kept. If only my ways were committed to Keeping your statutes, statutes. Then I will not be ashamed when I think about all your commands. I will praise you with an upright heart When I learn your righteous judgments. I will keep your statutes.

Never abandon me.

Okay, this is a. The introduction to the Psalm. Whoops, there we go. And the very opening of it reminds me when we first started in Psalms chapter one, if we looked at those first three verses, it contrasted those who walk in the way of righteousness and those who walk in the way of wickedness, right? And the psalmist here, he says, happy are those whose way is blameless.

I. When we were in chapter one, I kind of mentioned this and. And I can't remember if I mentioned it last week or not, but we live in a society where we see rules or commands or laws as restrictions on our freedom, restrictions on our happiness. The Bible does not present rules and regulations and laws in such a way that when you read from the people who knew them, who learned them, who followed them, what we see is that they actually brought happiness, right? And we can even see that today if we for a moment set aside moral law, and by that I mean God's law, and just look for briefly at man's law, right?

Even the laws we have which are designed to take away rights and freedoms. And we do have laws like that. When are you most happy? Are you most happy when you're doing whatever you want, not thinking about the consequences, and you're looking over your shoulder, you're worrying about getting caught, you're worrying about the consequence or you're facing the consequence? And most, most certainly, when we're facing consequences, we're not having any sort of joy and happiness in our life.

Or are you more happy, more joyful, more relaxed and content when you are obeying the rules and obeying the laws that have been set forth to follow? And I would argue more often than not, we're happiest, we have the most joy when we're just obeying the law, when we're not facing consequences, when we're not facing penalties and punishments. Now, when we enter in, let's bring morality back, God's law back into this picture. I want to say that the argument for obeying God's rules is not the same as the argument for obeying man's rules. We obey man's rules because we don't want the consequence.

The reason to obey God's rules, however, are different. The reason to obey his rules is because not out of fear of penalty, but for the joy, for the happiness that they bring. God created a perfect world, a perfect universe, perfect order. Order. He says that in in the end of Genesis, chapters one and two, right?

He says that that he creep when he finished creating, he saw that all of his creation it was good. And a God who made a good creation, a perfect creation and put us in it, he gave us guidelines, right? A rulebook for living. But that rulebook for living wasn't to restrict you you or to remove your happiness. But that rulebook for living was how to live best inside of that perfect creation that he made.

You have the most joy and most happiness when you walk according to those ways, to those commands. So we open up here how happy are those whose way is blameless and walk according to the Lord's instruction. When we walk according to his instructions, we are happy, we are joyful, we have nothing to fear, nothing to worry about. Which is not by any means an argument to walk in his instruction, but it's definitely something to think about and to consider when we do walk in his instruction, not only is our way, not only are we happy, but we are also not fearful. He continues and says, happy are those who keep his decrees and seek him with all their heart.

So two things here, both of them with all your heart. So happy are those who keep his decrees with all their heart, right? And happy are those who seek him with all their heart. The reason that I'm saying both of those is because I was thinking about yesterday I was writing on the book of Job, and in the book of Job, one of the things that said several times about Job is that in what he had did, he did not sin, and that said three times about him. But one of the three times that said, the editor adds in one additional note, says, he did not sin with his lips.

And I found that when that was brought to my attention and I saw that and in my study yesterday, that hit me. Why is why is the three times that it said that Job did not sin, but one of the three the addition of with his lips, what is with that addition? Does that mean that Job did not sin, or does it mean he just did not sin outwardly? Right? A great example is one that Jesus uses in the Sermon on the Mount when He says, you have heard it said, thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say, if you look at a woman with lust in your heart, you've committed adultery already.

Jesus highlighted the difference between outward sin, which is physical manifestation of sin, and inward sin, which is sin that is manifested in the heart but has not, either has not physically manifested or has yet to physically manifestate. So first, happy are those who keep his decree trees with their heart, right? Like we can see the difference. They're not happy are those who keep it outwardly, but who give an image of keeping it.

I'm gonna have to figure something out for the dogs after today. They should not be barking like this.

The, the physical manifestation in the New Testament, we are told what that looks like. It looks like having the appearance of godliness, but none of the power thereof.

