The Joy of God's Word

Overview

The Joy of Revelation

Joy is a gift of God—named by Paul as a fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22-23)—and one of its richest sources is the very Word He has placed into our hands. Psalm 119, sometimes called the Mount Everest of the Psalms, towers above the others with its 176 verses arranged as an acrostic of 22 stanzas, each beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. That careful structure communicates completeness: a call for God's people to soak in the depth, richness, and grandeur of His Word. The psalmist's testimony rings out clearly: "I delight in the way of your decrees as much as in all riches" Psalm 119:14; "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth" Psalm 119:103; "I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil" Psalm 119:162.

That joy expresses itself in three concrete ways. First, meditation. "I will meditate on your precepts" Psalm 119:15. Biblical meditation is not the emptying of the mind that other traditions teach, but its filling—speaking, voicing, dwelling on God's Word out loud. Luther compared it to birds chirping joyfully in the trees. The Psalms model this: "I will meditate on all your work and muse on your mighty deeds" Psalm 77:11-12. Second, fixing the eyes. "And fix my eyes on your ways" Psalm 119:15. Like a patient told to focus during an eye exam, we are called to a steady, undistracted gaze on Scripture, binding it as a sign on our hand and forehead Deuteronomy 11:18, interpreting all of life through it. Third, not forgetting. "I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word" Psalm 119:16. As any teacher knows, learning comes by repetition. "I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life" Psalm 119:93.

Honestly examined, our lives often fall short of all three. Instead of speaking God's Word, we get caught in our own well-worn stories. Instead of fixing our gaze on Scripture, we form our beliefs from the ways of the world or are diverted by the slightest occurrence into anxiety. Instead of remembering God's goodness, we get tangled in inner dialogue and lured by surrounding falsehoods. And as our meditation, fixation, and remembering fade, so does our joy.

Yet God in His grace comes to us with the blood-bought word of forgiveness through Jesus Christ, who bore even our failure to embrace Scripture joyfully. He raises us up new each day, and the result—again and again—is joy. The psalmist's saturation in the Word stretches from before dawn Psalm 119:147 through the day Psalm 119:97 and into the watches of the night Psalm 119:148. May we rally anew around God's Word—meditating on it, fixing our eyes upon it, refusing to forget it—for there is true and lasting joy in having the very voice of God in our hands.

Transcript

Let's open our Bibles, please this morning, to Psalm 119, Psalm 119, for our study today. 2s

Joy. 15s

Joy. 16s

It is such a beautiful, beautiful word, isn't it? 17s

And it is a beautiful reality. 22s

A gift of God to us. 26s

Paul writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and Galatians says it is a fruit of the Spirit. 29s

It is God's gift to us. 35s

Well, for the next 12 weeks, Pastor Meloneccanai, we're going to explore this whole understanding of joy. 41s

We're going to take a look at what the Bible has to say. 50s

And over these 12 weeks, as we study this together, our time together is really going to be divided into four different chapters, or four different sub-topics, with regard to the topic of joy. 54s

Some of the chapters are going to be longer than the other ones, but they're really four different groupings of sermons for these next 12 weeks. 71s

The first chapter, or the first topic that I'd like to address with you, is the joy of revelation. 82s

That's what we're going to study today. 91s

The joy that is ours, because we have the very word of God that we hold in our hands. 93s

When we open this book, we hear the voice of God such a treasure. 100s

So we're going to study that today, the joy of revelation. 105s

The second chapter that we're going to take a look at in the weeks ahead is the joy of God. 111s

Specifically, what brings God joy? 120s

What brings God joy? 124s

The third section of our study together is going to be the joy in us, the joy in us, and then the last section of the world. 127s

We're going to take a look at the joy to come, the joy to come. 135s

So the joy of revelation, the joy of having God's word, the joy of God, what is it that brings him joy? 141s

Joy in us, and then the joy to come. 151s

I pray that throughout these weeks, as we study this great and quite biblical topic, 157s

I pray that our times of study together will be a rich source of blessing, that it will be a time of joy that God will be glorified. 164s

For the first sermon in the series, I've selected Psalm 119. 178s

Psalm 119 is sometimes referred to as the Mount Everest of the Psalms and for good reason. 184s

