Eight Steps to Transformation by the Word (Psalm 119:25-32) - Jacob Cook

Psalm 119 as a Blueprint for Transformation by the Word

Our text is going to be in Psalm 119. It's going to be verses 25 to 32. If you open up to that, you'll... I use the ESV version. I don't know what version you're all in, but I use ESV, so it might sound a little different.

If you could open up to that. I don't really have a title for the message today, but if I did, I would call it Eight Steps to Transformation by the Word of God. Just trying to stay in line with what the last few people have done.

So while you're turning there, I'm going to pray for myself because I need it. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that we can gather in your name. Lord, I pray that your Holy Spirit would move through me to speak truth, that you would be magnified and glorified by what I have to say, that your people would be transformed into the image of your Son, that your will would be done through me and in us this morning.

In the name of Jesus, Amen. All right. Well, I want to paint a scene for you. It was 2011. I had been in Iraq for six or seven months, and we had recently moved from our base up north in the Mosul area down to a base near Tikrit, closer to Baghdad, and this new base that we were at was huge.

You had to drive from place to place, our old base, you could walk. And one of the things they gave us that we could get from place to place was these little gator tractor 4x4s. We didn't have many of them, so a lot of times you were walking just through the desert heat, but one day I was leaving our command post and I had the opportunity to take one going back to our motor yard, wherever one was, where my platoon was.

And so I obviously didn't want to miss up that opportunity to be lazy, and as I got on there, I got the overwhelming urge to put the pedal to the floor and see how fast it would go. And it was like a big salt flat with a lot of extra dust, so you could really open it up.

And I did, and I was having the time of my life for a brief moment. No seat belt, just a baseball hat, and just flying through the desert. And before I knew it, I was kind of like yipping and hooting and hollering, just having a great time.

And as I kind of did a little bit of some drifting into our motor yard, I noticed everyone was seeing me, and I pulled and a cloud of dust came to me like I just landed a space shuttle on the moon, and I was elated.

But my boss was not so elated. See, what I had forgotten was that the base had a speed limit, and apparently it was 10 miles an hour, and also apparently our four-wheeler went 50 miles an hour. And so I was going 50 into 10 with no seat belt, no safety gear, and apparently that was a big no-no.

I'll never forget what happened next after a very explicit rant, which I will not share with you. He asked me why I did it, and all I could say was that I was having fun. I was letting loose for a moment.

I didn't even consider that the base had a speed limit. We're in another country. There are no laws for us. That's how I felt. And he looked up at me, looked up. He was 4 '11", and I'm not very tall myself, so he looked up at me and he said, Cookie, I expected more out of you than that.

And I was crushed. I respected and admired this man deeply, and his words were worse than any punishment I would receive, which was a lifetime ban from using any of the four-wheelers while you're overseas.

But his words had power, and he used that power in that moment to change me right then and there, and that truly was probably the last time I got the better of myself while I was in the Army. Words are powerful.

They can destroy. Words like I'm not angry, I'm disappointed, I don't love you anymore, I regret whatever it is, and so on. But they can also build up I'm proud of you. We will get through this together.

I love you. Children may want a song or a story before bed. A spouse may say words that comfort you when the future is dark. A text from a friend may uplift your spirits. Words have power, and one of their most well-known powers is that they have the power to change us.

They allow what is inside someone to be transmuted to someone else in a way that impacts us deeply and inspires us up to action. And so it is with God. He has given us his book that his words might destroy the sin in our lives, the sin that dwells within us through conviction and redirection, but also to build us up and to affirm that which is lovely and true and Christ-like within us.

The Psalms are a book of worship to the Lord, and fittingly from the human perspective, it is an up-and-down journey. It is a tearing down and a building up throughout the Psalms, a praising and a questioning, a revealing of our nature, and a revelation of his character.

In this particular passage, we see the Psalmist change because of the Word of God. Let's turn there now. Verse 25. My soul clings to the dust. Give me life according to your word. When I told of my ways, you answered me.

Teach me your statutes. Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. My soul melts away for sorrow. Strengthen me according to your word. Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law.

I have chosen the way of faithfulness. I set your rules before me. I cling to your testimonies, O Lord. Let me not be put to shame. I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart.

