Turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 119. As you’re turning, let me talk about this wonderful chapter in God’s Hymnbook.

Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible. The Psalm is divided into 22 section, each section using one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each section is comprised of eight verses, and each verse in that section begins with the Hebrew letter that heads that section. Tonight we’ll be looking at the 13^th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, Mem מ, also spelled Meem, Meme, or Mim. We will go with Mem since this is in our King James text. The Jewish learning site Chabad.org gives us some interesting things about the Hebrew Mem:

“The word mem stands for mayim, which means water. Water constitutes a vital element in our lives: a human being is largely composed of water and the majority of the earth is covered with it.”

Water is essential for humans, in fact, for all life on the earth. We drink it, bathe in it, swim in it, and are born in it. Water is frozen to cool our drinks, and boiled to make our tea and coffee. Water cleanses, shapes, and molds. All humans are born in water, inside our mother’s womb. When a person is saved by faith in Christ, that believer is baptized or immersed in water as a testimony of their transformation. The first miracle ever recorded that our Jesus did was to change six pots of water into wine. Jesus promised to give “living water” (John 4:10) to those who believe on Him. He said:

John 4:14 whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

When Jesus prophesied of the coming of the Holy Spirit, He illustrated the Spirit as water:

John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. {but this spake He of the Spirit …

When Jesus wanted to illustrate the Christian way of life, He poured water into a basin, and washed His disciples feet (John 13:5). After Jesus died on the Cross, His death was confirmed when His executioner,

John 19:34 … one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

Water is so valuable. Is it little wonder that God uses it to illustrate His Holy Word, the Scripture. You should be at Mem now, or

Psalm 119:97-104 O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. 98 Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. 99 I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. 100 I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. 101 I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. 102 I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me. 103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! 104 Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.

When the Psalmist speaks of God’s Law, he is referring to the Scripture, the Holy Bible. God’s Word is God’s Law. What God has said is right is right. What God has said is wrong, is wrong. God’s Word was given to man to guide us in the path of life.

God’s Word establishes what is truth. Jesus prayed for the Church,

John 17:17 Sanctify {your Church} through thy truth: thy word is truth.

There is a battle going on, right now, for the soul of America. This battle is over what is and is not truth. God’s Word is truth. What God has said is true, is true. Yet not all believe this. Progressivism has crept into the Church, and has twisted the Word of God until it resembles the Word of Man or the Word of satan. This is what the devil did in the Garden of Eden. God told Adam,

Genesis 2:17 of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

The instruction was very clear. What God said was black and white law. There is not confusion in it. When you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will SURELY die. Not maybe, not sometimes, not possibly, but SURELY. But the devil, that Old Serpent (Revelation 12:9), slithered into the Garden and contradicted God. “Has God really said you can’t eat of every tree in this Garden” (Genesis 3:1)? Oh no!

Genesis 3:4-5 …. Ye shall not surely die: 5 for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Oh no! God is trying to deprive you of joy. He is restricting you from what will make you happy. Go ahead and eat. What’s the harm? Enjoy what is before you – you have the right.

The first question found in the Bible questions the Word of God. It is this Word that created all things. It is this Word that placed humanity in a perfect place. There were no questions in creation. God spoke in love, and blessing came forth.

When we begin to question God’s Word, we lose the blessings that God would have us enjoy. The Word of God sets that which is normal, based on the Creator Who made us. The Law of God does not deprive us. It blesses us. It gives us peace and prosperity.

Psalm 119:97 O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

What does your mind dwell on? The devil is constantly trying to hijack our minds. In America, he has doubled down on human sexuality, bringing confusion all across our nation. I was watching a show that I like called NCIS. My wife and I have bought the DVDs, and enjoy most of the shows. They are pretty clean, with little cursing and nudity. But the devil has got into it as well. The show we watched last night had a young Marine murdered. As the NCIS team questioned people to try and find out who did the murder, they question a young, weeping black man. The lead investigator, Gibbs, asked the young man, “Who was this Marine to you?” The young man, pitifully crying, said with tears in his voice,

“He was my husband”

Webster’s 1913 Dictionary defined the word “husband”:

n. 1. The male head of a household; one who orders the economy of a

family.

