Your Word is a Lamp to My Feet

Summer in the Psalms ‘23

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

July 16, 2023

Your Word is a Lamp to My Feet

Ps. 119

We aren’t sure who wrote Ps. 119, but we know that the author loves the word of God. That’s the theme of this psalm – love for God’s word. Verse 97 expresses the heart of the psalmist: Oh, how I love your law!I meditate on it all day long.

This Psalm is the longest psalm, containing 176 verses and there’s a very specific reason for that number. It’s the perfect length because Psalm 119 is broken into 22 sections, each section beginning with the next letter in the Hebrew alphabet (there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet). For example, the first section begins with the letter A, next section letter B, and so on. Each section then contains 8 verses, each verse beginning with that same Hebrew letter. 22 x 8 = 176.

We don’t have time to go through the entire psalm, but I want to highlight for us 7 aspects of God’s word and my hope and prayer is simply that we grow in our love and appreciation for the word of God. I’m not going to go in the order of the psalm and in this case that’s ok. As Charles Bridges acknowledges, there isn’t a direct connection between sections other than the theme of loving God’s word. He compares each section to a string of pearls hung on one necklace, each pearl being of equal and independent value.I’m going to highlight a few pearls among the many. I’m reading from the NIV this morning.

1. God’s word is eternal, fixed in the heavens (vv. 89-91, 96)

Your word, Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.⁹⁰ Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures.⁹¹ Your laws endure to this day,for all things serve you. Ps. 119:89-91)

I start with this because in a temporary world it reminds us that God’s word is permanent – firm in the heavens, fixed forever. Jesus said that heaven and earth will pass away but my word will never pass away.

In the nautical world, many sailors use something called a sextant. A sextant is used to measure the angle between a fixed object – usually a celestial object like the sun or north star – and the horizon. Using those two points, a sextant can tell you where you are and guide you where you want to go with amazing precision.

We need a fixed point to guide our lives. We need a fixed point in order to rightly gauge our horizon. Researchers have done study after study showing that if a person is blindfolded and asked to walk in a straight line for a distance, they begin to walk in ever tightening circles. The same is true in a situation like a dense forest or a desert landscape where there are no fixed points. We think we’re walking in a straight line when we’re actually looping in circles.

Some researchers believe that loopy paths follow from a walker's changing sense of "straight ahead." With every step, a small deviation is added to a person's sense of what's straight, and these deviations accumulate to send that individual veering around in ever tighter circles as time goes on. This isn’t the case when an external reference point (a fixed point) is visible because the walker can frequently recalibrate his or her sense of direction.

What is true physically is true spiritually as well. We can’t find truth without a fixed point. Without the fixed point of God’s word, our thoughts start to circle and loop and we don’t even know it. We hitch our lives to beliefs and hopes and ideologies and philosophies that zig zag and circle around and get us hopelessly lost. We guide our lives by what’s trending on social media or in popularity and while it may feel right when the blindfold is taken off, we find we are lost.

God’s word is fixed eternally. Not just for a long time, but an eternity from now, long after today’s trend has been forgotten, the truth of the Bible will stand.

Life is complicated. Our horizons change over time. Our season of life changes. If you have young kids, your horizon looks full of dirty diapers and looking after your kids every moment. If your kids are grown, or you don’t have kids, your horizon looks and feels a little different. The person looking for their first job has a different horizon than someone working the same job for 25 years. A highly educated person sees a different horizon than someone who left school after high school. Our horizons look different.

For many young people, the horizon is full of what your peers think of you. Nothing seems so important as being accepted by your friends. In ten years, most of those people won’t even be in your life anymore. Your horizon will look different.

Our horizons are meant to look different – we’re all in different places. But God has given us all a fixed point to guide our lives in the way we should go so we aren’t lost and wandering aimlessly in circles. So that we don’t think we’re walking in truth when in reality we’re deceived. So that we don’t guide our lives by our horizons but by God’s word, firmly fixed in heaven and over our lives. God’s word is that fixed star of truth that, rightly understood, guides us into truth and blesses our lives.

