团契与门徒训练

The Psalmer of Love (Psalm 1:1~2, 119:1~2, 175~176)

2026.08.09Harold Kim시편 1:1~2, 119:1~2, 175~176

Psalm 119 is the psalm of love for God. Love shows in a new sustenance, language, laws and sweetness. Christ's saving love holds us even when we stray.

Real love brings new, sustained sustenance

Psalm 119 is the blessed man of Psalm 1:2 in action: his delight is in the law of the Lord, and it is sustained, not a fad. Biblical blessedness, as in 3 John 2, is holistic well-being. It comes through pouring over the Torah, and words related to it appear in 174 of the 176 verses. No information, entertainment or career can satisfy a child of God for long. Only God's Word sustains the soul.

A new language and artistry of love

Any new love brings new vocabulary, like the tech-gear text thread that sounded like an alien language to Harold. The psalmist uses law, testimonies, precepts, statutes and rules for the riches of God's speech. He wrote 22 stanzas of eight verses, each beginning with a Hebrew letter from Aleph to Tav. Why? Because he is in love. God's Word exceeds all human perfection, even AI, and makes us wiser, not narrower.

Falling in love means falling under new laws

Religious people obey to be loved, and irreligious people trust their own laws. Sinclair Ferguson calls them non-identical twins from one womb: neither believes God's laws are full of his love. Like Harold's wife Sunny's laws of cleanliness and budgeting, love brings new laws. Verses 9-11 show we cannot keep ourselves pure and must store up God's Word. Verses 36-37 show that self-rule enslaves us, and only God can incline and turn us.

A new sweetness better than sin

The psalmist lifts his hands to the commandments he loves. He calls them the object of his love nine times and of his delight nine times. Verses 103-104 say they are sweeter than honey, so he hates every false way. Becoming a Christian means falling in love with better things, not just stopping what you like. Jonathan Edwards said believing God is gracious differs from tasting it, as believing honey is sweet differs from tasting it.

God's saving love meets us when we stray (vv. 175-176)

The psalm ends with a confession: "I have gone astray like a lost sheep." Those who love God most are the most sorrowful over grieving him, and conviction of sin comes from love, not only condemnation. Isaiah 53:6 says the Lord laid the iniquity of us all on Jesus. He lived the perfect life to save those who fail. He loves us no more or less for our obedience, and Romans 5:8 shows his love while we were sinners.

The palpable sense of God's love when needed

Before his 2002 thyroid cancer surgery, Timothy Keller prayed for courage. He suddenly sensed that the universe is a ball of God's glory, we live in a speck of darkness, and everything will be all right. That did not come from nowhere: he read the Bible every year and prayed three psalms a day. Harold prays for a summer of love, so that when we need it most, God's unconditional love comes pouring through.

Apply to Life

  • Let us meditate on God's Word day and night as our true sustenance, not as a passing fad.
  • Let us learn the language of Scripture and treasure it in our hearts.
  • Let us stop trusting our own self-rule and ask God to incline and turn our hearts.
  • Let us taste the sweetness of God and his Word, not only hear about it.
  • Let us run to Jesus, who carried our iniquity, whenever we stray, and love and obey him because he first loved us.

This summary was made automatically from the sermon's captions and may differ from the sermon.

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