The Bible Study Hour

Guest (Male): As the psalmist's lengthy study of God's word and God's ways draws to a close, the author sees himself in light of Scripture for whom he really is. The psalmist reflects a final time on his condition and draws some important conclusions.

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Bible Study Hour. A radio and Internet broadcast with Dr. James Boice. Preparing you to think and act biblically.

Guest (Male): Knowing his lost condition, and as one who strayed from the laws of God, the psalmist petitions the Lord in the areas in which he finds himself lacking.

Guest (Male): Join Dr. Boice as he concludes his study of Psalm 119, examining the final pleas of a man much like us, a man in need of God's mercy and grace.

Dr. James Boice: Well, we have finally come to the end of Psalm 119.

Dr. James Boice: It's taken a long time, not as long as Thomas Manton. His sermons on this psalm filled three large volumes. Not as long as Charles Bridges, whose sermons filled one large volume, or even as long as John Calvin. He preached 22 sermons on this psalm, but nevertheless, a long time. This is the 14th Sunday that we have turned to this magnificent poem in honor of the word of God, expressing the psalmist's delight in God's law and decrees, and also his own weakness apart from those decrees.

Dr. James Boice: Now when we come to this very last stanza, the 22nd one, we find a tremendous difference between it and the last one. The last stanza, we had almost all assertions. The psalmist speaking of his determination, perhaps even, so we read it, his ability to keep the law of God. He says, "I rejoice in your promises, verse 162. I hate and abhor falsehood, 163. I wait for your salvation, 166. I obey your precepts and your statutes, verse 168."

Dr. James Boice: But now we come to this stanza, the last one, and it's all petition. There are no assertions at all. What we find the psalmist expressing is a humble recognition of his lost condition and his constant need of God's grace. As a matter of fact, he does it by a powerful image.

Dr. James Boice: He says in the very last verse, "I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant, for I have not forgotten your commandments."

Dr. James Boice: Now, one thing this tells us is that the author had not become self-righteous by his study. There's always a great danger of that. We come to the word of God. We study it and we're rather proud of ourselves for having done that in the first place. And then that kind of pride easily carries over into a type of self-confidence in which we imagine that we've kept the law of God.

Dr. James Boice: Sometimes when we read things that the psalmist has said earlier in the psalm, you would suppose that that had happened to him. "I keep your statutes." But here we come to the end and we find that that's really not the state of his heart at all. Derek Kidner gets it right. He says, "The note of urgent need on which the psalm ends is proof enough that the love of Scripture has not hardened him into academic pride. This man would have taken his stance not with the self-congratulating Pharisee of the parable, but with the publican who stood afar off and went home justified."

Dr. James Boice: Now let's move up one verse before the last verse. That is to 175. That's a good biblical statement of what the Westminster Shorter Catechism calls the chief end of man. You know the answer to that. What is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Well, that's what it's saying there. "Let me live in order that I may praise you."

Dr. James Boice: I am living with this goal that I may glorify God. But then we move from verse 175 to 176 to the very last verse, and there we are reminded of the fact that this praise of God, this glorification of God comes from poor, weak, lost, and straying sinners just like ourselves.

Dr. James Boice: Now, in approaching that last verse in that way, I have to acknowledge that I'm differing with some of the major commentators. Commentators like Stewart Perowne and the great Lutheran H. C. Luppold, thinks that when the psalmist speaks of himself as a lost sheep, he can't possibly be speaking spiritually, saying that he's lost in his sins and needs to be saved from them, because after all, throughout the psalm, he's been speaking like a righteous man. He's been saying, "I do keep your statutes. I am obeying the law."

Dr. James Boice: Yet when I look at it, it seems to me that speaking spiritually is exactly what the psalmist does. Otherwise, why would he speak of himself as having strayed? Some of these other commentators say he's not speaking spiritually, he's speaking in terms of his physical need. He's in danger like a lost sheep that's wandered away from the fold, that is in danger of being attacked by wild animals. This psalmist is surrounded by all sorts of enemies.

Dr. James Boice: But you see, straying is a spiritual thing. We stray away from God. That's not just a matter of physical danger. And immediately after that, he talks about needing God to seek him. That is to find him and bring him to himself. In other words, what he's doing here is speaking, I am convinced exactly the way the prophet Isaiah speaks in that well-known 53rd chapter where he says, "We all like sheep have gone astray. Each of us have turned to his own way."

