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[0:00] Apparently there's a step there. Right? Apparently not me. Take out your Bibles with me please and turn to Psalm 119.

[0:12] ! Psalm 119. You'll find the Psalms in the middle of your Bible. And just turn to 119.

[0:25] We'll be looking at verses 17 through 24. This morning we're doing a series that we began just a few weeks ago on Psalm 119.

[0:36] The theme of Psalm 119 is the Word of God. So it's about living by the Word, delighting in the Word, guarding our life with the Word of God.

[0:49] How we integrate this great precious gift that God has given to us into our lives. To better seek Him.

[1:01] To better walk with Him. So we're in Psalm 119. Verse 17 through 24. The Psalm is 176 verses long.

[1:13] It's divided into 22 sections of 8 verses each. Each section begins with one of the Hebrew alphabets. So the first 8 verses, all 8 verses begin with the letter, what we would call A, what Hebrew calls Aleph.

[1:29] Then the next 8 verses, Beth. Each verse, verses 9 through 16 begin with Beth. And then today we're on Gimel.

[1:41] So each verse, 17 through 24, the writer begins with that Hebrew letter. So if you're able, please stand as I read from the Word of God.

[1:55] Psalm 119, beginning verse 17. Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live and keep thy word.

[2:11] Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from thy law. I am a stranger in the earth.

[2:23] Do not hide thy commandments from me. My soul is crushed with longing after thine ordinances at all times.

[2:37] Thou dost rebuke the arrogant, the cursed, who wander from thy commandments. Take away reproach and contempt from upon me, for I observe thy testimonies.

[2:50] Even though princes sit and talk against me, thy servant meditates on thy statutes. Thy testimonies also are my delight.

[3:05] They are my counselors. So reads the Word. Let us pray. Father, once again as we open your Word, we pray that you open our eyes.

[3:16] So that we can see the wonderful things from your Word. Deal bountifully with us, Father, that as we look at your Word, we may not only observe it, but that we might truly live.

[3:35] Hide nothing from us, Lord, from your Word. But reveal to us and make clear to us what you have said, what you have testified about yourself, what you have laid down as a pathway for us.

[3:57] Help us to see, Father, in this Word, those things which bring us delight. Those things for which we long in our soul.

[4:13] We ask in Christ's name. Amen. Please be seated. Let me begin by asking you a strange question.

[4:26] What are camels for? I mean the animal, first off. To ride. To ride. Okay, I mean what makes them different?

[4:37] What stands out? What did God create a camel for? Drink. Huh? To drink. To drink? Well, I can drink. They can travel long distances.

[4:51] Without having to have water. They store their water in their dromedaries. So, we see camels throughout the scripture.

[5:08] In fact, we see camels in the manger scene. Sometimes. With the wise guys who come late. Actually, the wise guys should be about two years back here.

[5:21] So, in Genesis 24, Abraham loads up his servant on camels to go to a distant land to find a wife for his son Isaac.

[5:35] And camels are a big part of the story in Genesis 24. Because it's all the test is, you know, do they water my camels? And, you know. Genesis 31, Jacob, after he comes to terms with his father-in-law who's been cheating him and cheating him, out cheating him, loads up camels to come back to the promised land.

[6:00] So, over and over, we see camels and we see it. I don't know if they're named in the Christmas story. We just have the wise guys come in.

[6:11] But we know they traveled on camels. They had to. It was such a far way. So, they're about traveling. So, why do I bring up camels? Well, because gimel, the first letter, the first word of Psalm 119, verse 17, is the word for camel.

[6:35] So, the little letter, if you have it, you have the Hebrew letter in your Bibles? Right in front of 17? Or you just have the word gimel, right?

[6:46] That's the Hebrew word for the letter, the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet, gimel. And gimel means, Hebrew is a picture language. So, the picture for this section is camel.

[7:02] You say, what camel? The picture for the last section, Beth, is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, is Beth. And Beth is also, it means house.

[7:13] The first letter, aleph, means ox. So, there's picture for each one. So, we get to the next one. Dolleth is a door. The next, after that is ha.

