The Markers of a Bible-Revering Person | Psalm 119:97-104

Good morning, Watermark family. How are we doing? Awesome. If we have not gotten the chance to meet, my name is Jermaine Harrison, and I serve here as the students director. I've been on staff here at Watermark for the last nine years, and I am so excited to continue on in our series A Bible-Revering Church.

Before we dive into God's Word, I just wanted to acknowledge what we are in the middle of commemorating this weekend with it being Memorial Day weekend. There's both a gratitude and a grief to acknowledge. A gratitude that we have a freedom we get to experience and enjoy in this country that is not available everywhere in the world, so we should be grateful for that, and the grief is for the lives that have been lost to provide us with and to protect the freedom we get to experience and enjoy.

I know in a room this size and with people listening, there's likely someone who has lost a spouse, a son or daughter, a family member, a friend, or a loved one, and I just want to acknowledge that this weekend might be really difficult for you as you reflect on that loss. So, I want to acknowledge the reality of both the gratitude and the grief and invite us all to pray and thank God for the freedoms we get to enjoy and to pray for those who might be struggling a little bit this weekend. So let's pray together.

God, thank you so much for today, and thank you so much, first of all, for the freedom we have in you, and thank you for the freedom we get to experience and enjoy in this country. Thank you for the brave men and women who have paid the ultimate sacrifice of losing their life to provide us with the freedom we experience today.

I pray for any person in the room or listening who has lost someone in the line of duty, God, that you would bring comfort to their hearts, that you would bring hope to their minds, that they would be reminded of the fact that you are near to the brokenhearted and you save those who are crushed in spirit.

Now I'd love to invite everyone to pray for yourselves and ask God, ask his Spirit, to show you today exactly what he wants to from his Word. Then I'd love for you to pray the same for all of those seated around you, that God would reveal himself to them. Lastly, I'd love for you to pray for me, that God would speak clearly through me as I proclaim his Word.

God, we love you, and we're so grateful for another opportunity to gather together to worship and fellowship and to be encouraged by the truth of your Word. Be with us through the next few moments. In Jesus' name, amen.

In January 2014, I went on my first ever ski trip. We took about 90 or so kids from here at Watermark, and we went to the beautiful mountains of Colorado to ski, to make memories, and to learn about God. It was going to be a grand time, but as a reminder, I had never been skiing before. If you don't know, I'm from the Caribbean. We don't spend much time skiing down there, but I thought, "How hard could it be to learn how to ski?" It turns out it's really hard.

In my mind I said, "You know what? I'll just try it for the first day. I'll take some advice from the people around me, and I'll do my best. How hard can it be? Surely, I'll figure this out." Then something happened over and over and over again that I'd love to invite you to join with me in the pain of. Watch this.

[Video]

Male: This is Jermaine Harrison getting off a lift for the first time. Let's go, Jermaine! You've got it, Jermaine! Oooh!

[End of video]

That really did happen dozens upon dozens of times throughout the course of that day. So, I got to a point where I was faced with a decision. Was I okay to continue with this "just okay" skiing experience or would I honestly assess that I wasn't a good skier and that I needed to take a step to learn the basics? So, the second day, I decided to go to ski school.

Now, if you've never been to ski school, what's more embarrassing than falling repeatedly in front of your friends and students is falling repeatedly in front of 4- and 5-year-olds who are way better than you at skiing. While it was embarrassing, it worked. I learned about french fries. I learned about pizza. I learned how to stop. I learned how to get off of lifts. As the week went on, I got better and better at skiing, and the experience got more and more enjoyable.

I was reminded of a very valuable lesson that day. The valuable lesson is if you want to grow and improve in a certain skill, it takes an honest self-assessment of where you are and then making a decision to take a step to grow. The reason I start there is I want to take that lesson I was reminded of in the mountains of Colorado and apply it to our lives. I want you and me to honestly assess today where we are and how we are doing at revering the Bible.

Your reverence for the Bible could mean the difference between experiencing more of God or less of God. It could mean the difference between an empty ritual of a relationship with God and one that is marked by revival. It could mean the difference between just external change and true transformation that begins with the heart. So, the question I want to pose to you for us to consider for the next few moments is this: "Am I a Bible-revering person?"

