Holy Resolve

And so let's hear the word of the Lord to us. Psalm 119, verse 1. Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord.

! Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart. They do nothing wrong. They walk in his ways. You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed.

Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees. Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands. I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws.

I will obey your decrees. Do not utterly forsake me. Verse 57. You are my portion, O Lord. I have promised to obey your words.

I have sought your face with all my heart. Be gracious to me according to your promise. I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes. I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands.

Though the wicked bind me with ropes, I will not forget your law. At midnight, I rise to give you thanks for your righteous laws. I am a friend to all who fear you, to all who follow your precepts.

The earth is filled with your love, O Lord. Teach me your decrees. This is the 13th and possibly the last of our sermons on themes found in Psalm 119.

This journal that we have of David's devotional interactions with his God has enabled us to see something of the beauty of holiness in this man.

And I have found myself instructed, rebuked, corrected, challenged, encouraged, and stretched by this chapter in God's word.

Making me long for a closer walk with God. And all just by listening in to the prayers and praises of David. For the word of God and for the God of the word.

Is there not something most attractive about a man or woman that's panting after God like we see in this chapter? That makes us want to learn from them and to imitate them.

And I'm convinced this attraction is nothing short than the beauty of Jesus Christ. Being reproduced in the life of his people. And so as we leave this wonderful psalm, let me suggest a way to review and perhaps even drive deeper these themes into your heart.

As you see in the text, this long chapter is divided into eight verses in each section. Take a section and read it every day for a week. Maybe before your own other reading.

And then the next week, go on to the next eight verses. And if you really want to do a deep dive, Charles Bridges' commentary on Psalm 119 is a real blessing.

I'm reading it through for the third time and it's like the first time. I know Dennis Hoskins must have read it 15 to 20 times. And always with benefit. It's in our church library too, by the way, if you'd like to look at that.

First come, first serve. So God's purpose in giving us his word has a very practical aim in view. It is to draw us nearer to himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And to change us into his likeness. To shape and fashion us. With a hammer and the chisel and the file of his word. With each passage, God is confronting us with something to do.

Something to believe. He's out to renew our minds. He's out to reorder our disordered affections. He's out to subdue our rebellious will.

To be glad to do his will. And when someone speaks to you, you don't just walk away. You respond.

And it's the same with God. When he has spoken to us in his word, he is expecting. He is looking for a response in you, in me, to his word.

And this psalm has enabled us to see David's multifaceted response to God speaking to him.

So far, we've seen him responding in adoration and praise. Seven times a day, I praise you for your righteous loss. We see him confessing his utter need for God to teach him.

And praying for the Lord to teach him. As if to say, I have your word now, but I now need you as my teacher. So you are good.

And what you do is good. Teach me your decrees. Give me understanding. Open my eyes that I might see wonderful things in your law. But it's more than understanding that he seeks.

He wants to be taught to obey. Teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees. Not just to know up here, but to follow in every way.

Make me to go in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. Turn my heart. Incline my heart toward your statutes, not toward selfish gain. That's the teaching he needs.

That's the teaching he desires. And that's the teaching he prays for. And then he responds to God's word by meditating on it. Chewing on it. Pondering on it.

Applying it. Oh, how I love your law. It is my meditation all the day. And so he lingers long with it. He doesn't just read and run off. But he ponders it and lets it stir his heart and affections for Christ.

Next, he examines himself by the word and repents of his sin. Verse 59. I have considered my ways and turned my steps toward your statutes.

So if these are God's ways and this is David's ways and steps, he considers them. And if they're not aligning, they're out of line.

David says, I've considered them and I have turned them toward your statutes. I have turned my ways to your ways. That's repentance.

That's examining himself and correcting whatever's out of line with God's will. And it's not something he puts off to a later time. Notice the next verse. Verse 60.

I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands. So I consider my ways and I hasten, I hurry to get my life in line with your commands.

Now someone says, I don't. So we see in that. I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands. Do you hear David's resolution in that? His determination.

To obey at once. That's a response to God's word that is our study for this morning. We're not done with any scripture. Until we have firmly determined.

And have committed ourself by the grace of God to obey what we've heard. To align our lives in whatever ways the word of God has come to us.

Now you say, I don't see the word determined in verse 60. I don't see the word resolved in verse 60. Well, that's right. It's not there.

But what is there is two words. I will. You see it? I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands.

