Psalm 119: Part 1 - How to Have Joy

Hey Victorious Living family, I'm Christi Overton Johnson, your host of More Victorious Living. I want to welcome you today from our location in, where am I, Phoenix, Arizona, actually the Ahwatukee area. I am here visiting some family, also on a prison tour, and so I got to see some of you ladies at Perryville, and tomorrow I'm headed into Louisville, and also to Central there in Florence. So I'm super excited to get to visit with you guys in person, but also love to bring you on location, and today it is a pretty day. It's a little overcast, and I've had a few little raindrops since I have been here in Arizona, which I guess is a miracle, but I wanted to just do a quick video with you guys. Yesterday I was reminded of Psalms 119, and I just wanted to dive in that scripture a little bit with you. Now Psalms 119 is one of the longest chapters, I think it is the longest chapter in the Bible, so we're not going to be able to cover it all today, but we're going to dive in the first section of Psalms 119, and be encouraged by it. I don't know if you can hear the birds that are in the background, but it's really pretty out, and there's some palm trees around. I love to bring you guys on location to hear the cars, to hear the birds, and from what I hear, you guys love getting out by way of these videos, so I hope it's a blessing to you today. I want to open this up in prayer. Father, I just thank you for this time with my friends. I thank you, God, for this opportunity for us to dive into your Word together, and to be reminded of the power of your Word, and the goodness of your Word, and how your Word can impact us physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally. And so Father, I thank you for this time together. I pray that it will open our eyes, and open our hearts, and open our minds to receive— ooh, that's loud—exactly what it would be that you would have us learn today.

In Jesus' name, amen. So how do y'all like my fancy new little mic? It's not fitting right on this shirt, but my friend J.C. Almanza, J.C. is with Wrong to Strong. He's been on our cover. He and I are going into prisons together. We went into Coleman recently, we went into Texarkana, and we'll be going into Louisville and Central together as well. But he does a lot of video work, and yesterday we had the opportunity to film an in-house video in a beautiful, beautiful studio. I was so jealous, y'all. But Psalms 119, let's get back to the Word. So this is, like I said, the longest Psalms. It is a beautiful reminder of the power of the Word of God. And so there's a lot that I don't understand, the way it's broken up. You'll see in my Bible—I hope yours does this—but it actually is broken up, and if I'm not mistaken, it's by the Hebrew alphabet, like Aleph is the first, and then it has another section Beth, and it goes on and on. And so it is actually, I don't understand it, but I know there's a certain way that it has been divided up. So if some of you know that, you can write to me and write to our team and explain it to me. I need to ask Rabbi about that, because I do know there's some significance to the way that it is broken up. So anyway, I just want to start reading the first section today, because it talks about joy. And if there's one thing that I know, it's that the promises of God are available to us wherever we are. So when God says that a man is blessed, when they are in Christ, when they are blessed, like you read the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, I believe it is.

All those blessings, they come to anybody, not just someone in the free world, not just someone who's going through life and they're not having trials and tribulations. These promises are available for all of us wherever we are at any season of our life. And so this says joyful. That is means you are full of joy. joy are people, that's anybody, any location. So as we talk about these things and what the Word does, I want you to remember that this is something that you can experience right now where you are. So it says, joyful are people of integrity. This is Psalm 119 verse 1 for reading out the New Living Translation. Joyful are people of integrity. What is integrity? So I'm sure there's a big fancy definition, but this Southern girl is going to describe it this way. Integrity is doing what is honest, what is true, what is right at all times. A person of integrity is someone who does the right thing whether someone's looking or not. Now how do we know what the right thing is? Well, we have a conscience that the Lord has given to us. That conscience can be seared at times if we go against that conscience lots of times it can become calloused and you don't even feel that conscience anymore. But we also have the Word of God that tells us what's right and wrong. We know that it's wrong to lie. So a person with integrity is a person who tells the truth even when it hurts. A person of integrity is someone who keeps their promises. A person of integrity is someone who does what they say they're going to do. A person of integrity is someone who treats people with respect not just so they can get something. They honor people not just because they're trying to manipulate people. So an integrity is something that goes deep within a person. And a person who walks in integrity walks according to the Word of God. That person's going to be filled with joy. A person, it says, an integrity is one who follows the instruction of the Lord. If I had continued to read chapter 119 verse 1 I would have seen the definition of what the Bible says integrity is. A joyful people of integrity who follow the instructions of the Lord. We cannot pick and choose what instructions we want to follow. We cannot pick and choose how we want to live if we are followers of Jesus Christ. It just doesn't work that way. We can't leave parts of the Bible out just because it makes us feel better. Joyful are those who obey His laws. So it's not just hearing the Word. So James 1 talks about that. A person who's following the Lord