4. A married man; a man who has a wife; – the correlative to wife.

The husband and wife are one person in law. – Blackstone.

5. The male of a pair of animals.

The word “husband” has been redefined in American society by using the word in contexts such as I described above. Humans are creatures with feelings, and feelings drive our actions. The LGBTQ+ movement has redefined human sexuality to where your gender is fluid. In other words, you choose your sexual orientation, or no orientation at all. A site maintained by K W Counselling Services, defines LGBTQ+ as “all of the communities included in the “LGBTTTQQIAA”. Are you confused? I am. The ways that people define themselves sexually today are – and here are just a few ways: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Transsexual, 2/ Two Spirit, Intersex, Asexual, Pansexual, Agender, Bigender, and Pangender. As people have drifted away from the Scripture, the Holy Bible, as a society we have drifted into sexual confusion. There are those who are quick to point out that Jesus never spoke on human sexuality. Yet this is not true. Jesus was asked about Biblical marriage one day. Here is His response:

Matthew 19:4-6 … Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? 6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Any normative reading of the text makes it clear that Jesus considered marriage to be male and female. Saying “have you not READ”, Jesus was using, as His authority, the written Word of God in the Book of Genesis. I not means want to vilify or judge anyone. What you do privately is no business of mine. But neither I nor you are free to twist the Law of God, His written Word, in order to make our feelings better. The Psalmist tells us that the Word of God is to be focused on, and taken into our lives as truths.

The word of the world confuses. The Word of God establishes order and stability.

Psalm 119:98 Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me.

We are called, as God’s people, to follow the Lord Who saved us. What has He commanded?

2 Corinthians 6:16-18 and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

God’s children by faith in Christ are to heed His Word. Jesus told us that we must not just HEAR His Word, but we must also DO His Word.

Matthew 7:24-27 …. whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27 and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

To hear God’s Word and not do it, it makes no change in your life nor in your situation. I have had people come to me for counseling. I open up the Word of God, and show them what the Scripture says they must DO. Those who DO as God said, those live blessed lives. Those who DO NOT DO as God says, their lives are confused, and peace never finds them.

Psalm 119:99-102 I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. 100 I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. 101 I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. 102 I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me.

The Psalmist describes the Word of God in four ways:

1. Thy TESTIMONIES, the Hebrew עֵדוּתʻêdûwth, {pronounced ay-dooth}. This refers to something that God has witnesses and bears out as truth. I was not there to see creation being formed, and neither have you. But God testifies as to what happened, for He was the first cause as well as the witness of it. The Psalmist meditates on what God witnesses to us. When death looms near, meditate on what God has told you of Heaven. Do not let fear grasp you, but read of Heaven in God’s Word. 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind”.
2. Thy PRECEPTS. The Hebrew פִּקּוּדpiqqûwd, {pronounced pik-kood’}, this word means “a mandate or directive, a command”. What God has said is right, this we are to do, regardless as to how we feel.
3. Thy WORD. The Hebrew דָּבָר dâbâr, {pronounced daw-baw’}, it refers to what God has said to us, through the Apostles and Prophets, to us as His children. We are to walk in the way that He says, otherwise we will stumble in the darkness as the world does. Psalm 119:105 says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path”.
4. Thy JUDGMENTS. The Hebrew מִשְׁפָּט mishpâṭ, {pronounced mish-pawt’}, this word means “the verdict or decrees that God has made, determining right from wrong, good from evil, truth from untruth”.

The believer in Christ is to walk daily with God, heeding that which God has affirmed. This is the only way to peace in this life.