Do you hear the determination? I will is the language of determination. Of resolution. Of firm resolve. Of promised activity. I will.

I will. And once we realize this, we'll find David's determined resolution popping up all throughout this psalm. As indeed it does. Over 20 times. I want you to notice just a few with me.

We're looking at David's firm resolve. His promise to do what God has said. Verse 7. I'm going to take you through just a few of these.

I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. You see, David resolves to praise the Lord as he's learning God's righteous laws.

He doesn't just leave it to some spontaneous feeling whenever and if ever it should come upon him. No. He says it's fitting for the upright to praise him. I will praise him.

His determination. Verse 8. I will obey your decrees. Do not utterly forsake me. This is David talking to God now. Remember that. I will.

He's determined. He's committing himself to obey. Verse 16. I delight in your decrees. I will not neglect your word. Do you hear the determination?

Do you hear the commitment? The promise? He's not saying if I have time, I'll get around to your word. No, he's saying I'll make time. I may have to neglect the ball game.

I might have to neglect some time on my phone or my internet device. But I will not neglect your word. Do you hear the resolve? The promise?

He's determined. Verse 23. Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees. Though they slander me, I will not sit around and meditate on their wrong to me, but rather, I will meditate on your decrees.

Oh, my flesh would love to just sit and stew of the way that they've wronged me and find some pleasure in thinking of getting even with them.

But I'm determined instead to meditate on your precepts. Like, do not take revenge, my friends, but give room for God's wrath.

Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. So do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. So when others are slandering and mistreating me, I will not meditate on that.

I will meditate. How can I overcome their evil with good? He's resolved. He's promising. I will meditate.

Verse 34. Give me understanding and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. You see, David wants more than facts in his noggin.

He wants to know in order to do. And he commits himself ahead of time to it. I will keep your law and obey it. Verse 44.

I will always obey your law forever and ever. Wow. What what a resolute promise. I wonder if you ever said that to God. I will always obey your law.

Not occasionally, but always. And not for a month or a year, but forever and ever. Wow. Verse 46. I will speak of your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame.

So David is not waiting until some opportunity to speak up for his God presents itself and then deciding on the spot whether he will speak or be ashamed of his God.

No, no. He he says, I will do this before I even come into the presence of these kings. He says, I will not be ashamed. I will speak of you to these kings.

Do you begin the day ever with saying, Lord, I will speak a word, a good word for my savior. I will. With every opportunity that he gives me today.

I will. David said. Verse 106. I've taken an oath and confirmed it. God, I will follow. Follow your righteous laws. Here's a double determination.

He promises and then he confirms the promise with an oath. To follow God's righteous. This is no this is no whim of the moment with David.

It's something he's fought about and he's made a firm determination and promised with an oath to do. Now, there's other terms in this psalm that reveal David's strong determination and resolve that do not use the words.

I will. Verse 30 says, I have chosen the way of truth. I have set my heart on your laws. You see, that's the same determination.

I've set my heart. I've devoted my heart. To toward to follow your righteous laws. Verse one one twelve.

My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end. My heart is set. It's fixed. It's dialed in. It's locked in like a laser guided missile is locked in to its target.

David is fixed. Christ set his heart. On keeping God's commands. Verse 57. You are my portion, O Lord. I have promised to obey your words.

You ever show your determination by saying to the Lord, I promise, Lord. I promise I will keep your word. I will obey your commands. I will obey your commands.

Well, Psalm 119 is not the only place you find these I wills. They're found throughout the book of Psalms. There's around a hundred of them. So look for them.

Make them your own. P.B. Power was a contemporary of Charles Spurgeon in the 1800s. And he wrote an excellent book called The I-Wills of the Psalms.

You see, he's identified this idea of resolution and determination in those words, I will. So he's written a whole book on the I-Wills of the Psalms. He's got another one, The I-Wills of Christ.

Christ is determined and has said, I will do certain things as well. But this is on the I-Wills of the Psalms that we are saying to God, I will do this and this.

It practically applied to our lives and illustrated biblical history and just church history, wonderful testimonies of people who did determine by the grace of God to follow the Lord with all their hearts.

He shows how often the believer needs to meet the temptations and challenges of the day with a firm and a determined, I will. Even as the psalmist does.

