The Preeminence of God's Word

Scripture Passage: Psalm 119

From the beginning of the longest Psalm in the Bible:

1 Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD.
2 Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.
3 They do nothing wrong; they walk in his ways.
4 You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed.
5 Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees!
6 Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands.
7 I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws.
8 I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me.
9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.
10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
12 Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees.
13 With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth.
14 I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches.
15 I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.
16 I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word
(Psalm 119:1-16, NIV)

Some important questions to ponder:

What would your life be like if there was no Bible, no word from the LORD?
How would you live if there was no Bible?
What hope would you have if there was no Bible?
Do you truly treasure the word of God more so than your savings account or your financial investments or your house?

The Psalmist who wrote Psalm 119 had an absolute passion in his heart for the word of God. It is the longest of the Psalms – 176 verses, 8 verses for each letter in the Hebrew alphabet. Each section of this marvelous Psalm teaches us deep truth about the importance of God’s word in our lives.

Look at the different words used for Scripture just in the first 7 verses:

Law of the LORD (v1) – Hebrew torah:, the instructions of God
Statutes (v2) – Hebrew `edah: speaks of the witness or testimony of God
His ways (v3) – Hebrew derek: from a root word mean “a road” indicating a particular course in life
Precepts (v4) – Hebrew piqquwd: the mandate of God
Decrees (v5) – Hebrew choq: prescribed by God for us
Commands (v6) – Hebrew Mitsvah: that which is commanded by God to us
Righteous laws (v7) – Hebrew mishpat: the verdict of God

All of these different ways of referring to the word of God give us a glimpse into the magnitude of God’s voice spoken to us and for us. God is not to be trifled with or ignored. His word is to be heard, understood and obeyed fully.

How do we give God the preeminence in our life that He deserves? We need to develop a passion for understanding and obeying His word.

Outline:

A passion for God is a passion for His word.
Internalize the word of God to follow Him closely.
Obedience is a matter of faith not duty.
Commit yourself fully to following Christ.

Main point:

We give God His rightful place of preeminence in our lives when we passionately pursue an understanding of His word with a faith commitment to obey what we learn as we go through life.

1. A passion for God is a passion for His word.

Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart. (Psalm 119:2, NIV)

A passion for God is equated with a passion for His word. We cannot rightly pursue a God we do not know. But as we see in verse 2, there are guaranteed blessings for this pursuit.

Since God has graciously given us the Bible, we have everything we need in order to know Him. In fact we have everything we need for life itself:

3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:3-4, NIV)

The Psalmist spoke over and over about his passion for God’s word:

I seek you with all my heart… (Psalm 119:10, NIV)
I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. (Psalm 119:14, NIV)
I delight in your decrees… (Psalm 119:16, NIV)

Q: What are some practical steps you can take to develop a passion for God?

You cannot love someone you do not know – get to know God through His word. Understanding how much God loves you draws you to His unrelenting love. It is very hard to resist someone who is so good and loves you so completely.
Admit to Him your lack of passion and ask for an abundance of it.
Eliminate the distractions and competition – you know what these things are in your life. Put aside the worthless things so you can embrace the priceless One.
Determine a plan for studying the Bible and stick with it.

Imagine a football player (defensive linesman) goes to his coach and says, “I want to have a passion for crushing the offense.” “OK,” says the coach, “I’ll tell you the secret before next week’s game. It works every time. But first I want you to hit the practice field every day and spend an hour crushing the tackle dummy on the field. Get it in your head that nothing is more important than taking down the dummy with extreme prejudice.” The player says that he will. For the next few days, he goes out to the field by himself and hits the tackle dummy. But he finds it hard to keep hitting it and hitting it with full force. And while he is practicing he starts thinking about the new car he wants to buy and that cheerleader with the pretty curls. Soon his practice time shortens, the intensity of his tackling diminishes, and he even starts to skip some days. A week goes by and he asks the coach, “So what’s the secret to developing a passion for crushing the offense?” The wise coach just shakes his head and confronts the young man, “You haven’t been spending an hour every day with your head in the game.” The player just stares for a while, heaves a great sigh, and says, “How did you know?” “Because,” said the wise coach, “if you had done what I told you to do, you wouldn’t be asking me for passion. You would already have it!”