[7:25] Eh, yeah, ha. That's window. So, there's pictures here. Camel. Why camel? Why is he thinking about that? And in verse 19, it says, I am a stranger in the earth.

[7:40] Or it could be translated sojourner. I'm a traveler in the earth. I'm traveling in the land.

[7:51] Which is true of the Old Testament patriarchs who did not build homes, but lived in tents and traveled throughout the land.

[8:02] We have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. We have Moses traveling. We have David traveling. In the New Testament, we are told as Christians that we are strangers and aliens in this world.

[8:17] We travel through this world. So, here we have in the third section of Hebrews, of Psalm 119. We start with aleph.

[8:27] We start with the bedrock of blessing, right? Blessing according to your word. And then, in the second section, I store up the word of God in my heart or in my house.

[8:40] In my house, which is my heart. My heart, which is my house. And then I can meditate on it. Now, in the third section, we are traveling. And as we travel, we experience trials.

[8:52] As we walk about in this world, we are different than the world. So, we are on camels. So, how does the word light our path as we experience hardship?

[9:17] As we deal with trials, affliction, suffering, scorn, contempt, governments that work against us.

[9:30] How do we respond to that with the word? So, the other thing I want you to notice, there is the presence of suffering in these verses.

[9:41] So, we see in verse 19, he's a stranger, a sojourner in the land. This world is not our home. It is an alien place for us. We live in a world that hates us, right?

[9:55] Because it hates our master. Verse 22, he's experiencing reproach and contempt. He's hated, and we are hated for Christ's sake.

[10:06] Verse 23, even though princes sit and talk or plot against me. Princes, rulers, government. Folks, people in charge plot against us.

[10:19] How do I respond? So, trials are normal in the Christian life. We read that over and over again. Jesus told us that if we follow him, we will experience the same kind of afflictions that he experienced.

[10:32] So, it's no surprise. So, how do we respond to trials? So, here's what this section's about. Seeking the testimony from God's word for how we respond and think through trials.

[10:48] What this breaks down to is two sections, verses 17 through 20. The first four verses are a prayer, three prayers, in fact, for illumination.

[11:01] Prayer for clarity. Prayer for light. Right? Open my eyes. Prayer for illumination. In the trial. And then, verses 21 to 24, there's one prayer there for deliverance.

[11:17] A prayer to take away from me the scorn and contempt. Take away from me the reproach that I'm getting because I walk different than the world.

[11:29] Okay, so two prayers. So, the first prayer is a longing for illumination in our trials, to see the wonders of his word. So, it's most clearly expressed in verse 18.

[11:42] Open my eyes that I may behold that I may be caused to see the wonderful things from thy law. So, I need God to open my eyes to see that. Three things we need here.

[11:54] Verse 17, grace. I need God to deal bountifully with me. Verse 18, I need illumination. I need God to open my eyes to see. And then, third, in verse 19, as a stranger in the land, I need transformation.

[12:08] I need God to reveal his commands, make clear his commands, so that as I walk in the land, I walk rightly. So, grace.

[12:20] Verse 17, deal bountifully with thy servant. So, interesting, in Hebrew, it's the same. What's translated deal bountifully is that Hebrew word, gimel.

[12:33] So, Hebrew is, you know, it's a picture language, so it means camel, but it also means deal bountifully. It also means to wean. And it can also mean to ripen.

[12:49] So, how does the same word mean deal bountifully, wean, and ripen? Well, I think that's all about making progress. You know, to wean, I'm progressing, right, in maturity.

[13:03] To ripen, I'm maturing. Right, so deal bountifully, bring me to maturity. Bring me to maturity.

[13:15] Deal graciously with me. For what purpose? Second part of verse 17, that I may live and keep thy word. And I would put it, that I might live thy word and keep thy word.

[13:29] That I might live and keep thy word. That I might live fully. Not just live, but live. And keep, guard, observe thy word.

[13:44] Then secondly, so I need grace. Isn't that an interesting prayer? Deal bountifully. Have you ever prayed that?

