How Can a Young Man Keep His Way Pure?

Well, good morning. It's good to be with you all. Our text for today is going to be Psalm 119, verses 9 through 16. This is the second in the series that I'm preaching on Psalm 119. So, a few reminders. Psalm 119 is an acrostic. And each, there's 176 verses. Each of those eight, it's divided into sections of eight verses. word in Hebrew of those sections begins with the same letter. And the reason being, most likely that that was to aid in the memorization of this psalm, which is a long psalm. But by doing that, you could help children to memorize it more easily. The psalm itself is, it's Psalm 119. Well, if you know what Psalm 1 is about and you know what Psalm 119 is about, it's sort of Psalm 1 and Psalm 19 put together as an expansion upon those two psalms. Psalm 1 is talking about the blessed man, the happy man. And Psalm 119 is about the glories of God's law and creation and God's...

The beauty that shines forth. And that's why Psalm 119 is a great exhortation and the psalmist is effusive in his words that he uses to refer to God's law. There are eight different terms which... are in this psalm. And each one, each verse contains a word for the law of God. So we'll see words like law and testimony, his word, his way, his precept, his statute, his commandment, and the judgment of God. Now, when we come to the author of Psalm 119, we don't know who that was. Different people make different assumptions. Ideas range from David to Ezra or Jeremiah or Daniel. And whoever it was that wrote the Psalm was most likely facing persecution and periods of exile. And as we go through the Psalm in future sermons, we'll...

point out some of the references that may lead us to those conclusions. Personally, I like to think that Daniel wrote it because there are many instances in Daniel's life that I think help illustrate the ideas and the principles that are taught in this psalm. And we'll look at some of those today in just a little bit. And as we continue in through the psalm, I'll point out more areas where it's... helpful to think of Daniel. And today, in particularly, it will be helpful as we think about the fact that Daniel was taken as a young man captive from Jerusalem and was brought to King Nebuchadnezzar's court. And while there, he was being raised to be a wise man in Babylon. And he was highly educated.

And he was at the epicenter of the intrigue and the power structures in that world. And what we're going to see is that he begins this section of the psalm by asking, how can a young man keep his way pure? And this would be a very good question for a young man who's being raised in the epicenter of power. You have... money and influence and sex and all these different pressures being put on. And he's right there at the heart of it all. And he's not in Jerusalem. And so it's a real live question. What would you do? What would he do? What are you going to do as you grow up and have more freedom and are no longer in your parents' home?

Right? What trajectory are you on? When you have freedom of choice, you know, this is what Daniel's dealing with right now. And so it's a good question. How can a young man keep his way pure? Have you asked yourself that before? Any of you? How many times have you thought about how is it possible? How can I keep my way pure out of sin? The psalmist answers the question in each verse. He says, a young man can keep his way pure by keeping it according to God's word, by seeking God, by treasuring God's word, by being taught, by teaching what he's been taught, by valuing God's word, by meditating on it, and by delighting in it. So each of the verses that we're going to read contain an answer to the initial question of how can we keep our way pure? My hope For you today. Is that you would consider and take to heart the question. That the psalmist asks. And that you would then take steps. To keep your ways pure. That you would make the resolves. We're going to see at the end of the psalm. He makes three resolves. And so rather than having eight things. I tried to reduce it to the three resolves at the end. That we could also. Resolve in our own hearts. That we would do these things. In order to keep our ways pure.

Are you striving to keep your way pure? Do you want to keep your way pure? What are you doing to keep it pure? Where can you grow in this? These are questions to be asking ourselves as we read through this psalm and think about it. Now, please stand for the reading of God's word. This is Psalm 119 verses 9 through 16. This is God's word for us this morning and it's eternally true. How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to your word. With all my heart I have sought you. Do not let me wander from your commandments. Your word have I treasured in my heart that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord. Teach me your statutes. With my lips I have told of all the ordinances of your mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and regard your ways.

I shall delight in your statutes. I shall not forget your word. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Now, as we read this, think about Daniel and the position that Daniel would have been in, right? We can all relate to where Daniel's at. Daniel is not in Israel anymore. And he's not in a culture that is Christian. He's not in a setting where you are going to have people encouraging you and telling you to serve God, to fear God, to trust God, right? He's going to be tempted to fit in to the culture that's around him. And we see this almost immediately, right? Because one of the first stories we have is that he's brought to the steward and the steward is saying, here, eat all of these foods. Eat all of the luxury of Babylon. You haven't made. You are going to be a wise man. We are going to make you an elite. And Daniel immediately is faced with this quandary. Am I going to eat impure foods?

