I Will Cling to Your Testimonies

Our sermon for today comes from Psalm 119, 25 through 32. We're going to continue in the series that I've been preaching through Psalm 119. We've gone through Aleph, Beth, Gimel, and today we're going to go through Daleth. And as I said before, each verse, each stanza begins with a, of the eight verses, all begin with a Hebrew letter. And today is Daleth. In Hebrew, there are three words that begin. Five of them are the word for way. The other two are for clinging. And that's what I want us to focus on today. The idea of being diligent to reject false ways and to cling to God and his promises. And so I think that...

As that is the focus of the passage, that will be our focus. That's what Daleth is, the way, the way. So if you are able, please stand for the reading of God's word. Psalm 119, verses 25 through 32. This is the word of God, and it's eternally true. My soul cleaves to the dust. Revive me according to your word. I have told of my ways and you have answered me. Teach me your statutes. Make me to understand the way of your precepts so I will meditate on your wonders. My soul weeps because of grief. Strengthen me according to your word. Remove the false way from me and graciously grant me your law.

I have chosen the faithful way. I have placed your ordinances before me. I cling to your testimonies, O Lord. Do not put me to shame. I shall run the way of your commandments, for you will enlarge my heart. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. Let's pray. Father God, I ask that you would be with us as we study these words. Be with the meditations of our hearts and the words of my mouth. May they be honoring and pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. Well, this psalm is a psalm of lament. The psalmist, whether it's David or Daniel or some other, they are in dire straits. This is the idea of cleaving to the dust.

If you think of cleaving, the word cleaving is to stick to, to cling to. It's what Genesis says that the husband and wife are to do. They're to leave and cleave. They're to be one. They're to be united with. And so cleaving to dust is not a pleasant or enjoyable metaphor. If you were to search the word dust in scripture, there's often it means simply dust, like the dirt on the ground. It's also used to describe Abraham's descendants. They will be like the dust. They will be a multiplicity of descendants, right? But most often, dust is used in connection to repenting from sin. It's a symbol of lowliness, of destitution.

something that lacks value. It's common. It's a picture of death, of people who are close to death. And so when the psalmist says that his soul cleaves to the dust, it's a metaphor for despair. Someone who's near death, spiritually, physically, they are low. The dust represents the lowest state of man. It's connected with sin. It's connected with the consequences of sin, of the decay and the hopelessness and the rottenness. And this is the natural state of all man. Without God, our souls are bound to dust. And they're clinging to it. And there's no separation. You can't pull yourself apart from it. As I was thinking about this, if you've ever had the opportunity to sand drywall, maybe that gives you a picture because drywall dust is like the worst, concrete dust. It gets in every pore of your body. It gets wet and it just clings and sticks.

Like you have to have the finest of filters to get the drought and they won't last. They'll get clogged, right? And it's this sort of just clinging and stuckness. Well, this is all men who are not in Christ. It's their natural condition. It's where they begin. Dead in sin and transgressions. You think of the grave, right? From dust you are and dust you shall return. It's this. We were made out of dust, but when our souls cling to dust, we should be picturing graves and the end. But it's not just those who are not Christians. It's not just our state before we know Christ. Even believers can experience moments when their souls feel crushed, when they're overwhelmed by sin and suffering, when they feel despair.

Where they feel like we're stuck in the mire of sin and we can't get out. So some of us are probably feeling that way. We have things in our lives that are very hard. Some of us may not feel that way, but we actually, we should. Because the testimony of our lives and the sins that we keep giving ourselves to and giving ourselves to are a testament to us clinging to dust rather than separating ourselves from it or being separated from it. So what we see here, though, is the psalmist begins with saying, my soul's clinging to the dust. But what's his cry? His cry is that he would be revived. Revive me according to your word. And this is the first step to being removed from the dust, is that our conscience must be awakened. We have to actually see.

see the fact that we're stuck in the mud, that we're bound to it, and then we cry out to God to revive us, to pull us out from it. And as an unbeliever, that's the Holy Spirit regenerating us. And as a believer, there are times where we've given ourselves to sin, and then our conscience pricks us, and we realize we've been going down this path, and we cry out to God to revive us. Now, this is necessary because the psalmist isn't despairing. Despair is when there's no hope, but the psalmist begins to see hope. He cries out. He realizes where he's at, and he doesn't want to be there. But it has to start there, right? You don't go to the doctor unless you see a need. What's the point? And we must have our eyes opened to the dust.

to the sin, the decay, the problems that are around us, or else we won't be crying for revival because we don't see our need for it. So the first thing is we have to have our eyes open to it. But then he cries out for revival. Well, what is this? Twice he says to revive me. He says, revive me according to your word in 25. And then in 28, he says, strengthen me according to your word. The hope that we have must be anchored to and found in God's word. God's word is what will make you alive again. God's word is what has the power to snatch you out of the things of this world and make you alive. God's word, the Bible, is not just letters. It's not just words on a page. It's not just mere commands. But the word of God is living. It's powerful.