So second is happy are those who seek him with all their heart. We need to seek God. And God will. We cannot seek him until he begins to draw us to Him. But this idea that it is totally one sided is a false ideology right now.

That is not to say that we are saved by any works that we could do. But salvation is not totally one sided. There is an effort on our part to salvation. And that effort, it's not hard and it's not works, but it is effort. And that effort is seeking God, right?

We need to seek him. We need to look for Him. We need to accept, right? And I hate though the phrase accept. And I need to stop.

I need to stop using it personally. And I encourage other Christians to stop using accept Jesus. One thing I've noticed when I go back and read my transcripts, I often end with if you accept him into your heart. And the word accept, I think is the wrong word here. The reason I say the word except is the wrong word is if you go to John chapter one and look at verses nine through 14, what you see Jesus say is not accept.

He. He doesn't say that he was accepted or not accepted. He says he was rejected by the world. He was rejected by his own. But to all who received him was given power or given the right to be the sons of God.

And accept and receive are totally different things. I can accept that the loss is one thing and not receive it. Even though I accept that sort of says I might live contrary to it. Whereas if I receive it and bring it into me, then I'm going to have a different outlook, a different perspective and a different reaction to it. So there is, there is some effort on our part and that is namely receiving Jesus Christ into heart.

We need to receive Him. It then says this. They do nothing wrong and they walk in his ways.

I'm going to say this. When we were in the epistles of John a few weeks ago, John said that those who are in Christ sin not, and those who sin are not in Christ, not in the light. And then he says Anyone who says they have no sin is not in the light for they to see themselves. That sounds like a contradiction, right? When said that way, it sounds like it's a contradiction, right?

Those who who are in the light do not sin. Those who do sin are not in the light. And those who say they have no sin are not in the light, for they are deceivers. So how do we handle this apparent contradiction that takes place place over a few verses? And the same contradiction appears here because as we continue to read, you're going to see that this person is aware, the author of the psalm is aware that he does wrong.

And the way that we resolve this contradiction is the way that we resolved it in the Epistles of John, right? And that's looking at the tense of the verb to see sin. The Bible is not declaring that if we, if we receive Jesus into our heart, that we will never sin again. Rather, the idea and the concept is that a regular pattern of sin will be broken and instead our lives will be characterized by a pattern of righteousness, right? So you can have a pattern of sin with sporadic righteousness, or you can have a pattern of righteousness with sporadic sin, right?

And so it's that willful desire and willful sin that and that pattern of sin that we are talking about here. Instead, they walk in the ways of God. And then he says this, and I'm going to read these two sentences together. Together you have commanded your precepts be diligently kept. And if only my ways were committed to keeping your statutes, then I would not be ashamed when I think about your commands.

So notice, like I said, that apparent contradiction appears once again throughout the psalm. And we're not going to get through it all today. But throughout it, this guy talks about how much he loves the law of God and how much he praises God for his law. And yet, right here, if we read this, if only my ways are committed to keeping your statutes, what that tells us is his ways are not always committed to keeping his statutes, that he does depart, that he does, that he does go down the wrong path. And this, this chapter ends if you jump all the way to the final verse of this chapter.

He says that he wanders like a lost sheep, right? So he understands that he does sin. But here's what he says about it. If only we were committed to keeping the instruction of the Lord, we will not be ashamed when we think about his commands. How many of you, and don't tell me this, do not raise your hand, but how many of you, when you Think about the commands of God.

Do you start to feel ashamed?

I can say I know that I do, and I don't want to know if you do or do. But I can say that there are times when I start to meditate or think about the commands of God that I start to feel ashamed. Why? Because I come across the ones that I have violated, especially if I have violated them recently. And what does that do?

It brings up shame because I know that I have not walked in the Lord's instruction in regard to that area of my life. And I know that not only does it bring shame to me, but more importantly, it brings shame to God. And I am. I'm gonna derail here as I go through this chapter. There's gonna be some rabbit trails.

I don't like rabbit trailing. We. Most of us know that I don't like rabbit trail, but this just brings up a lot of things to rabbit trailer on one of the commandments. And I. I did not come up with this, just so you know.

And I can't remember who I heard it from. So just know what I'm about to say is I did not come up with it. I'm going to paraphrase it because I can't remember exactly how it was said, but the idea around it is not my own.

