[The following is a manuscript written to precede the delivery of a sermon. It has been pointed out that a manuscript differs greatly in tone from a sermon. This is true, as when presented publicly, the manuscript of the sermon is not available to the speaker (me). The implication is that the sermon is the better communication, more enjoyable, and this is likely the case for when delivering a sermon, the conscientious pastor will of course seek to enliven the presentation with spontaneous illustrations and even new information that has entered into his mind subsequent to writing the manuscript. For those preferring the sermon version in writing, alas, like most pastors, we have no stenographer to take down the words as delivered from the stage. With that in mind, any wishing to experience the sermon corresponding to this or most any post I make on substack (the vast majority are manuscripts), I refer to you the church website, www.harvestpa.org, where the sermons can be searched by title. —mg]
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TEXT: Psalm 119:105–112 (ESV)
105Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
106I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, to keep your righteous rules.
The word of God is associated with feet. He reads God’s word and can see his feet. He reads God’s word and can see the path ahead where he can direct his feet. For David, the word of God is less a book for academics, and more a book for mechanics and practitioners.
Before there was youtube and google, each time I got a different used car, I would do as my older brother had taught me and buy a Chilton manual for that specific make and model of car. For those who do not know, a Chilton manual is a practitioner’s book. It is not a book to read just to know what it says, but it is a book filled with diagrams and instructions for the complete care and maintenance of one brand of automobile. The book was useless unless you put into practice what it said.
Now, the Bible is more than a practitioner’s manual –in it is beauty, and history, and theological knowledge, and poetry, and enough wonder to fill the imagination for a lifetime. But God designed it in one way like a Chilton manual: if you do not put it into practice, it is of little or even no value.
Last week, we considered the man who builds his house on the rock, verse the man who builds on the sand. What was the difference between the two? One was a hearer; one was a hearer and a doer. We often think we are wise when we take time to understand what the Bible says. But the wise are those who use the Bible to direct their actions.
There is a need for a commitment to continual change. That is why the Psalmist says that he made an oath continually apply what he reads. The one who reads the Bible and does not gain is the one who does not commit to make a change every time he reads it.
When hearing a sermon, the hearer must begin by saying, “I am looking to understand the word of God being preached, and I am making a commitment to correct and change any wrong ways in my thinking andbehaving.”
What does Romans 12 say to us about this?
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.—Romans 12:2
There is a continual change that carries the wise Christian through his life. The mind and the thinking are transformed each time the word is read or heard –or at least that should happen. But it only happens for those who make the decision to change continually, like David in our Psalm. He says that he “swore and oath,” to put into practice what he learned.
The mind that is trained by constantly conforming to the Word is one that grows in understanding of God’s will, and what is good.
What about you? When you read the Bible, will you make up your mind and promise to God, “Whatever you show me, I will do. Whatever improvements to my thoughts and attitudes are needed, I will make the changes!”?
The word is a light to the body part most necessary for movement: our feet! That means action!
107I am severely afflicted; give me life, O Lord, according to your word!
108Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me your rules.
109I hold my life in my hand continually, but I do not forget your law.
Verse 107 and 109 have become familiar refrains in Psalm 119. David has trained his mind to face life’s afflictions and trials with holding tight to the word of God. All troubles eventually pass on, but how to do they effect the ones who are afflicted? Does a trial destroy a person? Injure him permanently? Make him bitter and faithless? Or lead to peace, stability, and contentment?
There is no need for me to continually repeat what we have seen over and over in Psalm 119, that David perseveres through every trial by his dogged determination to hold onto the truths and promises of God. But perhaps there is a need to point out that it is easier to learn the promises of God before the trial begins, so that they are there when the trouble starts. It is more difficult for the one who neglects God’s great truths, and neglects obedience, to, when the trials rage, hold tight to promises with which he is not familiar.
For that reason, be sure to read your Bible and learn it’s truth when the sun is shining, so that when the rain comes, you are ready.
But let’s look again at verse 108 for it has a treasure for us.
108Accept my freewill offerings of praise, O Lord, and teach me your rules.
Giving offerings to the Lord is the first form of worship known to man. Adam and Eve taught their sons to give back to God the first portion of their increase. This is not a matter of Law as much as it is about understanding one’s relationship to God. God made us. Everything that everyone has on this earth is a gift to us. When He gives us things, they belong to us. But we can become forgetful of God, and ungrateful. In order to prevent this, we worship Him by giving the first portion of our increase back to Him. This is the reason why Christians who tithe and give above the tithe find their hearts lighter in relation to worries about provision. We are reminded that we do not provide for ourselves anyway, but our good God gives us all things.
But long before Moses wrote any offerings into the Law, there were the first children of men, giving offerings to God. Abel, for his part, as a shepherd, offered a first-born animal. Cain, as a farmer, offered produce. And though Cain’s offering lacked faith (that is another story), the fault was in him, not the offering itself. It is right to give back to God what He has given to us.
By the time of David, the Law of Moses had come for Israel, and there were many offerings coded into the law. Jews, among all peoples, understand the concept of sacrifices and offerings to God. There were offerings of bulls, and sheep, and goats, and grain, and coin, and all the rest. But here David is offering something that in one sense, costs him nothing.