It gives life. It's sharper than a double-edged sword. That's what it says in Hebrews. The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joint and marrows, and able to judge the thoughts and the intentions of the heart. And so the word of God is the thing that will have the ability to uncleave us. From the dust. To cause that separation. Now, we might do well to ask ourselves, what do we look to for revival? Because often we do have the consciousness. We wake up and we realize that our souls are clinging to sin. And we don't like it. Even unbelievers don't like it. It's uncomfortable.

And so the question is, what do you turn to for revival, for life, for renewal? Well, what do we turn to? Is it sex? So often what we want to turn to, maybe it's alcohol. Maybe it's nicotine. Maybe you have a fantasy world in your mind or in your books that you can escape to and you'll no longer feel like you're in the mire and the dust. So you'll endlessly scroll on YouTube or Facebook or Instagram or TikTok just to forget the world that you're in. Maybe it's your video games. You're not successful in what you're doing here. You're going to go to a world where you can control the outcomes.

Whatever it is, there are so many different ways that we will feel the uncomfortableness of sin and of this life and of our soul's attachment to it. And then we'll find something that maybe it will make us feel alive. And the reality is that for a time, it will work. Like alcohol will numb the pain. But you come out of it and it's worse. Whatever separation you think it will bring, it will bring it for a moment, and then you'll realize the only thing that's happened is you've cleaved even harder to the dust. You've bound your heart and your mind even more to the sin. We all will find ways to cope with things. You'll ignore the problem until you can't, and then you'll find something that will help you cope with the problem. The psalmist has the answer.

He says, revive me according to your word. Strengthen me according to your statutes. The only hope, the only way of coping, of separating yourself is from something that's more powerful than the sins that cling to us and the dirt that we're clinging to. And that's the word of God. We were made by God's word, right? The word of creation that was spoke. Christ, he fashioned us and formed us. Revival will always be according to the promise and the power of God's word. It will never be by all the lying deceitful substitutes of this world. Freedom can only be found in Christ. And I knew a man who worked for Sherwin-Williams. And I was talking to him about a new product when they had rolled out a new paint line.

And he's talking to him about it. I didn't actually like it. And he said, yeah, we're working on the formula. He's like, right now, I could actually go over to that wall and I could write out every chemical and part of that paint right on the wall right there. Because he'd been in it for years. He'd been developing this product, right? And so he knew it. And God made us. And then he gave us his word. And so, of course, if you want to know about yourself, go to the one who made you. It makes sense, doesn't it? That the answers will be found in God's word because he knows you like the back of his hand because he's the one who intimately knit you together in your mother's womb. He planned for you before the foundations of the world. And so the answer to the problems in your life, the solution, to the clinging of the dust is God's word. It's really, in many ways, that simple. Go to God's word. Cry out to him. God's word penetrates to the depths of our soul, and it brings life to where there was only death. God's word gives strength to weak and hope to the hopeless.

And when you realize that you have not been going to God's word, and you have been giving yourself to sin, and then you turn, you're going to be like, was I even a Christian before? Because it breathed such new life into our lives that it will feel like we're a believer again. And that's the joy and the hope that we can find if we will give ourselves to the word of God and put our hope and our trust in it. To the psalmist, we're in a psalm that is 150 verses long. And all but like one verse, it's talking about the law of God, the commandments of God, the ordinance of God, the statutes of God. It's to the psalmist, his life is dependent on God's word.

There's nothing greater to him. There's nothing more powerful in his life. Everything, his thoughts just revolve around the word of God because he knows apart from it, what does he have? It's what reveals God to him. It's how he knows Christ is through the revelation that was brought about through the word of God. It's the means that separates us from this world and the clingingness of this, flesh of this sin, the dust that just clings to us. So we too must feed daily on the scriptures. You must allow the scriptures to nourish you and to sustain you. Otherwise, you'll be hopeless. Now, he starts out, right? My soul is cleaving to the dust. Revive me by your word. And then what does he do next? Well, The next thing he does is he tells all his ways to God. What is that? That's confession, isn't it? The next thing he does is he realizes that all this dust is creating, these sins are creating separation between him and God. And he has to acknowledge them. He can't just...