is someone who isn't just a hearer of God's Word, but they're a doer of it. And they search for Him with all their heart. Yesterday when JC and I were doing our podcast he was talking about the Word of God every morning. It's like a treasure hunt for him. And it is for me too. When I take the time to get in God's Word there are treasures everywhere on every page. Whether you're reading in the book of Numbers or Revelation or Psalms, whether you've read a verse a thousand times, there's always something new that the Holy Spirit can give to you. And so when you search for God you go back. And it doesn't matter if you've had one encounter or a thousand. God is like you just keep coming back and you keep searching for me like you would treasure because that is going to be where you find me when you're searching for me. You draw near to me, the Bible says, and I will draw near to you. You seek me, you will find me. A person's going to be joyful in verse three says when they do not compromise with evil. Compromise is a big word. Compromise means that you give way to. Maybe you compromise. I did this a lot when I was in high school. I compromised my values because I wanted to fit in. I didn't want to be rejected. They walk only in God's path. So if you're walking in God's path you're not compromising. Verse four says you have charged us to keep your commandments carefully. So that means we have to take care. We read God's word. We evaluate where we need to apply it to our life. We don't do this alone. This is something that we invite the Holy Spirit into our lives to do that with us. And we ask him to invade every single area of our life and show us where we're not allowing the word to work, where we're not pursuing God, where we are keeping God out. God, I don't want you in this area because we might be convicted. And it's easier sometimes to just, what do they say? Ignorance is bliss. Well, ignorance... also lead you to some dark places. So it's getting into the Word of God and saying, God, would you search my heart and my mind, and would you show me areas where I am not walking according to your way? And David did that in Psalms 139, verse 23 through 24. He said, show me, God, where I am walking apart from your Word, where there's something offensive in me, something that's going to keep me from the life and the joy that you have for me. So he says, you have charged us to keep your commandments carefully. Oh, that my action would consistently reflect your decree, your decrees. So when we don't compromise, when we walk in integrity, and when we walk in consistency. So those are three things right there that we don't compromise, we walk in integrity, and we do this consistently. Consistently

takes discipline. Consistency is the key to our having a deep relationship with the Lord. It's not just, well, I'll just go once a week and hear the Word. No, it's consistently getting in it and disciplining ourselves and then having the integrity to walk in it and to follow it and not compromise. It says, when we do this, verse six said, then we will not be ashamed. When I compare my life with your commands. You know, a lot of times we want to compare ourselves to the person next to us. And then we're like, I'm not that bad. Or we compare to the person next to us and we don't feel good enough. And our true north here, our true foundation, the place that we should go to compare ourselves is God's Word. And that's where we realize, man, we do fall short. But God isn't about showing us where we fall short all the time. He's showing us where we can aspire to so that we can have more victory in our life. He's saying, this is the place if you run to and you line your life up with this, you're going to have the joy. You're going to have the peace. You're going to have the victory that I died to give you. So this isn't about zapping your fun. Walking in His Word is not about binding you up and taking away your freedom. It's about bringing you into freedom because where the presence of the Lord is, there is freedom. When you walk in truth, the truth will set you free. That's promises that the scripture makes. So when you compare your life, don't compare it to the person next to you because you can always find a person that's worse off than you are. Compare it to how God would have you live. And don't walk in shame. God doesn't show you the things, the places you're falling short to condemn you. He's showing you where He wants to help you come to. It says, as I learn your righteous regulations, I will thank you by living as I should. I put here, we send thank you notes to God by living as we should. A lot of times we think, God, how can I give you thanks in my life? How can I honor you for what you've done for me? What did He do for us? He saved our soul. When we were dead in our sin, Christ died for us. When we were His enemies, He poured out His love for us and gave us life. And so how can we thank Him? It's by living as we should. And how should we live? It's according to God's word. It's being loving. It's being kind. It's being forgiving. It's letting go of anger. I will obey your decrees. And then I love this last verse here in this first section, this I left section. It says, please don't give up on me. So the writer of Psalms 119, this person, and I'm going to look up who it is. It doesn't say that