Am I going to follow in the laws of God and in the ways that I was taught in my youth, or am I going to live it up? Because this is the opportunity that he has. If he lives it up and goes in all of the ways of Babylon, who is going to tell him no, right? In fact, he puts his own life in danger and the steward's life in danger by sticking to and keeping his life according to the word of God, right? Because the steward is like, I don't really want you to follow the Jewish dietary laws because if you look sickly and unhealthy and your brain is not sharp, then this is my neck on the line, right? And so Daniel says, well, let's test. And then he outperforms everyone. So we're also in a culture that's not a Christian culture.

The people around us that we're interacting, the media that we consume are not nurturing you in a way that's going to make you want to be pure. That's going to make you want to follow God. It's not encouraging you to walk in the way of the Lord or to walk in his purity. And so we have to be on guard. And this is a very good question for us to ask. How can we keep our way pure? Because if we don't ask it and we don't proactively do it, we won't. Our default setting is not to keep our ways pure. Now, this is important to think about this. It says, how can a what? A young. Is that significant? Well, yes.

Scripture doesn't use words idly. We'll get to everyone because this does apply to everyone. But the first thing to notice is that it's asking how can a young man keep his way pure? And we should not gloss over the fact that it's addressed to youth. We have a lot of young people in our congregation. This is a question that you need to be asking of yourself. How can I keep my way pure? Listen, when you read through the Old Testament and you have all the sacrificial system, right? What does God require of the people and sacrifices? The first fruits. The first fruit, not the second fruit. Not the old raggedy goats and sheep that have worn out their life and are no longer of the value that they once were, of the potential they once were. No.

God requires first fruits he wants your strength and vigor the energy that you have as a young person he wants that and he wants it now he doesn't want you to wait until you're old to serve God he wants your service and your work to be done for him now you need to give your best your strength, and your energy. You need to be devoted to God today, not tomorrow, not when you're old and wise and mature, but now. In our youth, the first fruits of all that we have are to be given to God. When you're young, you are in very formative years. The trajectory of your life, the shape of it, is being set right now. By God's grace, it can change.

But right now, your trajectory is being formed. Who you will be, what work you will do, what kind of service you will be to God and render to him. You are impressionable, you're moldable. So you need to be molded by and shaped by the word of God. You right now, you're putting your foot to the path. Will I be pure? Will I put my feet to pure ways? Will I keep my way in the purity of God according to his word? Or will I act in such a way that I will set my foot to the path of destruction? And the thing is, we're born with our feet set on the path to destruction. It takes the work of God to change it that way. So if you do not do anything, If you just go with the flow of the pressures around you, you will not be in the way of purity. Because that is not the default setting of sinful man. It's impure. As young men and women, we're full of passion and zeal. There's potential. That potential is either an asset or a liability. And the way that you pursue God or don't pursue God, whether you put your feet on the path of purity or not,

will determine whether the potential and the energy and the strength and the zeal that you have is a liability and leads to greater judgment, or whether it's an asset that leads to great rewards in heaven. Also, this is a time of particular temptations and struggle. And it's not that they just go away, but all the energy and zeal and passion of youth can... be directed towards wicked ends or good ends. And so, direct it towards good ends, right? And if the other thing is that you really have the ability to screw up your life, and we all do, right? At any age, you can really screw up your life. You have a lot of life to live as a young person. And so, there's a greater potential in some ways of what you are going to do with your life and what options will be available to you based on how you live right now. And so there's this great weight. How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping according to his word. So listen, the older you get, the more freedom you will get. And so you better tie yourself to God and his word. Sin and its temptations look good.

They look pleasing. And sometimes the path of purity in the way of God don't look as appealing as the flashiness of sin. But what I will tell you and what God's word tells you and what any godly man or woman who has seen life will tell you is that it's a lie. That all the promises of folly is a lie. Of sin. It's glitz and it's glamour. And that if you put your path. Your feet to the path of purity. That there you will find joy. And there you will find rejoicing. And you will find delight. That is beyond anything. Of this world. And what it can promise. And that's what we're going to see. So we must take heed that we walk according to God's word. That we listen. To our parents. To our elders. To our pastors.

To men and women. Who are mature and godly. Now. Says. How can a young man. So we've talked about youth. Let's talk about men. Yes. This is a male inclusive. It applies to all of us. However. He is addressing young men. Too. And as men. We must take the lead. In being pure. We must be on guard against a woman as described in Proverbs 7 who's pushy and who is headed down a path of destruction and wants to pull you along with her. As a man, you and your relationship must work to maintain the purity of the relationship. You can't say, well, that's on my, we have boundaries and my girlfriend has to.

