The Path of Obedience - Psalm 119:1-24

This is a sermon from the evening service on 12th January 2025.

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Psalm 119 v 1-24 “The Path of Obedience”

(Slide 1) “I have a cunning plan.” I love that line uttered by Baldrick from a famous series of British comedies. What inevitably followed this statement was a foolhardy plan that was both unworkable and entirely futile – Baldrick’s cunning plans never failed to make the audience laugh because they could see immediately what nonsense it always was. There is another cunning plan that many people come up with that is even more foolish than Baldrick’s worst attempts. But this plan shouldn’t generate any laughs at all because it ruins people’s lives and leads to eternal disaster. Here is the not so cunning plan of many people around us and perhaps even some sitting right here among us this evening:

(Slide 2) “I am going to have as much fun as possible for as long as I can, and then when I really need to (old and done?) I will deal with God and make my peace with him.” Cunning plan? There are many things that someone who loves Jesus would want to say in response to such a statement, things like;

• God as creator owns you and so deserves your attention
• God’s glory is so great it demands your honour
• God’s sacrifice is so incredible it should win your heart
• God’s judgement is so righteous he can’t be fooled

All of those arguments and many more should be made to a person hatching such a terrible plan, and I suppose that the writer of Psalm 119 would be happy to state all of those cases.

However, here is the main response that the composer of Psalm 119 would give to any poor soul they found believing such nonsense, they would say (Slide 3); “You’re crazy, it is a terrible plan. Look, I have already found the good stuff, I’ve already found what is far better, I have treasure and I want more and more of it – you haven’t got a chance of getting it your way, but come and enjoy God properly along with the rest of his people. You won’t be disappointed, that is where the good stuff is at.”

What is it that the Psalmist has found? (Slide 4) It is God’s word – God revealing himself, his character, his promises, his plans, his love. This is what delights and nourishes and satisfies in a way that nothing else can. The Psalm is wonderfully written, it is an acrostic where each section of 8 verses begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet, but no matter what literary features there are there to enjoy, the one key central aim that we are not to lose sight of, the path that the Psalm is to get us walking on and keep us walking on, is one where the hearts of God’s people are so delighted by the heart of God, that the lives of God’s people are lived for the glory of God.

        1) The sweetness of the path of obedience (v1-8)

(Slide 5) Verses 1-8 put us on that path immediately and we are to see and want to taste the sweetness of the path of obedience; “Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD.”

The Psalmist is full of longing in these verses – as he looks around the world and imagines all sorts of people in his head, there is one particular type of person that makes him think “I wish I was like them, I want to be just like them, I am determined to become just like them.” That person he has in mind isn’t the person with no financial concerns, relationship problems, health anxieties, job issues, family breakdowns. I wonder how much of our daydreaming is caught up with that sort of envy – “If only I had that, If only I didn’t have this …” If your answer is “quite a lot of my daydreams are those daydreams” then Psalm 119 is just what you need. Who does the Psalmist long to be? (Slide 6)

V1 The person whose way is blameless (not a sinlessness, in other places in the bible sinners are described as blameless). Blamelessness is about the direction of travel in a life – walking according to God’s law. This is a life of integrity, a life where God is King, a life that when sin is detected, it is treated as it should be, with repentance and faith in God. (Slide 7)

V2 The person who keeps God’s statutes. I love that keeping God’s statutes, which sounds so legalistic and moralistic, is immediately followed by “and seek him with all their heart.”  Christopher Ash, a theologian and writer helps us here;
(Slide 8) “Throughout this study I am going to assume that we can replace any of the eight ‘word’ words (commands, statutes, Law etc) by “The Bible” … The eight words are united by the concept of Covenant, that there is one great rescue story of the living God building relationship with human beings. This one Covenant is fulfilled in Christ. All that comes before Christ foreshadows him. All that comes afterwards speaks of him.”

The person who keeps God’s statutes is the person who has God’s word at the centre of his or her life. More and more this person comes to love the pathways God sets out for them, more and more this person comes to depend upon God’s promises and God’s saviour. On this side of the incarnation we can see that this person, who longs to go God’s way, will have a heart that is more and more drawn to and delighted by Jesus, whom all the scripture is pointing to, and who did go God’s way his whole life.

This is so counter-cultural because we are told again and again that going our own way will bring us happiness, and our sinful flesh responds willingly and enthusiastically to that sort of message. (Slide 9) But the Psalmist wants to be the person, V3, who does no wrong, who follows God’s ways rather than his own. This is the blessed life, this is the good life, this is why a plan to have as much fun as possible going your own way is doomed to eternal failure. The Psalmist is not treating God as a slot machine (put obedience in and get blessing out) but rather he is living according to God’s covenant with His people. He is living in relationship with the God who rescues his people and reveals to them how to live, a life that is blessed by God and a life that leads to eternity with God and with his blessed people. (Slide 10) It is January so the adverts for Winter Sun are already everywhere. We see one and long for a holiday don’t we. The Psalmist sees an obedient, trusting person and has a longing that goes way past that, v5 “Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees! Then I will not be put to shame when I consider all your commands.”