Dr. James Boice: What this writer is saying is that that's a description of himself apart from the grace of God. So what's needed, what we all need, is not merely some protection in the physical or material sense from our enemies or from the kind of dangers that beset us in this life, but rather what we need is what Isaiah goes on to speak about in the very verse in which he refers to us being lost sheep. That is, one who is the Lord upon whom God has laid the iniquity of us all. In other words, what we need is a Savior.

Dr. James Boice: Let me put it like this. This is an example of what Martin Luther talked about when he spoke of believers in Christ as being at the same time both justified and sinners. You may even know it in its well-known and often quoted Latin phrase, "simul justus et peccator." At the same time, both justified and sinners.

Dr. James Boice: And it's not surprising that when Luther got to talking about this last verse of Psalm 119 in his own commentary, he interpreted it this way. He says, "This verse is extremely emotional and full of tears, for truly we are all thus going astray, so that we must pray to be visited, sought and carried over by the most godly Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever." Amen.

Dr. James Boice: Let me tackle it in another way. Do you remember how Luther began that great list of 95 theses that he tacked up on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg on that great date in October that we remember every year as the starting date of the Protestant Reformation. Most people honor that without knowing very much what Luther was actually talking about in the theses, let alone even know the first one.

Dr. James Boice: But what Luther said in that very first of the 95 theses is this: "When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said, 'repent,' he meant that the entire life of a Christian is to be marked by repentance."

Dr. James Boice: Now, that's what we're talking about here. It's a way of saying that there's never a moment in our lives as Christians, as believers, who have seized upon God's grace in Jesus Christ and are trying to obey his commandments, walking along the path that he set before us, never a moment when we ever need to cease repenting of our sins.

Dr. James Boice: Because we are at the same time both justified and sinners, and we need the constant grace of God to keep us on the right path. Another writer said this: "The highest flights of human devotion must end in confession of sin. The sincerest professions of human fidelity must give place to the acknowledgement of helplessness. The loathliest human declarations of love to God's law must come down to the mournful acknowledgement that we have only not forgotten it."

Dr. James Boice: So that's what the psalmist is doing here in this last verse. He's speaking of himself as he really is. It would have been helpful, wouldn't it, to have studied the last verse of the psalm first, and then with that kind of understanding in mind, proceeded throughout in terms of his profession of need for the word of God. Even so, it may be helpful. Maybe we should do this. Just go back and start all over again with that particular verse in mind. Perhaps you can do it yourself.

Dr. James Boice: Well, with that in mind, we want to look at this stanza. Let me contrast it for a moment with Psalm 23, the great shepherd psalm, where the psalmist, in that case, David, is thinking about himself as a sheep and of God as his shepherd. What he says in that psalm is that with God as his good shepherd, he lacks nothing.

Dr. James Boice: He says that at the very beginning, "I shall lack nothing," verse 1. And then he goes on in the psalm, as it were, to say things like this, "I shall not lack rest, I shall not lack life, I shall not lack guidance, I shall not lack safety, I shall not lack comfort, I shall not lack provision, I shall not lack heaven."

Dr. James Boice: In these last verses of this psalm, by contrast, the writer is expressing what he does lack unless he has God as his good shepherd. In other words, he's expressing his sense of need. It's why he comes to the word of God and depends upon it so strongly.

Dr. James Boice: Now he mentions five things. Let's just look at them one at a time. First of all, understanding, verse 169. We might think that the person who wrote this psalm or any of the psalms, or an individual who wrote any portion of the word of God, would have a great deal of understanding because after all, he had been blessed by the Holy Spirit, who had guided him into all the truth that he actually recorded in writing for our benefit. We'd say he must be very conscious of what he knows, the understanding that he has.

Dr. James Boice: But the writer isn't thinking this way. What he's conscious of is how little he knows, and that if he's going to understand anything about God and God's ways, it's going to have to be because God himself reveals that to him and opens his eyes, giving him understanding as he studies the Bible. So that's what he sets his mind on as he begins the final stanza. "May my cry come before you, O Lord," is a way of saying, "Lord, hear and answer this prayer. Give me understanding according to your word."

Dr. James Boice: Well, I ask a question of ourselves, "Do we consider that we are wise in anything, in spiritual things?" If we do, we're the most foolish of all people. On the other hand, if we recognize our foolishness and our inability to understand any of the things of God, let alone the deep things of God, then we will come to God for the understanding that we need. You know, that's the way the Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Corinth.

Dr. James Boice: They had fallen into all sorts of sects and divisions because one thought that he was wiser in a particular area than another, and another person thought he was wiser in that area, and so they were falling out among themselves. And Paul wrote to remind them that they really weren't wise at all. And he has this great section toward the end of the first chapter of First Corinthians. He asked, "Where is the wise man?" He's saying, "Look around among you and point out people who are really wise."

