YOU'RE WORD HAVE I HID IN MY HEART

YOU’RE WORD HAVE I HID IN MY HEART

Sunday, September 9, 23018, the Year of Our Lord

Pastor Carolyn Sissom

Psalm 119 excels all the other Psalms.  This feat of artistry is a literary monument of the Word of Truth.   A thread which runs right through the poem’s rich tapestry is an appreciation of the value of God’s revelation.  It is sweeter than honey (Vs. 103) and better than money.  The Word of God is the writer’s delight and desire.  It evokes his praise and his love. 

Because he sets such store by the Word, he turns to the One who gave it, appealing in his time of trouble to God’s character and promises.  Yet he is mature enough to realize that there is spiritual value in suffering and that it is God’s school.    He recognizes the obligation to stay loyal to God through thick or thin, and he reports that despite intense persecution and harassment he has not let his LORD down. 

God’s word is a lamp to his feet.  He rejoices that it has sustained him in the past and been a source of hope and comfort, of practical wisdom, and a satisfying life.  It is the basis of his hope for the future.  He commends a life of trust and obedience, yearning that others may tread this path.

Ps. 119:11:  Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

Then as now, not many are concerned to this extent over the breaking of God’s laws by themselves or others.  Sin is always a canker that corrupts and destroys the moral, mental and physical being.  The New Testament clearly declares the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Exodus Chapter 21 lists sins which were punishable by death under Israel’s civil law.

1. He, who smites a man, so that he dies, shall surely be put to death. (Ex. 21:12)
2. He who smites his father, or his mother shall surely be put to death (Ex. 21:15).
3. He who steals a man, and sells him, or if he be found in his hand shall surely be put to death. (Ex. 21:16).
4. He, who curses his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death. (Ex. 21:17).
5. If an ox (or animal) was to push with his horn, and the owner has not kept him in, and that ox (or animal) has killed a man or a woman, the ox (animal) shall be stoned and his owner shall also be put to death.

All of these are severe punishments, and have continued as part of our civil law with the exception of smiting and cursing one’s father or mother.  However, there is a moral law of God and the judgment is fulfilled by God.

Matthew 15: 3-9 – Living Bible:  Jesus replied, “And why do you, by your traditions, violate the direct commandments of God?  God says, “Honor your father and mother, and anyone who speaks disrespectfully of father or mother must be put to death.  But you say it is all right for people to say to their parents, “Sorry, I can’t help you.  "For I have vowed to give to God what I would have given to you.”  In this way, you say they don’t need to honor their parents, and so you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition.  You hypocrites!  Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."  Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as command from God.

Many, many years ago, the Lord spoke to me that Satan had accused me concerning my mother.  Satan is the accuser of the brethren.  Satan knows the Word of God and will use the Word of God to accuse us before God.  When the LORD told me that Satan had this one thing on me, I prayed and said, “Lord I am doing this and that and am very busy taking care of the Church, family, husband, home, etc.  The LORD answered me, “You should take care of one and not neglect the other.”  Well I continued adding some oversight to my mother’s well being although she was very independent, happy in her home, and very well cared for.  She had built a support system that would be enviable by the very rich.  The community supporting her was judgmental of me.  The scripture they used to judge me was Matthew 15: 3-9.  I was serving God and not “hands on” taking care of my mother.  According to the word of God, I was a hypocrite.  Satan had a legal right to accuse me through the judgments of others; but the judgment is not his to make or anyone else.  The judgment belongs to Jesus and Jesus alone.

The years passed and I continued to do my best, giving my all, on all fronts of responsibility.  When I was in Missouri this past week closing up my Mother’s home, settling her affairs, and taking care of her needs, one evening I was reading Matthew in the Living Bible.  When I came to Matt. 15: 3-9, I knew I was to judge myself by this Word.

1. Co. 11:31-32:  For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

Christian this salvation and life of Christ that we carry is serious business.  John 5:24:  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

We know we are saved to eternal life because we believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.  He is our Lord and Savior, and has forgiven us our sins through His precious Blood.  There is no condemnation for those who walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh.  I have not walked under condemnation these many years over this matter.   However, the length of our life on earth and our blessings on earth is contingent on our obeying the Word of God.   An early death for reviling parents is New Testament and is written to Christians, Jews and sinners.  I never spoke disrespectfully to my parents, nor have I ever knowingly caused them any trouble.  Yet because I was a pastor, the standards are higher and the Word of God gave Satan the legal right to accuse me.

When I awoke the next morning, after praying and seeking the LORD if my heart was upright before Him, I felt a knowing that Satan had lost his case against me.  I had been cleared by the Judge of Heaven. 

This is serious business church.

119: 1-8:  Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD.  Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and that seek him with the whole heart.  They also do no iniquity; they walk in his ways.  You have commanded us to keep your precepts diligently.  O that my ways were directed to keep your statutes!  Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all your commandments.  I will praise you with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned your righteous judgments.  I will keep your statutes; O forsake me not utterly.

Word or words stand for two terms in Psalm 119:

1. Dabar refers to the communication of God’s will to His people.
2. Imrah often has the connotation of promise; and a pattern of life based on God’s will.

The Law is divinely revealed teaching.

Statues are God’s covenant terms for His people to observe.

Precepts are detailed rules for life.

Commands express the insistent will of a personal God who is Israel’s Lord.

Decrees are rulings written down and prescribed for permanent observance.

The Word of God  is no do-it-yourself manual which God has handed over to man to use as best he can.  It is the written part of a lifelong teach-in.  With it comes the assurance of His living presence with the believer, prompting, warning, promising, enabling. 

In Psalm 119, the Psalmist gives us 18 secrets of Victory over sin:

1. Taking heed of God’s Word.
2. Seeking God wholeheartedly.
3. Hiding God/s Word in the heart.
4. Being always open to truth.
5. Removing from the way of lying.
6. Receiving salvation.
7. Hastening to keep commandments.
8. Delighting in God’s Word.
9. Meditating in God’s Word.
10. Refraining from every evil way.
11. Hating every false way.
12. Consecrating to obey to the end.
13. Having vain thoughts.
14. Hating and abhorring lying.
15. Loving God’s word.
16. Praising God.
17. Permitting nothing to offend.
18. Hoping for salvation.

All transgression of the Word of God is sin against God. (1 Jn. 3:4).  Sin affects both God and man.  It robs God of His creative purpose in blessing man eternally, and robs man of such blessing.  Sin affects all creation which man was created to rule, under God, and for the highest good of all.

Rom. 6: 14-16:  For sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the law, but under grace.  What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Lev. 24:16: Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. 

Luke 12:10:  Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.

If we take of the Lord’s Supper unworthily, the word of God says they will have an early death.

1 Co. 11:26-30:  For as often as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you show the Lord’s death until he come.  Whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the LORD.  Let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.  He that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the LORD’s body.  For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep.

Carolyn Sissom, Pastor

Eastgate Ministries Church

www.eastgateministries.com

(Psalm 119 consists of twenty-two stanzas, corresponding to the letters in the Hebrew alphabet.  Each stanza has eight two-part, lines beginning with the same letters in the Hebrew alphabet.  Each stanza has eight two-part lines beginning with the same letter.