Is it that simple? Yes, it is that simple. The reason it is that simple is that God has an unrelenting passion for you. If you demonstrate faithfulness in knowing Him, you will get caught up in His passion for you. That will be passion enough for anyone!

2. Internalize the word of God to follow Him closely.

I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Psalm 119:11, NIV)

No only does the Psalmist have a passion for studying God’s word, he internalizes the word he studies: “I have hidden your word in my heart...” (Psalm 119:11, NIV)

Q: Is memorizing Scripture important – why or why not?

Memorizing Scripture is good for you

Q: If it is so good for you, what hinders you from doing it?

Nothing will feed the fire of passion like memorizing portions of God’s word.

This is not so you can recite Scripture to other people and look very pious. Rather, you internalize it, meditate on it, practice it, see its value an then live it. That’s the goal!

“But I can’t memorize anything,” some will say:

In School – you memorize the alphabet because you use it every day.
In science – you memorize the periodic table of elements because you use it every day.
In music – you memorize the notes on the instrument because you use it every day.

So in life – you memorize God’s word … because you will use it every day. Do you believe that? Then how do we internalize God’s word?

Go deep and wide:

"Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands. (Psalm 119:6, NIV)

Plan to learn a broad group of Scripture verses – not just your favorite ones. You need the whole counsel of God’s word.

Recite it out loud:

"With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth" (Psalm 119:13, NIV)

Write out the verse and begin reading it aloud. Read the verse 10 times out loud to begin moving it from your short-term to long-term memory. Then recite it daily out loud to get the verse nailed down in your mind. If the verse is long, you can break the verse up into smaller portions and use this same process.

Think on these things:

I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. (Psalm 119:15, NIV).

As you go through the week, think about what the verse says, what it means, and how you can put it into practice in your life.

Easy does it:

I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. (Psalm 119:7, NIV)

Be sure not to overextend yourself.

A little work over a long time is the key. Remember life is a marathon, not a sprint. The Psalmist offered praise to the LORD as he learned God’s word. So learn some, put it into practice, and then praise the LORD for His work in your life. Then go learn some more.

As you internalize God’s word, you can know the LORD better, love Him more, and follow close after Him as you go through life.

3. Obedience is a matter of faith not duty.

The key success principle is obedience:

Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD. (Psalm 119:1, NIV)

Blessed are they who keep his statutes… (Psalm 119:2, NIV)

Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands. (Psalm 119:6, NIV)

How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. (Psalm 119:9, NIV)

There is a way to walk – that is, to live our lives – where we find great blessings. It is a path of obedience to God’s word. There is another way we to walk wherein we choose our own path. Only one path has guaranteed blessings. It is the life we live “according to the law of the LORD” (Psalm 119:1, NIV).

Q: Is it simply a matter of dutifully obeying each command you find in the Bible?

The writer of Hebrews makes it clear that this obedience we are talking about is a matter of faith, not duty:

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6, NIV)

Q: So I’m confused - How is it possible to obey God without really obeying God?

One of the temptations we face is to blindly obey as a matter of duty – it’s just something we have to do rather than want to do.
Sometimes we obey merely to conform to what others are doing – the path of least resistance.
Some people follow certain commands because of their family upbringing – it is just how I was raised.

None of these paths is the blameless walk the Psalmist identifies. Our obedience must first be grounded in God’s love for us and our love for Him.

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:11, NIV)

And then our obedience to His word can be a faith response:

…everything that does not come from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23, NIV)

Since God first loved us – and loves us so completely - we obey God’s word because we want to do so (faith response) – not because we have to do so (duty). When we relate to God in this way, we find great blessings walking in His way.

4. Commit yourself fully to following Christ.

You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed. (Psalm 119:4, NIV)

Has God’s word reached its rightful place in your life? I want to challenge you to commit yourself fully to following Christ. As the Psalmist declared:

I will praise you ... (Psalm 119:7, NIV)

Fully obey what you know.

I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me. (Psalm 119:8, NIV)

Accept God’s word as the word of God, Creator of all.

I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word. (Psalm 119:16, NIV)

Stick to the program of studying God’s word so that you may know Him, love Him, and serve Him.

We give God His rightful place of preeminence in our lives when we passionately pursue an understanding of His word with a faith commitment to obey what we learn as we go through life.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16, NIV)