Dr. James Boice: "Where are the scholars?" He asked. "Where are the philosophers of this age?" He says, "Hasn't God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the wisdom of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."

Dr. James Boice: Now, the psalmist was writing before the coming of Jesus Christ, of course, and he didn't have all of the understanding that we have now as a result of knowing about Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection. But nevertheless, he was looking to God for understanding, and undoubtedly, he was also anticipating that promised Messiah, the deliverer who was to come. And so, knowing that all genuine understanding comes from God, that is what he asks for. And that's the first thing.

Dr. James Boice: Now secondly, he knew that he lacked salvation, or as he calls it here, deliverance, verse 170. "Deliver me according to your promise." That is a large word with many meanings, just like the word salvation itself is a large word with many meanings. When you talk about deliverance, especially in the context of the psalms, it can mean, and often does mean, deliverance from enemies. Those who think that that's the way in which he's referring to himself as a sheep, I mentioned some of them earlier, interpret it this way.

Dr. James Boice: They say he's in danger from enemies, and so he asked God to deliver him from the enemies. If on the other hand, what he's thinking about is spiritual things, as I believe he is, then the word deliver in that context means spiritual deliverance, or what we mean by salvation. He's asking for deliverance from sin, from its penalty, its power and its presence. He's asking from deliverance from the evil influences and outlook of the world, which surround him constantly, and which also surround ourselves, and even from the power of the devil.

Dr. James Boice: You see, whatever the case, he knows that his help is in God. His salvation has to come from him. I mentioned as I began that long study of the psalm by Charles Bridges. When he gets to the very end, I guess about page 500 in this long study of this magnificent psalm, he begins to reflect on the fullness of our salvation, and he says it includes all of the mercies of God's great covenant of grace.

Dr. James Boice: So he looks at the ground of our salvation. It's the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. He looks at the simplicity of our salvation, not keeping the sinner away from God in useless moral striving or bewilderment, but opening the way through Christ's atonement. He looks at the unchangeableness of our salvation, which is above and beyond and superior to all our weak failings and failures.

Dr. James Boice: And then he concludes, "Is not this an object for the longing of the soul that feels its own pressing wants and sees in this salvation an instant and full supply?"

Dr. James Boice: Speaks interestingly enough of longing, and it raises the question, "Is that your longing? Are you longing for that salvation which is to be found alone in God?" If you're not longing for a salvation like that, it can only be because you don't have a proper sense of your need. You need to read the Bible and find how you stand before God. Not righteous in the sight of God, but as a sinner in need of his grace.

Dr. James Boice: Then, having discovered that, you begin to say, "What I really need is the salvation that God provides."

Dr. James Boice: So what we have here in these first two petitions, these expressions of need, are expressions of the two great needs of fallen men and women: to know God on the one hand, and to be delivered from sin on the other.

Dr. James Boice: Now the third thing he mentions is the ability to worship God rightly. He talks about that in verses 171 and 172. Now he's a saved man, of course. He studied the Bible. The Bible has taught him to trust in God. He has trusted in God. He's trying to walk with God, keep his commands. But if it's true that God is his Savior, then he ought to be praising God as his Savior.

Dr. James Boice: And that creates a problem. How is he going to do that? How is he going to do it aright? How are any of us going to do that? If he's going to praise and worship God aright, he needs two things. He needs to know how to do it, that is, what pleases God in worship, and then he needs a right heart or spirit that will cause him to do it honestly or genuinely, and not merely by an empty form of words. Now, that's what he's praying for.

Dr. James Boice: "May my lips overflow with praise for you teach me your decrees. May my tongue sing of your word, for all your commands are righteous."

Dr. James Boice: It comes as a surprise to many people today that God actually has set patterns by which he's to be worshipped, and that God isn't pleased with just any kind of worship we may bring him. That certainly was true in the Old Testament. God established the form of his worship as taking place at the tabernacle and later at the temple, with all of the forms that were prescribed for the priests or Levites. There were certain things they had to do, and they had to do it exactly the way God told them to do it, and at the set times. People who violated that got in trouble.

Dr. James Boice: If you want to get a sense of how seriously God takes the way in which he's worshipped, read the story of Nadab and Abihu. They offered what's called unauthorized, unsanctified fire unto the Lord, and they were consumed by it. The story is in Leviticus 10. Or Korah, who was not a priest, but who took the priestly functions to himself and was swallowed up by the earth. The story is in Numbers 16. Or King Uzziah. He offered incense, which only the priests could offer, and he was judged by leprosy. The story is in 2 Chronicles 26.