Did you see the arc of the Psalmist just then in those eight verses? Did you see how it starts with, my soul clings to the dust, and how it ends with, I run in the path of your commands? Did you see that transformation that took place in him in just those little eight verses?

My main point today is this, that when a person is submitted to the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, they will be transformed. That is my guarantee, and I hope to persuade you to that point, that truth this morning.

This section of this psalm provides us with a path, a stencil, or a blueprint on how the Word of God can transform us towards Christlikeness. And in this section of the larger psalm of Psalm 118, each of these eight verses acts as a step along the path of transformation.

So my hope this morning is to point out those eight steps for transformation, and hopefully it will help you to see how each point along the psalmist's transformation turns them towards the Word of God, and with that, the God of the Word.

Identifying Your Need and Confessing Your Ways

So what is that first step? Well, in verse 25, my soul clings to the dust. Give me life according to your Word. The first step is to accurately identify the circumstances. If anyone has ever had water damage, you know that you can't just tear up a few boards or tiles or whatever it is and expose most of the problem.

You have to expose all of the problem, and with that, you probably have to destroy some things that are undamaged in the process. You have to lay the whole problem bare in order to make sure you can remove all the damage.

Here the psalmist completely exposes the problem. He accurately identifies his circumstances. He says, my soul clings to the dust. If you were to be transformed, you have to identify the problem and circumstances you were actually in.

The psalmist doesn't say, well, I'm mostly okay, Lord, it's just in this one thing I got going on, I'm not doing well, but other than that, I'm doing really good, so help me if you can, and that would be great.

No, he says, my soul clings to the dust. There's a brokenness and an acceptance of the sad reality of his life. Nothing is being covered up here. Nothing. The psalmist is essentially laying himself bare and exposed before God.

He is accurately assessing the problem, and this is also a key component to sharing the gospel. A gospel without sin being addressed is a weak gospel. Healthy people have no need of a healer, and the righteous have no need of a savior.

When we share the gospel, we have to get people to see the reality of their circumstances. They have sinned against a holy God, and that's the reality. That is the circumstance they are in, but so often, we present the gospel like we're explaining a new pharmaceutical drug.

Well, here's benefit A and B and C. Oh, and by the way, side effects may include grieving your sin, the complete dismantling of your life, how it is right now, suffering beyond anything you can imagine, acknowledging that you have wickedness abounding within you.

Just as we have to identify the circumstances of the sinner who does not have Christ indwelling them, so too we have to acknowledge our own circumstances if we are to change. Then, like the psalmist, we have to turn towards the one who has life.

In John 6, 67, it says, so Jesus said to the twelve, do you want to go away as well? And Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.

That is the one that the Word of God prophesied about. And Jesus, just before that, had said to them, the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. So the first step is to allow the Word of God, in allowing the Word of God to transform us, is to accurately identify the circumstances.

We are clinging to dust, and we need life. Hold on one second, I'm gonna just grab a quick drink of tea. Verse 26, when I told of my ways, you answered me, teach me your statutes. The second step is to take accountability.

Another translation says, I gave an account of my ways. First John 1, 9 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Psalm 32, 5 says, then I acknowledged my sin to you, and did not cover up my iniquity.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Confession is an integral part of transformation. Again, when we share the gospel, we encourage people to confess their sin and repent.

In the Gospel of Mark, when in Judea the Israelites are getting baptized under John the Baptist, it says that they're heading down to the Jordan River, confessing their sins. This is not a new thing, this is an ancient truth.

So too, the psalmist confesses his sin. Confession truly is one of the most anti-American, counter-cultural things the Word of God commands us to do. Confession breaks the shackles of self-glorification and hyper-independence by saying, I am broken and I cannot fix myself.

When we confess our sin, it loses the power of shame and condemnation over us. The evil one wants to keep your sin tucked away. He wants you to be ashamed and condemned by it. But Paul says, there is now therefore no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.

We must be a confessing people. And then like the psalmist, we can't stop there. We must learn the ways of the Lord so that we do not continue on in sin. Just as ignorance is no excuse in our judicial system, so it is no excuse in the justice of the Lord.

And Hebrews 8, 10, it says, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

This is the new covenant. So ignoring is no excuse. And since it is no excuse, it is on us as disciples of Jesus to learn how to walk the narrow path. In order to do that, we must learn the statutes of the Lord and take accountability for our adherence to them.

