I. The Word: Psalm 119:9-16
9How can a young man keep his way pure?
By keeping it according to Your word.
10With all my heart I have sought You;
Do not let me wander from Your commandments.
11Your word I have treasured in my heart,
That I may not sin against You.
12Blessed are You, O LORD;
Teach me Your statutes.
13With my lips I have told of
All the ordinances of Your mouth.
14I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies,
As much as in all riches.
15I will meditate on Your precepts
And regard Your ways.
16I shall delight in Your statutes;
I shall not forget Your word.
II. Study Questions:
1. There are at least 7 synonyms for the Bible in these verses, can you find them?
2. What is this persons chief concern and passion in life?
3. What does a person who lives these words look like? Do you know anyone who this person reminds you of? (My suggestion…get around them as much as possible!)
Reflection
I LOVE Psalm 119! It is the best chapter in the Bible I am convinced! My challenge is for someone to find a better chapter and leave a comment below as to why it is better than this one! I suppose there will be no comments below…its that great!
I wish we could have posted the whole chapter, but that is a bit much. So we chose these 8 verses because of verse 11 mainly. It is a fantastic verse with so much depth and beauty to it! “Your word I have treasured in my heart, so that I may not sin against You.”WOW! SO much here that inspires me, convicts me, and enthralls me all at the same time. The idea of “treasuring the word in my heart” paints a picture of what it means to be a student of God’s word. It cannot be a simple study of God’s word, or a pursuit to gain more understanding of God’s word, but a treasuring of God’s word. How do we treasure it? How do you treasure sports? Pinterest? Books? Movies? Romantic love? Your job? Kids? Friends? It is not a thing to be done, but a thing to be treasured! How do we do that…you don’t do it, it does you. You don’t chose by force of will to treasure it, it forces itself on your will as your treasure! The harder I “try” to love the Bible, the more I despise it and me, but the more God reveals Jesus to me, the more I enlist in the mission of God, I seem to develop a thirst for it. It begins to call me like Gollum to the ring of power! Look at it again, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, so that I might not sin against you.” Why does we treasure it in our heart? So that we please God…no. So that we get something from God…no. So that God will approve our us…no, look at the cross! He is pleased with us, approves of us, and has given us everything He has…before we treasured His word in our hearts! And that is exactly why we do it! Our discovery our the treasure chest of gold pieces of grace and diamonds of sacrificial love compels us to the word. “For the love of Christ compels us.” 2Cor 5:14. I do not want to sin any more because I can’t bear the thought of hurting the one who has already been hurt so I do not have to! I do not want to sin against Him because He chose to give His life for mine WHILE I was still a sinner. “He did not die because we were lovely, but in order to make us lovely.” Keller
These 8 verses, really the whole chapter, is just a perfect and beautiful picture of what a Christian should be. It is the mirror which condemns false confessors of Christ, and the same mirror which confirms the true confession! Do you think, feel, prioritize you life like this chapter displays? Honestly, no one I know does perfectly, but do you want it to describe you? Man, I do! I hope and pray that when my boys read this chapter they think, “Man, that sounds like Dad talking?”
But why do we all fail to live up to the standard of Psalm 119? There are tons of reasons depending on the person, but I think the last 6 words in verse 16 gives a universal diagnosis, “I shall not forget Your word.” The Hebrew word here for forget is shakach. It does not mean that he will not lose all memory of God’s words. Just like when the Bible says that God “remembered their sins no more”, forgot them, that He is simple minded and just had a brain fart! Remember that a Hebrew mind uses words to describe an action not a thought. So forgetting means ignoring. “I shall not ignore your Word”. Now that changes it a bit to me. I see forget and think about forgetting to get bread when I was at Kroger, but this is the idea of an intentional action. It is like when you walk a new route to third period just to avoid “that” person…you know you did this! It is like when you cut that person off while driving and then they speed pass you, but you don’t make eye contact with them…you know you do this! This is what “forgetting” the Word means. It means not making time for it, not thinking about it, not talking about it, it means walking your hand past your Bible right to the remote! It means opening that app right next to the You Version Bible app and you feel a like you should say hi…but you don’t.
Forgetting the Word means forgetting who the Word points to! Reading the Bible to boost your knowledge so that you feel good about yourself, or reading it to better yourself, is the same as taking a different route to third period. Not reading our Bible because we are busy, tired, or distracted is our way of saying, “Thank you Jesus for the cross, but what I really need is _____ to make me happy.” The number one reason we are not in the Word is because we forget what Jesus has done, is doing, and will do, and focus our lives on what we have done, are doing, and what we want to do in the future.
Please do not simply read the Bible, treasure it. Treasure by constantly remember the good news that while you were still a sinner, Jesus died for you! Nothing, or no one, in this world will ever treat you the same way. Don’t ignore Him who was ignored by the Father on the cross so that you will be remembered by the Father for all eternity!
God we pray Psalm 119:
“May your compassion come to me that I might live, for your law is my delight.” 77
“My soul languishes for Your salvation, I will put my hope in your word.” 81
“I will never forget Your precepts, for by them you have revived me.” 93
“My eyes shed streams of water because they do not keep your law.” 136
“O rose before dawn and cry for help, I wait for your words. My eyes anticipate the night watches that I might meditate on your word.” 147-148
The last verse in Psalm 119 is verse 176 – “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant. For I do not forget your commandments.” Remind you of anybody? Don’t forget Him!
City Life Starter 
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