Saturday Message…

Morning!

Raises his cup of coffee

It is Saturday March 29th of 2025.  It is currently a balmy and pleasant spring morning with a high of 80 forecast in the D.C. area.

Jesus teaches us that we are to abide in His Word. That we are to keep His Word—to build our lives upon it.  This is how we know He is with us.  There is what Jesus teaches us to do… and then there is what we actually do.

Are those two things one and the same?

What difference do we see in our hearts when they are?

We begin today in Psalm 119 once again, where David opens this section with an incredible statement—one that I think we should take a moment to reflect on.

Psalm 119: 57

“You are my portion, O LORD; I have said that I would keep Your Words.”

David is not asking for rubies.  He is not asking for pearls.  He is not asking for gold, silver or platinum.  He is not asking for fame.  He is not asking for anything other than God Himself as his portion.  The word used in the text is…

Cheleq: (Hebrew)

- allotment

- inheritance

- part

- portion

David is asking for God Himself, His Presence to be His reward.  He is loving God for who He is.  How he is loving God is through keeping God’s Word.

So I’m going to open our study today with some questions.

Are we at the point where we desire the Presence of God and nothing else?

When we seek God, do we seek Him for who He is?  Do we worship His Majesty as the Creator of the universe?  Do we marvel at His faithfulness in walking beside us through all our moments?  Do we rejoice at his Merciful Loving-kindness?

Do we seek Him with every look?

Do we promise to keep His Word as David?

For David continues in our verses for the day…

Psalm 119: 57-64

“You are my portion, O LORD; I have said that I would keep Your Words.  I entreated Your favor with my whole heart; be merciful to me according to Your Word.  I thought about my ways, and turned my feet to Your testimonies.  I made haste, and did not delay to keep Your Commandments.  The cords of the wicked have bound me, but I have not forgotten Your Law.  At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You, because of Your righteous judgments.  I am a companion of all who fear You, and of those who keep Your precepts.  The earth, O LORD, is full of Your mercy; teach me Your statutes.”

David seeks the LORD as his portion. He resolves to keep God’s Word.  He entreats the LORD’s favor with his whole heart, and then he asks for mercy—not based on his own merit, but according to the promises of God’s Word—promises David had learned and hidden in his heart.  David considers his ways—he reflects honestly on his life.  And then he repents.  He doesn’t just feel sorry—he turns. He turns his feet toward the precepts of the LORD. He replaces his former path with obedience to God’s Word.

So how are we doing with that?

It makes me think of James.

James 4: 1-10

“Where do wars and fights come from among you?  Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?  You lust and do not have.  You murder and covet and cannot obtain.  You fight and war.  Yet you do not have because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.  Adulterers and adulteresses!  Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?  Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.  Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously’?  But He gives more grace.  Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’  Therefore submit to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.  Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Lament and mourn and weep!  Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

You are our portion, O LORD.  For there is nothing from this world that we will be taking with us.

So.

I hope everyone remembers that we are working on a few things in the background in our own attempts to turn to the Word of the Lord.

How are we doing with rejoicing evermore?

Have we been working on praying without cease?

This has been a really interesting exercise as we’ve been adding an attempt at unceasing prayer over the past few weeks.  I’ve personally found a few things along the way: The more I speak with God… the more I want to speak with God.  The more I want to speak with God… the more I want to know His Word.  And the more I know His Word… the more I want to know Him.  And He becomes my portion.

There’s just one problem I’ve run into: Sometimes… I run out of things to say.  Are you running into this, too?  I think the model that David shows us is this: We are to pray—and then we are to look to God’s Word for direction.  So let’s take a moment to look at what Scripture tells us we should be praying about—just in case you, like me, sometimes find yourself out of things to say.  Remember the model: We are to pray and desire God—for who He is.  We are to look to God’s Word—for truth and guidance.

And then we are to change—change our steps, change our thinking, change the way we live.  We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds through the knowledge of God that we find in Scripture.

Paul’s first letter to Timothy has some good instruction for us…

1 Timothy 2: 1-4

“Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

The problem I found myself running into—when I was running out of things to say in prayer—was that I had only been praying for myself.  Now, I don’t mean that I was constantly asking for things for myself.  What I mean is—I realized I hadn’t turned my prayers outward.  I hadn’t been entreating the favor of God for others.  And yet, that’s exactly what we are taught to do here in Scripture: Supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks.  Prayer isn’t meant to be just a private lifeline—it’s also an act of intercession for the world around us.

Supplication: (Verb)

- To make a humble entreaty

Intercession: (Noun)

- The act of interceding

- Prayer, petition, or entreaty in favor of another

So here’s what I did: I took a moment to write down, in my chronicling journal, a list of people that—according to Scripture—I should be praying for.  One by one, I listed them out.  And what I found, as the list grew, was this: There’s a whole lot more praying I need to be doing if I’m going to be anything like Job.

Job 1: 1-5

“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.  And seven sons and three daughters were born to him.  Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East.  And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.  So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all.  For Job said, ‘It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.’  Thus Job did regularly.”

It’s easy to forget that Job began his journey with God as a righteous man.  The entire reason God allowed him to be tested by Satan was because of his righteousness.  More than that—God trusted Job.  God knew His servant would remain faithful through the trials that were to come.

Of course, as the Omniscient One, God already knew Job would succeed.

But it is God who holds him up. It is God who brings Job forward and says,“Have you considered My servant Job?”  And what was one of the things this righteous, trusted man of God did?  He prayed.  He made entreaty before God on behalf of his family—not because anything had happened, but just in case they had done something that needed God’s forgiveness.  And he did so continually.  It was a habit. A regular, intentional act of intercession born out of love, fear of the Lord, and devotion.

We can also see—both from this passage in Job and from our text in Psalm 119—that the prayers offered by Job and David are not meaningless.  They have purpose.  They have specificity.  They are intentional, deliberate, and full of weight. This is not an “I sort of pray in one line and move on” kind of situation.  So we have to ask ourselves: Do we have trouble with this?  Do our prayers drift into vague generalities and habitual phrases?  Do we struggle to focus?  Do we entreat the favor of God, or do we toss up a thought and hope it sticks?

Job and David show us something different.

They model relationship, reverence, and responsibility in prayer.

I find sometimes, when I am not being intentional about my prayers, that they can quickly become quick and without much meaning or thought.  This is one of the reasons I also look to Ecclesiastes to remind myself…

Ecclesiastes 5: 1-7

“Walk prudently when you go to the house of God; and draw near to hear rather than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they do evil.  Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God.   For God is in heaven, and you on earth; Therefore let your words be few.  For a dream comes through much activity, and a fool’s voice is known by his many words.  When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; for He has no pleasure in fools.  Pay what you have vowed- Better not to vow than to vow and not pay.  Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error.  Why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hands?  For in the multitude of dreams and many words there is also vanity.  But fear God.”

You are our portion, Lord.  We have said we would keep Your Word.  O that our steps would be turned towards Your paths, then we would not be ashamed.

So let’s not forget today…

Ephesians 6: 10-20

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints- and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”

Let’s be strong in the Grace of Jesus Christ today and remember the Power of His Might.

I think that’s a good start for the day.