God’s Word Purifies Your Heart

Text: Psalm 119:9-16

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Psalm 119:9-16

Jonah Albrecht

Sexagesima Sunday

February 23^rd, 2025

Psalm 119:9-16

The Word of God Purifies Your Heart

Grace and Peace to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.

⁹How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. ¹⁰ With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! ¹¹ I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. ¹² Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes! ¹³ With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. ¹⁴ In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. ¹⁵ I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. ¹⁶ I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

INJ who is the Word made flesh to be salvation for us, DFR:

The word “pure” is defined as “not being mixed or adulterated with any other substance or material; free of any contamination.” How applicable is the subject of purity nowadays? Is it as important as it may have been, say 30-40 years ago? Well, the answer is yes and no. Yes, purity is still important and emphasized in society today, but it is not the same definition of purity that is defined above. Society views purity more as an ethical behavior, integrity, a focus on positive intentions and actions, often avoiding harmful or immoral conduct. Do you notice a difference?

Rather than purity meaning something that is uncontaminated and unadulterated, it has taken more of a guideline in interacting with people around you. As long as your intentions are right and you don’t bring harm to anyone else, you can still be considered “pure.” But this really broadens the point of the word, doesn’t it? Purity is no longer an absolute standard. It leaves room for error. What if that is how they determined the purity of gold? If a goldsmith stopped caring about the absolute purity of his product, the gold would be worth substantially less.

What kind of purity is the Psalmist talking about? The kind that the LORD demands of His people in Leviticus 19:2, “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.” The LORD God doesn’t leave room for any error. He demands absolute holiness and perfection without any impurities or contamination. It is a stark contrast from what the world demands, isn’t it?

It is easy to fit in with the world’s sense of purity. You can listen to whatever music you would like as long as you don’t go cursing people out on the streets. You can watch whatever you like as long as it doesn’t lead to you harming your family or neighbors or walking out on your spouse. In fact, as long as you are happy, the world doesn’t seem to care how “pure” it is at all; it is good enough in their eyes.

Imagine if that is how God worked. As long as you don’t bring harm to other people and you are happy, that is good enough for Him. What kind of world would we be living in? The exact one we are living in now. The one that promotes and demands acceptance of sinful ideologies and shuns those who speak against it as revolting scum. This is the world that has rejected the Word of God, rejected His standard, and has embraced the depravities of sinful human nature.

But God holds you and me, and all people to a much higher standard. Imagine if you went to the doctor’s office one day for a routine checkup. The doctor comes in and says, “You have a clean bill of health, except we did find just one little cancer cell.” Your body might be healthy everywhere else, but that one cancer cell is enough to bring death. You might live a pure life according to the world, or even amongst your peers at church. Outside eyes see a clean bill of health, but the LORD, He sees that cancer cell that kills you. He sees the sins that abide in your heart and mind, that though they don’t make it to the surface, still contaminate you as an impure sinner.

Think of the great heroes of faith in the Bible. Was King David able to keep his way pure? No, he entered into sin with Bathsheba which led to more sin. What about King Josiah who led a reformation in Juda? At the end of his life, he trusted in the power of Egypt over the power of God. One sin made them impure in God’s eyes. Thankfully David and Josiah would repent of their sin and be forgiven.

The Psalmist speaks of God’s rules, or judgements, in verse 13. What are God’s judgments? They are twofold. First, His judgments show just how impossible it is for us to remain pure according to His standard: The wages of sin is death. Whoever does not believe is condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. Fornicators and adulterers God will judge. It doesn’t matter whether you have strayed from God physically, mentally, or morally; sin is sin and sin labels us all: IMPURE!

