PRACTICAL HAPPINESS

Psalms 119:1-2 (KJV)

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD.

Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.

I want to start out this message by addressing a bit about the context and background of Psalm 119.

It happens that I read the Psalm as a part of my daily visits with God this last week.

The Psalm is remarkable for at least three reasons:

Its length 

At 176 verses, it is not only the longest Psalm but also the longest chapter in the Bible.

Its construction 

Sometimes called the “Alphabetical Psalm” it is divided into twenty-two equal parts, each part corresponding to the twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet.

Each division has eight verses. Each verse in the division begins with the corresponding Hebrew letter.

Its subject

The Word of God is the obvious subject of the Psalm. Only one or two verses out of the 176 here do not include something concerning the Word of God.

I have a comment or two I would like to make about these three remarkable features of the Psalm…

Regarding the first, its length

It still only takes five or ten minutes to read. Stop making excuses for not reading the Bible.

You can read it, if you decide to do so.

Regarding its construction

The Bible as a whole is a not only supernatural it is fascinating. There is something in it for every interest:

• • History
• • Science
• • Relationships
• • Romance
• • Poetry
• • Prophecy
• • Military
• • Intrigue
• • Philosophy (Wisdom)

The Bible was written by more than 40 different penman over the course of more than 1400 years and yet there is a continuity in it that points to only one author, God, the Holy Spirit.

The various penman, of course, had differing 

• • Backgrounds
• • Levels of education and
• • Personalities

All of which comes out in their workmanship.

And so this Psalmist, presumably King David, wrote the perfect Word of God, and he did it with

• • Creativity
• • Style
• • Poetry and
• • Imagination

Our sovereign God has done a beautiful feat in giving to us what is promised to be “by inspiration of God” and at the same time, bears the marks of the human instrumentality involved.

It speaks to the age-old debate having to do with the sovereignty of God versus the free will of man.

• • Does God control everything? or
• • Does man have the right to make his own choices?

The answer, quite simply is, “Yes.”

It’s beyond us to understand but it is nevertheless the truth of the Bible that God controls everything while, at the same time, giving us free will.

Regarding its subject, the Bible

Do you not find it captivating, as I do, that the longest chapter of the Bible has as its subject, the Bible?

I want to be careful not to spoil my outline for this message right here, but I do want to remind you that God thinks this book is important.

I suggest we would all be better off if we did too.

Look again with me at, Psalms 119:1-2 (KJV)

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD.

Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.

The word blessed is a word that means happy. There are four qualifiers for this blessedness:

• • Undefiled in the way
• • Walk in the law of the Lord
• • Keep His testimonies and
• • Seek Him with a whole heart

For the sake of this message I am going to stick primarily with the first for the four,

Blessed are the undefiled in the way….

Let’s begin with

I. A VERY PRACTICAL APPLICATION

Is there anyone who would honestly question this?

The person who is undefiled, 

• • Who has no crime against him
• • Who isn’t hiding something terrible from those who know him
• • Who is, so far as legal and moral issues are concerned, clean

That person is a much more blessed and happy person than the one who has some defilement.

When I was a kid I was very often left in charge of my brother and two sisters.

Being the oldest, it seemed to me that I should be able to “boss them around” when mom and dad were not home.

One house we lived in was on the side of Jump Off Joe, in Kennewick. Our driveway was a dirt road over one mile long. When mom and dad turned on to the drive, we could see the dust cloud from the living room window and we knew they would be home in a matter of minutes.

Once in a while we would be prepared for their homecoming.

• • We would have cleaned the house
• • We would have put some flowers on the table for mom
• • We would have finished the chores for dad

That cloud of dust was then, a happy symbol of the welcome mom and dad were about to receive.

More often than not, the dirt cloud was a symbol of something much less joyful.

• • One time we broke the living room lamp while we were fighting
• • One time we sneaked into the Christmas presents thinking we would be able to re-wrap them so they couldn’t tell we had done it
• • One time we hid an injured crow in my sisters’ bedroom closet
• • One time we set the wheat field the house was in the middle of on fire

When mom and dad came home to undefiled children, we were very happy kids.

