Princeton Presbyterian Church

Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1658

October 20, 2024

Psalm 119:25-32               Click here for audio worship.

Dr. Ed Pettus

(This is an extended outline, not a verbatim transcript.)

 

“Clinging To God’s Word”

 

 

²⁵My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to your word! ²⁶When I told of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes! ²⁷Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. ²⁸My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word! ²⁹Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law! ³⁰I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me. ³¹I cling to your testimonies, O Lord; let me not be put to shame! ³²I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!

 

 

• Clinging to Dust

 

Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm in the collection. Its main topic is God’s Word utilizing multiple terms throughout to speak of the Word. Just in these eight verses, for instance, we have word, statutes, precepts, law, rules, testimonies, and commandments. Seven different terms to convey the meaning of God’s Word. The whole of the Psalm has many more.

In the Psalm are eight verse stanzas that, in the Hebrew, use the Hebrew alphabet to begin each verse. If the English equivalent could be used, a word with A would begin each verse in the first eight verses, second stanza would have a word beginning with B, C in the third set and so forth. One of the things that tells us about this Psalm is its incredible order and precision in the composition to bring forth the richness of God’s Word. And each section has a particular theme associated with the stanza. The theme here, or the key word in Psalm 119.25-32 is cling.

Verse 25 begins, “My soul clings to the dust”. The word cling in the ESV is cleave in other translations. It is the same word used in Genesis 2 when a man and a woman are to cleave to one another in marriage. It literally means to adhere to, to stick together. When the Psalmist says he clings to the dust I see that as a time of trouble, gripping the dust as a reminder that we are dust and to dust we shall return. He is facing a life threatening situation, because the next half of that verse seeks life. “Give me life according to your word!” He grips the dirt, the dust of the earth in despair and yet knows that he can only find life according to God’s Word.

 

• Give Me Life!

 

Give me life according to Your Word. What a great prayer. The gift of life comes in a multitude of ways in these eight verses. The first is verse 25 and the simple request to give life according to the Word. This is the Word that creates life, that is itself living and active (Hebrews 4.12). The Psalmist knows this truth that there is something generative in God’s commands, in God’s statutes, and when we adhere to His Word, we find the way of life and light.

The second way to life is in teaching. Verse 26 is a plea to be taught the Word. We learn through the reading and study of God’s Word and through teachers, fellow believers, through church leaders, through reading what authors have said about the Word through the centuries. Ultimately our greatest teacher is the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells us in John 14.26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” This plea for teaching is repeated in verse 29, “graciously teach me!” Pray for the Spirit to teach us and to do so graciously.

A third way in the Psalm – verse 27, “Make me understand the way of your precepts…” Spiritual insight is crucial to knowing the Word. God makes us understand, once again, by the power of the Holy Spirit. “¹²Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. ¹³And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual” (1 Corinthians 2.12-13).

Fourth, life comes according to God’s Word and so does strength, verse 28, “strengthen me according to your word!” This is the same encouragement we get from Paul in the famous armor of God passage, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might...[taking up] the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6.10, 17).

The final point I want to make on the life giving Word is verse 32 and the phrase “enlarge my heart”. The stanza ends with the assurance that God enlarges the heart, that is, our understanding grows. In God’s Word our hearts and minds are set free for wisdom and knowledge. In God’s word our hearts are fashioned to greater love through constant meditation on the Word. Jesus knew this. Jesus thought in this way and, as His disciples, we are seeking to think in this way, in the way of Scripture. This is why the Bible says we will suffer for the faith, because the Christian faith thinks differently than the world. The faith thinks in terms of righteousness and holiness and sacrifice and self-denial and genuine love and faithfulness to the One true God and the Lord Jesus Christ. If we have seen anything at all in our times it is that the world hates the way the Bible “thinks”. It is why the world desires the destruction of infant lives, why same sex marriage is accepted, why transgender ideology is praised, why there is a Pride Month for sexual sin, and why all the other biblically opposed thoughts continue to strive for acceptance, because the world hates the way the Bible thinks. The world hates the mind of Christ, the mind that thinks biblically and the mind that yields to the way of God.