You see, revering the Bible is more than just owning it or having access to it or reading it now and then or just checking it off of your to-do list. Revering the Bible is holding it in high regard, honoring its words, treasuring its principles, listening to it, obeying it, and making it a part of your life every single day. "Am I a Bible-revering person?" is an important question for us all to consider.

On the slopes in Colorado 10 years ago, I had a decision to make. Either I was going to continue on in a less-than-ideal skiing experience or I would humbly take a step. I want to invite us all to consider that we have both of those options today when it comes to how we're doing at revering the Bible. Either we're going to continue on in a less-than-ideal relationship with the Lord or we could take a step to be a person who reveres the Bible more today than we did yesterday.

See, a Bible-revering church is made up of Bible-revering individuals, so it's so important for every single one of us who is a follower of Jesus to honestly assess where we are. So, if you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to turn with me to Psalm 119. We're going to look specifically at verses 97-104. What we're going to observe in those few verses are the four markers of a Bible-revering person. We're going to assess ourselves and see how we're doing in comparison to the four markers of a Bible-revering person.

Here's a little bit of context about Psalm 119 before we keep going. It was probably written by Ezra the scribe. We read and heard about him last week as we read through Nehemiah, chapter 8. Psalm 119 is 176 verses, the longest chapter in the Bible, with one main theme of revering and elevating God's Word.

Tony Evans, the commentator and pastor, says it this way: "The entire psalm is an appreciation for, celebration of, and dependency on the Word of God to enable us to properly negotiate the twists and turns of life." So, we're going to notice and observe four markers of a Bible-revering person in our text. Here are the four markers up front.

First, a Bible-revering person loves God's Word; second, a Bible-revering person meditates on God's Word; third, a Bible-revering person obeys God's Word; and, finally, a Bible-revering person has their delight and desire changed by God's Word. So, let's look at these markers one by one, and I want to invite us again to honestly assess where we are and allow the Holy Spirit to lead us to what might be the step we need to take to be more of a Bible-revering person today than we were yesterday.

1. A Bible-revering person loves God's Word. Read with me verse 97, really just the first sentence of Psalm 119:97. He says, "Oh how I love your law!" He starts out just declaring this comparative statement. "Hey, out of all of the things that could possibly be loved out there, love for God's Word is at the top of my list of loves." "Oh how I love your law!" I want us to notice the reason he loves the law so much. It's because of the origin of the law. Notice what he says. "Oh, how I love your law." Because the psalmist has a deep love for God, it changes or transforms his heart and mind to have a deep cherishing for God's Word.

For some of you in this room, this is the part of the assessment you probably need the least. God in his kindness has allowed you to have cultivated a heart that truly loves God's Word and spending time in it. If that's you, please, I want you to be encouraged that God has worked so kindly in your life, but for others of you, "Oh, how I love God's Word," if you're honest, probably isn't near the top of your list of loves.

Our list of loves might look something like this: "Oh, how I love the university my kid got into. Oh, how I love my home remodel. Oh, how I love hanging out with my grandkids. Oh, how I love mahjong." Mahjong is pretty fun. Or maybe it's "Oh, how I love golfing" or cooking or hunting or parenting or watching sports or Instagram or reading novels or whatever it might be.

Unfortunately, for a lot of us, there are a lot of things on our list of loves that come before our love for God's Word. Why is that? As I thought about that question of why our prevailing attitude toward the Bible isn't love, I came up with a few reasons. First, maybe our attitude to the Bible isn't love because we're bored with it. We know we're supposed to read the Bible, but we don't want to read it because it just doesn't feel enjoyable or entertaining.

This week, as I was prepping for this message, I read an article on Desiring God, and the author says this: "Why are so many Christians bored with the Bible? Because we've forgotten what the Bible is." So, there might be some people in this room or listening who are bored with the Bible because they've forgotten what it is. You've forgotten that this is God's letter of revelation to us.