[13:58] Deal bountifully. It's like saying be gracious, but it's like, be really gracious. Then secondly, verse 18, he says, open my eyes.

[14:12] So, give me, I need illumination. Open my eyes that I might see. Unless God opened our eyes, we won't see. We won't understand.

[14:22] Apart from God's giving us light, we won't see. We won't understand. Right? That's how we grow in the Christian life. We don't see everything in here the first time we read it, do we?

[14:37] I mean, even the second, third, fourth time, there's still stuff where God's opening our eyes a little bit more. And he chooses how much to open, right? He doesn't give us all of it. He gives us a little bit, a little bit.

[14:48] So, we grow. Open my eyes. Literally, cause me to see. Give me light. Enlighten me.

[14:59] What do I need to see? Open my eyes that I might behold what? Wonderful things from my law. Now, have you ever thought of God's law as something wonderful?

[15:13] Anyone? Anyone? Anyone? Keep you out of trouble. You know, I don't know if I'd call some of the laws of God wonderful and call them boundaries.

[15:27] You know, I'd call them guidance, light. But wonderful? We have to remember. So, remember here, Psalm 119 is using eight different words that are synonyms or alternate expressions of the word of God.

[15:47] So, we have the word. We have God's way. We have his testimonies, his statutes, his commandments, his precepts. Judgments.

[15:59] Testimonies. Did I get them all? I don't know. I don't know. So, verse 17 is thy word. Verse 18, thy law. Right? Verse 19, thy commandments. Verse 20, thine ordinances, etc.

[16:11] They're different expressions of the same topic, the word of God. Right? So, here he says, the wonders of thy law. So, when he's saying law here, he's meaning law in general, the path of God.

[16:24] So, the laws of God are really the path of God, the path that you walk on. Right? The Psalm 119 started that way, right? Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord.

[16:35] Right? Blessed means to go straight. Right? It's a pathway word. To go straight. To be on the road. So, I'm blessed if I'm on God's road.

[16:45] No matter what happens. I'm not happy. Happy depends on what happens to you. Blessed is about being on God's road. Like Jesus said, the narrow road.

[16:57] That leads to life. The broad road leads to destruction. But the blessed road. Like blessed are the poor.

[17:08] Blessed are the... Those who mourn. The meek. Right? Persecuted. Those aren't happy. But they're blessed because they're on the right road.

[17:21] So, that's what law has the idea of. It's the path of God. So, law doesn't just mean those ten commands or specific prescriptions.

[17:34] There's another word for that. Statute. Here, law means the path of God. More general. So, if you think more broadly in the Old Testament.

[17:46] What are the wonders? So, Moses wrote the law of God. Right? What did that include? What books of the Bible did that include? Five books.

[17:57] Right? Genesis. Exodus. Leviticus. Numbers. Deuteronomy. So, what wonders happened in those... That's the law. So, what wonders happened in those five books?

[18:09] Creation. Exodus. The Exodus. Right? From exile. The Exodus from Egypt. Arrival in the Promised Land. Arrival in the Promised Land.

[18:21] Or, well, at the border of it. They got kicked back. Right? Right? So, you have the wonder. In fact, this word wonder applies to the baby that Sarah would have.

[18:34] Now, why is the baby that Sarah would have a wonder? Because she was... Right? She was... Did you say old? I did. She was...

[18:44] She was... Yet... Yet... Yet she was absolutely gorgeous. Right?

[18:55] So, age is relevant. Whatever. Anyway. She was past childbearing age. It's impossible. In fact, they named the child that she bore...

[19:06] Ha! Laughter. Yes, Zach! Right? So, the redemption from Egypt.

[19:18] Isaiah 9 says, we shall call his name wonderful. Who are we talking about? Jesus. Jesus. The Messiah.

[19:28] The Messiah. Those are wonders. Those are wonders. Open my eyes that I may see wonders. But there's many more. So, open my eyes that I might see the wonders.

[19:40] Not just read over it, but see. Cause to see the wonders of God's Word. And then, verse 19 and 20, the transformation. We also pray for transformation. He says it in an odd way.

