Psalm 119.1: Treasuring God’s Word Wisdom From God Psalm 119.1: Treasuring God’s Word

Embracing God’s Word Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm in the psalter. Is 176 verses long. It is an acrostic poem – where first word of each stanza begins with progressive letters of the Hebrew alphabet: aleph, beth, gimel, daleth, he, vav, etc. Is primarily a psalm about the word of God. Today: Value of memorizing God’s word

Keeping Our Lives Free From Sin Psalm 119:9 – “How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word.” Keeping way pure = keeping self from sin Loving God = remaining pure and faithful

The Key To This Lesson Psalm 119:11 – “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.” NASB = Treasured KJV/Websters/YLT = Kept Hebrew = to store, keep, hide, conceal

Your Word…. What word? Your word = God’s recorded word as delivered through proven prophets in the past. NOT modern impressions, concepts, ideas, such as “God spoke to me this morning and said…..” Purely OBJECTIVE revelation and not SUBJECTIVE ego.

How Do We Know That’s What He Means? Psalm 119:1 – “How blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. v. 2 – “…who observe His testimonies….” v. 4 – “You have ordained Your precepts….” v. 5 – “Oh that my ways may be established to keep Your statutes.” v. 6 – “…when I look upon all Your commandments.” v. 8 – “…I shall keep Your statutes….”

How Do We Store Up God’s Word? Vs. 11 – “Your word I have treasured in my heart….” What does this mean? The heart, to the Hebrew, is the seat of intellect and emotion – thinking and feeling. Genesis 6:5 – “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Storing By Memorizing Scripture The value of memorizing Scripture Jesus battles Satan with memorized Scripture. Matthew 4:4,7,10 “Man shall not live by bread alone….” “…not put the Lord your God to the test.” “…worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only….”

Ephesians 6:17 “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” How can you properly wield the sword of the Spirit if you don’t know the word of God?

Proverbs 22:17-19 “Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, and apply your mind to my knowledge; for it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, that they may be ready on your lips. So that your trust may be in the Lord, I have taught you today, even you.”

A Plan For The New Year Prepare now for the New Year and a new reading program. This year: read the NT twelve times. Memorize one passage of Scripture each day. More than 300 verses learned by the end of next year.

Recommended “Extra Credit” Also consider memorizing some Old Testament passages. Especially from the Psalms and Proverbs. Memorization is one of the Christian disciplines which will yield good fruit.