Psalm 119: Part 9 - Does Your Heart Break?

Hello Victorious Living family, I am Christi Overton Johnson, your host of more Victorious Living broadcast. Today we're continuing our study on Psalms 119, the longest book in the Bible. And it has taken everything in this ADD girl to complete it to the end. So I don't know why it's hard for me sometimes to stay focused on one thing, but hey, we're doing it. We're getting through it and today we're going to see where we go and see if we can finish it up by combining a few things. But we've learned through this study a lot, a lot of practical things. We've learned about the word, we've learned about what it can teach us and what it can show us and how it can guide us and how it can protect us and y'all have heard me all say it. And so a great exercise would be for you to take a pen and a paper and write something down as you go through, write down everything that the word is and the promises that are made to you through the word. And then go to them every day because there's going to be times where you don't feel like it's true and you're like, no, this is what it says and this is where I'm going to go. This is going to be my north, my truth and because it is truth and the Bible says that God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He is not a shifting shadow. And so this is a place where you can always land and be safe. But do that. Go through, take a journal and write down whether it's things we're learning on the video together, but in your own personal study, because you're going to have to study on your own. You just can't get it from me. That's when the excitement comes is when you're reading something, all of a sudden the illumination happens in your heart and you're like, oh my goodness, look what I just discovered. It's like a treasure. And that's what the writer here says is like, your word is like a treasure to me.

It's greater than honey. It's sweeter than honey. It's greater than gold and silver. It's everything. And there's just this excitement when you're in the word and it comes to life to you. And I hope that you can experience that. Well, today I wanted to talk about a theme that I see as I'm reading to the end and summing up these remaining sections. I see that the author really has a disdain for people who have divided loyalty. So what does that mean? It says here he hates Psalms 119, 113 says, I hate those with divided loyalties. That is a strong word there, but I love your instructions. And we do know that God tells us to love our enemies. God tells us to love our brother. We are to love, but we're also, and if you look here who he's talking about, he's not hating his enemies. He's hating those with divided loyalties. These are people who say one thing and do the other. It's the hypocrites. And Jesus had a problem with them. If you study the gospels, you'll see that Jesus was a friend of sinners. Jesus was one who hung out with what the world called scum. The religious leaders like, how can you hang out with that scum? I don't know about you, but I'm glad that God, Jesus hangs out with scum. He hangs out with the people and meets people where they are. Thankfully, though, he loves us too much to let us stay there, but he gently moves us forward. Well, the writer here is saying there's people with divided loyalties. Well, God doesn't like that either. It says in James that we need to fully trust God and not have divided loyalties.

It says that a man with divided loyalties, and what does that mean? Divided loyalties in the Greek means two heads. It's double-minded. You're double-minded. You have divided loyalties. You have two heads, two mouths. You're saying one thing, and you're saying something else. Oh, bless the Lord, praise God, and you're sitting in church, and then over here, you're like, let's go do this, or gossiping, or got some secret that you're doing over there, and your loyalties are divided. It's like you want the appearance of walking in God's way, and you're going through religious motions, but your heart's far from Him. That's what he's seeing. He's like, I hate people with divided loyalties. It makes me, and we're going to see, it says, it makes me sick to my stomach. I think that would be a good description of how it impacts me. I don't hate people, but I hate false stuff. And I don't like fake people. And I don't like perverters of the truth. I don't like people who change things just for itching ears. I don't like, because it leads people astray, and it hurts their life. And that's what it's saying, I love your instructions, God, and you're my refuge, my shield, my source of hope, but he's got evil-minded people that are trying to get in his life, and he's setting a boundary here. And I want to talk about some healthy boundaries today, like who are you hanging out with? Is it people with divided loyalties, or is it people who are walking completely in the way of the world, or is your group sound in the word? Because whoever you hang around is who you're going to become. That doesn't mean you ignore those who are in the world, how else would they know about the love of God unless we are their friend, unless we do love them and show the love of

God to them. But Jesus was not hanging out with Pharisees, unless it was a Pharisee that was seeking him and asking questions and really had a heart to learn. We see that with Nicodemus. And so, God doesn't like, the author here didn't like, I've seen David talk about it in the Psalms too, people with divided loyalties. People that are talking one way and doing another. So, I also see that he has a broken heart over the way the world is. So let's look at 136 of Psalms 119. Rivers of tears gush from my eyes because people disobey your instructions. Verse 139, I am overwhelmed with indignation, that means like, you're indignant, you have had it, for my enemies have disregarded your words. So there is this honoring of God's word that the author has and he holds the word up and this is the standard and this is holy. It's holy. It's holy words. I remember, this was before I was even really walking with God, I didn't really know what that meant, but I believed in the Lord and I had, I was taught to fear God and I was taught to honor the word. I mean, it doesn't look like I honor it because it's so well-traveled and used, but there is, you know, I love the word. You won't see me throw this, you'll see me rub this and hold this and set this down. And I can remember in college, I was off on a ski tournament with the college water ski team. I was on the, anyway, you might know my history. But anyway, there was a guy in the hotel room, everybody was in there partying, of course, and I was just sitting there. They had come into my room and they were, this one guy especially, he was from overseas and he was mocking me. And he took the Gideon Bible out of the drawer in the hotel and he started like, ooh, Christy,