You've forgotten that he purposefully, over 1,500 years, with 40 different authors, in 3 different languages, wrote this book and put this book together so you and I could know him, see him, understand him, and believe in the God of the universe who sent his Son Jesus to live, to die, and rise again from the dead so you and I can be reconciled with him. That is the message of this book, and it is not boring. But far too often, we do feel bored with it, and it's probably because we've trained ourselves to not have an appetite for God's Word.

James Boice, another commentator, puts it like this: "If you can't find anything beautiful or sweet in these verses, your taste buds are terribly dulled and your eyes horribly glazed by the tawdry glitz of our culture." Now, did I have to look up that word tawdry to see what it means? Yes. It means cheap or lacking in taste. You get the idea he's trying to make. We've become so entertained and so distracted by all of our other loves that it's keeping us from truly loving God's Word.

Maybe, if your prevailing attitude isn't boredom, it's obligation. You know you're supposed to read the Bible because it's what good Christians do. To be fair, there are certain seasons in your walk of faith where the desire isn't all there, where it isn't what you'd want it to be, and in those moments, discipline is all you have, and you should allow discipline to encourage you to spend time in God's Word, but when you read Psalm 119:97 you see and observe that the normal experience of the psalmist is one of excitement.

He says, "Oh how I love your law!" He can't wait for the next moment that he gets to spend time in God's Word. He can't wait for a new revelation of who God is as he spends more and more time reading his Word. David Guzik, a pastor and commentator, says it like this in talking about reading God's Word: "To the superficial Christian it is a duty to satisfy the conscience; to the believer it is food and medicine, light and comfort—the word of God is life."

So, how do you and I become the type of person who can proclaim, just like the psalmist, "Oh, how I love your law"? The answer is found in the text. He says, "Oh, how I love your law." In other words, the reason he loves the law is because of the origins of the law, that God is the one who put the law together and shared it with humanity.

So maybe, just maybe, the way for you to increase your love for God's Word is by first increasing your love for God himself. That might be by just praying a simple prayer. "God, will you help me love you more today?" As you sit down to spend time with him or go on a walk and spend time with him, that's the prayer in your heart. "God, would you help me? Would you show me how to love you more?"

Or maybe what you need to do is deepen your theology of who God is. The simplest way for you to grow in your love for the God of the Bible is by spending time with the God of the Bible reading his Word. As this is the unofficial start to summer, maybe this is an opportunity for you to put a stake in the ground and decide, "I'm not going to waste this summer. This summer is not going to be a desert in my faith. It's going to be a time that is sweet, because I have run to the fountain of God's Word and have seen and known and grown my love for God."

So, maybe the decision you need to make is to decide on a time, place, and plan for spending time in God's Word. Our church's Bible reading plan, Join the Journey, is going through the book of Psalms, literally for the rest of this year, one psalm a day. This last week, we just read Psalms 11-15. Every day, there are so many truths about who God is for us to understand him and understand ourselves. So, maybe that's a step you need to take. Come up with a time, place, and plan for spending time in God's Word.

Maybe you need to deepen your theology and grow your understanding of God through some other sources. An example of that for me recently is I was in the office of Chris Sherrod, my boss here on staff, a couple of weeks ago, and I saw these books on his shelf. These books come from this company or organization called Tiny Theologians. They're children's books that talk about these theological truths about God.

There's one called Does God Sleep? There's another one called Does God Go on Vacation? Then the third one is Did God Learn His ABCs? These are just children's books teaching kids about God's omnipotence, God's omnipresence, and God's complete knowledge. As I'm sitting and reading these books to my kids, I'm like, "Wait a second. I need this. I need to understand God like this."

So maybe, just maybe, some of y'all need to go on Amazon and buy a children's book and read it so you can expand your view of God. If children's books aren't your thing, I would recommend to you a book called The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer. It walks through the different characteristics and attributes of God and expands your view of God. Maybe that's what you need to do to increase your love for God and, therefore, his Word.

Maybe the last thing you can do to increase your love for God is learn from others. What I mean by that is think about the person that whenever you have a spiritual conversation with them and you walk away, you have that thought in the back of your mind, "Man! He loves Jesus" or "I want to love Jesus the way she does." Are you thinking about that person?