[19:52] I am a stranger in the earth. I'm a sojourner in the earth. I'm a wanderer in the earth. I'm an alienated in this world. Do not hide thy commandments from me.

[20:05] Now, notice 17, 18, and 19. Those three prayers are really the same prayer in different ways. Right? They're all part of the most clear is verse 18.

[20:16] Open my eyes that I might see. But deal bountifully is about the same thing. Because deal bountifully that I might live and keep thy Word.

[20:28] Right? And then, don't hide thy commandments is the same thing. Open my eyes. Open my eyes. Deal bountifully with me. Help me to see your Word. Don't hide the commandments.

[20:38] In other words, reveal them to me. Make them clear. Why? Because I'm a stranger in this earth.

[20:51] I need the light for my path. I need your instructions. So commandments are instructions. Right?

[21:01] The commandments show me how I walk on that path. They show me the boundaries. And then verse 20.

[21:12] Here's the verse that captivated me. My soul is crushed with longing after thine ordinances at all times. Can you relate to that? My soul is crushed with longing for what?

[21:34] After thy ordinances. Or thy judgments. Depending on your translation. After what God says. So the ordinances.

[21:45] Or judgments. Are things. That's judgments of God. Or what God says about things. What he has said. So my soul is crushed with longing after what God says.

[22:02] I thirst. I hunger. So what's the soul? What's your soul?

[22:17] What difference is that from your heart? In the Bible. Right? We have heart. We have soul. Love the Lord with all my heart. Love the Lord with all my soul.

[22:28] That's apparently different. Right? If I love the Lord with all my heart and all my soul. That's different. And then all my. Uh oh. Yeah. Okay. Which covers everything else.

[22:40] So heart is. Thoughts and intentions. Right? Hebrews 4 tells us. The heart is the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And soul is your.

[22:53] Your desires. Not just your desires. Because that can wander into heart. But your deep emotions. Your deep affections. My soul is where you thirst.

[23:04] Where you hunger. Where you. Where you. Where. You know. Psalm 42. My soul pants for God.

[23:16] Thirst for the living God. Right? And at the same time his soul is cast down. So when your soul is cast down. What you really are is.

[23:27] Panting for God. You're thirsting for. You need God. Right? So your soul is that. So he says my soul is crushed. See back in.

[23:38] Back in. The second section. In Beth. We. We were. We were storing up the word of God in my. Heart. Right? Now my.

[23:48] Now we're talking about my soul. Now my soul. My. My affections. Are crushed with longing. With longing. For what God says.

[24:02] Can you relate to that? In the midst of trials. Now remember. This whole section. He hasn't got too much of it yet. All he's mentioned in verse 19.

[24:13] Is being a sojourner. So he feels alienated. But his soul is crushed. With longing. So what's a New Testament prayer. For illumination. Paul gives us that.

[24:23] In Ephesians 1. What are. What are the wonders. That Paul prays for the church. To see. You know. Paul. Paul's praying. The church might see. Might come to know.

[24:35] Things. So he. In Psalm. Excuse me. In Ephesians 1. 16. Paul says. I do not cease. To give thanks for you. Remembering you. In my prayers. He's praying for this church.

[24:46] That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father of glory. May give you. What? They give you. The spirit. Of wisdom. And of revelation. In the knowledge of him.

[24:56] So first and foremost. He wants. The church. To know the Lord. Right? And then he goes on. Having the eyes. Of your hearts. Enlightened.

[25:07] That you may know. What is what? Three things. What is the hope. To which he has called you. What are the riches. Of his glorious inheritance. In the saints. And what is the immeasurable greatness.

[25:19] Of his power. Toward us. Who believe. He prays. That we will come to know. Hope. The riches of our inheritance. And the power.

[25:31] The immeasurable greatness. Of his power. Toward us. Who believe. What kind of power is that? It's according to the working. Of his great might. That he worked in Christ. When he raised him from the dead. And seated him.

[25:42] At the right hand. In the heavenly. Places. What's the song we sing Ron? Shoot. Sorry. Put you on the spot.