Most of the time we weren’t so happy when they came home.

So this isn’t a difficult truth to get hold of is it?

Every one of us knows that we are going to be happiest whenever we have no strikes against us.

The problem is that it isn’t very often that we have no strikes against us.

Romans 3:23 (KJV) says

For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

The Bible goes on further to say

Romans 3:10-12 (KJV)

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, but we are all defiled.

To be sure, 

• • Some of us appear to be more defiled than others
• • Some of us are suffering more obvious consequences than others

But every one of us come short of the glory of God.

That brings me then to my second point, which is

II. A VERY BIBLICAL CURE

I said that this Psalm is all about the Word of God.

It is filled with nuggets of wisdom that will help us out if we will but pick them up and claim them as our own.

For instance

Psalms 119:165 (KJV)

Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

Psalms 119:18 (KJV)

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

Psalms 119:99-100 (KJV)

I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.

I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.

I would love to take the time to develop the important lessons in these verses but

But most relevant to our subject this morning are:

Psalms 119:9 (KJV)

Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

And

Psalms 119:11 (KJV)

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Blessed are the undefiled in the way, but none of us are undefiled so what can we do?

The Psalmist put it this way,

Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

I had a conversation with Brother Nelson the other day. He made this comment, “One of the things we quickly learn in the HOPE classes is that, if we don’t stay in the Word of God, we will go right back to where we were when we started.”

I got to thinking about that. 

That’s not only true of people who have what we call addictions. That’s true of all of us.

I know people who were very faithful and committed to the things of God who are completely backslidden, and it started when they got out of the Bible.

I know people who used to be pastors who live as wickedly as the worst atheist you can think of – and it started when they got out of the Bible.

But let me just tell you, 

• • It is not just the Bible. 
• • It’s not just doing things the Bible says to do.

This book cleanses us of sin because this book points us to Jesus Christ.

1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness

You see, “He is faithful and just.”

Don’t turn you relationship with Christ into a religion by simply “doing” Bible” 

• • Study
• • Memory and
• • Reading

Take time in the Word of God to: 

• • Read it
• • Study it and
• • Remember it

in order to grow a better and closer relationship and walk with the Lord.

I remind you now of Psalm 119:2

Blessed are they that keep His testimonies and that seek Him with the whole heart.

Let me then move on to one last heading,

III. A VERY PROMISING FUTURE

Blessed

Can you think of anything negative about being happy?

I realize there is a kind of happiness that is based on the wrong stimuli.

From Webster’s 1828 dictionary I found this list of definitions for happy or happiness:

• • Success
• • Enjoyment of agreeable sensation
• • Enjoying the gratification of desires
• • Peace of mind
• • In the favor of God
• • Free from pain both in body and mind
• • Prosperous
• • Harmonious

My plan isn’t to try to expound on any of them but to simply illustrate that there is no drawback, no negative, unpleasant consequence to being genuinely happy.

Conclusion

That leads me to end this message with the question, Why would anyone not seek the Lord with the whole heart?

I can only think of two reasons:

First, because the devil has deceived them so that they cannot see that this is where true happiness is to be found.

Eve wanted happiness did she not?

She looked at the fruit and saw that it was:

• • Good for food
• • Pleasant to the eyes and
• • Desired to make one wise

All of those seem like happy things. But God never said that we are blessed by having: 

• Good food, 
• Eye pleasing things and 
• Worldly wisdom

Eve just got tricked. She was deceived. The serpent blinded her from the source of real happiness

The second reason is because they become hardened from the source of happiness.

Adam knew exactly what he was doing when he ate the fruit. Eve had already disobeyed. Certainly the consequence of that disobedience had begun its effect.

The Bible says Eve was deceived but Adam transgressed. He willingly choose to disobey God, I think for the sake of Eve.

I think there are only two reasons why a person would not embrace the blessing of God in their lives

• Either they can’t see where that blessing comes from – and I have tried to correct that today.
• Or else they can see and choose the goods of the world instead of the blessing of God. 

I am praying today 

• That God would remove the blindness from someone who has never seen where blessing comes from and
• That someone’s heart would be softened so they choose God’s blessing over the things the world has offered in its stead.