pretend he's close to God again. He has to deal with it. So he tells the Lord of all his ways. The psalmist doesn't hide anything from God. He brings it forward and he tells him and seeks forgiveness at the feet of his savior. Confession is the hallmark of a humble man, of someone whose soul has been revived. It's an admittance of your failures, of your sins. of your dependence on God. And that's why in our church we emphasize it. It's why we have a prayer of confession. That's why it's part of our small groups. It's a necessity that we confess to God our sins. And here's the funny thing. We're not revealing anything to God when we confess. And so tell God of all your ways. Don't just...

hide or polish it or try and make it seem less bad than it is? Because who are you fooling? In confession, what we're doing is we're never revealing to God our sin or the depths of our sin. Rather, in confession, what we're doing is we're agreeing with God with his judgments about what we've already done. Confession is an acknowledgement of our sin before God. And agreeing with him, it's not revealing to him that something that he somehow didn't know already. And so one of the steps to removal of ourselves from the clinging sins and our souls cleaving to the dust is we must tell all of our ways to the Lord. Not hide them, not keep back pet sins, but declare it all to the Lord.

And, I mean, we'll come to communion today, but that's part of it. Is that if we refuse to confess our sins to God, or we confess all but a particular sin that we love, and we think that's the sin we're going to keep, we make plans to protect that sin, then no, we shouldn't take the Lord's Supper. Because the Lord's Supper is... an acknowledgement of our sin and the payment that Christ made. And we don't protect and withhold our sin, but we confess it all to the Lord and deal with it. It doesn't mean we don't stumble and fail, but we don't hold back or make provision for our sins. Throughout this psalm, 10 times, the psalmist asks God to teach him his statutes. He says, I have told them my ways. You answered me.

teach me your statutes. The word of God transforms us. It will change our hearts. It will change our desires. It will change our loves. It will set us free. However, it doesn't just happen. We must seek out to be instructed by God. We must pray for him to teach us, to transform us. It is part of the work of a Christian that we call on God to reveal his word to us. I mean, without it, how can we understand? Jesus says in John 14, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to you remembrance all that I said to you. The Holy Spirit's the teacher who brings to light all these things, who helps us to understand because there are many things in God's word that are difficult to understand. And we think, how do we apply it? And we need the Holy Spirit to enlighten us. And that happens in part by praying that God would teach us his statutes, that he would give us an understanding, that he would give us an ability to know what his word says, which should be a great comfort to us because we have a help in this. He's the helper.

Right? It's not that you're on your own. You're not alone in the work. But God has provided the helper to encourage us and to help us. The other thing is that we see is that he says he wants to understand. Make me understand the way of your precepts. Not give me knowledge. Right? Understanding. What do they say? There's that joke that says, knowledge is knowing that tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in the fruit salad, right? You can know random facts, but then what do you do with it? And he's saying, give me an understanding of your word and of your truth. I had one of the contractors that I used to work for would say, you know, there's no true painters anymore. He's like, you guys are just paint applicators.

Because he was saying that, you know, it used to be that the painters would mix all their things together and they would come to your house and they would mix a color there. And they had an intimate knowledge of the product in a way that it's sort of bifurcated today. It's not that you don't know anything about the product, but the main job of the painter, a lot of it is, at least if you're on the line, is just putting the paint on that you were told to, right? That's not how we should be with God's word. We should have an intimate understanding of God's word, not just know the facts about it, but an understanding of what the stories mean, what the truths are, how they apply to us. Not just facts for the people out there, but what does it mean for you and me? True faith involves our minds as well as our hearts. We seek the knowledge of God and of his ways. And then he says,

Teach me all these things. Give me an understanding of it so that, what? So that I may meditate on your wonders. So that I may meditate on your wonders. And what do you think that means? What about meditating on God's wonders? What wonders might we meditate on? Well, there's many of them. But how about the fact that God loved us while we were still in rebellion against him? that he sent Jesus to die and to bear your sins, taking on the wrath of God so that you don't have to, that Jesus exchanged your sin for his righteousness. That's something to marvel at. And I don't know that that's something we could ever stop marveling and meditating on. That ought to get us out of bed happy in the morning because that's astounding. Wonder of wonders that Christ took our sin and gave us righteousness. That every time you read in scripture about the wrath of God, that if you're his child, that wrath is in defense of his glory and protection of his glory, but also of his people. That you don't have to face that wrath as a child of God. But it's not just that, right? Because we should...

as we see God's truths revealed, it should cause us to meditate and to enjoy flowers and trees that grow delicious fruit and hands and wombats, which are fascinating animals and funny. Like God has made this fantastic and intricate world and it's amazing. And as Christians, We should just, as we begin to look at God's word and see his care and his creation, we ought to be meditating at all of these wonders. The fact that they exist. The fact that you can find wild, bizarre creatures in the very depths of the ocean. You're like, why does that thing exist? All of these things, they should cause us to wonder at God because we see the care that he has put into his world.

