So again a good morning to every one of you. I would first like perhaps to invite you to turn with me to a portion of Scripture in Psalm 42. Psalm 42. From time to time in my interaction with people through WhatsApp, I asked people how they are doing. And very often, perhaps indeed almost all the time, I receive a response saying that I’m alright. I’m okay. That kind of worries me sometimes, and the reason is this. At a time like this, are we indeed really okay? Or are we perhaps like the sons of Korah in Psalm 42 when they cry out: “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?”. When shall I come?

And then in verse 4, it says: “When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; Yes I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast.”. If you were to ask the sons of Korah how they were, and perhaps you might hear a response like we are not okay. How can we be okay, they said, when we remember that we used to go to the house of God and with the voice of joy and praise and with a multitude we keep the pilgrim feast? And perhaps some of us feel the same this morning that in one sense we are okay, but yet in perhaps a deeper sense, we are not okay.

We are in a pandemic. We are in a situation like the experience of these children of Israel, unable to be gathered as the people of God physically to sing together, to hear one another’s voices, to join together in praise with God in together alright in the same place. Although we do want to thank God alright for technology that we are still able to do this in some form or manner, but deep in our heart- down deep in our heart now we all know that it is not the same. And so I would urge you that together we would continue to plead before our great and almighty God to show mercy upon us and to grant to us that desire that the day will come that we might be able to regather physically as the people of God to praise Him. Now let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, and we do pray as we come together this morning not physically but come together in spirit to praise You and to worship You. We cry out in our heart for the day that we would be able to be regathered physically again not just to hear our own sound, our own voice but the voice of Your people and together to give You praise and honour that You deserved. And so we do continue to look to You and pray for that day to come. So for this morning as we are gathered though apart from one another physically, we know that we are together in spirit. And we together look to You once again for Your blessing. We pray once again that You’ll speak to us through Your Word. For these, we pray and ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Now, this morning I would like to look together with you in Psalm 119. Psalm 119, this is the longest psalm. In fact, this is probably one of the longest chapters in the Bible, hundred and seventy-six verses in all. Now we are not going to look at the whole psalm alright. So what I plan to do is to just look at one verse, and we want to meditate on this verse. We want to look at this verse and see what this verse, and that is verse 18. Psalm 119:18, and we want to see what this verse teaches about the Word of God, what Psalm 119 teaches about the Word of God. Verse 18: “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.”. Open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from your law.

And the word ‘law’ here means the Word of God. It refers to the Scriptures. It refers to the Bible that you have in your hands. Now that is what this psalm is about. It’s about the Word of God. It’s about the Bible, and it has something to tell us about the Bible, the Word of God. In fact, the whole of this psalm in a sense is about the Bible. It’s about the Scripture. It’s about the Word of God because almost every verse in this psalm alludes to the Word of God. Almost every verse. Perhaps for just two or three verses, now every verse in a sense alludes to the Word of God. So what does Psalm 119:8 teach us about the Word of God (Mistakenly mentioned “8”, supposedly “18”)?

Have you ever given any thought to this? Have you given any thoughts to this book? What is this book about? What is the Bible? Is it like any other book in the library or in the bookshop? What is the content of this book? Is it of any value to read this book, to study this book, to listen to the preaching of this book? Is it a good book? What are your thoughts about this? Have you given any thoughts to this book and how and what is the value of it if any? And what do you do with that? So that is what we are considering this morning, what this verse tells us about the Bible, about the Word of God. And there are again three things I’ll like to draw your attention to as what this verse tells us about the Word of God.

And number one, it is this. Psalm 119:8 tells us that there are wonderful things in the Word of God (Mistakenly mentioned “8”, supposedly “18”). There are wonderful things in the Bible, in the Holy Scripture. It says here: “Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things”. Underline those words. There are wondrous things, wonderful things. Is that the way you understand your Bible, the Bible that is in your hand? As you open up the Scripture, can you see that there are wonderful things in the Bible? Now some of you might remember some of the advertisements on the billboard on the highway. I remember seeing some of these on the way to the airport. And you have huge billboards advertising and this is a tourism advertisement, encouraging people to visit various countries.