[25:53] There's a song we sing. That sings that. It's the power. It's the power. That's the same.

[26:05] As what rose Christ from the dead. I know. Now we got to solve it. Because otherwise. We think. No. What?

[26:18] Okay. No. I'm sorry. Seminary class. You're never supposed to do this. Jeremy Camp song. Jeremy Camp song. Okay. Thanks. Okay.

[26:28] So. Google that when you go home. Don't Google it now. Okay. There's power. Wow. He prays that we know.

[26:42] What is the hope. That we know the riches of our inheritance. And what is the power. Toward us. So do you know these wonders?

[26:52] Do you know. The hope. How rich your inheritance is. Why would that matter? Why does Paul want. You got it?

[27:02] All right. Give it to us. The same power. The same power. Same power that raised Jesus from. All right. Okay. We got that.

[27:19] I mean. That's why. That's such a great song. Because it reminds us of such a great truth. That's the power toward us. The power toward us. Is the same power.

[27:30] That raised Jesus from the dead. Do we believe that? Do we believe that. That power. Is toward us. Do we walk with that kind of certainty.

[27:43] Right. So that's why Paul is praying. That they would know that. Know that hope. Know that. The riches of what's. What we live for. And.

[27:55] The power that we have now. All the wonders of the Old Testament. All those wonders. The wonders of. Of Sarah's birth to Isaac. The wonders of.

[28:06] Of the Exodus. They all point to the one great wonder. Brought to us in the New Testament. In Jesus Christ. He's the great wonder.

[28:17] And as we read through. We read of the revelation to Mary. Right. That she. A virgin. Will. Will be with child. And she says.

[28:28] How can that be. And it's because the Holy Spirit. Right. The Holy Spirit. Will. And pray. Well. How does he say. Overshadow you. Right.

[28:39] And protect the child. The child will be holy. And so he will protect the child. From your sin nature. Mary. That's a wonder.

[28:49] And then Joseph. The revelation to Joseph. Call his name Jesus. Yehoshua. Yeshua. Why? Because his very name means salvation.

[29:03] He who saves. He will come. To save his people. From Rome. Isn't that how it goes? Save his people from. Troubles. Taxes.

[29:15] From their sins. From their sins. And we learn today. It's good news of great joy. Okay.

[29:30] So that's. The first prayer. Or combination of prayers. Is for illumination. For light. As we walk in. This world. Now. Specifically. As we deal with trials. What do we pray?

[29:41] We have one prayer now. In verse. 22. To take away. The reproach. And contempt. From upon me. The reproach. And contempt. That I experience. In this world.

[29:53] From those. Verse 21. Who are. Who are the arrogant. And the cursed. The ones. Who wander. From the commandments. Of God. The ones. Who reject. The reject.

[30:04] God. And his. Ways. Right. And I'm walking. Amidst. Those folks. Who throw. On me. Reproach. And contempt. And verse 23.

[30:14] Though the princes sit. And talk. Or plot against me. I turn to your word. So we pray for deliverance. Take away reproach. And contempt. From me. It's like Jesus taught us to pray.

[30:25] In the sixth. Prayer. Right. What does he. What does he teach us. In the sixth prayer. That we pray. Every day. Give us this day.

[30:38] Our daily bread. Forgive us our. Dead. As we forgive our debtors. Lead us not. Into. Temptation. But. Deliver us.

[30:48] Lead us. Not. Into. Right. Take away. Reproach. But I'm going to.

[31:01] I'm going to. Experience. You could say. But. But I'm going to experience. Reproach. That's just part of the Christian life. Absolutely. Yes. But Jesus. Will. We're also going to experience.

[31:12] Temptation. Right. And yet. Jesus tells us. Pray. Lead us not. Into. Why does he tell us to pray that. If we're going to experience it. Because you have not.

[31:23] If you ask not. If I never pray. To not be led into temptation. Then I'll probably experience. A lot more temptation. Does that make any sense. God is gracious.