For me, there are so many, but a couple who come to my mind are my friend Braun and my friend Jacob. Anytime I get to spend intentional time with them, I walk away stirred and encouraged because I get this sense of a deep love for God from them. So, maybe you should reach out to that person or even just observe their life and ask the Lord to show you, "What can I learn from how this person loves you?" Because a Bible-revering person loves God's Word.

I know that deep down every single one of you guys wants to be a person who can proclaim the truth the psalmist proclaims. "Oh, how I love your law." A step in that direction is to grow your love for God. So, that's the first part of the assessment of how we're doing at revering the Bible.

2. A Bible-revering person meditates on God's Word. Notice with me Psalm 119:97-99. He says, "Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation."

What word showed up multiple times in those few verses? Meditation or "Your words are ever with me." So, it seems that for the psalmist who reveres God's Word, the Bible, one of the things that's true of him is that he meditates regularly on God's Word. So, what does it mean for us to meditate? To meditate on God's Word is to regularly reflect and review God's Word. Meditation is regular reflecting and reviewing of God's Word.

This might be memorizing it, thinking about it, praying through it, talking about it, or journaling it, but meditation on God's Word is regularly reflecting on it, churning it over and over in your mind, reviewing God's Word. Now, why is that important? What does that do? The blessings and benefits of meditating on God's Word are evident in these verses we just read.

Remember verse 97? "Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day." We see this relationship between love and meditation. As he loves God's Word, it moves him to meditate on God's Word. As you meditate more and more on God's Word, guess what happens. It increases your love for God. Meditation on God's Word increases your love for God.

We also see, in verse 98, that meditation on God's Word increases wisdom. Remember what he said? "Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me." So, as you reflect on and review God's Word on a regular basis, what he's saying is you have exactly what you need for the moments in the day where you need it.

I carry around this belt bag. Some make fun of me and call it a man purse, but if you feel like that, just imagine it being a briefcase. Even though they make fun of me for carrying around this belt bag, I don't care, because I'm always ready. I always have what I need. If I need some gum, I have it. If I need my sunglasses, I have those. If I need to write something down, I have a pen. If I need some eyedrops for my allergies, I have that too. My keys, my AirPods… I could keep going. I have everything I need in this belt bag.

The reason I use that illustration as we're considering this idea of meditation is as you review God's Word, as you reflect on God's Word, by his grace and by the power of his Spirit, you have everything you need. In those moments throughout the day where you may feel lazy and not want to put in an honest eight hours of work, you're reminded through meditation on God's Word of what 1 Corinthians 10:31 has to say, that whatever we do we should do it for the glory of God.

Or if there's some situation in your day that's causing you anxiety, meditation, reflection on God's Word, will bring your mind and your heart to 1 Peter 5:7, which talks about the idea that we should cast all of our anxieties on him because he cares for us. Or maybe it's a moment of temptation, and meditation on God's Word will bring you to 2 Timothy 2:22, which encourages us to flee youthful passions. As you meditate on God's Word, you have everything you need.

This is an area I have room to grow in, personally, as I was reflecting on this and preparing for this message. I think I do a good job of spending time in God's Word in the morning time, reflecting on his Word, but there are days, there are times, where if you were to come to me at 4:00 in the afternoon and ask, "Hey, what did you read?" or "What did you learn?" or "How were you encouraged?" I would draw a blank. The reason is I had not been meditating and reflecting on God's Word throughout the day.

Just this week, as I was trying to apply this and grow in this area, as I honestly assessed myself, something I started to do was when I got into the car about to head home, I just sat in the car for three to four minutes, opened the Bible app, and just pressed play on the psalm from that day and listened to that psalm a couple of times, maybe focused on a word or a phrase or some truth about God's character. Truly, just three minutes, and it made such a world of difference in the opportunity I had to meditate on God's Word.

So, maybe for you, when you're driving to work you could spend some time meditating or when you're standing in line at the grocery store or at a restaurant or maybe during your lunch break, but a Bible-revering person meditates on God's Word. Here are a couple of questions I want to share with you that I think help you and me meditate on God's Word. As we continue to seek to be a Spirit-led church, I think it's a great opportunity, when you're reflecting on and reviewing God's Word, to ask his Spirit to show you exactly what he would want to show you.