So the second step in allowing the word of God to transform you is to take accountability by telling the Lord of your ways. Verse 27, make me understand the ways of your precepts and I will meditate on your wondrous works.

Meditating on God's Works and Seeing His Higher Ways

Step three is to acknowledge his ways. The psalmist says, make me understand the way of your precepts. He acknowledges the truth that the precepts of the Lord are a better and narrow path. Isaiah 55, 8, and 9 says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. That is what the psalmist is saying here. He's saying, make me understand your word like you understand it, God.

We can understand this in a gospel context because the life of Christian is foolishness to the world. It is supposed to be counter-cultural in its very nature. It's inherently difficult and not many people walk it well.

You might be thinking, well, that sounds a little dogmatic, saying people aren't doing it well. That sounds like works righteousness. But we should remember the words of Christ. He says in Matthew 7, 13, enter by the narrow gate.

For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few. We are not saved by any work of our own.

That is a gift of grace by the perfect, spotless righteousness of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. But that does not mean that we do not have to put in effort. Jesus commanded his disciples to come and follow me.

It is a call to action. It's not to sit back and he will do everything for us. We need to understand the way of his precepts. Put in effort. The psalmist again turns to the word and says, I will meditate on your wondrous works, so should we.

The testimonies in scripture are a gift to us from the Lord. They are a comfort to us when life is going astray. When suffering abounds, we can read of the wondrous works of the Lord and say within ourselves, though you slay me, yet I will praise you.

Though you take from me, I will bless your name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. They empower us with words of comfort to others, and we can point them to stories that speak into their lives. I'm a big fan of the Chosen series.

I don't really like most Christian media. It is not good. Just being honest, it's not well done. But the Chosen series is very well done, and they take a few liberties, but I really like it. And at the end of season two, this will be a bit of a spoiler, but it's been out for two years, so that's on you.

One of the main characters is grieving, and they go to their rabbi for comfort, and the rabbi reads to them Psalm 77. I just want to read you this section real quick. It says, I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me.

In the day of my trouble, I seek the Lord. In the night, my hand is stretched out without wearying. My soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan. When I meditate, my spirit faints. You hold my eyelids open.

I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said, let me remember my song in the night. Let me meditate in my heart. Then my spirit made a diligent search. Will the Lord spurn forever and never again be favorable?

Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion? And then I said, I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the highest.

I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What God is great like our God.

Is that not relatable, feeling like that? Is that not a timeless retelling of the human experience of the suffering we go through? Those words are a comfort to me. In my life, those words, those specific words in Psalm 77 have been a comfort to me.

Those words transform people. Can you imagine saying that to someone who feels like they're lost and they can't find comfort anywhere, but being able to say to them, you are not alone in that experience?

Read this with me. If you're not meditating on the wondrous works of the Lord, that opportunity might pass you by. You have to remember that your transformation is not for your sake alone, but for everyone's sake, for everyone you come into contact with.

In Hebrews, it describes you as a royal priesthood. Well, what does a priest do? A priest heals and points people towards the truth, and that is what we are to do, expanding the kingdom of God out in the world, healing and pointing people towards the truth.

So meditate on what he has done. Step three is acknowledging his ways by meditating on his works. In verse 28, my soul melts away for sorrow, strengthen me according to your word. My soul melts away for sorrow.

This is really strong language, but what is the psalmist sorrowful about? That he's inadequate, that he alone can't walk in the precepts of God in his own strength. He's beginning to understand the way of the Lord from the previous verse, and his soul melts away for sorrow over the fact that he can't do it alone.

He needs God's strength, and he sees that. We need to see that. We need his strength. Once we have acknowledged that his ways are higher than our ways, we have to also see that we can't do it in our own flesh.

Ephesians 2 says, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. God prepared them. We need supernatural power to walk in his ways, and there's only one man who was able to walk in the way of the Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit and the will of the Father, and that was Jesus.

In these four verses, in the first half of this section of Psalm, we see the basis for the setup of sharing the gospel. We see a person realize they are clinging to dust, that they have fallen short, that they see God's ways, and they now can see that they need a Savior.