I will trust. I will speak. I will call upon God. I will go in the strength of the Lord. I will praise the Lord. So the idea is that in the light of what God is, what he's done, what he's promised to do, the Christian cannot sit by passive to that stuff in the word as it comes to us.

But we must be active. And the true response to God's word involves a determination, a firm resolution that says, I will.

Well, this is out of print, but you know where you can find it? Back in our library. First Come, First Serve. It's an excellent book. Spurgeon said he finds his writings always attractive.

Now, someone might say, you know, I don't like this idea of making resolutions and promises that I will do this or I will do that because I know I won't always be able to.

See how that works at your wedding. Do you, mister, take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?

Forsaking all others to give yourself only to him. Will you promise to love her? To cherish her in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, in plenty and in one?

Till death do you part. Well, you know, I was never really one for making firm resolutions and promises because after all, I'm only human, you know.

Ladies, are you happy with that? Is that enough for you? No. No, you want him to stand before God who's listening and watching and these gathered witnesses and you want to hear him say, I promise I will do that.

And anything short of it is not the biblical covenant of marriage. It's only in that context that two are to live together as man and wife in holy matrimony.

With a covenant that involves vows, promises from both sides to each other. Many of you did the same thing at your baptism.

And by the way, that promise that you made to her is there to help motivate you on days when you don't feel like loving her. That's what the promise is for.

Oh, that's right. I said something to God that should affect the way I speak to her and treat her today. So, the promise, it's a part of the covenant of marriage.

At your baptism, it's part of what happens when we enter into the new covenant with Jesus Christ. At your baptism, we asked you, do you desire tonight to publicly identify yourself as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ and purpose by his grace to turn from your sins and to follow him in faith and obedience for the rest of your life?

And you said, I do. I do. I make that promise. I make that commitment. I make that determination right now.

And you also made determined commitments publicly as you joined the church, saying, I do, to seven biblical responsibilities and expectations of members that are found in Scripture. And as the members of the church, we made those same commitments to you when we turned to the church standing and said, do you welcome these brothers and sisters into the membership of this church and thereby commit yourself to them as you have to one another, to pray and labor for their building up and growth and grace, to encourage and watch over one another in the Lord, and to esteem them in love as brothers and sisters in Christ, all that Jesus Christ may be glorified in this church.

If so, saints say, we do. And we all responded. We do. We will. We promise.

We make these commitments, you see. Jonathan Edwards was greatly used of God in the great awakening in our country, a revival of true religion in the 1700s.

And as a 19-year-old, 19 years old, in preparation for the gospel ministry, he was devouring the Scriptures, he was meditating on it, he was trying to apply it to his own life, praying over it.

And what he read here caused him to write down some resolutions. It was his response to the Word of God in response to what God had said to him, this is how he resolved to live.

And by his 20th birthday, he had made 70, 7-0 of these resolutions, 70 I wills to be read once a week by which to govern his life.

This is what he writes over the top of his resolutions. Being sensible that I'm unable to do anything without God's help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable him, to enable me to keep these resolutions as far as they are agreeable to his will for Christ's sake.

Let me just read a few. Number one, an overarching principle. I am resolved that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to the glory of God.

Is that biblical? Yeah. And that's where he starts. That's the umbrella that covers everything. Number seven, never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.

Number eight, that I will let the knowledge about the failings of others to promote nothing in me but shame in myself and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.

Not jabbering to others and did you hear what so and so did, but oh God, I too am weak. I too am a sinner. Number 14, never to do anything out of revenge.

Number 67, after afflictions, to inquire what I am the better for them. What good have I got by them and what might have I got by them?

And lastly, 25, to examine carefully and constantly that one thing in me, what that one thing in me is which causes me in the least bit to doubt God's love and so direct all my forces against it.

In light of what we saw last week, we will only hate our sins to the extent in which we love God. that's a critical result.

How does our love for God grow that makes our hatred of sin grow? It's as we receive the love of God. And he says, if there's anything that comes between me and a confidence in God's love for me, I want to direct all my forces against that.

It's so critical that I learn to receive God's love and reciprocate it. Well, that was Jonathan Edwards. And those early resolutions went a long way to shaping him into an instrument that the Holy Spirit used for revival in our land.

Now, we've already seen, as I read to you, we heard the many resolutions of David found in Psalm 119. But as I said, they're also found throughout the Psalms and in many of the Psalms of David.