There is a temptation that comes from hearing the Law, isn’t there? If it is so impossible for us to remain pure, why even bother opening the Bible in the first place? It is natural to think that, but also missing the whole point of the Law. The Law was never meant to be the source of your pure life. It shreds any notion of that possibility. The Law is to open the door for God’s solution, and if we never open our Bibles, we will never find that solution. I remember in confirmation class my Dad always telling us, “What is the most dangerous book in the world? It isn’t the Communist Manifesto, or Mein Kampf. It is the Bible when it is closed.” So then, let us open up the Word, which, according to the Psalmist, is how we can keep our way pure and find God’s solution to our problem.

Did you notice how many times things are repeated in these 8 verses? 10 times the Psalmist references the Word of God with 7 variations. 12 times the Psalmist references God using the words “You,” or “Your.” This shows that the actions presented in these verses are the Lord’s actions. He is the one working to keep our life pure according to His Word. Psalm 119:124 says, “Deal with your servant according to your steadfast love, and teach me your statutes.” God’s steadfast love, or His grace is His greatest statute – His declaration for all time that His love covers all of your sin.

Over and over again God wants you to look in His Word and see what He has done for you, what He is doing for you, and what He will continue to do for you.

⁹How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.

Hide your life in the Word of God so that no one can find it, no one can steal it away from you. Though Satan and the world scrape and claw, they have no power over what is yours through the living Word – your Savior Jesus. Jesus is the Word made flesh. He kept His way pure before God in every facet of His life. Even though it led to Him being considered the worst sinner in God’s eyes, suffering on the cross and enduring the eternal punishment of Hell, He never once diverted from God’s command to be Holy. This He did to secure your eternal life in heaven – Keep it secure in Jesus.

¹⁰ With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!

Though this verse seems like it is our action coming to the Lord, James reveals to us what the Psalmist means: Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. There is no relationship to be had with God when you are double-minded. Jesus says, “you cannot serve God and mammon.” Here, the Psalmist urges us to forsake any other hope or confidence, and humbly rely on the God who sent His Son Jesus to die in your place. Rather than relying on our own hearts, where should our hearts be? In the one thing that can make you pure and avoid sin. As Jesus says in John 17:17, Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

¹¹ I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. ¹² Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes! ¹³ With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth.

These verses are talking about more than just God’s Law. Yes, His Law guides our lives in how we are supposed to act as children of God, but these words also remind us of how we became God’s children. Earlier we talked about God’s judgments being His condemnation of our sin. But His judgments are twofold. They also shower us with His grace: For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Remember how David and Josiah were not able to keep their way pure. Yet, because of these promises of God, through Jesus, they were pure in the eyes of God. So are you. Though you stumble and fall, God’s forgiveness falls on you because of your Savior.

¹⁴ In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. ¹⁵ I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. ¹⁶ I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

Elon Musk is worth 394 Billion Dollars. Mark Zuckerberg 254B, Jeff Bezos 241B. Each of these men have accumulated an unimaginable amount of wealth; a number we will most likely never see in our lifetimes. And yet, the psalmist declares that the testimonies of God are worth more to delight in than all the riches of those three men combined, and then some! Is that too hard to imagine? Nearly 14,000 tons of gold, but the innocent blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross in payment for your sins and mine is worth infinitely more. That money can get you some pretty nice things on this earth, but it can’t get you into heaven. Jesus can and Jesus does for free.

Is there any reason, then, to not meditate on the goodness and mercy of God. Is there any reason to not delight in the revelation of our salvation? Absolutely not! The Word of God is the source of our life and our delight. We get to see how God has acted faithfully and graciously to His people – forgiving them for countless sins that they might be pure in His eyes. The Lord your God has done the same for you. He has forgiven you your sins that you might be pure in His eyes.

How can anyone keep his way pure? It isn’t just by reading your Bible every day. You could do that and still be impure. It is your life being secured in the message of the Bible. It is your life being guarded by your Savior Jesus and His pureness. He offers you His uncontaminated, pure life free of charge and reminds you of this comfort in His Word. Certainly, with the Psalmist, we will continuously sin, Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes!  Amen.