Keep those boundaries. Because men just are full of passion. And so it's her job. No. God made you as a man to lead. And so you may not be led in purity by your girlfriend or by your wife. That is your job to lead in this. Men were created by God to lead. And so we must, with the zeal that we have, lead and not outsource that. Now, while the verse specifically mentions young men and youth, the need for us to be pure and to follow the purity of God's word is universally true. This is a requirement for all of us. This is not just a question for young people or for men. There are things that I think in particular ways it particularly applies as we've gone over. And yet this is something we all must consider for our lives.

No matter what age or stage of life we are in, we're called to holiness, we're called to live according to God's word, and we must do that. So it's not just young people, and it doesn't matter if we're old or not, or what station of life we are in, we ought to seek to live a pure life and remember the promise that God will restore the years that the locusts have eaten. And so... If we have lived years of impurity and now we're seeking to be pure, we have hope because God says he'll restore all the years that we sowed wild oats. That he can do that. So, there are two ideas that are going on in keeping our ways pure. The first way is that our ways are impure and they need to be cleansed. Some translations would say, how can a young man cleanse his way?

And the second way would be that we are to seek to avoid impurity. And so there's two aspects to this. There's how can we clean up the mess that's already in our lives, the sin that's already there. And then how can we go forward without creating more of a mess, without adding to the sin in our lives. The way... And then the answer, the first answer, sort of the overarching answer is what? To keep it according to God's word. And what we see is that the mess that we have in our lives, this sin that we're, you know, the original sin, the sin nature we're born with, the way that's dealt with is by Christ. That we can't, the mess that's been made, we cannot somehow work really hard to clean it up.

We were talking about this in Sunday school. The example being that with a credit card, right, if I came and painted your house and you were going to pay with a credit card, the credit card wants to charge me 4% interest, 3% fee or 4% fee on your payment, right? Well, you say, okay, I'm going to up what I charge you by 4% in order to cover the fee, except then the 4% is charged on. The fee also. And so there's always this sin that's added. Or this tax right. But that's like sin. Everything we do is sinful. And no matter how good we try to be. We continue our adding to the sin. You can't catch up. And so the first thing is. That Christ comes. And he deals with our sin. And then our response to that. Is that we would live pure lives. And that's the other part. So okay.

When we put our faith and trust, our hope in God, and he comes and he purifies us, he sanctifies us, he justifies us. The question is, how then do we go forward and live a pure life? Christ deals with this. How can we do that? Well, we can't do it on our own. And what we're going to see is that the psalmist keeps... crying out to God. He makes these statements. But this whole thing is a prayer to God. Notice how all the verses are addressed directly to God, not to the people around him. Because he understands that his holiness and his purity and the way that he must go, he's relying on God for that. It's not in his own strength or his own power. Now, you may say, why should we care about this pure path?

Why does it matter? Like if God saved us, if he's justified us, why does it matter? Well, Hebrews 12, 14 says this, pursue peace with all men and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. So that's a very strong warning to us. It's a shot across all our bows, right? It's a warning. It's saying, hey, without being sanctified, without holiness, you will not see God's face. So this question is vitally important to us. So how do we do it? The biggest reason, the overarching thing for purity is that we must keep our way according to God's word. There are many things in our lives where we don't have a choice because God's decided it and we follow in what he has decided. And if we don't, we can't remain pure. And so you look at our culture around us and there's so much, it's rife with rebellion. There's so many sexual perversions going on in our culture and people are saying it's good and it's normal and it's right and they're born that way and they can change their sex and they can do all these different things, right? Our culture says all these different things. But the reality is God created the world

male and female. You were designed by God to be either a male or a female. That is the sex you were given by God. It can't change. We don't have a choice in this. We don't get to just want something different. And that's the beauty of God's word is that we don't have to choose all these different things, but it actually gives us boundaries and shapes us and guards us. in a way that actually will lead to purity and to joy. And so think about your life and the pressures that you feel in our culture, whether it's to accept perversion in some way or whatever pinch point between God's word and our culture is. If you want to be pure, you always have to come down on the side of God's word. And the joy of that is that it will be better for you.

