Amen. Our scripture, again, is taken from Psalms 119 and we'll look at verses 41 through 43. Psalms 119 verses 41 through 43. Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise. Then shall I have an answer for him who talks me, for I trust in your word. Oh, and take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth for my hope is in your rules. May God richly bless both the reading and the hearing of his holy word. And I always say this before office devotionals that we're going to look briefly at something and it is certainly my intention to be brief. But there are three considerations that we want to look at briefly from this portion of Psalms 119. And so the first thing as we look at it and we've well, let me just make this overarching statement concerning Psalms 119 because it is the longest chapter and it has a single theme. So it's the it's the longest prolonged statement about one subject in any portion of scripture. And that is the the value and the beauty of God's word to God's people. And because he speaks of God's word and uses various terms such as your counsel, your words, your precepts, your rules, your instructions. Sometimes he uses different words to express the same aspect of God's word. But it still comes down to one of two things that when he speaks of God's word as in verse 43, he is alluding to God's law because he references your rules. But then it seems especially in the top part of this section that the portion of God's word that he's referring to is God's word of promise or the gospel. So it still comes down to law and gospel and it really determines what he is referring to in any section, in any block of verses in this tribute to the word of God is really determined by the context of what he says. So therefore that being the case, the first observation that we want to make about this passage is or in these verses is that in since David in this portion references his reference to God's word, it's clearly to the gospel. I should say that his reference to the word of God in verse 41 is it is clearly, he is clearly referencing the gospel. So the aspect of the word of God that he is addressing and that really drives even though he shifts in the latter portion of it to the law of God what even drives his attention or his concern to the law of God is what he says here in this initial and this this opening part of this section about God's word of gospel. That being the case since we it is clear that he is referring to the gospel. What David does in verse 41 is he gives us a twofold summary of what the gospel really announces and I think that it would be worth our time to consider the two ways or the two ways in which he describes the gospel. On the one hand he says that the gospel according to his own words, the gospel is the salvation that God promises. The salvation that God promises in verse 41 again what he says is let your steadfast love come to me O Lord your salvation according to your promise. So the gospel is God's salvation according to what God has promised. Now we have you've been around long enough you know that Genesis 315 is really the first indication of the gospel. It is called the proto-Uangelion. It is the proto-gospel. It is the beginning because everything that the gospel delivers and everything that God promises is found there in Genesis 315 that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the seed of the serpent and the serpent will bruise his heel. Therein is a concise statement of us Isaiah 53 that by his stripes we are healed. The chastisement of our peace is laid upon him so he will purchase our salvation even though his heel is bruised. Here's what his salvation consists of. God has promised that our Savior would defeat our enemy. That's what he promises. One of the reasons it's important for us to know what God promises is because you have a lot of people who have Bibles, open Bibles but they don't really have a right understanding of it and therefore they are claiming from God the stuff that he did not promise. But whatever else God promises us in the salvation that he has promised in his Word everything else flows from that. Everything else is connected to that and so the gospel is an announcement. It's a reaffirmation of the salvation that God has promised and what that means is that sometimes what God promises is not what we are looking for situationally. Certainly David or Paul in the New Testament would have desired a Thorn to be removed from his flesh but God's promise of salvation didn't promise that he would remove the Thorn from his flesh but what it did remind him of and what God's promise does is promise of salvation does include the strength of God manifest towards us. So the Lord tells David or tells Paul no I'm not going to remove the Thorn. I'm going to let it stay so that unless you be exalted above measure I'm going to leave it in here so that you remain weak and in your weakness he says is my strength manifest. So God promises so the salvation is an announcement of God's promise of salvation what God himself has committed himself to and it would be it would be who believers to know exactly what God has promised. I remember the song that came out in the 70s country song I never promised you a rose garden. Well God didn't either. God didn't promise us rose gardens as a matter of fact what he tells Adam after he gives him as after he gives the knowledge of salvation in Genesis 315 you know what he tells the man you're going to deal with thorns. So my promise of salvation does not negate thorns and thistles in your garden. So brothers and sisters if we are looking for that perfect sunny day if we're looking for that that victorious life where we don't stumble where we don't have thistles and thorns go back to what God has promised and David reminds us here that what the gospel announces is what God has promised or the salvation that God himself has promised not the one that we would desire necessarily and certainly not the one that we dream of but a second a second thing that a way that David eludes to the gospel on the other hand I should say if the gospel not only is an announcement of the salvation that God has promised but the gospel is also an announcement of God committing himself to us with his stat fast love. That's the way David opens he says in verse 41 let your stat fast love comes to me and that is we've talked about that phrase because it is repeated time and time again throughout the song step fast love has said means God's covenant faithfulness to his people and so the gospel is not only an announcement of what God has promised or the salvation that God has promised but the gospel is also a reiteration and an announcement of God committing himself to us with a stat fast love and stat fast love means he is with