Psalm 56, 3 and 4. Here's a resolution David made. When I am afraid, I will trust in you, in God whose word I praise.

So when fear comes and grips me, I will pivot away from fear to faith to trusting in the God of Scripture. That's his resolution, Psalm 56, 3 and 4.

Psalm 86, 7. In the day of trouble, I will call upon you because you will answer me. You hear it?

Maybe you'd want to make that your own. In the day of trouble. David had a lot of trouble. You and I have a lot of trouble. In the time of trouble, I will call on you.

I will. So we could go through many of the Psalms. We've seen not only David's resolutions then or heard them, but we've seen them in action, I think a couple weeks ago.

Remember, David had many opportunities and temptations to kill King Saul who was pursuing him to death. And each time that opportunity to kill Saul came and the temptation, the urging of his top brass, go ahead, God's now delivered him into your hand.

David met it with a firm resolution. It wasn't something he waited till he had that opportunity. No, he had resolved this long before. And that's why it's the same mantra.

Every time, God's going to have to deal with him. I will not touch the Lord's anointed one. He's God's king by God's appointed. God's got to remove him. He resolved, obviously, as we see it coming out in his life.

Well, that's what we're talking about. God has spoken to us in his word. We're to respond by making resolutions to him.

It's not only David. There are many men and women in the scriptures who acted out a firm resolution to do the hard right. They said, I will.

Let me just give you a few. We saw it last week in our scripture reading about Caleb. One of the 12 spies sent into Canaan. Gave a good report saying, we can take it for God has given it to us.

And because he wholeheartedly responded and served the Lord, he was promised a parcel of ground in the promised land. And now here he was 40 years later as Israel conquers the promised land and Caleb was ready to go in and claim that parcel that was promised to him.

He said, here I am today, 85 years old, and I'm still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out. I'm just as vigorous to go out to the battle now as I was then. Now give me this hill country that the Lord has promised me that day.

You yourselves heard then that the Anakites, these were the giants, that they were there and their cities were large and fortified. But, and here it comes, the Lord helping me, I will drive them out, just as he said.

There's his determination. Yes, there are giants in the land. Yes, there are walled cities that reach to the skies. But God helping me, I will drive them out.

And now we got to read this morning in the scripture reading that he did drive them out and that parcel became his inheritance in the promised land. But you see the determination, don't you?

I don't want to steal all of Pastor Collins' thunder, but Daniel is a man who resolved, didn't he? And he showed us from chapter 1 in verse 8, Daniel's determined resolution.

Daniel was resolved to not defile himself with the king's food. He was resolved. He was determined. He had set his face, his court, I'm not going to give in.

Now he didn't just wait around and oh, one day they said, hey, you've got to do... No, he was resolved so that when the temptation came, he met it and he refused to eat it.

And he did it in a most gracious way as we saw. But it was a resolution. We'll find that same resolution in chapter 6. He resolved to pray three times a day.

And again, that was something made ahead of time. It wasn't that... Because there came a law that anyone who prays to any other god besides the king is thrown into the lion's den.

He might not feel like praying three times a day if that's when he comes to hear about it and he decides, well, shall I or shant I? No. He had already resolved, I'm going to pray three times a day regardless of what happens.

So what happens when he hears about the law? Three times a day as he had done before. He prays and asks God for help. David was a man of resolve as were his three friends, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

We'll be hearing about them on Sunday night. Ezra. Ezra came back with the exiles as a priest and he arrived back in Jerusalem safely on the first day of the fifth month.

For the gracious hand of God was upon him. For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of God, to do it, and to teach it in Israel.

Again, he didn't leave it to the whim of the moment when he might feel like doing these things. No, he set his heart. I'm going to study it.

I'm going to do it. I'm going to teach it to God's people. Esther. Haman had set a date for the slaughter of the Jews throughout the Persian Empire and Esther refused at the first news of this to go in and talk to the king.

Why? Because anyone that entered into the king's presence without being asked was to be killed. And so she said to her, Uncle Mordecai, sent the message out to him, no, I'm not going to reveal that I'm a Jew and plead for my people.

He hasn't invited me in. And Mordecai turns around and says, well, you need to know this, that if deliverance doesn't come through you, it'll come from somewhere else.

God has his people and he's going to take care of them. But it could be that you're called to the kingdom for such a day as this. Now take courage and go before the king.