Proverbs 30 says, there are three things which are too wonderful for me, four which I do not understand. The way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the middle of the sea, and the way of a man with a maid. We assume Solomon, right? He's like, ah, these things don't, like God is amazing. He meditates on these things and it's wonderful. So we have this progression. We cleave to the dust. But then our minds are awakened and we say, no, revive me by your word. And then God's word convicts us. So we tell of all our ways to the Lord. And we cry out for him to give us understanding by meditating on his word and his wonders. And the next thing we cry out for is that the false way would be removed from me and that God would graciously grant me his law.

And we must choose a faithful way. A Christian asks God to remove false ways from him. Ways of sin, of errors, of deceit, right? False ways are destructive paths. They appear very attractive. Very few false ways have a big neon sign that says, false way, danger ahead, leads to destruction, right? You read about in Proverbs 7, the naive man who's deceived by the adulterous woman, and he doesn't know he's headed towards death. The false ways are very deceptive. You'll only learn to notice them if you've been taught by God's word. And any way that is apart from Christ is a false way. And so when you read in the Sermon of the Mount, When he talks about broad is the way to destruction and the narrow path to life, it's true. So all the options that you have before you, the paths that you could go, the ways you could go, there is one path that leads to life. It's Jesus. There are many false ways that lead to deception. And we must be warned that our culture

is descending more and more into identitarian ideas and politics. We all have to belong somewhere. If you're a Christian, your identity is in Christ. And when people interact with you, their first thought should be, there is, insert your name, a Christian. There's that dude who has some weird fascination with a guy who died 2,000 years ago. They say they love him. That should be the category of anyone who's not a believer that you interact with. That should be the way people should think of you and your love for Jesus when they think of you. If someone's first thought about you is, there goes that conservative man who loves Republicans, who's conservative, who's on the right wing. If that's the preeminent fact that people think about you, shame on you.

Our identity is in Christ. That should be the ruling thing in our lives, in his word. We're Christians first. And every single thing that we approach in life should be in light of the fact that we are a Christian. It should inform everything you say, everything you do. How you process any issue should be as a Christian, not as a conservative. not because of the color of your skin, not because of whatever you name it. It should be in light of the fact that you are a Christian. The Bible is the guiding principle of the Christian. And if you think that the Bible doesn't have something to say on an issue, you are simply revealing to the world your ignorance. Because the Bible has something to say about all things. You just haven't plumbed the depths deep enough.

And so you ought to be quiet and study the word. A false way is blaming other people for our problems. It's so popular today. We blame the Jews. We blame immigrants. We blame black people. We blame white people. You name it. This is what so much of Twitter and Facebook and social media and conversations is all blaming about the problems on people out there. We just want to outsource it. But you know what the psalmist said? My soul's cleaving to the dust, revive me. Deal with yourself. Don't outsource your problems. It's a false way. Our identity should be in Christ. Schooling and education will solve your problems, right? No, it won't. That's what we think. So we're driven. We have to get good grades. We have to be really successful because, like, that's the thing that will matter.

And as parents, I think we often unknowingly put that pressure on our kids. We got to educate them the right way and we got to like get them in the right schools and we got to do all these things. And it's like, that's the answer. And it's like, no, our identity is not in our grades. It's in Christ. And it doesn't mean we shouldn't work hard and doesn't mean we shouldn't, but our identity is in Christ. You think that a relationship is going to fix your loneliness, that it's going to give you joy. that your desires will be cared for if you can just date that girl or be with that girl. No, that's a weight that no husband or wife could ever bear. It helps, but your soul will only be alive if it's found in Christ, if the identity that you have is found in him and in his word. Anything else that you seek to revive you to be this This catharsis will not bear the weight. So we must be taught by God's word. We must be in it. All these things that we can seek, though many of them are not completely bad or false or whatever, they're not what will revive us. They're not what our identity should be in. And if we put ourselves down all those paths,

then we may not end up at the right destination. Walking in God's law, though, is a work of grace. It's not a mere human effort. The psalmist says that I have chosen the faithful way, which is an act of the will. It's decisive. He says, this is what I'm going to do. And that's something that we ought to do, right? We ought to seek to follow God. We ought to decide and work towards that end. And yet, we know that to do that, we must be dependent on him. We can't do it in our own effort and work. And it's not a one-time thing. We ought to wake up every morning and put God's precepts before us and decide again, I will walk in your way.