 

• Clinging to God’s Word

 

Psalm 119.31, “I cling to your testimonies, O Lord.” Same word as verse 25 – cling, cleave, adhere to, grasp, holding fast through knowledge of the Word. Then the second half of that verse, “let me not be put to shame!” The plea is that trusting in God’s Word will not lead to shame or failure or back to the dust.

Whether this stanza in the Psalm signifies a physical threat or a spiritual threat, we do not know, but one thing is for sure, it is the soul that is affected. Verse 25, “My soul clings”...and verse 28, “my soul melts away for sorrow.” The soul is in danger when not engaged and enthralled with the Word of God. In these eight verses we see the answer to the trouble the Psalmist faced – knowing God’s word. Verse 25 - Give me life according to your word; verse 26 - teach me your statutes; verse 27 - make me understand the way of your precepts; verse 28 - strengthen me according to your word; verse 29 – teach me your law; verse 30 – I set your rules before me; verse 31 – I cling to your testimonies; verse 32 – I run the way of your commandments.

The counter to clinging to the dust is to cling to God’s Word. Let’s examine a few other passages that help us in this thought. The first is Psalm 1. Like Psalm 119, Psalm 1 is focused on the Word of God. Verses 1-2, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; ²but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” Two verbs might draw our attention, delight and meditate. Is the law of God a delight for us? If not, pray that it becomes a delight. One way to help that along is through the second verb, to meditate on it. Meditation means to contemplate, to think about it, to let it marinade in our hearts and minds. We can internalize or integrate scripture into our life by gaining understanding in and through it. We can keep it always before us by writing it down. We can read it out loud to help read and hear it. Meditation leads to delight and that delight will lead to more meditation.

In 119:30 we have this practice: “I set your rules before me.” We need to set the Word before us. We have to open the book! We have to set aside other things that may distract us. The previous verse prays away distractions, vs. 29, “put false ways far from me.” This is really our battle, to discern false ways from God’s ways. We see this battle going on in the world every day between Christians and non-Christians, between ways of thinking in politics and business and other fields and the way the Bible “thinks”. Our task is to cling to God’s Word that we might walk in God’s ways.

As we have worked through the minor prophets in recent sermons, we have connected those prophetic voices to the New Testament. Here too we find connections to places like Romans 12:1-2.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ²Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We renew our minds by setting God’s rules before us which in turn enables us to better discern God’s will and way, and put away false ways. Clinging to God’s word requires us to think about it and think along with it that our minds might be renewed.

2 Corinthians 10:5b even tells us directly to take every thought captive. “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. ⁵We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ”

Our warfare is in the area of thoughts, to destroy arguments and lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God.

We argue against abortion because abortion goes against the knowledge of God.

We argue against same sex marriage because it goes against the order of God.

We argue against all the lofty inane opinions of the world because they go counter to the knowledge of God.

And the goal of Paul’s word here is to take every thought captive to obey Christ. Imagine our country if every person took every thought captive to obey Christ. Might eliminate both political parties! Probably would completely destroy Hollywood!

What Psalm 119 and passages throughout the Bible and New Testament are teaching us is that God’s Word is where life is found, wisdom is found, right thinking is found, faithful living is found. So we cling to these words of God for the sake of life and truth and meaning. We cling to these words because we know by the power of the Holy Spirit that they are true and truth. Jesus has the words of eternal life (John 6.68).

As I was writing down thoughts on clinging to dust and clinging to the Word of God, I kept thinking about static cling. You know that clinging we get when our clothes have static electricity and we have that strange feeling and crackle of pulling the sock off your shirt. But static cling is something clinging to us while the clinging of Psalm 119 is that of our holding on and grasping hold of something, clinging to the Word. But there may be something wonderful in the thought of static cling, that our clinging to the Word might cause the Word to cling to us. And when we speak of that Word to others, the Spirit might bring a certain feeling and crackle in their hearts as He has in ours. Let us cling to the Word and pray that the Word clings to us as well. Amen.