And Esther wrestles with that and says, okay, me and my mistresses will pray and you pray and fast. And then, if I feel like it, I may or may not go in and see the king.

No. I will go. That works for words. I will. I will go to the king even though it's against the law and if I perish, I perish.

She's one determined lady. She's not someone you want to stand in her way when she's determined. And that's the kind of stuff that we need to imitate as we find it in these godly men and women of old.

the apostle Paul. He's coming into Corinth, a wicked, perverse, sexually immoral city. And he's got a message about a Jew that died on a cross that's despised, that's laughed at wherever he goes.

And his knees are knocking as he comes into Corinth. But he's able to write, When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Because I know that's the only message that's ever going to penetrate the heart of dead sinners as the Spirit blesses.

And did the Spirit ever bless it? And the church in Corinth was born. I resolved.

Well, who is ever more resolved than Peter? Listen to him in the upper room with his Lord. Jesus says, This very night you will all fall away on account of me.

And Peter says, No, no. Even if all fall away on account of you, I will not ever do that. You hear his resolve?

I will not. These other guys perhaps, but never me. And Jesus says in answer, I tell you the truth, this very night before the rooster crows, you will disown three times.

You will disown me three times. And Peter, his determination is screwed to the utmost. Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.

Now that was not something unfelt. No, it was felt to his bones. He felt so close to Christ that he would rather take a spear in his heart than to deny his Lord.

He loved him that much here in the upper room. I'll never disown you, even if I have to die. But now listen to Peter in the courtyard of the high priest.

It's the same Peter just hours later in the presence of others when a servant girl says, you also were with Jesus of Nazareth, of Galilee. But he denied it, saying, I don't know what you're talking about.

And he went to the gateway and another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, you know, this fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth. And Peter denied it with an oath. I swear, I don't know the man.

And after a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, surely you are one of them for your accent. Your Galilean accent gives you away. And he began to call down curses on himself and swore to them.

I swear to you, I don't know the man and may God curse me if I do. And we asked, what happened to his firm resolution, his determination to never deny his Savior?

Well, it is melded away. It is melded away like butter just hours later. Now, at this point, we must say the lesson is not, therefore, do not make resolutions.

The lesson is not, therefore, don't ever promise to do something. The lesson is, therefore, not don't be determined and speak your determinations to the Lord. We've heard the evidence of that, I trust already this morning.

No, rather, the lesson is, determination alone is not enough. Resolution alone is not enough. Resolving I will or I will not is not enough.

We must not depend upon the strength of our own determination but trust in the Lord. That's the lesson we take. Resolve and trust in the Lord to do what you've resolved.

Follow up every resolution with prayer for strength to remain resolved in the heat of the battle when the going gets tough. Now, David is the one we've looked at most this morning for his resolutions.

I will and his promises to do so. But you know that David's performance was not as good as his resolutions. We know his history.

We know better than that. He said that he would obey God's commands always, forever and ever. And yet, he humbles himself in this very psalm, the very last verse of Psalm 119, 176.

I have strayed like a lost sheep. Seek your servant for I have not forgotten your commands. Oh, he had resolved saying, I will not forget your commands, your laws.

And now he is remembering them and as he remembers them, he sees how far he had strayed like a sheep from God's commands and confesses it.

He renews his resolve. He doesn't say, I'm going to take away all 20 of those resolutions I make. No, no. We resolve. We cry out to God for help.

And when we come short, we come back and confess and we enjoy the forgiveness of sins by the blood of Jesus and we recommit ourselves.

You know, the covenants, the Old Testament covenant had a recommittal service, a renewal of the covenant. I believe that's what the Lord's Supper is tonight. We're renewing our covenant, the new covenant shed in Jesus, established in Jesus' blood.

We come to renew that promise. Lord, I promise to be dead to sin in my way and to walk in newness of life because I've been joined to Christ and his death to sin and his resurrection to walk in newness of life.

And I come to recommit myself. Lord, you know my weakness, you know all my sins, forgive me, but I do now recommit to follow you and to choose your commands over my way.

Far better to resolve and fail and then to confess and renew our resolution than to have never committed, to have remained uncommitted, on the fence, guided by impulse and feelings of the moment.

Oh, but we turn now from all fallen men to consider lastly the one perfect man, Jesus Christ, the only one who ever determined what to do right and perfectly did what he determined.

