Psalm 119:49-80

Sermon Notes

Psalm 119:49-80

Remembering God’s Word

Pastor Jim Thomas

ZAYIN
Psalm 119:49-56 (NAS95)

Remember the word to Your servant,
In which You have made me hope.
This is my comfort in my affliction,
That Your word has revived me.
The arrogant utterly deride me,
Yet I do not turn aside from Your law.
I have remembered Your ordinances from of old, O LORD,
And comfort myself.
Burning indignation has seized me because of the wicked,
Who forsake Your law.
Your statutes are my songs
In the house of my pilgrimage.
O LORD, I remember Your name in the night,
And keep Your law.
This has become mine,
That I observe Your precepts.

Zayin reminds us the Word of God is:

Our hope – v. 49
Our comfort – v. 50a
Our revival – v. 50b
Our true north – vv. 51-52
Our moral center – v. 53
Our heart’s song – v. 54
Our source of identity – v. 56
Our true home – v. 57

HETH
Psalm 119:57-64 (NAS95)

The LORD is my portion;
I have promised to keep Your words.
I sought Your favor with all my heart;
Be gracious to me according to Your 1word.
I considered my ways
And turned my feet to Your testimonies.
I hastened and did not delay
To keep Your commandments.
The cords of the wicked have encircled me,
But I have not forgotten Your law.
At midnight I shall rise to give thanks to You
Because of Your righteous ordinances.
I am a companion of all those who fear You,
And of those who keep Your precepts.
The earth is full of Your lovingkindness, O LORD;
Teach me Your statutes.

TETH
Psalm 119:65-72 (NAS95)

You have dealt well with Your servant,
O LORD, according to Your word.
Teach me good discernment and knowledge,
For I believe in Your commandments.
Before I was afflicted I went astray,
But now I keep Your word.
You are good and do good;
Teach me Your statutes.
The arrogant have forged a lie against me;
With all my heart I will observe Your precepts.
Their heart is covered with fat,
But I delight in Your law.
It is good for me that I was afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.
The law of Your mouth is better to me
Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

YODH
Psalm 119:73-80 (NAS95)

Your hands made me and fashioned me; give me
understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.
May those who fear You see me and be glad,
Because I wait for Your word.
I know, O LORD, that Your judgments are righteous,
And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.
O may Your lovingkindness comfort me,
According to Your word to Your servant.
May Your compassion come to me that I may live,
For Your law is my delight.
May the arrogant be ashamed, for they subvert me with a lie;
But I shall meditate on Your precepts.
May those who fear You turn to me,
Even those who know Your testimonies.
May my heart be blameless in Your statutes,
So that I will not be ashamed.

Four themes that run consistent throughout Psalm 119:

1. The tension of living in a rebellious, broken, and disordered world.
2. The comfort, hope, wisdom, power, and redemption found in God’s Word.
3. The psalmist’s persistent resolve to turn toward, trust in and obey the Word of God.
4. The psalmist’s utter dependence on the God of the Word for strength to remain faithful.

Remembering God’s Word reminds us of:

1. The ache we all feel
2. The comfort we all need
3. The hope that can sustain us
4. The final word that can save us

1. The Ache We All Feel

Bible-believing Christians can speak with clarity about what is wrong with the world because Scripture gives a coherent account of humanity’s fall and the reality of sin.

By contrast, naturalistic atheists—if they remain consistent with a worldview in which everything is the product of blind, impersonal forces—cannot ultimately appeal to any objective standard by which to call the world truly good or bad.

“Remember Your word to your servant, in which You have made me hope.”
Psalm 119:49 (ESV)

“My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior.”
John Newton

“Christianity teaches that, contra fatalism, suffering is overwhelming; contra Buddhism, suffering is real; contra karma, suffering is often unfair; but contra secularism, suffering is meaningful. There is a purpose to it, and if faced rightly, it can drive us like a nail deep into the love of God and into more stability and spiritual power than you can imagine.”
Timothy Keller, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering

2. The Comfort We All Need

“God says ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love.’ This is a fundamental truth of your identity. This is who you are whether you feel it or not. You belong to God from eternity to eternity. Life is just a little opportunity for you during a few years to say, ‘I love you, too.’”
Henri Nouwen, Finding My Way Home

“God regularly takes his children places they never would have planned to go in order to produce in and through them things they never could have produced on their own. It’s important to recognize that the workings of God‘s grace aren’t always predictable or comfortable. Often when we think grace has passed us by, God‘s grace is at work, just not in the way we expect.”
Paul Tripp, Everyday Gospel

3. The Hope That Can Sustain Us

“We don’t live on explanations, we live on promises, and the promises of God are based on the character of God.”
Warren Wiersbe, Be Amazed

“I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?”
C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces

God does not promise to answer every “Why?” with an explanation. But He does answer with His presence. Only God can transform our suffering into glory. Explanations are not what will sustain us; only divine nearness and faithfulness can do that.

4. The Final Word That Can Save Us

Yodh reminds us:
The “may…” prayers look polite in English but they are actually thunderous, gospel-soaked pleas for God to do the kinds of things that only God’s Messiah and the New Covenant gospel can ultimately accomplish within us.

In vv73-80 (YODH) the psalmist is making creation-level, new-covenant-level requests:
Let your love create comfort in me the way you once created light.
Let your mercy invade me the way your presence once filled the temple.
Let my heart become a new creation—whole and blameless.

“The healthy Christian is not necessarily the extrovert, ebullient Christian, but the Christian who has a sense of God’s presence stamped deep on his soul, who trembles at God’s word, who lets it dwell in him richly by constant meditation upon it, and who tests and reforms his life daily in response to it.”
J.I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness

“In a world of uncertainty, Advent reminds us to trust in God’s authority, not in our own. As we trust in God—His goodness and His faithfulness—we offer a witness to our world that peace is possible, whatever anxieties today or tomorrow may hold.”
Danny Webster, Evangelical Alliance (UK)