And actually true happiness and joy will be on that side. So a question that we should ask ourselves is, what does God's word have to say about your clothing, your friends, the topic of the paper that you're writing for school, the job that they're asking you to perform at work, what your friends are pressuring you to do? All of these areas, and we could just keep going on in category after category, right? The question should be, what does God's word have to say about this? Because if the way of purity is by keeping it according to God's word, then we have to know what God's word says, and then we have to look at the direction we're going and say, does it align with what God's calling us to do? And if it doesn't, then we have to change. We can't continue going down that path or we're pursuing unrighteousness, impurity, unholiness, right? So we have to be students of God's word. We must seek counsel to see is what we are wanting to do in line with God's word. And see, this also goes back to part of the youth thing, right? Because often,

With youth, we can be really caught up into trends, into what we think is cool, into all these things. We have these blinders on, right? And this is one of the things that old age can, if someone's godly, old age can help remove these blinders and say, hey, this is what God's word says. And help us to apply what it means to keep our way according to the word of God. In all sorts of situations and things. Because God's word applies to every area of our life. So we ought to stop and ask. Is what I'm planning to do. Or what I'm already doing. In line with the teachings of scripture. And if it's not. Then we are headed down a path of destruction.

As Christians, we're heading down a path towards being disciplined by God, right? And so we must constantly be evaluating and thinking, how can we keep our way pure? Is this in accord with the word of God? Now, how do we live in accordance with the word of God? Well, the first thing, we must rely on God. You and your own strength, I in my own strength, cannot keep my way pure. I don't have the ability. right? Our sin is so crippling. We're enslaved to it outside of Christ. But in Christ, with his power and his strength, with reliance on him, we can begin to keep our ways pure. But it's only on him. And that's what you'll see is that we're going to go verse by verse and make comments and think about some of these things that the psalmist says. But notice that this is a prayer. The psalmist makes this bold statement and then he's constantly calling on God to help him and to keep him in the way that he's going. Because he knows that he can't do it on his own. So we'll look at verses 10 through 14 and then we're going to conclude with...

15 and 16, which are the resolves that the psalmist makes. Notice he says that he keeps it, that with all his heart he has sought after God. Now isn't that a bold claim? Would you say you've sought after God with your whole heart? I imagine that if we actually talked about it, there are points in your life where you would say, you know what? I have sought God. We all know that we are weak, but there are points where we actually have sought God to the strength that God has given us. And that we, there are points in our lives where we actually have really done as far as we know how to seek after him. Not consistently, but there are periods where that's what we've done.

I think this psalmist is saying, look, I have sought you with my whole heart, but then what's the next thing? He pleads that God would not let him wander from his commandments. Because he can't maintain seeking after God with his whole heart. Prone to wander, Lord, we feel it. Prone to leave the God I love, right? Take my heart, Lord, keep and seal it, right? This is the psalmist. He's saying, I've done this, but I can't keep it up. We're prone to go after sin. We're prone like the dog that sees something is vomit and is like, hmm. And it's crazy because he just puked it up. It didn't agree with him. And then he'll go back to it, right? And we know, like we can pursue God. And yet then it's so easy for us to stop pursuing God and go back. And so the cry of the psalmist is that, Lord, you must help me. Keep me from wandering. And here's the other thing.

to think about with this, is that when you are crying out to God for strength to keep you from wandering, do you ever pray based on God's work in your life already that he would keep you out of sin? Because the psalmist is saying, look, I've sought you with my whole heart. I can't maintain it. I need you to maintain it. You've done the work in me already. You've begun this work. Keep the work going. And that's a beautiful prayer that we should do. You should be like Elijah who puts himself out doing the work of God and expects God to uphold his hands and his faithfulness like he does on Mount Carmel, right?

You should pray as a child of God, calling on him to keep you and to protect you and to help you walk in a way of purity based on the fact that you are a child of God. Because if you are a child of God, then God will not leave you or forsake you and he'll complete the work. So as he's begun a work in you, say, Lord, you've completed, you've begun this work in me, keep it up because I can't maintain the work myself. And so we must... continually be in this state of where we are pursuing God, we are seeking to be holy, but then we're calling on God based on the work that he's begun and started in us that he would keep doing that work within us because we can't manufacture it ourselves. We need him to do that work. And you think about Daniel being there and saying, no, I won't eat the king's good food because it will be deadly to me.