And he must be the focus of our fixed attention and our beholding wonder because it's as we see this virtue of determination and committed promise in him that we behold his glory and we say, wow, look at his commitment, look at his determination that he wouldn't budge from.

And as we behold his glory, what's happening? We are being transformed from one stage of glory to another into his likeness, which comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

It's seeing these graces in him. So we look for determined resolution in Jesus. You know that this resolution was in our Savior's heart before he ever came to this earth.

And then in the fullness of time he came determined to fulfill the mission his heavenly Father assigned him. And as he's coming into the world, there he is, just in that womb, as he's coming into the world, he said, now you know the Bible's from God when you can have what he said as he's coming into the world.

What did he say when he was coming into the world? Here I am. It's written about me in the scroll. I have come to do your will, O God.

Here is determination. That's what brought him out of heaven. And every opportunity and temptation to abandon the mission, to save himself instead of us, was met with an ironclad determination.

an all-consuming, laser-like focus to finish the work that the Father had given him to do. To save his people from their sins by being punished in their place.

And so, Luke 9, 51, is the time approach for him to be taken up to heaven. And then, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. Resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

His face was set. He had locked jaw. He was not looking anywhere but to Jerusalem and the appointment with the horrible cross to save us.

And Mark tells us that Jesus was out in front of the pack leading the way. And the disciples were astonished. Well, some who followed were afraid.

They were frightened because they saw something of that zeal and determination in their Lord that said, I'm willing to march into hell for a heavenly cause.

And he's determined and they were scared. Where have we ever seen anything like this before? And now, the finish line is inside. He's five days from the horrors of Calvary and he cries, now my heart is troubled.

Yes, the Lord who told us, do not let your heart be troubled, said, now my heart is troubled. And what shall I say?

Father, save me from this hour? No! No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Glorify your name. And a voice from heaven said, I have glorified it and I will glorify it again.

The determination of Jesus is put on display. He speaks it. He shows it that we might see the beauty of it in Him. And onward He goes, face set like flint, obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, drinking the cup of God's wrath that we might drink the cup of salvation, suffering our hell that we might gain His heaven, forsaken by God that we might never be.

Hallelujah, what a Savior. What love, what determined love, what fixed, resolved, obedience to the Father and to do what He had come from heaven to accomplish.

And His resolve never wearies. You know, He's made firm promises to us. He's made firm commitments, promises, I will. I will do this. Whoever comes to me, I will in no wise cast out.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest, soul rest, from your guilt of sin, your fear of death, your hopelessness of living life without God and without hope in the world.

I will give you rest. I will. Receive me as your Savior and Master and I will be your God.

I will. I'll be your God and you will be my people. So lost person, come to Jesus Christ today. He's made firm, determinate promises and He will keep every one to you.

I will forgive your transgressions and I will remember them no more. I will make an everlasting covenant with you and will never stop doing good to you. I will inspire you to fear me so that you will never depart from me and I will never leave you nor forsake you.

to such a faithful resolved Savior. Let us faithfully resolve to follow Him, to trust Him all the days of our life.

Let me just encourage you, Christian, maybe this is new to you. I'll have to confess I've not said all these things that I hear David saying to God. I promise this and I promise that but is that not why we come to the Word of God?

To have Him teach us. What does true godliness look like in a man, a woman? And we're not just to compare ourselves to ourselves or to just those around. We go back here and we see.

We see it in the saints recorded in Scripture. We see it in our Savior. So let me encourage you to make a resolution, to resolve something that needs to be resolved in your life.

It remains unresolved, perhaps, between you and Jesus. Some cherished sin, some idol, something you've not done that you know you should do. Don't make 70 resolutions like Jonathan Edwards.

Make one. But get alone with God today and promise Him that you will follow Him in whatever area it is. Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Write it out. Read it to the Lord. Review it. Renew it. Pray for grace to do it. In the words of verse 60, I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands. Oh, may God be praised.

Let's pray. Let's pray. Father in heaven, you have heard our words of resolution and you have seen how utterly incapable we are to do the first things toward them, apart from your grace, putting in us both the will and to do of your good pleasure.

So we would resolve. We would be like all these saints we've read of. We would be like Jesus and resolve to come to Him in our troubles, in our temptation, in our sin, in our fears, in our joys, and to praise You.

But help us. We thank You that You do help us, that You're able to keep us from falling and to present us without fault and with great joy to Yourself.

Take us and use us for Your glory. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.