Here are a few questions for you to consider as you grow in this area of meditation on God's Word. Maybe the question is "Holy Spirit, what does this text teach or reveal about God's character?" How about this? "Holy Spirit, how does this text point to Jesus? Holy Spirit, what wisdom can I gain from this text? Holy Spirit, what sin does this text warn me to run from? Holy Spirit, how can I turn this text into a prayer?"

Those are questions that, if you regularly use them and spend time throughout your day in pockets reflecting on and reviewing God's Word, you will be a more Bible-revering person. So, a Bible-revering person meditates on God's Word, and a Bible-revering person loves God's Word. Those are the two markers we've looked at so far. Again, I want to remind you to continue to assess yourself. "How am I doing in these areas?"

3. A Bible-revering person obeys God's Word. Look again at Psalm 119. We'll be looking at verses 100-102. "I understand more than the aged [the elders], for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me." What we see in verse 100 is that the clearest indicator of wisdom isn't age, isn't length of life; it is application and obedience to God's Word.

He says, "I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts." The way you prove your wisdom, the way you establish your wisdom is by obeying God's Word. Then I love verse 101 where he says, "I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word." He's saying, "I restrain my feet from the evil path with a purpose, and the purpose is I want to obey God's precepts and commands."

So, he's holding himself back. He is restraining himself from the evil path in order that he might obey God. What does this imply? It implies that our feet are prone to wander. It implies that obedience isn't easy or automatic. It implies that it takes work. It takes the Holy Spirit using God's Word to show us more of who he is, to train us in the path we should go on. The Holy Spirit will use the Word of God in our lives to hold us back from evil in order that we might obey God's Word.

For me, personally, the Holy Spirit holds me back from the path of unhelpful movies. I love movies. I enjoy going to theaters, and I think this is an area that God's Spirit, through his Word, convicts me and clarifies for me what I should go and watch and what I should not watch, what I should not let into my eyes and mind. So, God's Holy Spirit uses his Word to hold me back from choosing the evil path.

Here's another example. Here's a photo of my family, my wife Hannah, my 3-year-old son Winslow, and my 1-year-old daughter Darcy. You might look at that picture and go, "Those kids are beautiful, and they're so fun," and you'd be right. You might look at that picture and go, "They must bring so much joy and delight and excitement to your life," and you would also be right. You might look at that picture and go, "Man, they give no trouble. They never disobey ever," and you would be wrong.

Almost on a daily basis, they challenge me to obey the fruit of the Spirit, truly. It says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness, two of which I have to have a lot of when I'm tempted to be impatient or unkind with them because of their behavior or choices they're making. God, through his Word, by the leading of his Holy Spirit… And sometimes his Holy Spirit is my wife being like, "That was not great." Then I have to go wake my son up and ask for his forgiveness for how I spoke to him or treated him in that moment. That literally happened two weeks ago. God's Word, empowered by the Spirit, enables us to obey his Word.

So, how are you doing at obeying God's Word? Last week, at the end of the service, we read through the entire book of Ephesians. In Ephesians, chapter 4, I reflected on verse 29, which talks about the idea that we should let no unwholesome talk proceed from our mouth, but only that which is good and edifying. Here's a question I considered as I thought about that verse and want you to consider: How are you doing at not letting any unwholesome talk proceed from your mouth when it comes to your social media usage and what you comment, what you post, and what you share?

How are you doing at making sure there's no unwholesome talk coming out of your mouth when it comes to how you speak to your spouse or your kids, how you talk in your Community Group or in your friend groups, how you speak to your coworkers or your employees, or how you talk about politics or other divisive issues in our culture and our world? How are you doing at obeying Ephesians 4:29? A Bible-revering person obeys God's Word.

Verse 102 says, "I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me." There, again, we see that the psalmist's motivation for obeying God's Word is the origin of God's Word. He says, "I do not turn aside from your rules, because you have taught me." We can gain godly instruction and wisdom from books, podcasts, teachers, professors, and pastors. There are so many different ways we can learn and grow, but ultimately, God is our teacher. Ultimately, God is the one who guides us into all truth. A Bible-revering person understands that.