The commandment, thou shall not take, take the Lord's name in vain. What does that commandment mean?

I think if I just asked anyone what it means without much thought, I'm gonna get an answer. And the answer is probably going to be something along the lines of, don't use it improper. Right. Don't use his name as a swear word. Don't use it without reverence.

Don't use it in the wrong way. And that's what most of us were taught. In fact, that's what the most of the 21st, the 20th and 21st century church has taught.

But then it was pointed out, it doesn't say, don't use the Lord's name in vain. It doesn't say don't speak his name in vain. It says, don't take his name in vain.

Very specific language. What does it mean?

Well, here's what it means. When I get. When I got married to my wife, she took on my name. Her last name changed from Meadows to Davis. She now bears my name.

And when we either truly or not, take on the name of Crusher, there are people who. Who bear his name who aren't actually saved, but they use. They throw his name around as if, you know, they have they are saved or have authority. But when you. When you are saved, you take on the name of Christ.

It is inscribed on our hearts. We're sealed at the Holy Spirit. We are, it says spiritually, we are stamped on the forehead as his second Corinthians 5, 20 says, we become his ambassador, ambassadors. So we bear his name. And we can do that one of two ways.

We can bear it righteously, right? And we can take on his name, and we can bear it, and we can bring glory to God, but we can do the opposite as well. We can take on his name and while using his name and while bearing his name, whether we use his name or not, if we have proclaimed ourselves to be a Christian, we have taken on his name, and people know that. And then the way in which we live reflects on God. And think about this from an Old Testament perspective or an ancient perspective, not even Old Testament, but as you enter until 500, not even that.

Even 100 years ago, when a wife took off on the husband's last name, her actions did not just reflect on her, her actions reflected on her husband, right? We don't see that as much in our society, right? We don't see it play out that way. But throughout history, even up to a hundred years ago, the actions of a wife, right, they reflected upon her husband. We as the Church are the bride of Christ.

And we need to look at it in the Old Testament imagery there, when we take on the name of Christ, our actions, our ways of living, what we do reflect upon him. So when he says, do not take the names of the Lord in vain, or do not bear the names Lord. Lord, bear the Lord's name in vain. He is telling us to not bring shame to him.

So back to our verse here. If only my ways are committed to your ways, then I will not be ashamed when I think about your commands and when I begin to think about the. The wrongs, right? You see, hey, I'm not only shamed myself, but I shamed Christ. I have shamed the name of God.

He then continues, he says, I will praise you with an upright heart when I learn your righteous judgments as we learn the ways of God. Judgments here doesn't just mean judge, as in judge whether or not someone's innocent or guilty. But judgments here is used broadly to say, as I learn of your righteous ways, I will praise you with an upright heart. Because as we learn his ways and walk in his ways, we become happy, we have joy, we have peace that cannot be explained. And we can praise God with an upright Heart.

And he has a prayer to never abandon him. Let's go and look at the next. The next passage here, next passage says, how can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping your word. I have sought you with all my heart.

Don't let me wander from your commands. I have treasured your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you. Lord, may you be blessed. Teach me your statutes with my lips. I proclaim all the judgments from your mouth.

I rejoice in the way revealed by your decrees as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and think about your ways. I will delight in your statues. I will not forget your word. Okay, what does this remind me of?

Very first. It reminds me of first John, chapter five, which has been coming up a lot lately. What does first John, chapter five tell us? And we're gonna actually see this come up again? I don't know if it will be tonight or next week.

I can't remember where it is in my notes.

But John chapter five, it tells us this, that blessed is the one I'm paraphrasing, in whom the commands of God are not a burden. When you look here, what this person is saying, he's saying, I treasure your word. Right? May you be blessed. Teach me your word.

Teach me your ways. I rejoice when you reveal your ways. I meditate on them. I delight in them. I won't forget them.

Right? These are all the things that he says. This does not sound like a man with whom the ways of God are burdensome. These sound like the words of a man who truly does find happiness and freedom in the word of God. Let's look at the first verse, though, says, how can a young man keep his way pure?

This is an excellent question.

And it recognizes something. It recognizes that humans are prone to sin. It's in our nature. So if sin is in our nature, how can we keep our way pure? He answers.