Dr. James Boice: Now, God has prescribed forms of worship for his people. And that's true not only of the Old Testament period, but for the New Testament as well. For one thing, we no longer worship at the temple in Jerusalem. Jesus said, when he was speaking to the Samaritan woman, "God is a spirit, and his worshippers must worship in spirit and in truth." But that doesn't mean, well, now anything goes.

Dr. James Boice: Jesus had come to fulfill the Old Testament forms. We don't repeat them, but that doesn't mean that just anything passes for acceptable worship. In truth, when Jesus said, "Worshippers must worship him in spirit and in truth," must mean according to the truth of God's word, that is, his revelation.

Dr. James Boice: Well, what does the Bible teach about how we should worship God, especially as New Testament believers? Bible teachers differ about some elements. For example, is it permissible for the ministers to wear priestly or liturgical vestments? Some branches of the church do that. They make a great deal of that. Others say that's entirely improper. How about drama or liturgical dance? Are they permitted? How about organs or other instrumental music?

Dr. James Boice: You recall that in London, in Spurgeon's great church, they wouldn't have any kind of instrumental music, and their only singing was a cappella singing of the hymns.

Dr. James Boice: Some things are clear, however. We're not to offer animal sacrifices, since Jesus' sacrifice of himself fulfilled the Old Testament system and abolished it forever. We're not to be raucous or immoral in our services, as some of the Christians at Corinth had been. Paul wrote to reprove them of that. He wrote to the Corinthians in the 14th chapter of the first letter, verse 40, "Everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way." Those are negatives.

Dr. James Boice: How about the positive side? Well, we're instructed to pray, to sing hymns, and to profit from the teaching of the Bible, especially the teaching of the Bible. That's something that was rediscovered at the time of the Protestant Reformation. When the Reformation came and many of the ceremonies that had come to obscure Bible truth as developing over a period of time during the Middle Ages were stripped away, the Bible was restored to its rightful place in worship. Calvin especially did this.

Dr. James Boice: What Calvin did in his churches was to remove the altar, which had always been in the very center of the chancel, and the focal point of the people's worship, because, of course, it represented under the Roman system the re-enactment of the death of Jesus Christ, the consecration of the bread and blood, so that by the doctrine of transubstantiation it actually became Christ, and therefore a fit object of worship. Calvin pushed that away and put the pulpit in the center.

Dr. James Boice: And there he opened up a book, the Bible, so that all the lines of the architecture would be directed to this book. And the pastor stood behind it as an effort to expound it and make it known to the people.

Dr. James Boice: Now that was a good thing, and it's something that we are tending to lose today in many of our churches. Sometimes today, where new church buildings are designed by architects who simply love the old forms without any input from clergy or layman who have some understanding of theology, the pulpit is pushed aside again. And in many Protestant churches today, you have a pulpit on one side and a lectern on the other in order to leave the platform bare. For what? Quite often for an altar.

Dr. James Boice: But if it can go even lower than that, also quite often, so you have a platform on which various people can perform. That means that entertainment begins to take the place of the exposition of the word in the symbolism of the architecture.

Dr. James Boice: Now, the psalmist understood that if he was going to worship God, it had to be according to the teaching of the word of God. In other words, the Bible must be prominent. Why? Because that's where we hear God. That's where God speaks to us. And so we say, "God speak to me and receive the worship of my heart."

Dr. James Boice: Well, there's a fourth thing he prays for here, recognizing his need, and that is the power to live an upright life. He talks about it in verses 173 and 174. He says, "May your hand be ready to help me." What's he thinking about? Is he thinking about enemies? No, he's thinking about obeying the law of God because in the very next verse he mentions it. What he wants is power to obey the precepts and the law of God.

Dr. James Boice: How are we ever going to live an upright life unless by the power of God? We can't do it in ourselves. If anybody could have done it, you would think it would be the Apostle Paul, well instructed in the law, blessed by the Holy Spirit. But when Paul came to write that great seventh chapter of Romans, what he talks about is his inability, not his ability.

Dr. James Boice: And here's what he says, "I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin, for what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate to do. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. What a wretched man I am, who will rescue me from this body of death."

Dr. James Boice: Fortunately, he knew the answer to his own question. It was God in Jesus Christ. And so he ends by saying, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Dr. James Boice: Now, if he really believed that we are lost, helpless, and sinful sheep, the way the psalmist is writing as he ends the psalm, we would come to God for the strength that we need. Instead, because we tend to think of ourselves as self-confident, and our self-confident, we do not come, and then we wander astray.