And you have an advert saying, “Amazing Thailand”. Or you have another one with these words “Incredible India” or one “Exciting Singapore”. And maybe if you go to another country, they will see “Fascinating Malaysia”. Now, what are they doing? What are these advertisements telling us? It is saying this, that there are wonderful things to see in our country. Come. Come and visit us because there are wondrous things in this place. And so I want to ask you this morning again: Do you know that there are wondrous things or wonderful things in the Word of God? Do you know that that there are wonderful things in the Bible? So do you read it? Do you? Do you study it? Do you meditate on the Word of God? Do you go to the church to listen to it preached?

Perhaps now you cannot go to the church, but do you tune in faithfully week after week to hear the preaching of the Word of God? Do you? Do you read? Do you study? Do you listen to the preaching? If yes, why yes? And if no, why no? Why aren’t you interested in the reading and the studying of the Word of God? Now whether or whatever you do or what you do with the Word of God really depends. It depends on whether you believe that it is profitable to read the Bible. It depends on whether you believe that there are wonderful things in the Bible. The psalmist obviously believed that there are wonderful things in the Word of God.

And therefore listen to what the psalmist says in verse 97. In verse 97, he said: “Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.”. How many of us this morning will be able to repeat this psalm or repeat this verse and say: “Oh, how I love the Bible! It is my meditation all the day.”? Would that be true of any of us this morning? Or in verse 129, and here the psalmist said: “Your testimonies (that is Your Word) are wonderful; Therefore my soul keeps them.”. Is that our attitude towards the Word of God? Your Word, the Bible is wonderful. And therefore we keep them. Or in verse 131: “I opened my mouth and panted, For I longed for Your commandments.”.

The picture here is this. It’s that of a person panting as it were, maybe with a tongue coming out “huff, huff, huff”. Panting, longing for the Law of God, for the Word of God. Now, these verses tell us of a totally different attitude of a person towards the Word of God than we see most of the time in people. We hardly see people with such an attitude, such an attitude towards God’s Word. A sense of longing, a sense of thirsting, a sense of dying for the Word of God. The eagerness in the person to open up the Scriptures. The eagerness to come and all ears when the Word of God is preached. Oh, that is the great need today for people to have the spirit and the attitude of the psalmist here.

And the psalmist loved the Word of God, longed for the Word of God, meditate upon the Word of God all because the psalmist understands. The psalmist here sees that there are wonderful things in the Law of God, in the Bible, in the Scripture. And then you might ask: What are some of the wonderful things? I’ve been reading my Bible and I cannot find any wonderful things inside. I cannot find any treasure. Maybe you would like to ask the psalmist here: What is it that you find so wonderful when you open up your Bible? It doesn’t seem to be in my Bible. And so we want to ask: What are some of the wonderful things in the Word of God? There are many. In fact, it’s filled with wondrous things or wonderful things.

Turn with me for example for a moment to Exodus chapter 19. Exodus chapter 19, and first look at verses 10 and 11. Exodus 19:10-11. And verse 10: “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. And let them be ready for the third day.”. Yes, let them be ready. Why? For the third day- “on the third day the LORD will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.”. Yes, be ready. Come in anticipation. Why? Because God is going to show Himself. God is going to show Himself to these people. That is the most thrilling thing for these people. It is the most amazing thing when God would reveal Himself to the people.

And then we see the reaction of the people in the following chapter in Exodus 20:18. We are told here: “Now all the people witnessed the thunderings, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and they stood afar off.”. The people knew what was coming. They were told to be ready. They were told that God would appear to them. God is coming to meet with His people, to reveal Himself to them. And that is the most marvellous thing, the most wonderful thing that can happen to the person. And so the reaction was one of fear and trembling. It was an awesome moment in their lives. And that is what the Bible tells us here that in the Word of God we see wondrous things. And what are some of the wonderful things in the Bible?

It is the revelation of God Himself. There is nowhere else in the world that you can see God and see Him as He really is as in the Bible. If you want to have a glimpse of God, don’t wait under the tree. You want to have a glimpse of God, you want to see God, don’t go somewhere else. Come to the Scripture. Come to the Bible. Open your Bible, and you’ll see this wondrous truth that God reveals Himself to His people. And when God reveals Himself, what do you see about God? Exodus chapter 34. Exodus 34:6, and verses 5 onward. Verse 5: “Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.”.