That's pointing us to Jesus. They need strength from above, and that's what the psalmist sees as well. The psalmist goes on, strengthen me according to your word. Philippians 4 .13, I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Notice how the psalmist doesn't say that it's the word that gives him strength. He says, strengthen me according to your word. The strength is predicated on the promise of God to strengthen. It's not in the word alone.

The strength is derived from the character of God to fulfill his word. We are strengthened as the word says we will be, not by the words themselves, but by the one who spoke them. It's the promise within the word that gives the strength, because God is faithful.

Psalm 138 .2 says, I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. Step four is to concede your inadequacy and ask for the strength that only he can give.

Humility, Intentionality, and Holding Fast to the Testimonies

Verse 29, put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law. Step five is a hard one. Embrace humility. Put false ways far from me. The psalmist acknowledges here that there are certain ways that are appealing, but also false.

They look like the way of Jesus, but they're not. They are false ways, and as the psalmist asks that put them far from him. This is a sobering reality, but should it also be a humbling one for us? Do you remember what Jesus said in Matthew 7?

He said, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. And on that day many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name?

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. The psalmist understands that it's possible to spend your life striving and miss the mark. Put these ways far from me.

I don't have it all figured out. Help me avoid them. There's a distinct humility in what the psalmist is saying here. It's the humility of a pupil and a master. So the psalmist again turns to the master and he says, graciously teach me your law.

Another translation says, teach mercifully. When I read this, I hear the psalmist saying, can we please do this the easy way? Not the hard way, Lord, but the easy way. The hard way is for the proud who have it all figured out.

I do not, not me, Lord. Teach me graciously. This again echoes the Christian experience. Sometimes we learn the hard way and sometimes we learn the easy way when we come to the word of the Lord with humility.

In 1 John 2, he describes three groups of believers. Little children, that's just people who are new to the faith. Young men, he describes as those who have overcome the evil one. They've figured a good part of it out.

And fathers, spiritual fathers. And they represent stages of maturity in Christ. And I'm not one for celebrity news. I don't really keep up on it, don't care for it. But one thing that I have noticed is that when a famous person converts to Christ, we expect father behavior out of them when they're just a little child.

We do this to their detriment and to the detriment of the whole body of Christ. We expect them to all of a sudden have it all figured out and walk perfectly, as though that was our experience. We figured it all out and walked perfectly.

When a child doesn't do something right, you don't condemn them. You don't tell them that they will never mature. You show them grace. You're merciful in understanding you keep trying. That's the picture here.

I bring this up just as a reminder that just as the psalmist comes to the Lord and says, graciously teach me your law, so too, we need to graciously teach others around us. We need to approach them with humility when we're bringing the truth of the Lord to them.

So step five is embrace humility so you can be taught graciously. Verse 30, I have chosen the way of faithfulness. I set your rules before me. Number six is to be intentional. First Corinthians 10 13 says, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. There is a choosing that must take place within our lives, a commitment to the spiritual discipline, a choice to go down the narrow path.

That is what the psalmist is doing here. The psalmist is saying, I'm going to intentionally choose you. I'm going to choose your ways, the ways of faithfulness, and we as believers in Christ must live with intentionality.

You don't stumble into Christ likeness. It's not just going to happen. You're not just going to wake up one day and be like Jesus unless you're dead, in which case you don't really have to worry about it anymore.

You have to choose it. You have to choose the way of faithfulness like the psalmist, and often that will look like not doing everything you want to do, but that is part of the beauty of walking with the Lord.

Oftentimes the things that we think in one season are that are holding us back appear in another season as a great blessing. As a younger believer, I never really understood the Sabbath. I'm a go-go-go type of person.

I thrive under pressure. I love it. When I'm doing things I want to do, my energy doesn't stop. I just love to engage in life, and the idea of a day where I just stopped and pursued the Lord all day and didn't really do anything, it didn't feel like something I needed because I was able to engage with the Lord in the doing.

But one day in my 30s, I woke up completely burnt out, and I realized I haven't Sabbath in longer than I can remember, and as I began to practice Sabbath rest, it became a blessing to me. I didn't view it as something that was holding me back.

I viewed it as a gift. It's still hard to practice. It's not easy for me. You know, I got stuff to do just like everyone else, but it's something I have to choose. The number one thing that happens is I get distracted.