what you gonna do? And he was like mocking the word and throwing the word. And I remember something rising up in me and I went and grabbed it and this is at a time in my life where I really cared about what people thought. But my respect for the word was greater than what that person would think of me. And I just remembered yelling and grabbing that. I'd had enough. I'm like, get out. And that's how this person has gotten like, he honors God's word. He loves God so much and he's tired of seeing the so-called religious people be one foot in and one foot out, watering the word, not having any honor for it and respecting it, twisting it, changing it. The priests, like I was reading in Malachi at certain times, I mean, they, they were bringing false, wrong sacrifices and it was a mockery. And there needs to come a point in our life where that bothers us. It should bother us. It should bother us and we should have a holy reverence for the word of God. For sure. true believers for God. It says the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And we've been talking about the Word of God giving us wisdom, but the beginning of that wisdom is the fear of God. That doesn't mean be afraid of God, but it means a reverential fear. You honor him, you hold him at high esteem, and you don't treat him as common. And I know that sometimes I've been guilty of treating God and my relationship with God as common. Like I'm so aware of his presence and so aware that he is my friend and that he loves me. And sometimes I can get very nonchalant about that, like I'm just talking to him and joking around. And I think sometimes that's okay, but also there's times when I sit down to study the Word and to pray and I'm popping up and I'm I'll be right back God. And I'm not like honoring him by keeping that space holy and my time holy. And I'm interrupting, letting

things distract instead of honoring that time and holding it up as holy. I hope this is making sense. I feel like I'm not making any sense. Sometimes I feel like I'm just rolling with the Word today. On this one I feel like I'm struggling a little bit. I thought about skipping over this, but I do think Jesus modeled this beautifully. We see him going into the temple. There were times where he called people out. You got to have the wisdom to know what to do, what to say, and when to do it. And we know that Jesus had that because he says that I don't say anything, I don't do anything that God does not say or do. I only say, I only go, I only do what I see the Father doing. And in that moment the... okay my dog's vomiting on the floor. At that moment, sorry, at that moment Jesus, this is all in the Gospels, Jesus had had enough. That is my cue to let my dog out. Excuse me. Patches. My house, there goes Ellie, there goes all of them. My house has gone to the dogs for sure. And there goes Asher. So Jesus set the example. How I ever remember where I am, I don't know with all these interruptions. But Jesus set the example. And you see him looking at the Pharisees, calling them out in front of the people. Jesus knew that this was not... him calling out was going to put him in probably even more hot water. He was going to the cross, but he knew he was going to the cross. He was going to speak truth. He wasn't all about a popularity contest. And there was a moment where God's heart had had enough. You Pharisees, you brood of vipers, you whitewashed tombs, basically saying, you look good on the outside, but your heart is so dark. And that's what he's saying here. The writer of Psalms 119 is saying, I can't stand people with divided loyalties. It breaks my heart, God, that people don't honor your word, and they don't follow your commands. And it should break our heart, and if it doesn't, something's wrong. Something's wrong. Jesus, you see him praying for his enemies. You see him forgiving people. But you also see him standing up and having a holy anger, a righteous anger about some things. So having that righteous anger and getting riled up about the right thing is okay. That's the problem sometimes is we as believers, we're just so complacent. And we just don't ever speak truth. And there is a way to speak truth in love. But Jesus at one point was

turning over the changing tables in the temple. He was driving people out with a whip. Now I'm not suggesting that today, but there was a moment where God had had enough. And we see that a lot in the Old Testament, where God had had enough. And thank God, Jesus died for us. All the wrath and anger of our sin that could lead God to have enough has already been paid for. But we should not want to take advantage of that gift of grace. And we should honor the Lord. And we should respect Him. There they go. You know what they're going to bark at. So have rivers of tears ever gushed from your eyes over the condition of the world, over people's disobedience to your instructions let me shut the door. I know there was a time in the last few months I was at a prison and I just saw we got shut down we were almost it was a federal facility and we got to the last gate before we were going into the chapel to lead a program and all of a sudden the sirens went off officers started running that and there was a riot and a beating on the yard and this man comes out we were locked down for like 45 minutes I sat on my magazine boxes they make a great great stool but here comes this stretcher and this guy was just beat to a pulp his face all bloody and we saw him and he was getting taken out and I've seen that many times when I go in someone on a stretcher getting taken out in an ambulance and it breaks my heart and when I went into prison for the first time and I left that federal for the other federal facility when I first encountered the heart of God for prisoners I left there and I wept I wept for about an hour my tears gushed from my eyes because I felt the heart of God towards people who were hurting not bad people people who were hurting people who were lonely people whose families have been torn apart people who yes might have made a mistake but the blood of Jesus had paid for it my heart breaks over the system my heart breaks over how difficult it is when you are re-entering society and my heart breaks that this isn't welcomed in people's hearts and it's not welcomed in places and it's shut out and why is it shut out because the enemy knows that as this is shut out then the world is going to hell in a handbasket we have already learned from Psalms 119 that everything that we need for life for godliness for hope for healing for