[31:36] And kind. Yes. We will experience. Hardship. We will experience. Contempt. Scorn. Reproach. But if I ask the Lord.

[31:47] Deliver me from that. Take away that. That I'm experiencing. Might he not. Just. Out of the kindness. Of his. Sovereign.

[31:58] Will. I'm going to take a little bit. Off of Bill's shoulder. Might he not do that. Yeah. Absolutely nothing wrong.

[32:10] With praying. In fact. Jesus taught us. To pray that. Lead us not. So.

[32:24] Three responses here. To the hardship. So. Here we get into more. Focus. Verse 21 through 24. More focus on the. The trial aspect. The affliction.

[32:35] We see in verse 21. You know. The people. Right. That are our enemies. Who set themselves up as enemies. Against us. Right. We have verse 22. The reproach and contempt.

[32:45] We have verse 23. The princes. So. What are our responses. To affliction like that. To suffering. To. To. To trial. Well.

[32:56] Verse 21. Prayer. Verse 21 and 22. Prayer. Verse 23. Meditation. And verse 24. Delight in his word.

[33:07] Now. Would you have thought. Those are three responses. To trial. Well. Yeah. The first one. Right. Prayer. Yeah. Pray. Pray. When I experience trial. But.

[33:18] But. Would you think of meditation. As a response to trial. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Okay. Good. Good. It's not. It's not like a. Yeah. Yeah. And then delight in his word.

[33:29] Woo. So. So. Let's look. So. He. He starts with a statement. Verse. Verse 21. Thou. Dost rebuke the arrogant.

[33:40] The cursed. Who wander from thy commandments. That kind of sets it up. That's the situation that he's in. Those are the people. That he's traveling among. In this. Walk of life. Verse 22.

[33:51] Then he prays. Right. Remove. From me. Scorn and contempt. Remove. Literally. Remove from upon me. I am experiencing scorn and contempt.

[34:02] Remove from upon me. Off my shoulders. The scorn and contempt. Why? For I have kept. I have kept. I'm walking in your way.

[34:12] I. Observe. Thy testimonies. By the way. What does he mean by testimonies? Right. It's one of those synonyms. The word of God.

[34:23] the way of God, the law of God, the commandments of God. Here we have his testimonies. What's his testimonies?

[34:34] What does testimony mean? If you go into a courtroom and you give a testimony, what are you doing? Telling the truth, the whole truth, nothing but truth. But you're telling your experience.

[34:47] You can only testify to what you've seen and heard and experienced, right? That's all you can do. So what are the testimonies of God? The truth.

[34:59] What he has told you, you have experienced. What you have seen and heard and experienced about him. Those are his testimonies. So the acts of God.

[35:10] So in essence, his testimonies about his faithfulness, right? That he's your refuge, right?

[35:21] The testimony. So I observe his testimony. So I'm guarding, not just observing his testimonies. The word there can mean guard or protect.

[35:34] Keep. I keep his testimonies because they remind me that he is faithful. That he is with me. Right?

[35:44] It's like the shield, right? That stops the arrows of the enemy, right? He's shooting arrows of doubt and discouragement.

[35:57] And I hold it up. No, my God doesn't leave me or forsake me. My God always does what is right and good. And so.

[36:11] So he still prays for relief. So 23, verse 23, though princes speak or plot against me. Princes, same word for ruler or king.

[36:25] Or we could translate it government. Those who govern over us, those who rule over us, speak and plot against me.

[36:37] Right? They slander. They plot to harm. They legislate in a way that limits us or affects us or hurts us. They dismiss us.

[36:49] Our voice doesn't mean anything to many of those legislators. Go spend a day in the House and hear the shouting and the swearing that goes on there.

[37:04] And the down talking against any conservative voice. It's not pretty. Ask Don Wilson.

[37:17] So what do we do? How do I respond to that? What's the response? So if he's sitting and talking against me, if he's plotting against me, what's our response?

[37:33] Plot back. Right? Talk back. Let's get in a word battle. Well, what does he say he does?

[37:48] Look. Verse 20. Where am I? Verse 23. Though princes sit and talk against me, thy servant does what? Meditates. Boy, that doesn't seem very effective.