I simply get distracted. I forget. But see what the psalmist does here. He says, I set your rules before me. That is, I put them in front of my mind. I'm focused. I'm locked in on your ways. Psalm 119, 105 says, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

The word lights the path before him so he knows where to go. It's before him. He's thinking about it. It's on the front of his mind. What does that look like for you and me, practically? Well, it looks like reading scripture.

It looks like reading a psalm or a verse or a chapter at the beginning of your day and getting your brain out of existing and into abiding as your default setting. Maybe that's praying on your lunch break.

Maybe it's meeting with other believers and discussing the things of God. Whatever it is, what it definitely is for sure is living with intentionality, choosing the way of faithfulness. So step six in the word transforming your life is to be intentional by setting his word before you.

Step seven. Sorry, I got a little ahead of myself. Verse 31, I cling to your testimonies, O Lord. Let me not be put to shame. Step seven is to hold fast. Speaking of the qualifications of an elder, in Titus 1 it says, He must hold firm to the trustworthy word is taught so that he may be able to give instruction and sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

The psalmist here says, I cling to your testimonies, O Lord. I used to be really overweight. I've lost about 90 pounds, and a lot of people have asked me, like, what's your secret? They want a quick fix.

They want me to say something like, well, just don't eat sugar and it'll all fall away or avoid seed oils, right? That's the new thing. Run every morning. Get sunlight on your calves. I don't know. They want like some special secret.

But the reality is that there is a secret to living a healthier life. It's just not one that anyone wants to hear. It's consistency. It took me five years to lose that 90 pounds. That transformation didn't happen overnight.

I had to choose to be healthy. I had to choose to exercise and eat salads when I didn't want to and do all those things for five years to be able to run marathons and do all the things I do now. And so too it is with the Word of God.

It's not something that we pick up once and we're changed forever perfectly. Though there are times that may be the case, special times when God's Word speaks to you, but by and large it's about clinging to the testimonies of the Lord day in and day out.

It's getting spiritual reps, running spiritual miles, being on that spiritual diet, if you will, of the Word of God, holding fast to the Word of God as life swirls around us. The psalmist is in a way saying, Lord, I'm putting in the work.

Let it not be a waste. Let it not go to waste. He says, O Lord, let me not be put to shame. In Psalm 25, 1, it says, To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in you I trust. Let me not be put to shame.

Let not my enemies exult over me. Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame. They shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous. And in Romans 5, 1, it kind of echoes the psalmist here. It says, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Our work, our holding fast to the Word of God and to him, will not be put to shame.

I can promise you that. Step seven is allowing the Word of God to transform us by holding fast to it and trusting that you won't be put to shame. Verse 32, I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart.

Step eight is to run in trust. The Word of God repeatedly uses race language when describing our life. In 1 Corinthians 9, 24, it says, Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?

So run that you may obtain it. Philippians 3, 13, and 14. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straying forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

And then Paul again says at the end of his life, writing to Timothy, I have fought the good fight, I have finished my race, I have kept the faith. The psalmist says, I will run in the way of your commands.

In order to run in the way of commands, you have to be familiar with them. You have to know them. I like to trail run. I frequently choose the same trails, partly because I'm a slave to routine and I'm a bit boring as a person.

But the other part is that I know how to run them. I know the markers and the holes and the rocks and the roots. And because of that, I can run them better because I'm not worried about injuring myself.

I know them inside and out. And that allows me to enjoy and focus on more important things, like not passing out. It's like when you've lived somewhere for a long time, how you can navigate your house in the dark.

You don't need the lights on to get where you need to go because you know it inside and out. You've walked those steps a thousand times, so whether the lights are on or off, it doesn't matter. You can navigate to the bathroom or maybe all the way to the kitchen or whatever it is.

You don't need the lights. And that's the picture you should have here when you think of running in the way of your commands, is that the psalmist knows the way so well he can run it. But there is an additional element here that I need to point out.

He says, I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart. It's not if you enlarge my heart, it's when. At the beginning of this section, the psalmist is asking the Lord to act in response to his actions.

But here at the end, we see it reversed. In the beginning, he says, my soul clings to the dust, give me life according your word. I told you of my ways, teach me your statutes. Make me understand your precepts, and then I will meditate on your wondrous works.