And he expects that his obedience, according to God's word, will be proven out to be good and right. And you better believe that a man of prayer like Daniel said that and then went and prayed that God would make him really fit and healthy and sharp mentally because he had put himself out there and saying, my obedience to God will lead to better results. than my conformity to the world. He put himself out there, right? And so we say, Lord, I'll seek with my whole heart. Don't let me wander because we can't do it in our own strength. We must have his strength. And then we come to verse 11. Your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you. The word hid is okay, but The word, that's not what the Nazby, the Nazby's word is better, right? Your word have I treasured in my heart. This idea is that God's word is valuable. It's so valuable, you hoard it, you gain it, you just, it's like when you have your favorite food in front of you, you don't just want a little tiny scoop of it, right? Give me a big scoop and let me get seconds.

Because it's so valuable. He loves it so much. He's saying, I'm going to hide it in my heart. And the thing is, you can't divorce this from memorizing scripture. This is a call that you must be memorizing God's word. That's what it is to hide it in your heart. It's to memorize it. Jesus, when he is tempted and Satan comes to him, he quotes God's word. He quotes scripture back to Satan. Stephen, when he is before the Sanhedrin going to die, he preaches a beautiful sermon. One of the most beautiful sermons, I think. I love it. And in it, it's just scripture. It's all about...

what God has done for his people, right? He knows God's word so well. He can preach one of the most beautiful sermons on the spot. And it's just full of scripture and what God did in the history of his people. And you think about how powerful that is for us. If God's word is in our heart so that we can speak it, so that we can use it when we're tempted to fight these temptations. The word of God is sharp. It's a sword. It's given to defend us. It's powerful. And it will change you. You cannot hide God's word in your heart and memorize it and seek it and learn it and not have it begin to affect your thinking, your words, the way your life looks. I actually had met with a pastor who's a friend of mine not too long ago. And we were talking and he said to me that one of the, what he believes, one of the greatest weaknesses of his ministry at this point, looking back, is that he didn't memorize God's word in the way that he should have. And that that caused it to be less alive to him than it should have been. And that, what he'd say, was like one of just a failure, a big failure. And that was striking to me. It was a challenge. Well, I don't memorize good. I have a bad memory.

Right? That's what we'll all say. Well, the psalmist doesn't tell you how many verses you have to memorize or how quickly you have to memorize them. What he says is that he treasured them and he put it in his heart. Do the same. Do the same. And here's the thing. Your brain's a muscle. If you work at it, memory will come back. You can grow in your ability to memorize. It's something that we should not just expect our children to do. We should expect memorization of scripture ourselves because this will help us to keep our way according to the word of the Lord because we'll know it and we'll love it and it will affect us. So we got to be memorizing God's word. And then...

by doing it, it guards us and helps us to keep from our sin, right? That's the second half of it, that I might not sin against you, right? So when it's in our hearts, it will affect us, it will change us, it will help us to keep us out of sin. And then he goes on and he says, blessed are you, O Lord, teach me your statutes. First Corinthians 2.14 says, but a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. He cannot understand them because they're spiritually appraised. Here's the thing. Understanding of God's word comes from God. It comes from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the perfect interpreter of the word of God. And so when we go to sit down and read our Bibles, start, before you open the Bible, start to pray.

And seek God. And then open your Bible and pray and study what God has to say. And it's fine to read wise men. It's fine to read commentaries. But read God's word and expect him to teach you. Your first inclination shouldn't be, well, I wonder what all these other people say. You should read God's word and see what God would lead you to. And you should use wise men and your pastors and your elders and godly men to help guide you and make sure you're not getting off the reservation. But you should pray that God would teach you his word. Because he will. I mean, this is one of the huge principles of the Reformation.

Why we're not Catholic is because we said, the priesthood of all believers, that you should be able to read God's word in your home to your family, and you should have understanding to be able to lead your family. But it's not because you're so wise or you're so great. It's because God will actually teach us his word, which is a beautiful promise. God loves his children. He delights in them. He wants to teach them. He wants to see them grow. He delights to reveal himself. To them. And he does that mainly through his word. And so as we do our bible studies. As we do our personal reading. As we do small groups. And we read God's word. And we study it. We should be diligent to pray that God would teach us. And that we would be reading his word. And don't hear me. What I'm not saying. I'm not saying that we don't read commentaries. Or wise men. Or talk to other people. But we should expect the Holy Spirit. To teach us from his word.

without having to have a plethora of other sources informing us. It's fine to have those, and we should, because we don't want to get off the guardrails. But God will teach us. In your morning devotions, in your reading of God's word, expect and pray that he would reveal things to you for your day, for what you need for that day, right? And here's the beautiful thing. We come to verse 13 and what the psalmist does is he says, I won't keep quiet. Like God taught me these things. Now I am going to go and at the checkout line, I'm going to tell the checkout person what I learned in my Bible reading this morning because it's on my mind and I'm meditating on it.