Mount Everest, of course, is huge, so also is Psalm 119. 192s

There are 176 verses, 176 verses in this Psalm. 198s

For our response of reading today, we just had just a few that's going to be focus of our sermon today, but 176 verses. 207s

And just a little backdrop on the richness and the beauty of this Psalm. 216s

It is written in what is called a cross-stick poetry, a cross-stick poetry. 224s

What is that? 231s

There are 22 letters in Hebrew, 22 letters. 234s

There's 176 verses in Psalm 119. 242s

If you take the 22 letters and you divide, you come up with 22 stances of eight verses each. 249s

And the verses all begin with sequential lettering. 263s

In other words, to use our English alphabet as an example. 270s

The first stanza, all eight verses, would all begin with the letter A. 275s

The second stanza, or the next eight verses, would all begin with the letter B. 281s

And then C and on and on until you get to Z, that would be a cross-stick poetry. 288s

The thing is, though, in the translation when Psalm 119 comes over into English, you lose all that. 296s

You don't see it. 305s

It's certainly in the Hebrew, but you don't see it in the English. 307s

So just keep that in mind as we go through this. 312s

This is written in this special form. 315s

These 176 verses divided into 22 stances, all of eight verses each, with a sequential beginning of each verse beginning with the letters in the alphabet in each stanza. 319s

It is a beautiful, God-inspired piece of poetry. 337s

God's very word to us in this special form. 343s

And this form of poetry is used to communicate completeness. 349s

In other words, it is a call for us to soak in the depth and the richness and the grandeur and the detail of his word. 354s

So let's for our purposes today. Let's pick up in verse 14 of Psalm 119. 367s

There the Psalmist writes this, 377s

I delight in the way of your decrees as much as in all riches that word there decrees. 380s

That's just one of many words that the Psalmist uses to refer to Scripture. 393s

So in essence, what he is saying is, I delight in the way of your scriptures as much as in all riches. 400s

Turn over, please, to verse 103 in Psalm 119. 410s

Verse 103, the Psalmist writes this, 417s

how sweet are your words to my taste sweeter than honey to my mouth? 421s

That's delight in the very word of God, isn't it? 430s

Or jump over to verse 111. 434s

Your decrees are my heritage forever. 440s

They are the joy of my heart. 444s

Or over into verse 162 of Psalm 119. 449s

I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil. 457s

There is this delight, there is this joy in having the word of God. 467s

And that delight we see in our text for today, that delight expresses itself in three ways. 473s

So let's go back to verse 15 of Psalm 119. 484s

And you'll see the first way that the delight in the word of God expresses itself. 490s

Right after the Psalmist says, I delight in the way of your decrees as much as in all riches he writes. 499s

I will meditate on your precepts. 507s

Precepts is just another word that is used in Psalm 119 for Scripture. 513s

I'll meditate on your precepts. 518s

So often we can take a non-Christian understanding of meditation and apply it. 524s

The non-Christian understanding of meditation involves an emptying of one's self, an empty. 536s

That is the opposite of the call in Scripture to meditate, scripturally. 545s

Meditate when you look at it, scripturally, to Hebrew words, and what it means is to speak, to share. 555s

And so when the Israelites have old, when they would be meditating, they would speak the very word of God. 562s

In other words, they wouldn't try and empty their minds empty themselves of words. 568s

No, it was the exact opposite. 576s

They would fill themselves with God's word and then speak God's word. 578s

That's what it means to meditate on the words. 587s

Luther had a wonderful image with regard to meditation. 591s

He said, it's like birds that are singing or chirping. 594s

As they joyfully sing in the trees, as they joyfully chirp away, he said, that's what meditation is like. 599s

Not the decrease in the filling of the words. 608s

No, but the very expression, the very verbalizing of the word of God. 611s

So when we meditate on the word of God, we speak it. 619s

We speak it out loud. 624s

We dwell on the word of God. 627s

We fill ourselves with the word of God. 630s

And like birds singing and chirping, we speak. 634s

Psalm 77, I will call to mind the deeds of the Lord. 638s

I will remember your wonders of old. 647s

I will meditate on all your work and muse on your mighty deeds. 652s

And that meditation, pondering, reflecting on the work of God, the mighty deeds of God, that involved. 663s