Guys, I want you to reflect on this for just a moment. How amazing is it that the God of the universe, the Creator of heaven and earth, wants to show you how you are to live? How amazing is it that the God of the universe wants to reveal more of himself to you? How amazing that he wants to teach us. So, as you reflect on your current season of life, how would you assess your obedience to Scripture? A Bible-revering person obeys God's Word.

4. A Bible-revering person has their delight and desire changed by God's Word. Where the first three markers of a Bible-revering person include some level of energy, commitment, diligence, and discipline, it almost feels like what we see in this fourth marker just happens to the Bible-revering person.

As they love God's Word, meditate on God's Word, and obey God's Word, what becomes increasingly true of them is their delight and desire are changed by God's Word. Let's see it in verses 103 and 104. "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way."

A few weeks ago, the guys in my Community Group and I were sitting and talking about how we can continue to grow in our diligence to spend time in God's Word and our desire to partake in its sweetness on a regular basis. One of the guys in my Community Group, Sam, talked about how early on in his Christian walk, every time before he sat down to spend time in God's Word, he'd grab some honey, grab a spoon, pour some honey in it, and taste it to remind himself of the sweetness of God's Word, the sweetness he was about to experience as he read through God's Word.

Maybe that's what some of y'all in this room need to do. Maybe you feel stuck. Maybe you feel like you aren't as Bible-revering as you'd want to be, and maybe tomorrow, when you get time in God's Word, you should grab a jar of honey, pour some in a spoon, and taste it to remind yourself of the sweetness you're about to experience. My friend Sam went on to say, "I moved on from eating honey to chocolate chips before reading the Bible." We were like, "It sounds like you just like chocolate. Don't bring the Bible into this."

I love that imagery that God's Word is sweet, but he doesn't just stop there. He says, "How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" For the Bible-revering person, God's Word is the most delightful thing there is. God's Word is more enjoyable than the best vacation you can go on. God's Word is more comforting than the biggest 401(k).

God's Word is more enjoyable than the best house you could ever live in. God's Word is more satisfying than the best dream job you could ever own. God's Word is more delightful than any delight you and I can ever experience if we are truly a Bible-revering person, because God's Word changes our delights. It changes what we delight in. Not only does it change what we delight in and find enjoyment in; it changes what we chase after.

Notice again verse 104. "Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way." God's Word changes your desire. Where the psalmist once found appealing the desires of this world, because he had spent time loving God's Word, meditating on it, and obeying it, his desires were now different. His priorities had now changed. His interests were now different. His actions were changed.

As God's Word continues to change your delight and change your desire, by God's grace, a watching world sees there's something sweet about your life that they want some of. Maybe you're in this room, and you're hearing me talk about what it looks like to revere God's Word, and you go, "I don't love God's Word, I don't meditate on his Word, and I don't obey it, because I don't even know God in the first place." This is your moment.

If that's true of you, this is your moment, because the central message of the Bible, as I've already reminded you, is that God loves you so much he sent his Son to live, to die, and to rise again so you can be reconciled to God. So, your point of application is to know God in the first place. It's to experience the fullness of a relationship with him through Jesus.

For those of you who are really encouraged listening to this assessment of the markers of a Bible-revering person, maybe the response should be one of gratitude. Like, "Praise God. Thank you, God, for how you've allowed me to love your Word, how you've allowed me to meditate on your Word, obey your Word, and have my delight and desires changed."

For others of you, you need to take a step, a step to grow in your love, a step to grow in how you meditate on his Word, or a step to grow in how you obey his Word. So take that step. God's Word is sweeter than any delight you and I could ever experience. Let me pray that we would.

God, thank you so much for who you are, and thank you so much that you allowed the Bible to be written, that in your divine sovereignty you allowed every single one of us in this room to have access to your Word so we can see you and know you and understand you more today. God, I pray for the person who doesn't have a relationship with you that today your Spirit would draw them to you.

I pray for the person who assesses how they're doing at revering your Word and that your Spirit would help them take whatever step they might need to take. God, I pray for all of us, that we would see and believe that your Word is sweeter than any delight this world has to offer. We love you. In Jesus' name, amen.