direction for protection everything we need is right here and that's why the author here with his heart was broken because people didn't welcome and receive what God had so freely given and that should break our heart our heart should break with what breaks God's heart and the condition of this world breaks God's heart but a lot of times we go out and we just want to attack people tell them they're wrong and we want to do that without love and it is the love it is our unity it is our love and the way that we embark on those journeys of truth is the way that we do it and the love that we show that really paves the way and sometimes we go at it the wrong way Jesus knew how to go after it Jesus knew how to go forward because he knew the way of God and he knew the wisdom of God and you'll see that Jesus when he approached people he approached the woman at the well one way with questions he approached other people's with statements he approached some people with parables and stories he knew the way to get to a person's heart but it was always with love and this authenticity and he let his love for people be greater than his fear of man and what might happen to him and so I pray today that this has been an encouragement for us it's been a lot more difficult is teaching for me I don't know why but I pray that we will care let's just put it that way that we will care there is an aspect as you read through Psalms 119 that he sets very healthy boundaries and we kind of touched on this at the beginning but he says a tremble and fear of you I stand in all of your regulations he talks about people that have strayed from God's decrees and you shouldn't be walking with them you shouldn't be walking with them because why because they might pull you over walking means agreeing becoming one with partnering up with. And so we need those healthy boundaries. So as our heart is moved, and our heart is broken, let God show us the way. Let us show us the healthy boundaries that we might have to be putting up against people who have the two heads. They're walking and are divided loyalties. And God will show you that. And love will be our guide. Love will be our guide.

All right, I've decided we're going to come on with one more and then we're done. All right. Father, thank you. Thank you that you love us. Thank you that we can just come on and I can just talk here in the house, even with the dogs to my friends, my family, the family of God. Lord, you are our Father if we put our faith and trust in you, you're our Father. And we, if we have you as our Father, Jesus is our brother, and we're brothers and sisters, we're a family. And we may not meet this side of heaven. But we will meet one day and live out eternity together glorifying and praising you. I pray that you help my brother and my sister on this journey, that you would illuminate the way, that you would break our hearts for what breaks yours, that you would give us words to speak, that you would show us how to stand for your word, that you would help us make the word attractive, and to make Jesus a beautiful fragrance for this world. And that's one big problem, Lord, is a lot of times, the world doesn't want anything to do with Christianity or following Jesus, because they've seen people with two heads. They've seen people that are hypocrites, that are have divided loyalties. And that gives us a bad name. Father, if we're not respecting the word and walking in it, and we're not walking in unity and harmony, and why would the world want anything to do with this? So may we first and foremost, have a heart for you, just like the author of Psalms 119 did. And if we have a heart for you, you will give us the wisdom to walk out your truth and the courage and you will give us the heart to love and to minister and the courage to stand up and to speak truth. And not just accept all the things that are going on around us as this is the way it just is. The Lord will fight for the right thing for you for the way of God. Lord, we love you

and we praise you. Amen. All right, I hope you got something out of that one. It may be because it's my third one in a row and maybe I'm a little bit tired. It could be. It's just a hard topic. It is hard for me because I am a people pleaser, a recovering people pleaser, recovering perfectionist, recovering workaholic, all that kind of stuff, performer. And I'm really trying to lean in into the Lord and also to be courageous and to stand up for what is right and to be a light in this world. And that's not been an easy journey for me. And it won't be for you either. But if we keep determining to walk in it, remember, refusing and refusing, refusing to let go of a testimony, refusing to let go of this, refusing to walk after the ways of the world and choosing instead, honoring God above all, holding Him in high esteem, honoring His words and walking in them, life will be much better for us and for this world. All right, I'm going to go tend to the doggies. May the Lord bless you and we'll be back to sum it all up and pray on our last Psalms 119. I know y'all are sick of me saying that, but this one for real will be the last one. So one more, we're done. God bless you. Bye bye. 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.