it's David, so I don't know for sure that it is. But he's saying, don't give up on me. And the beautiful thing is, is that the writer here realizes they don't have it all together. There's no one in the word of God except for Jesus that had it all together. So it's not about being condemned to say, I'm never going to get it right. The reality is, you are never going to get it right. But it's not about perfection. It's about the pursuit of God. It's about the perseverance that we have to keep getting up and striving toward that perfection. And we are being perfected as we try to do that. And so the beautiful thing too is that God will never give up on you. The question is, will we give up on God, and will we give up on ourselves? Y'all know that my background is water skiing, and water skiing, every day I had to make a decision to get off a dock, I had to climb in cold water, I had to face the wind, I had to face the risk of falling and failing, being laughed at, of not being able to do something. And I skied, water skied, for 35 years, and in the midst of those 35 years, I fell every single day, hundreds of times a day in my practice sessions. But in the midst of those falls and failures, because I did not give up on myself, and because I kept saying, hit it, to the boat driver, and not, I quit it, I became a world champion. And that is how it is with God. God, like that boat, is going to keep coming back, coming back, and coming back. And the question is, are we going to refuse to grab hold of the rope of hope, which is Jesus, and say, hit it, God, I'm willing to try again. I'm willing to listen to you this time. Because that's what I had to do, skiing. Every time I would fall, I couldn't just keep moving forward the same way. I had to stop and say, let me look at that video that my coach had videoed. Let me listen to my coach. Let me ask someone that just saw what I did, and not just say, I got it. I can do it. I'm going to muscle my way through this. I don't want to hear what you've got to say. I had to be willing to listen to my mom, who couldn't do it, but she had an eye for detail.

I had to be willing to listen to the coaches my dad would fly in. I had to humble myself at all times and not give up. And God is not going to give up on us. He's always going to be willing to play that tape and to show us where we went wrong. He's going to send people that can mentor us, but we got to be humble enough to listen. Y'all, as I was finishing that up, I looked down to see if my notes told me who wrote this, but it does have a little bit of explanation about what I was talking about at the beginning of this broadcast, about how this is actually broken down, Psalms 119. It says, this Psalm is a Hebrew acrostic poem. There are 22 stanzas, one for each successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. See, I knew there was something. Each of the eight verses within each stanza begins with the Hebrew letter named in its heading. So, I don't know if that gives you any more understanding. I just know that there's always something more that we can learn, but thank you guys for joining me today. You know, it might be fun if we dive into each section of Psalms 119. I know I've done it years ago. I don't know if you guys have access to those videos, but every video that I do, even if I've already done that passage, the Holy Spirit gives us something else. So maybe we'll do that. We'll dive into that next time together. I hope that you've enjoyed it. I hope that you'll jump in on your own and grab some friends and you guys go through those verses together. Talk about how you can have integrity in your walk today. Challenge each other and find a close confidant that can help you dive in to reflection of your life and you, their life, and being gentle and kind with each other, but also being honest and encourage each other in the Lord. I only became a champion water skier because I had a good boat crew, a good training crew,

good coaches, and it wasn't a journey I could be on by myself. And let me tell you something. If you're trying to walk this Christian journey by yourself, it's not going to work. You need the Holy Spirit, of course. You need the Word of God. You need your prayer. You need your time of isolation with the Lord, but you need each other, because the Bible says, iron sharpens iron. Jesus, He was God in the flesh, and He chose twelve people to be His intimate, close crew. That was His crew. Those were His road dogs. Y'all like my language I'm learning? Forgive me. You've got to have that crew. You've got to have that group that's going to do life with you, and if you're trying to do it by yourself, and I know so many of you have been hurt by people. It's hard to trust people. You have been let down. You have been left alone, and maybe you're saying, forget it. I'm just going to do this God thing on my own. Isolation is the devil's work. playground, my friend. Find a brother, someone you will know them by their fruit. We're not to go around judging everybody, but we are to judge somebody's fruit. And if you see somebody and they have that gentle spirit and they have, they may not be perfect, but they have fruit, read Galatians 5, and you will see the fruits of the Spirit. Those are things that you cannot produce on your own, but you can identify whether a person is walking with the Lord by the fruit that they have in their life. You find someone that's got some good smelling Galatians 5 Holy Spirit fruit, and you befriend them, you walk with them, you ask them to mentor you, you do life with them, because that is going to be a person that's going to help your fruit produce as well as you walk in the Spirit, and they will

help you be a true son of God, just as the Holy Spirit will. All right, love you. May the Lord bless you. May He keep you. May His face shine upon you. Thank you for all that you're praying for us. Thank you for your prayers, and thank you for your letters, and thank you for your support as we support you. God bless you, my friend. Thank you for watching our broadcast. Are you an incarcerated brother or sister who needs encouragement? Write to us at Victorious Living Correspondents, P.O. Box 2751 Greenville, North Carolina, 27836, or email us at hope at vlmag.org. To view Victorious Living magazine in its entirety, please have your chaplain contact us at 352-478-2098, or email us through our website at vlmag.org. We are happy to provide our Victorious Living magazine free of charge, in bulk, with or without staples.