[38:01] I mean, how's he going to get back at him? How are you going to win if you're meditating on God's word? Well, go back to Joshua 1. And he told Joshua, this is the most important thing that you do above all else.

[38:16] Meditate on this word. Then you will prosper. Then you will have success. Meditate day and night on this word. Psalm 1.

[38:27] What does the psalmist do? He does not sit, stand, walk, right? But he meditates. Day and night.

[38:38] Then he's like a tree firmly planted by streams of water that bear fruit in its season. And it does not wither. And whatever it does, it prospers.

[38:52] We're not talking prosperity gospel. We're talking prosper as a Christian. He matures. So why does he do it?

[39:07] Verse 24. Why does he meditate? Because God's testimonies also are my delight. They are my counselors. Why turn to the word instead of fighting, instead of defending?

[39:22] Because the word of God is my delight. For one. And they are my counselors. They advise me and give light for my path.

[39:32] They delight. This idea comes in Psalm 119 again a few times. Verse 92. Listen to this. If thy law had not been my delight, than I would have perished in my affliction.

[39:50] So in regard to his affliction, he was delighting in the word. Again, 143. Trouble and anguish have come upon me, yet thy commandments are my delight.

[40:05] Isn't that interesting? So in light of affliction or in experiencing affliction, the word becomes the delight. Where I have hardship, where do I find joy?

[40:17] When I'm suffering and afflicted, where do I find relief? And the word becomes my delight. Because it reminds me.

[40:29] It reminds me who God is. It reminds me why he's called me. He reminds me what my purpose is. It's like Jesus in the garden. Let this cup pass, right?

[40:40] I don't want the cup. Get the cup away from me. Yet, not my will, but thine be done. He remembers. He wants relief, but at the same time, he remembers what's his purpose.

[40:56] No, thy will. Thy will. So, listen to Peter's counsel on how to respond to suffering.

[41:10] He says in 1 Peter 3, Even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled.

[41:21] But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy. Always being prepared to make a defense, an apology to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

[41:33] Yet, do it with gentleness and respect. Having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame, not because you defend yourself, but because of who you are.

[41:53] For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. Why? Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.

[42:14] So, Peter, what's our response to suffering? Set apart Christ as Lord in your hearts.

[42:26] Honor Christ as holy in your heart. Always being prepared to make a defense. Not a defense like, but an apology, an apologia, and specifically to anyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that is in you.

[42:49] That's your testimony, right? And you do it with gentleness and respect. Having a good conscience, because I'm not ashamed of the way I could have responded.

[43:05] So, trials. This section's about the travel. I'm on a camel. I'm on a journey from the slew of despond to the heavenly kingdom, as Pilgrim's Progress would put it.

[43:19] I'm on a journey, walking the narrow road, and I experience trials, suffering, hardship, and all those are normal. experiences in our Christian journey.

[43:30] How we handle the trials is greatly affected by the extent that our soul longs and looks to the Word. Did you get that? How we handle trials is greatly affected by the extent to which our soul longs and looks to the Word.

[43:53] So, let me meddle with just a couple of questions. Do you pray for illumination from the Word as you endure trials?

[44:08] Do you pray that God would help you give an answer for the hope that is in you to anyone that might ask? Are people stirred up to ask you?

[44:19] Do they know you have a hope? Is your soul crushed with longing after God's Scripture? And in your trial, does the Word become your meditation and does it become your delight?

[44:40] Let's pray. Our Father, we, we, as we read this psalmist, whether it's David or someone else, as we read of his view of your Word, as we read of his view of you, his, his, his, his conversation with you, he lets us in on how he talks to you, what he talks to you about, and how the Word is absolutely enmeshed in that conversation and in his application.

[45:20] We pray, Father, that, that, that, that, that becomes more true in our lives. That, one, as we seek you, we seek you through the Word. And then, secondly, that you open our eyes as we go to this Word, that you open our eyes and make it our delight.

[45:41] Deal bountifully with us, O Father. This we ask in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you.