The context is this. It’s when Moses asked to see God and God revealed Himself in the sense to Moses. God revealed Himself. God is letting Moses see something of what He really is, what God looks like. And what does God look like? What is God? Who is He? What is He like? Verse 6: “And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God””. God passes by and revealed Himself and says: Here am I. The LORD, the LORD. I am God, “merciful, gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, and keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression of sin, but by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”.

This is the God of the Bible. He is a glorious God. He is a God who is holy, holy, holy. He is a God who will not leave the guilty unpunished. This is a God who is a just God, a righteous God. At the same time, we are told that this is a God who is merciful and gracious and long-suffering and abounding in goodness and kindness. Oh, this is the God of the Bible. And you will never come to know of this God until you open up your Bible and you will see this wondrous truth, this wonderful truth in the Law of God. When you open your Bible, you see truth about Jesus.

Oh, the glorious Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Though being God Himself, He came down to this world and take upon Himself the form of a man in order to be obedient to God and to die the death on the cross for our sin. God, coming to this world to die for sinners like us. Now that is the truth you’ll never find anywhere else except in the Holy Scripture about the wondrous truth of God becoming man for our sake, that God the Father crushed His Son in order that rebels like us might be rescued and ushered into eternal life. Oh, when we open up the Scriptures, we learn about the way of salvation. People want to know: What must I do to be saved? How can I go to heaven?

Oh here in this book, we have this wondrous truth, the answer to that most important question of life in a sense the ultimate question of life: What must I do to be saved? And we find in the Scriptures in Acts chapter 16 where Paul answered that question and said: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved”. When we open the Bible, we hear this truth where Jesus says: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father but through Me”. And when we open up the Scripture, we see this wondrous truth of the love of God where it says in the Bible in the Gospel of John that for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

These are wonderful truths of God. Wonderful, wonderful truths of God. And we can go on. We can go on one after another. If only you would read your Bible; if only you would open up your Bible, you will see wondrous truths in the Word of God. Now perhaps a word to parents. We have new parents in the church, young families forming. And we pray, and we have been praying in our prayer meeting (we have started two prayer meetings among the older men and the older women)- and we have been praying that God might raise a generation of young families in the church, young, godly families to be the foundation of this church.

But a word to the parents, not just to young parents but the old parents as well: Do you read the Bible to your children? Do you gather your children and open up the Bible and read the Bible to them? Do you train them to read their Bible? Do you buy them a Bible, not for the bookshelf but to teach them to read the Bible, to teach them to open up their Bible? Do you send them for tuition? I’m not referring to math tuition. I’m not referring to science tuition. I’m referring to Bible studies. Do you send them where the Bible is taught? Now how often we send our children all other places except where the Word of God is opened up?

Now whether we do that or not depends again on whether we understand what the psalmist is saying here in Psalm 119:18, whether you believe that there are wondrous things in the Word of God. If you do not believe, you would not read them to your children. You will not teach them and you will not train them to read the Bible themselves. Yes, there are wonderful things in the Bible. They’re good stuff. These are good stuff. These are life-giving stuff. These are encouraging stuff.

The Bible tells us, the Word of God is sweeter than honey as Psalm 19 tells us. It is to be more desired than gold; yea than much fine gold. And in keeping of them, there is great reward. In keeping them there is great reward, as we have heard the psalm read earlier on. There are wondrous things. The Bible is a great book. The Bible is a wonderful book. Read it, study it, and proclaim it to others.

Now that leads us to the second thing we learn about the Word of God from this verse. We learned that there are wonderful things in the Word of God. And secondly, we also learned that we cannot see these wonderful truths unless God opens our eyes. We cannot see these wonderful truths unless God opens our eyes. I want to ask you: Can you see? Can you see these wondrous truths? I know there are some people when I tell them that there are wonderful things in the Word of God, they do not believe and they cannot see. When I tell them about the wonderful things that the Bible teaches about God, about Jesus Christ, about the way of salvation, well they cannot see why God is so interesting. They cannot see why Jesus Christ is so wonderful.