I'm going to go to school and I'm going to tell my friends. I'm going to go to church and I'm going to tell my friends, hey, I was reading this. And here's the thing that will be amazing to you is what you'll do is you'll tell people and then a brother in Christ is going to say, that is exactly what I needed to hear. That is so encouraging to me because I didn't know that verse was in the Bible. I forgot about that verse. And so what we'll do is we'll read and the Lord will teach us things and then we'll turn to our wife and we'll tell her because we're excited about the thing that we just learned. She'll turn and tell us. We'll teach our children, right? And this is the joy and the delight that the psalmist has is that because he's reading God's word and the Holy Spirit's working in his life, he then goes on and proclaims it to other people. And he's a messenger for God.

And it comes from this outflow of having hidden God's word in his heart, the Lord teaching him from that word that he's reading and consuming, and then it just bubbles out. And he tells everyone around him of all the things that he's learning and what God's doing. And what does this do? It leads to a supernatural joy. Why do I say that? Because it says that he loves it more than all the treasures of the world. I mean, think about that. Think about that. This is convicting to me. Like, it should be convicting to all of us because he's just talking about memorizing, hiding God's word, and how much value that will bring to you. How pure that will make your life. And I fail again and again to memorize God's word, right? I don't know that I've ever failed to cash a paycheck, you know? Like, he's saying the value Is greater than all the treasures of the world. Right? That opening your Bible. And reading it. And meditating on it. And studying it. Will do you more good. Should be more valuable to you. Should bring more joy and delight to you. Than anything that money can buy. That's so hard for us to believe.

Because we can be so materialistic and we live in such a materialistic age. And think about Daniel because Daniel goes and he prays. And he doesn't pray in a closet. He prays in front of his window. They make a law. The only way they can get Daniel is by praying. And Daniel says, I'll do you one better. I'm going to keep praying right in front of my big window towards Jerusalem like I've always done. And he used that more than all the power and the wealth of Babylon. Right? And that's an amazing thing. That's incredible. That's what we should be like. So what does he do? Okay, so there's all these different things. All these ways that we learn to keep our way according to God's word. It's really helpful in these psalms to pay attention to the verbs. The keeping, the seeking, the treasuring, the being taught, the teaching, the rejoicing. Well, at the end of this psalm, the psalmist resolves to do three things. To meditate, to delight in, and to remember God's precepts, his ways, his statutes. And so this first, meditate. Read Proverbs, read a passage of scripture, and then chew on it like a cow. Cows have all those stomachs, right? They chew it, they swallow it, they bring it back up, they chew it like...

Because it's so hard to digest the proteins, right? They have to just like keep it in their system for a long time. This is meditation on God's word. It's not this pagan emptying of your mind and sitting with your legs crossed and whatever that's our culture talks about. This is the opposite of emptying your mind. It's filling your mind with God's word. And it's hard. And there's things that are really confusing in God's word. And so you meditate on it and you think about it and you ask others, well, I'm trying to decipher what this verse means or how this might apply to my life. And you're doing this, right? And you're chewing on it, chew the cud. That's meditating. It's not something that happens in five minutes or 10 minutes. You may be reading ahead in your scripture and be stuck on one verse for a week and that's fine.

But it's this meditating on. He resolves to do that. Resolve to meditate on God's word. Next, he resolves to delight in it. And it's just kind of a funny thing because I think our approach to joy generally is it just happens. But that's not what the psalmist says. He says that he shall, I shall delight in your statutes. That he is going to. This is what he will do. You won't delight in God's word if you read it sporadically. If you're legalistic about reading God's word, you won't delight in it. But if you consistently spend time in God's word, you'll learn to love it. And the other thing you do is you pray that God would give you a delight in his word. And he will. It's happened. I can attest to it. That the more consistent you're in God's word, and the more you cry out for him to give you a love and a delight in it, He does it. And it's beautiful. And finally is he promises. He says, I shall not forget your word. That's memorizing it, right? This harkens back to the memorizing thing. That we're remembering it. That we're memorizing it. This is a faithful Christian practice. Forgetfulness is not a good excuse. Forgetfulness of God and his precepts is always a judgment. The Old Testament is very clear.

forgetting is not an innocent thing. And so we must resolve to meditate on God's word, to delight in God's word, and to remember God's word. And if we do these things, we will learn to keep our ways pure. Let's pray.