2. God’s word is a lamp for our feet

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. Vs.105

God’s word is fixed in heavens as an objective truth point that gives us an unchanging reference point in life, but verse 105 also tells us that God’s word isn’t just a fixed point, it’s also a lamp.

A lamp helps guide our lives differently than a fixed point. A fixed point helps us to walk in truth, walk a straight line, navigate life by something objectively true when the horizon of our culture and social ideologies keeps changing. A lamp lights our next step, keeping us from stumbling or walking into danger. Think of it this way, God’s truth is big and massive and unchanging, but His truth also comes close to help us navigate the small steps of life.

God’s word sheds light on our path. It shines light on our next step.

1. When we’re tempted to sin, God’s word lights up the path of purity.

⁹How can a young person stay on the path of purity?By living according to your word…
¹¹ I have hidden your word in my heartthat I might not sin against you. Vv. 9, 11

God’s word protects us from stepping into impurity that feels good today but destroys our lives tomorrow. God’s word hidden in our hearts lights the good path and warns us against the dangerous path.

This week our hot water heater sprung an irreparable leak. It was working perfectly. It’s only a few years old and looks perfect on the outside. But unseen, in the inner tank, sediment and impurities started to build up, eating away at the tank from the inside out.

Impurity eats away at us from the inside out. At first everything looks good on the outside. But inside our conscience is compromised. Guilt eats away at us. Shame gnaws at us. Fear of being found out causes us to lie and deceive. All of this goes on inside where no one can see…until the corrosion going on on the inside eats away and leaks out to the outside (and it always will).

God’s word is a lamp – don’t take the first step down that road. I have hidden your word in my heart so when sin lies hidden in my path, your word is a lamp for my heart warning me “don’t go there. Don’t go down that path. It will destroy you.”

2. God’s word broadens our understanding

I run in the path of your commands,for you have broadened my understanding. Vs. 32

3. God’s word promises God’s unfailing love and salvation to those who trust His word

May your unfailing love come to me, Lord, your salvation, according to your promise;
⁴² then I can answer anyone who taunts me,for I trust in your word. Vv. 41-42

God never has and never will break a promise – His promises are fixed eternally in heaven – so when God promises His unfailing love for us in His word we can take that to the bank. When God promise salvation to all those who call upon him, we can stand on that promise.

The greatest promises in the Bible are promises of salvation. We need saving more than anything else. But here’s the wonderful thing about God’s promise to save: it’s not just for on the other side of eternity. Jesus came to save us here and now. John’s gospel in particular presents salvation not as something in the future but as something that is now. Now Jesus saves us. Now Jesus frees us from the power of sin. Now Jeus washes away condemnation, guilt, and shame. Now we are saved. And then – on that day – our salvation will be gloriously realized as Jesus ushers us into his eternal kingdom and into eternal life and we will fall to our knees in grateful praise knowing Jesus has saved us!

The psalmist writing this is facing some kind of taunting. “Then I can answer anyone who taunts me…” There are people taunting him, mocking and belittling him, but he knows he can trust God’s promises to answer the taunt-ers for him.

If you read through the psalm – and I encourage you to – you see that this psalmist is going through the ups and downs, the bumps and bruises of life. His life isn’t trouble-free. There are powerful people who are plotting against him. Digging pits for him to fall into. Telling lies to smear his good name. He feels at times like his soul is clinging to the dust, and his heart is melting with sorrow.

The Bible doesn’t promise that God will exempt us from trials – just the opposite! It promises that life will be hard sometimes. People will come against us. Circumstances will try to knock us down and steal our hope. In those moments, we feel like we’re clinging to the dust with one hand, but we are clinging to God’s promises with the other! We are trusting in God’s unfailing love.

God’s unfailing love and salvation comes to us. The name Jesus means The Lord is Our Salvation. Jesus came to save us – both to save us eternally but also save our lives and make them whole and healthy and blessed. Both on the other side of eternity and now. As we trust in God’s word and His promises.