They cannot see all the wonderful things in the Bible. They cannot see why these things are wonderful, and they are not excited. They are not excited about holy living. They are not excited about Jesus. They’re not excited. And so we learned that though there are wonderful things in the Bible, we by nature cannot see. People cannot see, and that is such a sad thing. That is such a sad thing when I tell you there are wonderful things to see in Korea and you cannot see. It’s so sad- so sad when we are so excited about the Bible and there are so many people who are unexcited. They are simply not excited. And why? Why is that so?

Why is there so many people? Why the people, they are not excited about the Bible? Why is it that they cannot see that there are wonderful things in the Bible? Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4. Here’s the reason why. Ephesians 4:17-18, listen to what Paul says here. Ephesians 4:17, he says: “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened”. That is why, and Paul is telling the Ephesian Christian you do not be like the Gentiles. Do not be like the people of the world. They cannot see. Why? Verse 18 says because their understanding is darkened, “being alienated from the life of God, and because of the ignorance that is in them, and because of the blindness of their heart”.

They are being blinded. They cannot see. Their heart condition is such that they cannot value, cannot appreciate the things that the Bible speaks about. And also in Deuteronomy chapter 29. Deuteronomy chapter 29, and here in verses 2 through 4. Deuteronomy chapter 29, beginning in verse 2, and here: “Moses called all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all the land—the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. Yet (verse 4) the LORD has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day.””. Now, what is Moses saying to the people?

It’s that you have seen these things physically, the great things that God has done in Egypt, what He did to Pharaoh and to the people of Egypt, and all the signs and wonders. You’ve seen many things, and yet you cannot perceive, and yet you cannot understand, and yet you cannot value or appreciate these things. Why? He says because the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive; because God has not opened up your eyes. That is the reason. That is the reason why. Although there are wondrous truths in the Word of God, and yet so many people are so dull and so uninterested. So many people cannot appreciate and see the value of the Bible because their eyes are blinded. They do not have spiritual eyes to see.

It’s like bringing a blind man to see Grand Canyon, to Nevada. And you show the man and say: Look, that gorgeous scene. Look at the beautiful canyon. Oh, how awesome the sight is. However much you might like to describe the scene to the blind man, he simply cannot see because his eyes have not been opened. There are wonderful things in this book. There are wonderful things in the Bible. And the sad thing is we cannot see. Oh, we cannot see its beauty. We cannot see how wonderful it is. And that leads us to the third thing that this verse tells us about God’s Word. There are wonderful things we cannot see because we are all blinded. We cannot see these things with our natural physical side.

And so here’s the application. Thirdly, we must cry: Open my eyes. We must cry out from our hearts. Open my eyes! We must in other words pray to God to help us see. We must pray to God to help us see. Now this is the point. This is the implication here, and it is this that unless we pray, we cannot understand the Bible. In other words, it is useless to read your Bible without prayer. How often people simply open up the Bible and they just read. It is useless to read your Bible without prayer. It is a waste of time to come and listen to the preaching of the Word of God without pleading with God, without crying out to God to open up your eyes to see the wondrous truths because this verse does not simply tell us that there are wondrous truths.

There are wonderful things in the Word of God, but this verse tells us that we must cry out to God to open up our eyes to see these things. Yes, there are these things. We cannot see them, and we have to plead. We have to plead. How often do we plead with God? Do we cry out to God? Yes, God, I know that there are wonderful things. Help me see them. Help me see them. And therefore when Paul wrote to the Ephesian Christians again in Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians 1:17-18, he tells them. He tells them that he was praying for them. He tells them beginning in verse 15: “Therefore also, after I heard of your faith in the Jesus Christ and your love for all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, and making mention of you in my prayers”.

And then he says what is he praying? That God- “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, (verse 18) that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance”. Paul is anxious that the Ephesian Christians know these things that you may know, he says what is the hope of His calling, that you might know the riches of the glory of His inheritance, that you might know these wondrous things. But you will not know unless and until God opens up your eyes, unless and until the Holy Spirit enlightens you. And that is Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian Christians. That ought to be our prayer for the church.

