Psalms 119:92 - Strength For Your Heart

Hidden treasures of the 119th song. How fun we get to dig into the might verse today in the lamed section, which you know, what is the might of your heart?

Pretty cool concept. And so this is actually we get to do the 92nd verse, which we'll just read it in English here. Unless thy law had been my delights, I should have perished in my affliction. And so as I studied this verse, I was just absolutely amazing concept. But the thing that just stuck out at me like a sore thumb is this word perished in my affliction.

And again, that's the last thing you want to happen obviously for anybody is for them to perish. And the idea there of perishing is literally your light goes out, your candle blows out, however you want to look at that. And, you know, it's fascinating to me that again, along the lines of might, right, we know the joy of the Lord is our strength. And so here he is delighting in the law, which, you know, since, you know, essentially, we are a reflection of God's light.

You know, the more we read, the more we study, the more we delight in his word, clearly, the more oil we have, I mean, the more that that fuel that we have to burn, to make it brighter. And essentially, if you get the idea of your candle not burning, how are you not going to stumble? How are you not going to fall? How are you going to find the way?

If you don't have any light, right? How can you even see in the dark times that are coming? And obviously, if we delight in the law, you know, it's our strength. It's the strength of your heart, right? And so here we see the strength of this wholehearted psalmist, which we know is King David. And his whole heart, right, was after thy law. You can see it throughout this psalm clearly. And because of that, you know, he could certainly find his way in the dark.

And certainly the enemy would have liked to have had him perish before he had a chance to write all these amazing words. So wonderfully, when we apply this to our own lives, and you think about a time that you were being greatly afflicted, right, a time where it seemed like, you know, it was getting close. And certainly I've had that in my life in numerous ways. But what I really think about is, you know, for whatever reason, I didn't come to the Lord until later in life, right? I was 36 years old. And it was through the Bible itself that he lit my candle.

Okay, so I don't know if I've told you the story before, but essentially, here's what happened. I bought this series from Norman Vincent Peale, because I wanted to sell more cars, not because I wanted to get my candle lit. But the idea was that I was going to sell more cars. And by doing that, I bought the Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale.

Well, at the beginning of that series, it was a tape set. One of the first things I remember him saying, in fact, the only thing I remember in the whole series that he said was, if you want to have a positive mental attitude, right, which is something all salesmen need. If you want a positive mental attitude, you need to get up an hour earlier every morning, and read your Bible.

Well, that was wisdom above wisdom, actually, he was given me right, a pakudim. He was giving me a meeting time with Jesus, as I would begin. And I and I was at the time, it seemed absolutely lunatic to me, that I would really, I mean, read the Bible is going to somehow or another help me sell more cars. And so you can imagine, as I am going through the scriptures, right, I pick it up in Genesis, I start reading is pretty exciting stuff, because I had no idea what was in there. And of course, when you get into Exodus, it's a lot like the movie The Ten Commandments, very, very exciting. But as you get further into Exodus, all of a sudden, they're starting to talk about, you know, cutting the fat off a liver and how to make the tabernacle and all these details.

And, and I was just like, wow, how in the world can this have anything to do with selling cars? And then, you know, one of the things that really grabbed me was when Aaron's kids offered the wrong incense, and essentially ended up, you know, both perishing, because they're snuffed, they got snuffed out big time. And I was just angry at God over that I was like, really, I thought you were supposed to be loving and kind. And I mean, all these guys did was offer the wrong incense or whatever. And it just didn't seem fair.

And then it just went downhill from there. Because I remember getting terribly upset at God over Aiken's kids. You know, it's one thing that Aiken kept the devoted things, but you might remember it. I think it's in numbers where he keeps some No, no, it's in judges.

I mean, in Joshua, where Aiken keeps the devoted things after they, you know, conquer Jericho, and then they go up to IE and they struggle. So they cast a lot, and they find that it was this guy. And then they stone him, not only him, but his whole family. And I'm like, God, how can this be right?

I mean, it just just can't be the I've heard this, you know, loving God all these years, and this just this just was making me matter and matter. And so, to fast forward to the book of Job, right, I get to Joe, and I'm expecting, you know, just being the, the pagan that I was, I expected Job to be about patience. And then when I realized that, Oh, my goodness, God, you know, this seems to be like a bet between you and Satan over this guy. And and really, you're gonna let his kids die and everything he has and gets these sores.

And then you send these horrible people is that they're accused him of all this stuff. And I was getting madder and madder and madder. And interestingly, God had me right where he wanted me because when all of a sudden he shows up at the end of the book of Job and says, Okay, Job, since you're so smart, let me ask you a few questions. Well, the problem was got Robbie. Robbie thought he was God. Robbie thought he was really smart, and he could figure all these things out. When God turned on Job and said, Okay, if you're so smart, you know, just go ahead and make it snow since you know all of why all these things happen.

You know, make it snow or if you want, bring in the tide. You know, there were several things he said, but the one that really hooked me was can you stick your hook in a behemoth? Well, I didn't know what a behemoth was. So it sent me on So it sent me on a mission because I needed to understand this. You know, I just sensed it was critical to my own understanding of God. Here was the moment of truth.

And it really was the moment of truth. And as I went and actually bought, I can't still believe what I did this, but I did, I went to a Christian bookstore, bought a Matthew Henry commentary, so I could figure out what a behemoth was and what in the world this meant. And as I read and understood what a behemoth was from at least Matthew Henry's point of view, all the sudden, right, it hit me that, wow, I don't know how to make it snow. I don't think I could, or do I want to stick a hook in a behemoth? And I realized, wow, if I'm not God, I surely need one.

And apparently he has a really high standard that, you know, clearly I don't meet. And so I had a real problem. And with that real problem came wisdom, right? A fear of the Lord. And that wisdom was a desire to get my candle lit, right?

To be quickened, to see my way. And so as I got to the New Testament, he lit my candle, right? I saw that, oh, Jesus died so I can meet this standard.

Jesus died. And as I accepted Christ, he lit my candle, right? And now I was saved in the word of God. I have such a delight for it. And delight to dig around. I think this verse is just super precious to my heart, as clearly it was to David's, that here is the might, right? As you delight in these things. And I know that if you're listening, you've been following this whole series, you delight in the word. And this, believe me, this is where your heart is finding its strength. When it comes into the dark places, it has plenty of firepower to light your candle. Thank you for listening today in the 119th Psalm.