As I read verses 5-8 and prepared this sermon an ambition was growing in my own heart(Slide 11). With God’s help, with the Spirit of Christ living in me, I want to be this person, for 2 reasons. I want it because it is better than anything else, it pleases God and will delight me more than anything else can, but also I want it because I want the young people in our church families to have loads of these type of people to look at and go “Wow – look how blessed they are, look how content and joyful they are, look how happy they are when they remember Jesus.” Christ Church Network, with God’s help can this not be our ambition in our own church families this year? To have a high percentage of the congregations saying with the Psalmist “I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. I will obey your decrees, do not utterly forsake me.” Tonight, together, let’s understand that the path of obedience to God’s word is the sweet path, and let’s determine to walk in it this year.

         2) The secret of the path of obedience (v9-16)

But hold on a moment – we know to some extent just how weak and fickle we are. How affected by sin and failure. So surely determination and even encouragement from one another cannot be enough to put God where he should be in our lives and to desire him more than the stuff that so often we chase after.  CORRECT. (Slide 12) And that is why we need verses 8-16 because there we have the secret of the path of obedience.

And if you listened well as the verses were read you will have heard the secret loud and clear. “How can a young person stay on the path of purity?” It is all about the word “YOUR”.

Alistair Begg in one of his sermons does a brilliant job of emphasising the utter dependence we have on Jesus for salvation – he says that if we were to stand before God and be asked why we should be allowed into his presence, if we were to answer that question in the first person, by saying “Because I … (went to church, had faith, etc etc)” then we are in serious trouble. The right answer is in the third person “Because HE … because Jesus died for me and washed me clean, because Jesus filled me with his righteousness.” Being justified before God is all about what God has done for us and not what we have done for him. The same truth stands in sanctification, in having our lives transformed so that more and more we walk the path of obedience. Of course we must determine to go God’s way, of course we must make every effort to hate sin and live righteous lives. But the power to do this is not found inside ourselves but in looking outside of ourselves;

How can a young person stay on the path of purity? (Slide 13) V9 YOUR word. V10 YOUR commands. V11 YOUR word. V12 YOUR decrees. V13 YOUR mouth. V14 YOUR statutes. V15 YOUR precepts and YOUR ways. V16 YOUR decrees and YOUR word. That is quite a lot of “Yours” isn’t it. How do we become the people the Psalmist longs to be? How do we become church families where the young in age and in faith look around and say “Wow – I want that life”? We become those people as we become utterly dependent upon God.

(Slide 14) Why do you read the bible? What answers would you give to that? (Because Christians are supposed to each day? Because it is good for me? Because it is how to learn? A lot of answers to that question are variations on one theme; “I SHOULD read the bible”). Why does a mature believer read the bible? Because they NEED.  They need God’s voice when the chatter of the world around is so damaging, they need God’s light in the deepening darkness, they need God’s truth when even their own hearts are taking them the wrong way, they need God’s grace to deal with their own weakness. They NEED. Do you realise how much you need God’s word? If so then you will be thinking about it and talking about it with others all the time. “What have you got for me?” The secret to the blessed and longed for life of obedience to God for a believer is realising that only God has got what we need all the time. Will your 2025 be characterised by that? Will our corporate 2025 be characterised by that?

          3) The security of the path of obedience (v16-24)

(Slide 15) Walking this path of dependent obedience brings an eternal security that nothing else delivers. In verses 16-24 there is a massive contrast between the blessed life of obedience and the cursed life of arrogance. Verse 21 is very sobering - to be cursed by the maker of all things and the judge of every person is a terrifying prospect. Who are these cursed people? They are people who go their own way rather than God’s way. The God who spoke to create them has spoken to direct them but they arrogantly follow their own path.

(Slide 16) We find these people everywhere;

• Around us: You might read of them receiving a life sentence for a brutal murder but just as easily you will see them giving to charity and cutting their neighbour’s grass for them. They are people who do whatever they want to do, whatever makes them happy, with no concern for the God who reigns, no seeking of his ways, no humbling themselves to his rule.
• Among us: People who are privileged to regularly hear God’s word spoken and explained but who are content to merely look ‘Christian’, or benefit from the company of Christians but who in reality continue to live as lord of their own lives. No repentant approach to Jesus, no heart attitude that wants to follow his ways.

(Slide 17) In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus sweated drops of blood as he laboured to persevere in faithful obedience; “Yet not my will but yours be done.” This obedience to the end, the remaining on the cross until it was finished, this is what was required so that our sinful hearts could be changed. Jesus became a curse for us so that we could receive every spiritual blessing in him. So as we begin this new year together, as we start this series in Psalm 119 together, when you see the presence of sin in your heart and life, attempting to turn you away from God’s word and the blessed and happy path of obedience, run once more in faith to your Saviour and Lord, for in him we have everything good, in him we see wonderful things, in him we have the answer to our longings, in him we have delight, in him we are blessed now and forever.

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