Every sort of decision and thing that we face the problem in our life, again, we should put God's precepts before us and say, I have chosen a faithful way. I will walk by God's precepts. And this is a continual fight because the world wants to distract us with all these false ways, all these difficult things. And it's like, no, I need to put God's precepts before me and remind myself every day, every hour, I have chosen a faithful way. I will live my life in light of these precepts, of these laws. Well, the result of this is clinging to God's testimonies. Notice where he starts. He starts with my soul's cleaving to the dust. But as God revives him, as he goes on this journey, he ends with his soul is cleaving to the testimonies of the Lord.

But notice this plaintiff, he's like, I will cling to your testimonies, but don't put me to shame. And you think about it, a testimony is a trustworthy declaration. It's God's covenant. should be in mind when we think about the testimonies of the Lord, we should be thinking about the covenants and the promises. And so the psalmist is saying, listen, Lord, I'm clinging to your testimonies, to your covenantal promises that you've made to me. I won't cling to the dirt of sin and dust. I'm going to cling to these, but don't put me to shame. We have to know God's promises, but then when God says, seek first the kingdom of God, It's sort of a dangerous thing because you think, well, what if I seek first the kingdom of God and then all these things are not added unto me? What then? What if I take a firm stand on the principles of God and then I lose my job and now am I ashamed?

So you see this cry. He's saying, Lord, I want to cling to your testimonies, your promises. I'm going to cling to them. I'm going to adhere to them. But then you have to uphold your part. Because if God were to fail in his promises, then wouldn't we all be ashamed? We would be laughing, right? Paul says, if Christ hadn't risen from the dead, then we're most to be pitied. And so you see this psalmist is saying, look, I've given up all the things of the world. He put all his eggs in one basket, and that's his hope in God and in the truths of his word. And so he calls on God not to put him to shame. The psalmist clings to his testimonies, and the shame is removed. You know, the psalmist prays, David prays, vindicate me, O Lord, right?

And whether that vindication happens today or tomorrow or in a few decades or at the last judgment seat, God will vindicate his people who have clung to his promises. The scriptures tell us that God is no man's debtor. So it's a safe place to put it. And unlike it's so common today, you have like all these anonymous accounts on the internet. And you wonder, is it because they're ashamed? Christians don't have to hide behind fake accounts. We can be bold as a lion because we know God is faithful. And so we stand on his truths, no matter what the world says. And we say, this is true. This is God's word. We will not be put to shame. False ways lead to shame. There are false reeds, which when leaned on will break.

They'll give you problems. If you want to be shame-free, fixate on God and on his word. God's word is a shield to us, protecting us and keeping us safe. Well, the psalmist ends with what? He's running. He started dead, clinging close to death. And the psalm ends with a man who's revived and running. He's up and moving. He has joy. He has strength. He knows the testimonies of the Lord and that's what he puts his hope in. And so now he is a runner. He is pursuing. He has spiritual vitality. His heart has been enlarged and empowered by God. And this is what happens when we follow God's word and commit to it. No longer are you in the dust. No longer are you near death. You are up and running and alive and joyful.

And have strength. The Lord's work is not just a mere external obedience. But it's internal. It's an internal transformation. Your heart will become capable of love that you never thought possible. A forgiveness that's greater than can be imagined or understood by any person who is stuck in the mire. We will be able to serve and persevere in incomprehensible ways because like Christ, we'll have such a joy set before us. We'll be clinging so tightly to those promises that we'll know that what we have is better. And so the things of earth are kind of strangely dim because we don't want it anymore. And it all comes from this adherence and love of the word of God.

that he can bring about in us. But it won't happen if we do not beg God for it like the psalmist does. It won't happen if we just desultorily read our Bibles. We have to prioritize this and make it who we are. They say of John Bunyan, if you cut him, he bled scripture. That's the psalmist, right? So examine yourself. What do you cleave to? What is your heart, your soul adhering to? All of us should be crying out to God for a revival because we all can grow in this. I'm not saying I've got this figured out. I don't. Humbly open yourself up to God's teaching and reject every false way. Choose proactively, daily, hourly, the faithful way of God. And then we'll run our races with strength. Not in our own strength, but the strength of God.

Let's pray.