The filling up of the word and the speaking out of that word. 674s

The light then in the word of God, joy in having the word of God expresses itself in biblical meditation. 683s

Well, here's the second expression of the delight. 698s

Let's go back to verse 15 again. 702s

I will meditate on your precepts. 707s

Here comes number two. 711s

And fix my eyes on your ways. 714s

Fix my eyes on your ways. 720s

I think of an eye exam I had recently. 728s

The technician that was leading me through the various tests. 731s

Very specific of what you wanted me to do. 737s

Look here, don't blink. 742s

Stair right at the center of the star. 747s

Focus in on that red barn. 752s

Don't look any place else. 755s

Just look at the barn. 757s

You see the encouragement to me. 761s

The follow those instructions was really to fix my eyes. 764s

This was not a time for me to day dream or to look around. 767s

No, I was supposed to look here. 772s

Not blink. 774s

Look here. 774s

Look here. 775s

To focus. 777s

That's the image that we get from Holy Scripture. 780s

That our eyes are to be fixed. 784s

Fixed on the very word of God. 788s

I think of the imagery that we get in due to the 11th chapter. 792s

There God says this. 798s

You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul. 801s

You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and fix them as an emblem on your forehead. 807s

In other words, as they live, the Word of God was to be right in front of them. 818s

It's a beautiful imagery, isn't it? 825s

That's what we go about living. 827s

The Word of God is to be right before us. 830s

In fact, we interpret everything through the Word of God. 833s

That Word of God is not far away. 838s

It is not relegated to a shelf someplace. 840s

It is not a dusty book someplace. 843s

No, that Word of God is right before us. 848s

We fix our eyes upon it as we live. 853s

To light, joy in having God's Word expresses itself first. 860s

It expresses itself in meditation. 870s

Bibically, which involves speaking, 874s

secondly, that delight that joy of having God's Word expresses itself. 878s

It expresses itself by fixing of the eye. 884s

And here's the third verse 16. 891s

I will delight in your statutes. 896s

Now the Word for Scripture, I will delight in your statutes. 901s

I will not forget your word. 906s

There's number three. 911s

The delight in God's Word expresses itself in not forgetting God's Word. 912s

The delight in God's Word expresses itself in not forgetting God's Word. 922s

Turn over, please, to verse 93 of Psalm 119. 928s

There, the Psalmist writes this. 935s

I will never forget your precepts. 938s

For by them, you have given me life. 944s

Every teacher knows. 953s

Every teacher knows that the student learns why repetition. 956s

Think about that from a moment. 963s

How is it that we learn? 964s

We learn because our teachers would repeat things to us. 965s

I think for example of our multiplication tables. 971s

Remember, perhaps a parent or a grandparent wrote out all the different equations and 975s

showed the cards and we would look at the card and try and give the right answer. 981s

We didn't just take one glance at the cards and say, we've got it. 987s

We know we learned our multiplication tables because we kept repeating them over and over and over again. 991s

You have to do the math in our minds. 1001s

It was just a part of us after a while. 1003s

As we look at that equation and we say, this times this is this. 1006s

One learns by repetition. 1013s

The delight, the joy, expressed three different ways. 1021s

Meditation, fixing our eyes and not forgetting. 1030s

Let's ponder those expressions in our own lives for a moment. 1054s

Shall we? 1060s

We've heard the clear call from the Holy Scripture. 1062s

But what is the reality in our own lives? 1067s

When it comes, for example, to meditating on God's word, instead of meditating on the word of God, 1071s

we can just get caught up in our own words. 1083s

Instead of speaking the word of God continually, we can be ignorant of God's word. 1089s

And just find ourselves being speechless. 1099s

Instead of verbalizing the word of God, we can sometimes just wind up repeating our own well-worn stories that has nothing to do with God's word. 1105s

How about fixing our eyes? 1122s

Instead of fixing our gaze on the word of God, we can be tempted to look elsewhere to pick up vocabulary. 1128s

Instead of staring at the word of God, we can form our beliefs, not from the word of God, but simply by the ways of the world. 1141s