That ought to be our prayer as we see people come to church. We are not just happy that they come to church. We are not happy just simply because they are listening. But they don’t understand. But they cannot see. They cannot appreciate. They will go and leave this place in exactly the same way that they came in, unappreciative of what they have heard, dull to the preaching of the Word of God. How often even Christians, we ourselves are like that? We come and we hear, but it doesn’t move us. We are untouched. We are unappreciative. We are still as dull to the Word of God as before.

And so we need to pray like the Apostle Paul for all of us that God might open our eyes to see something, something of the glory of the Word of God, something of the wondrous truth that is in the Bible. Therefore we must pray. What can you pray for this morning? What should you be praying for this morning in regards to the Word of God? Come back with me again to Psalm 119. Psalm 119, perhaps these are some of the things you should pray about for yourself and for one another and for the people who come to the church and for people who are tuning in week after week to hear the preaching of the Word of God. Perhaps these are some of the things we should be praying.

And I would urge you particularly pray for yourself. Pray for yourself in regards to the Word of God. And these are some of the things you might want to consider, perhaps you should pray about for yourself. Verse 33. Psalm 119:33, the psalmist says here: “Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end.”. Perhaps this should be our prayer this morning. Lord, teach me. Lord, teach me. I cannot understand. “Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes”. Or perhaps you should pray like in verse 27: “Make me understand the way of Your precepts; And so I shall meditate on Your wonderful works.”. Make me understand. Perhaps that is the prayer for some of us. We need understanding.

Or in verse 36, it says here: “Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to covetousness.”. Incline, in my translation. It says incline my heart. Maybe we should be praying this morning that God will incline our hearts. What does it mean to incline our hearts? You see by nature we are not inclined to read the Word of God. It’s not our natural tendency. By nature, we are not inclined to study the Bible. We are not inclined to listen and to meditate upon the Word of God. That’s why so few people do that because we naturally are not inclined to do these things.

And therefore, perhaps we should pray this morning: Oh Lord, incline my heart. Incline my will. In other words, we are telling God to make us- to make us love the Word of God. We do not naturally love it, but let’s pray that God will make us love it, to help us see the value of it, and also to help us understand the danger of neglecting it because in keeping it there is great reward, but in neglecting it there is great danger. Don’t we see that that it is to our own destruction to neglect the Word of God?

Or perhaps we should pray like in verse 133. Verse 133, listen here: “Direct my steps by Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.”. Perhaps we should be praying that God would direct our steps here (is to guide our steps), to help us obey. That is the meaning here so that we will not sin against Him, so that iniquity will not dominate us or win over us. We want victory in our lives. And so perhaps we should pray that God will direct, will guide us, and make us keep the Word of God. And perhaps for some of us, we should be praying verse 176, the last verse of this chapter.

Verse 176, where the psalmist prayed. This is a prayer of the psalmist in regard to the Word of God, and he ends by praying this: “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; Seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments.”. Perhaps for some, we have gone astray. Perhaps for some far, far astray. For a long time, we have not tuned in to hear the Word of God. For a long time, we have not opened our Bible and to read it. For a long time, the Bible has been on our shelf for ages, untouched. For a long time, we have not shown any interest. We have been moving away and away far from God to other things, to other concerns. We are like a lost sheep. The psalmist is aware of that. So often that is our condition.

And so we should pray like in this verse: “I have gone astray like a lost sheep”. Oh Lord, I pray. I pray that You would seek me. You would find me back. You would rescue me from going astray. You would pull me back. O Lord, oh that God would seek us when we stray from His Word. Perhaps that is what some of us should be praying this morning and perhaps many other things as well. What do you do with the Word of God? It all depends whether you see that there are wondrous things in the Word of God. And we should be praying that God will open our eyes, incline our hearts, and help us not only see but value it. Appreciate the truth that we hear and we see and we read in your Bible. May God help us. Let us pray.

“Our dear Father, indeed there are wonderful things in Your Word. And Lord, we know that so often we are in such a sorry state that we cannot even see that. Like the psalmist, we want to pray this morning that You would open our eyes to see wondrous things in Your Law. For these, we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.