Psalm 119:103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

The word translated “sweet” in our text is the Niphal Perfect of the Hebrew MALATS (מלץ pronounced maw-lats’), which means not only “sweet”, but also “agreeable, pleasant, and smooth”. This Hebrew word is only found one time in all of Holy Scripture, here in this wonderful Psalm. The Word of God is uniquely sweet. It is unlike anything else in all of God’s creation.

When we speak of the Heroes of our faith, the great Believers, they all had one thing in common: To them, the Word of God was SWEET.

You cannot tell if something is sweet or bitter just by looking at it. You must experience sweetness. It must come in through your senses. Taste goes beyond a mere head knowledge. The taste of sweetness is an internal experience. The great Commentator, Matthew Henry, wrote:

“a good man carries his Bible with him, if not in his hands, yet in his head and in his heart. By meditation on God’s testimonies we understand more than our teachers, when we understand our own hearts. …. The soul has its tastes as well as the body.”

God wants us to taste His Word. To turn from tasting man’s word, satan’s word, the world’s word – and to turn to God’s Word. We are commanded by the Apostle to…

Romans 12:1-2 … present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind …

You can let the devil and the world shape your mind, or you can let God shape your mind. When you take in the Word of God, and taste it spiritually, you will find it to be sweeter than honey! Taste is intimate – something you must do for yourself. I can put something in my mouth and tell you how sweet it is, but you will never know – intimately know – how sweet it is until you taste it yourself.

Because of Adam’s sin, people are born into this world physically alive, but spiritually dead. The Scripture says that we were all…

Colossians 2:13 … dead in your sins …

If the Word of God is not sweet in your mouth, then it may be that you are yet dead in your sins and in desperate need of Christ! What good is honey in a dead man’s mouth? Put honey in a dead man’s mouth and ask him how it tastes! He cannot taste its sweetness, for he is separate from the land of the living. Make the dead man alive, and then let him taste that which is sweeter than honey! We were all spiritually dead before we came to Jesus. The Bible was a dead book, and bitter like vinegar. But after Christ came into my life … oh, how much sweeter God’s Word is!

I remember watching an old movie called Spencer’s Mountain (1963), which was what the series “The Walton’s” was based on. At one point in the movie the Dean of a local College asked Clay Spencer what he had against pastors and the Church. Spencer replied “Because everything I’m for, they’re against. They’re against smoking and drinking and kissing and cussing, and I’m for all those things”. The actor perfectly illustrates the spiritual death that all non-Christians are under. Jesus said it another way:

John 3:19-21 … this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

This world needs Jesus. America needs Jesus. We need to continue to proclaim the Gospel of salvation to whosoever will, so that others may be saved and come to treasure God’s Word. Judgment is coming! God has declared:

Ezekiel 18:4 … the soul that sinneth, it shall die …

If the Word of God is not sweet to you, dear friend, then you need to meet the Jesus of the Bible. When you are saved by faith in Him, your eyes will be opened, and your spiritual taste buds will be brought to life. Jesus Christ tasted death for us, so we can taste the joys of Heaven and of God’s Word. The Bible tells us:

Hebrews 2:9-11 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. 10 For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

If you are a Christian, you love the Word of God. To you it is sweeter than honey to your taste, and getting sweeter every day. The Christian finds no food sweeter than God’s Word. Man’s Word is convoluted, poisoned, and confusing. God’s Word is sweet. God’s Word is sweet, for it washes away sin. To hear the world speak, sin is only a spot or a dalliance instead of a mortal disease. God’s sweet Word tells me otherwise.

Psalm 119:104 Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.

It is time for Christians everywhere to return to God’s Word, and to live for Him. America is in a terrible place spiritually. Let us live for Jesus, reading His Word daily. Let us meditate upon the Scripture. Let us turn off the television, and turn to the Book of Books.

Let us get back to the Bible. May God touch your hearts with His Word and His Spirit! Amen and Amen!