us faithfully with us in and through every situation. One of the difficulties that I had with that thing that became popular footprints in the sand and the idea is that God Jesus is with us and or when when we only see one track of footsteps is when we're walking on our own and then we see he says well wait a minute when you're looking over life and you see I see another set of footsteps footsteps well that's when you've got week and I have to carry you brothers and sisters it has to be two sets of footsteps or else we would make it Jesus is not just a resource when we get weak God has committed himself to us God himself has committed himself to us in fact I love the way he says in Isaiah he says when you go through the fire which means fire might be in your future low I am with you and when you go through the waters don't worry I am with you God stat fast love towards us means that he has committed himself to us every look and cranny every hill and valley every crooked place every twisted back road that we take him on he's with us every up and down every mountain top every valley dwelling he is with us and so David in verse 41 by referring to the gospel because he is clearly referring to the gospel he is reminding us of two very important aspects of the gospel or what the gospel announces the gospel announces to us the salvation that God has promised in other words it is Genesis 3 15 fleshed in the person in work of Jesus and the gospel also announces to us that God is steadfastly committed to us in all seasons through all things that he'll never leave us he'll never forsake us we are never alone again we are never alienated again we are never orphaned again we are he is with us even when we are unfaithful he's faithful thank God for the gospel his second thing that we can make note of in this passage and that comes in again with verse in verse 41 by by by opening this statement in verse 41 with let your stat fast love come to me what David is doing is acknowledging a perpetual need for what he already has in other words when he already knows he says let your steadfast love he's he's not throwing up an SOS but he is saying let your steadfast love let the promise of your salvation come to me again not the substance of it but the reminder of it what David is doing is acknowledging his continual and perpetual need for what God gives to fallen sinners in the gospel until we get home we all need to be reminded no matter how much you know how much God loves you we need to hear it over and over and over again I remember as a child I fell in love with this song and I still love it to this day sing them over again to me those wonderful words of life let me more of their beauty see those wonderful words of life we don't need that's part of our our problem I think that we have gotten sidetracked both individually and corporately in our churches because we have been crying for new words and all we need is a reminder of the old words of the gospel what God what David is saying when he says let your steadfast love come to me he is acknowledging his continual and perpetual need for what and not only need for it but his need to hear it let me more of their beauty hear those wonderful words of life he needs to hear the word of God that he already trusts he needs to hear it again and so you can almost see him in the midst of a difficult situation and he says he's not saying Lord speak a word he says let me hear the familiar word the midst of my trials the midst of my struggles let me hear again how much you love me remind me again that you are with me and so therefore I I would argue brothers and sisters this is one of the many reasons and I certainly have an opportunity and thank God for it to work with other ministers young ministers who understand what the the role and the function of gospel preachers are and the the the key to being a gospel preacher is gospel and that means every time we open God's word it doesn't matter what we're proclaiming it doesn't matter if it's the 10 commandments we better find our way to the gospel Charles Virgin said it best that every road leads to the gospel and if it doesn't you better find a way to the gospel because God's people are coming out of the world that brings them down God's people are coming from a world of a broadcast news and and actually sort of polarized political reporting and we are beat up with the things that we see and the things that we have done and we need to hear not a new word from the Lord we need to hear the sweetest words that we can ever imagine being heard from the God who is the creator of all things and those sweet words is the God who is the judge of all and the God who is so holy that he can't even look upon evil sweetest words that we can hear from him is your mind I love you and I am with you that's what we need to hear and so as we deal with life's situations we need to be reminded of what the gospel says and so you can see David as he's as he's navigating his way through whatever season that he's going through and he's saying let me hear now you know we have progress I'm a huge music fan I love listening to music and as we have progressed I very seldom listen to what they call now terrestrial radio which is just your regular radio one of the things that we have is we have Pandora and other forms of music that is tailor-made you have CDs you have your own music that you can download on your on your iPhone or whatever and play it through your your car system so that you can selectively listen to what you want to listen to in other words you can listen to podcasts you can listen to music whatever you want to hear you don't have to wait I remember when we were growing up and you know you have a favorite song on the radio and I learned the pattern of the DJs that at a certain time whatever the top five songs were there was a certain slack in the hour when they would play those songs and so I was always right by the radio to hear my favorite song but now we don't have to wait for the DJs to play it if it doesn't come on if it doesn't come up on your on your music station whatever it is Pandora whatever it is that you listen to then you can always just hit it just google it and you can play it you can hear what you need to hear and that you want to hear at any time you want to hear it and there's a certain song that I'll hear and in fact there's a couple songs that I try to listen to almost every night before I go to bed and what I'll do is I'll just get on my tablet or whatever and listen to it I need to hear those songs and so it is with David you saying Lord I'm not just trying to hear any old word I know your word is good I understand the law but but in this season what I Lord let me send your word of grace to me again in other words hit the replay