He says, by keeping your word. I'll draw everyone's attention back to John, chapter 15. And John chapter 15. Jesus says this. I am the vine and you are the branch.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, that one will bear much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. So Jesus tells us what is proclaimed right here. How do we bear fruit? How do we be pure?

By abiding in him and him in us. And then he prays her. He says, don't let me wander from your commands. Right? So this is not at all.

I. And I heard people translate things like this or in the Lord's Prayer, right? And near the end of the Lord's Prayer, it says, and lead me not into temptation. And I have heard people take these things and kind of flip it, flip the script and be like, well, that means that God does lead you into temptation. If you have.

If you ask him not to, that means that he does, right? And here to sit, say, don't let me wander from your commands. I've heard people say that means that God will. And I'm going to say this. God doesn't lead anyone into temptation.

God can't lead you to sin. I said this last week, there is nothing in the Bible that properly read and understood could lead somebody to sin. But will God let you wander away from his ways? Yeah, he will, right? That's what Romans 1 says.

When you read Romans 1, it says that that man, particularly the people that Paul was writing about, but humankind in general, have become so corrupt that God gave in to their evil desires. Not that God did evil, but gave in and cut them loose. He cut them loose from him and allowed them to follow their evil and deceitful hearts.

The prayer here is that God would not do that. That God would not let us stray and wander away from his commands. And why does the psalmist pray this? And. And the answer is simple, because you can't.

Even with Christ in our heart, even if we make a true profession of faith and receive him, if we do not abide in him, if we do not remain in him, if we do not let him direct our path, direct our life, we will stray from his commands. We'll stray from His Word. The greatest weapon that the enemy has against us is a moment that we say, hey, I've got it. I figured it out and I'm okay now. Because in that moment, we have given up reliance upon God and we are relying upon ourselves, our own power, to keep us on that very straight and narrow path.

He says, I treasure your word in my heart so that I will not sin against you. The Bible tells us that the way to avoid sin, right, to avoid falling into sin, isn't just to read God's Word, but to take every thought captive to the Word of Christ, to use the armor of God, right? And in the armor of God, our only offensive weapon is the sword, which is the Word of God. So we treasure it in our hearts. We meditate on it day and night.

We read it daily. We don't just accept it, what it says, but we receive it into our hearts that we may not sin against him.

And then he prays, teach me your statutes. Teach me your ways. Right. Wisdom. And we've read about this wisdom.

True wisdom comes from God. Paul said to the Corinth, the church in Corinth, let us become fools that we may become wise. Let's look. We're only gonna get one more in today. I was hoping to get seven or eight, and it looks like we're just gonna get three.

So we're gonna go look at one more before we end for the night.

Verses 17 through 24. He says, Deal generously with your servant so that I might live. Then I will keep your word. Open my eyes so that I may contemplate wondrous things from your instruction. I am a resident alien on earth.

Do not hide your commands from me. I am continually overcome with longing for your judgments. You rebuke the arrogant, the ones under a curse, who wander from your commands. Take insult and contempt away from me, for I have killed. Accept your decrees.

Though princes sit together, speak against me. Your servant will think about your statutes. Your decrees are mighty, light and my counselors.

All right, so this first sentence here, the first verse, deal generously with your servants so that I may live. Then I will keep your word. I need to make sure that we understand this properly. Properly. This is not a if, then statement the way the English portrays it, Right?

This English, as we read it in English, it sounds like he says, be generous to me. And if you are, you know, if you are generous, I'll keep your word. Right. And that would turn God into a transactional God. Right?

A transactional God is a God who says, all right, if you do good, I'll do good. If you do evil, I'll do evil. And God is not transactional. So that. That is not what this guy is saying.

Rather, we need to understand what he is saying from Hebrew thought and Hebrew poetry. When he says, deal generously with your servant so that I may live, then I will keep your word. What he is really saying is, I can't keep your word. I can't glorify you if I don't live.

So he understands when he says, deal generously with your servant so that I may live. What he is asking here is, he understands that whether or not there is breath in our lungs, a heartbeat in our chest, and life in this body is up to the generosity of God.

However, we can't glorify God on earth if we do not live. We have seen the same type of usage before in the Book of Psalms. We've seen it by Moses, we've seen it in other places where the concept is, give me what I need to glorify you. Not a if you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you. But if you give me what I need, I.