A bull has a value. Coins have value. Goats have value. Produce has value. But praise? Well, that costs nothing at all, does it? But David makes it a freewill offering. He is not following a mandate or a law, here, but giving an offering to God of his own accord.
He asks God to please accept this offering from him, and so he should. God does not want just any offering. As we mentioned with Cain, his heart was not right, so God rejected his offerings. King Saul made an offering to God that only a priest should make, thereby making himself into God’s permanent enemy. The sons of Aaron gave God a strange fire as an offering, one that God did not specify, and for their trouble God sent His own holy fire and burned them up.
One time, when I was in middle school, I faked being sick so that I could stay home. Then, having nothing to do, I waxed the family car, thinking my dad would be proud of me. When I told them, he was not pleased as I thought he would be. He told me that if I was sick I should have been in bed, but since I waxed his car, I should have been in school. My father rejected my offering!
So, it is with God. He is not interested in our offerings if we do not obey Him.
And so David is offering up praise, and asking God to accept it.
Should he even take the risk?
Yes. To praise from the heart is to notice the good in someone, to appreciate someone, to be grateful for someone, it is an act of love. Fathers, do you regularly tell your children all the good things you see in them? If not, you must change for you are forsaking your love for them. Do you tell your daughters of their beauty? No? Then you must change and let them know the beauty you see in them. True praise in a true expression of love.
Will God accept David’s offering of praise? If it is true, yes. If it is false, no. Where does true praise come from? You guessed it! From contemplating the words of God and seeing Him in its pages, putting those words in practice and seeing Him everywhere you look. When I read how God made the world, and then see the beauty of a tree, my mind can connect the two and I can offer praise to God.
I offer the first fruits of my income to God –I tithe to my church, as all Christians should. And I pray that I would use the rest of my money in a way that pleases Him. But that sort of offering can run out real fast. I can only offer so much. But when it comes to praise, true praise, I am only limited by the amount I pay attention to God and His truth. In other words, I never have to run out. I don’t have to tithe, because I can give Him all my attention, all the time. And I should, for then I know how great He is, and how good He is, and my praise is an act of love that He will receive.
Why do we sing in church? Is it not a discipline so that we can learn to enjoy God and His attributes? Singing in church is praise practice! Sometimes it is even actual praise, when our minds begin to talk directly to Him in our songs. This praise is not a one-way street. God interacts with us when our hearts or set on Him.
For this reason, we should study God in His word until we see His beauty, His goodness, His greatness, His mercy, His strength, and then we too should offer up praise to God. Look at this encouragement to action in Hebrews:
Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.—Hebrews 13:15
Through Jesus, we are to continually offer up a sacrifice of praise. What is that? Fruit of lips that give thanks. We can make this offering all the time. It is not the Law of Moses, but the practice of those who love God. What is required to do this?
Making a choice to do what the Bible says to do. Will you continually offer up praise to God? The only way that happens is if you see Hebrews 13:15 as a lamp unto your feet. You have to say, “Oh look. This is what I will do. This is what I will vow to put into action.” You must make up your mind that you are going to change right now. If you do not, then you will turn away from this word of God, and forget you saw it, and will become like one who:
22But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. 24For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.-- James 1:22–24 (ESV)
The self-deceivers are a good percentage of people who go to church and listen to sermons. But when it is over, they walk away, unchanged, not even remembering the things they learned about themselves when they looked into the word.
To continually offer up praise to God, you must vow to think about Him and His word. Furthermore, you cannot use your tongue to continually complain, for complaining is anti-praise—complaining about your Moses and his manna, or your lot in life, is the same as saying to God, “You are not treating me like you should!”
Will you vow to offer up praise to God? Continually?
Of course, the greatest sacrifice that God wants from you includes praise, but He wants even more. He wants all of you, doesn’t He?
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.—Romans 12:1
Your praise, your words, your mind, your feet and everything are to be a daily offering of worship. Do you tithe? Good. But that is not enough. Do you praise? Good. But that is not enough. All God wants is all of you. Why? He loves all of you, and He wants a relationship with you that holds nothing back, as He has held nothing back from you.
Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. –Ephesians 5:1-2
Who do we imitate? What does it mean to walk in love? Christ gave more than a sacrifice of praise to the Father, didn’t He? Out of love for God, who loved us and gave us the Son, Jesus offered Himself on a cross. The Romans saw the cross as punishment for a troublemaker. The Jews saw the cross as removal of a threat. But God the Father saw the cross as the fragrant offering of a Son who loves Him without reservation.
Now He asks the same from you. Offer your all to Him. And He asks the same when we interact with each other. He is pleased when His children love one another as He loves us.
What parent is not delighted to see his children being kind to one another, forgiving one another, and enjoying one another? And yet, even these actions are framed by the Bible as worship. Jesus loved us and died for us on the cross as an act of worship. We love God and give all we have and all we are to Him, including the fruit of our lips, and that is worship. So even loving one another becomes an act of worship to our Father.
You have heard these words today.
Will they be for you a light on your feet? Will they show you how to act, how to behave, what path to take?
110 The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts.
111 Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart.
112 I incline my heart to perform your statutes forever, to the end.