button he's not asking for new revelation he's not waiting until he gets back to the temple I can't wait till I get to the temple to hear your word again know what David is saying Lord no here I am in the midst of life and life is in the midst of me send your word again not just any word send to me the word of your steadfast love let it come to me again let let it settle in on me again at this moment in my life let the word that you will never leave me or forsake me let me hear that again let me hear again that I am yours and you'll never depart from me nor will you allow me to depart from you let me hear the promises of your salvation can't you imagine David perhaps dealing with physical infirmities let me hear again that I will be made new let me hear your word again let your steadfast love come to me words that I already know don't it doesn't have to be a surprise let me hear sometimes we just need a god hug and we have to treat preaching in that fashion that we are giving gods people a god hug because the weather is rough because life is rough and so we come in and yes we know what we ought to do and we do need to be reminded that we are children of God we are called into this generation to serve him and to serve our neighbor but we are still loved and what drives our desire to serve him is the knowledge that he loves us I hope preachers do not do gods people the disservice of leaving them sending them out into the world trying to catch up I hope every time God's people need God sanctuary that they have God's blessings put on them that you've been bought with the price that you've been snatched as a brand from the burning that you are an heir of God that you are a joint heir with Christ that you are in dwelt by his spirit you have been purchased by the blood of the sun and therefore he has committed himself to you and everything that is necessary for your salvation has been supplied I hope you know that I hope you know that you're not lacking anything David is asking for a familiar word let your word of your steadfast love come to me again because right about now I need it here's the third thing that we see that David does in this passage identifies two particular reasons for our perpetual need to hear a God's word of promise he gives us and I think we can flesh it out and and see and and and sort of amplify or broaden these categories what he gives us two basic reasons on the one hand because he says in verse 42 there is someone that is taunting him now we can say this is an agent of the evil one but in verse 42 he says then I shall have an answer for him who taunts me so God's people are being taunted as a sense that they're sort of being trod and prodded and teased and mocked and it's not just by because you go to church is not no it's not that I think the one that taunts the people of God is the one who knows what has been promised and then shows you what you presently possess I think that's where the taunting comes in I I think the taunting comes in when the enemy whether he uses someone that we know or someone that we don't know but he will he will he will he's always willing to point out the distance between what you possess and what you profess whether it's in possessions whether it's in physical strength or whether it's in your personal morality in other words here's what he says there's I have someone who is taunting me we've called it the the adversaries last Wednesday and looking at Zechariah when we see Joshua being brought before that the tribunal of God and he has Satan the the the adversary there who is ready to accuse him but listen what Satan is also ready to do is to taunt those who believe in the promises of God Satan is willing to point out the distance between the faith that you possess and those things or the I should say the faith that you profess and the things that you actually possess whether it's your actions or whether it's things themselves Satan will say oh you have mansions in heaven but what about that shack you living in now what where's your God Satan says well look it says over here by his stripes you are healed and yet you're on a sick bed so what what about where's your healing and and listen Satan Satan says you are supposed to be a child of God and you said this he taunts and here's the interesting thing that David says here's what answers the taunts of Satan is not anything else that I can lay my hands on but the answer to the taunts of Satan is what God himself has said and that's why he says Lord in verse 41 let your steadfast love come to me O Lord let your salvation or the salvation according to your promise then he says this then I shall have an answer for him who taught me why not because circumstances will change but because I believe your word that's what Job does he he demonstrates his trust in the word of God when all of the physical things that God had blessed him with had been removed and that's when he makes that triumphant cry make it I can enter this world and make it I shall leave but I will be found trusting in the God who gives because it is God who gives and it's God who takes away therefore blessed be the name of the Lord God why does he say that does he say it so that he can get more stuff no he says it because God has promised it and he doesn't know how God is going to work through that storm but he knows that the storm and the challenges does not mean that God has failed him David is saying Lord speak your word of peace speak to me anew the salvation according to your promise because when I heard your promise I wasn't going through this and it sounded a little bit different now that I'm going through what I'm going through speak to me because he who talks me is pointing out the discrepancy between what I believe and what I possess or sometimes what I believe and how I behave don't you see and don't you know some Christians who may have been caught up in sinful situations and they figure that well since I messed up I may as well just Lord must not love me and and I know I'm just soiled so I may as well just go all the way but what we have to realize brothers and sisters is what God has promised us can't be broken even by our sinfulness so when he who taunts us when he taunts us the only answer that we can give is what God has said and that's the way David expresses it so one of the reasons we need the perpetual reminder of what God announces in the gospel is because in life circumstances the enemy the adversary is quick to taunt us and we need to stand fast and firm on what God has said but here's the second reason that he gives in verse 43 David in verse 43 says and take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth here's that's an interesting statement take not the word of truth why does he say that because David is referring