I have a heart for you. I want to keep your word and I need your power. I. I need you in me to do it. Now look what he says.

Open my eyes that I may contemplate wondrous things from your instruction. He recognizes exactly what Christ taught us in the New Testament. He says that we are blind, right? He taught that to the Pharisees, you are blind. And they ridiculed him.

They mocked him and said, who is this guy? We can see just fine, and yet he says that we are blind. But Jesus wasn't talking about physical blindness. He was talking about spiritual blindness, right? We are born blind in this world to spiritual truths, right?

There are certain spiritual truths that speak louder than that blindness, like the existence of God. Romans 1. To us, that his existence is made so visible and manifest that no one is without excuse. But we are still blind to what is and isn't moral. We are blind as to how to deal and live in this life.

We are blind as to who God is and what his ways are and what his instructions are. You can even have the Bible in your hands and read it. And without God opening your eyes, you cannot understand it. Then the next thing he says. I love what he says.

From here, I am a resident alien on earth. Don't hide your commands from me. If we are to understand ourselves to be Christians and to understand ourselves to have a hope for the coming of Christ and the kingdom that he promises to bring, we also need to understand something else. We do not belong to this world. We live in it.

We're physically here, but we're here temporarily. We are aliens here. We don't belong. We're not of the world. But we're the kingdom of God.

But we often get complacent with being here and begin to act less like resident aliens and more like residents resident citizens. And we are not resident citizens of this world. We are alien here. Our home, our kingdom, our ruler is in heaven.

He says, I'm continually overcome with longing for your judgments. Again, let's understand judgments here more broadly than just judge and right and wrong in a court of law, but understanding the ways and the precepts of God. He says, I continually long for them. This is a guy who's not just content with knowing enough to be saved. This is a guy who is continually long in to have a deeper, more profound relationship with God.

He says, you rebuke the arrogant, the ones under a curse, who wander from your commands, right? And we see that what happens to those who are under the curse. Romans says that all who are under a law are under a curse, and that curse is death. The prayer here, he says, is taken salt and contempt from me, for I have kept your decree.

What he is looking toward is he is looking toward a God who has mercy, a characteristic of a merciful God who will take away the contempt from us. And he did that in Jesus Christ on the cross. And he says, as though princes sit together, speaking against me, your servant. I will think about your statutes. Your decrees are my delight and my counselors.

I love what he says here and I want to break it down into what it really means in our context, in our context, the secular world world, the secular governments, the secular institutions, the people who are considered wise and brilliant, right? They sit together and they speak against Christians, they speak against God, they speak against religion, they mock us, they think that we're stupid, that we're unwise, that we follow a fairy tale. And he says, and even though the, the princes, the nations of the earth come together and mock us, he says, I will still think about your statutes. I won't think about their mockery. I won't let their mockery bother me.

I won't let it get to me, I won't let it stop me. I will think about your ways, for I delight in your ways. And I get counsel from your word, your word, your wisdom, not from the wisdom of the world.

As we will come back here next week, we'll pick up in verse 25. One moment. If I do not note that right now, I'm going to forget. So we're gonna pick up in verse 25 when we come back and we'll see how far we get next week with this. But as we come to an end today to these three blocks that we've done, I encourage you to take delight in God's word.

I encourage you to seek it, to hope, to understand it, and to take joy in living out the life that God intends for us to live out again. We'll be here to meet on Wednesday at 6:30. We'll be in Luke chapter 20. And until then, God bless everyone. I love you all.

And don't forget, for those who are interested to let me know one way or another. If you want notifications when daily devotionals or podcast episodes are released into our app, let's pray. Father, I admit that I am a sinner and that I cannot save myself. And I admit, Lord, that my ways are wrong and corrupt. But that your ways are pure.

That your ways are life giving and freedom given that true liberty is found in your wisdom. So Father, I ask that you'll open our eyes and that you'll give us that wisdom, that you won't hide it from us. And I ask that our joy will be in you. I ask that we will receive you, Lord, not just accept you, but receive you into our hearts. That when we bear your name, that we do not bring shame to to it, but glory to your name on earth and in heaven.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.