Instead of our attention being focused right on the word of God, clinging to it, staring at it, 1157s

and diverting by the slightest occurrence and be launched into our own anxiety. 1170s

How about when it comes to not forgetting? 1182s

Instead of remembering the word of God, we can be caught in our own inner dialogue. 1186s

Instead of remembering the truth of God's word, we can be let away to those falsehoods that surround us. 1192s

Instead of remembering the goodness of God, what He has done in the past and what He's doing in the present, we can be tempted to say, 1201s

well, God, this is what I think you should do and how you should express your goodness right now and in the future. 1213s

And we lose sight of His continual goodness to us. 1221s

We can fall short in our meditation, we can fall short in our fixation, we can fall short in remembering. 1228s

And what happens? But our joy, our joy, it fades, it fades. 1236s

God in His grace comes. He comes with the incredible word of forgiveness through Jesus Christ. 1253s

Jesus Christ bearing all of our sin on the cross, including our falling short, 1261s

in joyfully embracing the very word that He has placed into our hands. 1270s

And God, in His grace, continues to come with the blood-bought word of absolute through the Lord Jesus Christ and says, 1278s

you are forgiven, you are loved, continually raising us up to the new, each day, the freshness that forgiveness brings for every moment of every day. 1288s

And the result is joy, it's joy. 1309s

As I prepared this sermon this week, I reflected for a while on Raleigh Sunday. 1320s

That wonderful time in the life of the church in which we rally a new around God's Word. 1328s

And I found myself going over to my bookshelf. 1339s

There on the bookshelf is a Bible that I had received many years ago. 1344s

It's got a red leather cover, it's tattered around the edges. 1350s

It was a Bible that was given to me by my Godmother, my aunt, Raine. 1355s

As I opened up that Bible, I was surprised to see some notes in it. 1363s

They were notes from a sermon that I had preached some 15 years ago. 1371s

It was the funeral service for Aunt Raine. 1378s

And the family had asked me and given me the honor of being able to not only conduct that service, 1382s

but also to preach at it, such a blessing. 1390s

I looked at those notes from that sermon long gone by. 1397s

And it contained some memories with regard to Aunt Raine. 1403s

I'd written down the Tata sausage. 1409s

I'd written down radio. 1413s

You see, every time I was in Aunt Raine's apartment, there was always the radio that was on, always. 1416s

And it was always tuned to the Christian station. 1424s

No matter day or night, that word was going forth in the music, glorifying God was going on. 1427s

I'd written down porch. 1440s

I remembered why there were conversations on our back porch. 1444s

I had written down suitcase. 1449s

As I so loved when Aunt Raine came to town, we would go to the airport. 1452s

And I knew that when we got that bag home, the first thing that she would do is she would call my brother and myself, 1458s

over, and she'd say, boys, I think something is in the suitcase. 1467s

And she would pull out some type of gift, some type of wonderful toy, and give us boys the gift that had come all the way from Chicago. 1473s

Year after year, after year, there were cards to me. 1490s

Cards to me that contained Bible verses in them. 1497s

Inscription in the front of the Bible, Scripture focused. 1504s

Aunt Raine, there was joy about her, and one of the reasons why there was joy about her was that she loved the very word of God that had been placed in her. 1509s

Hence, all the Psalmists just rings out with that joy. 1526s

It is a joy that starts in the earliest of the morning throughout the day and extends through the watches of the night. 1535s

While verse 147 of Psalm 119, the Psalmist says, I rise before dawn and cry for help. 1543s

I put my hope in your words. 1552s

In verse 97, the Psalmist writes, oh, how I love your law. 1557s

It is my meditation all day long. 1563s

In verse 148, it says, my eyes are awake before each watch of the night that I may meditate on your promise. 1567s

The Psalmist was saturated in the Word of God, and being able to have the Word of God being saturated by the Word of God. 1579s

Early in the morning at dawn throughout the day and throughout the watches of the night that birthed joy. 1588s

It birthed joy. 1598s

Rally Sunday, rally in New, around the Word of God. 1603s

Rally in New, around the study and immersion of ourselves into the Word. 1612s

Rally in New, for there is joy in having the Word of God. 1618s