to what I think is a tendency that we are prone to when our experiences do not line up with what God has promised in other words when we don't warn on one experience this kind of joy that runs from heart to heart breast to breast when we don't experience that joy joy joy in our hearts and we just have that big old Christian Kool-Age smile when we don't experience that then sometimes we might wonder well maybe it's not me maybe it didn't take and then what will end up happening because of our circumstances we will somehow maybe question the legitimacy of God's word in other words there's a tendency for us to shift our attitudes according to our circumstances and David again is is looting to not just the struggles of this this this adversary who would taunt him with his circumstances but but he is perhaps even reflecting on sometimes we just well that's the beauty of the Psalm sometimes we just don't feel like we belong to God and when we do that we start talking not according to what God has said but we start talking according to what we feel and so notice the way that he expresses it here in verse 43 where he says and take not the word of truth in other words what you have declared don't let what you have declared to me that which I need that which I need to hear don't let it be utterly taken from my mouth which means there may have been seasons of silence where David refused to praise God or got sidetracked by his circumstances when he did not speak in light of God promises and then when we when when when when when our ears are deaf to the gospel then what also ends up happening is that we have a tendency a tendency to stray from the law I've said this before and and I've had to live through these words that sometimes and our lowest points when we experience the weight of significant loss that people will sometimes give us a pass and they'll say oh well and they should you know we stand with those who mourn and suffer but sometimes it can be months it can be years and sometimes we will pull ourselves away from the very sources that God has appointed for our growth and for our nurturing and then we are and we'll write off you say well have you seen so I said well you know they lost or you know they went through that it's a yeah but have you seen them in other words brothers and sisters our seasons of loss and our season of pain while we sometimes need those moments of just stepping back they're still not an excuse to not worship not praise and not serve the God who was sovereign even in that and that can be I remember when our reading in the scriptures when David when his son Absalom was killed and and and David was destroyed now granted Absalom was a rebellious son but he was still a son and then eventually when he when he was killed and David was mourning and his his men stood with him and they said okay let him give him his room and then eventually his grief became greater than his praise and it took some other men to come to him and say look you know he was an enemy you you do remember that right and they said look you are the king and so how does it look for you for minute you were a grieving father but now you are grieving the loss of an enemy you need to stand and be a man before the people of God brothers and sisters sometimes we can go through disappointments sometimes we can go through the valley of pain and suffering and our tune changes and the words of praise that used to flow so freely don't flow so freely anymore and that's when we don't need to make up anything that's all the more reason we need to hear the familiar words of God steadfast love and we need to hear the familiar words of the salvation that he has promised to his people and sometimes all we need is to recite God's words back to him and even to ourselves David says Lord Lord let your word come to me so that I can have a word for the one who haunts me and so that your word would not be utterly taken out of my mouth because the truth of the matter is I love your rules and I need them but sometimes life can be so loud in our ears that our mouth refuses to speak the praises of the God that we know we love and so brothers and sisters here's what we learn from these few verses the gospel is an announcement of the salvation that God has promised in his word and the gospel is God committing himself to us in our time of need and never leaving us and never forsaking us not only do we learn that but in these few verses we are reminded that we have a perpetual need no one on this side of heaven outgrows the need to hear that I think of my son when he was young when he was little boy and get ready for bed and we had a few books that I'd read to him and we I would usually let him pick and he would always pick the same old story and my wife teases me because what I would do is you know as a father as father's tend to do I would read the story that was printed night at stuck to it but here's what I love about and he would say well daddy that's not what it says and I go on and tell him oh no daddy that's not what it says because he knew the story I prayed that when God takes you through that valley that you know the story and you don't get tired of hearing it I get tired of reading it I so that's why I spiced up the story but he wanted to hear that story and so when we face the taunters when we face the valleys and when we face the darkness we need to hear that story because that's what is a that's what enables us to trust his word that's what enables us to deal with what we can't explain and what we can't get rid of I trust your word that's what David says I trust your word so send it to me so that I can have an answer then send it to me so that my tongue can speak your praises again let your word come to me because I need it that's great father we thank you for your grace thank you for your saving mercy in Christ if we know that life hurts and we know that what we profess and what we embrace by faith is greater than what we see and sometimes what we see troubles what we believe speak your word remind us that in spite of and regardless of what we do what we experience and what we feel that you have gripped us in your everlasting love let us always be open to hear what you say so that it can tune how we feel thank you for your grace in Christ open our ears and our hearts to ever hearing you give us a reminder of your great love for us so that we would have an answer for the one who taught us thank you for our Savior who has crushed him now give us the strength to stand on what you say and we ask this in Jesus name amen would you please stand now may the love of God and the grace of our Lord and save your Jesus Christ and the sweet communion of the Holy Spirit rest rule and abide with you both now and forever let all of God's people say amen