Dr. James Boice: So the psalmist prays, "Lord, help me to live an upright life." And notice, not just for the moment. This is a prayer that he's going to keep on praying, because this is the fifth and last thing that he expresses as a great need. He needs the strength of God to persevere. He doesn't want to do it just for the present moment, but he wants to do it to the very end of his life. And so he says, "Let me live that I may praise you, and may your laws sustain me."

Dr. James Boice: Well, we've come to the end. Here he is talking about his need. I suppose, in a sense, what he's doing here is anticipating the teaching of Jesus, who said, "Apart from me, you can do nothing." John 15. Nothing is not a little something. When Jesus said, "Apart from me, you can do nothing," he meant nothing. Nothing at all. You cannot spiritually achieve anything at all.

Dr. James Boice: But fortunately, that's not the whole story, because when God is for us and works in us, then it is also true to say, as Paul does in Philippians 4:13, "I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength."

Dr. James Boice: And you know, I think the psalmist is acknowledging that as he comes to the end, because although he's describing himself as a lost sheep, although he has confessed his need for understanding, deliverance, right worship, an upright way of life, and perseverance, and even though he needs God to seek him out, since he'll never find God all by himself, he nevertheless also speaks of himself as God's servant. Did you notice that in the last verse? He's a poor, lost, weak, sinful, yes, even an unprofitable servant, but still nevertheless a servant.

Dr. James Boice: And even though he may not be able to keep God's commandments well or consistently, he still has not forgotten them, and that he knows that by the presence and grace of God, by his power, he will keep them yet. What a great blessing. Charles Bridges, that I mentioned a couple times, wrote, "I cannot forbear to plead that although a rebellious prodigal, I am still God's servant, his child. I still bear the child's mark of an interest in the covenant. Let me then lie humbled and self-abased, but let me not forget my claim what he has done for me."

Dr. James Boice: Here's a little verse by a man whose name is Richard Mant, an old writer cited by Spurgeon in his Treasury of David. Mant summed it up like this: "Though like a sheep estranged I stray, yet have I not renounced thy way. Thy hand extend, thine own reclaim, grant me to live and praise thy name." And so should we all pray that prayer.

Dr. James Boice: You know, when Jonah was praying from inside the great fish, the last line of his prayer was this: "Salvation comes from the Lord." Jonah 2:9. That's an important lesson for anyone to learn, and it's a lesson of the psalm. The last important lesson of the psalm. What does the shepherd do with such poor, weak, lost, sinful, and insignificant sheep as ourselves? The psalmist tells us that the shepherd seeks us out. Jesus said that when the sheep are lost, the shepherd hunts until he finds them. Luke 15. And he said of himself that that was his mission. He said, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." Luke 19:10. And when Jesus finds us, we're found indeed. May his name be praised.

Dr. James Boice: Let's pray. Our Father, we're thankful that we've had time together in these weeks to study this magnificent psalm. And to come as we have in this hour, to the last testimony of the psalmist, which was not a testimony of his strength, but a testimony of his need. And so we identify with him. We understand our need. We know that we are lost, helpless, apart from your grace in Jesus Christ. And as we come to your word, that is what we come to find. Not an endorsement of how righteous we are, but of how great you are, and how perfect that salvation that has come to us through Jesus Christ is. And we thank you for it in the name of Christ our Savior. Amen.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to this message from The Bible Study Hour, a listener-supported ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. The Alliance is a coalition of pastors, scholars, and churchmen who hold to the historic creeds and confessions of the Reformed faith, and who proclaim biblical doctrine in order to foster a Reformed awakening in today's church.

Guest (Male): To learn more about the Alliance, visit Alliancenet.org. And while you're there, visit our online store, Reformed Resources, where you can find messages and books from Dr. Boice and other outstanding teachers and theologians. Or, ask for a free Reformed Resources catalog by calling 1-800-488-1888.

Guest (Male): Please take the time to write to us and share how The Bible Study Hour has impacted you. We'd love to hear from you and pray for you. Our address is 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17601. Please consider giving financially to help keep The Bible Study Hour impacting people for decades to come. You can do so at our website, Alliancenet.org. Over the phone at 1-800-488-1888. Or, send a check to 600 Eden Road, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17601.

Guest (Male): For Canadian gifts, mail those to 237 Rouge Hills Drive, Scarborough, Ontario, M1C 2Y9. Thanks for your continued prayer and support, and for listening to The Bible Study Hour, preparing you to think and act biblically.