[Brother Tim]

Sample Morning Chapel Message - Psalm 119

Below are three scripts on Psalm 119 written by my father for his radio program. If there is interest, I will move the complete file for Psalm 119 to the net for viewing.

MORNING CHAPEL MESSAGES

PSALM 119

Radio Messages by

Dr. R. B. Keyes, ThD


Dr. Keyes, pastor of the Eastside Baptist Church in Gainesville, Florida for over 50 years, had a weekday radio program for some 20 years. He broadcast a 4½ minute program live from the church Mondays through Fridays during the early morning. He typed out each program word-for-word so that no time on air would be wasted. In his latter years, Dr. Keyes spent much time reviewing and rewriting many of the scripts. At that time, there may have been editing to the content, simply because Dr. Keyes was meticulous to see that the message was exact.

This file is an introduction to these programs. At this time, nothing has been done for grammar editing. Since the script was originally intended to be spoken aloud, the sentence structure does always fit proper grammar. It is also unknown what dates were the original program dates.

First edit – spellchecked 7/19/08 tbk



PSALM 119:1-3.

GOOD MORNING! The great PSALM, the one hundred nineteenth, opens with directions concerning the real meaning of life: "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, that walk in the law of the LORD. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways."

True religion is neither cold nor formal, for it delights in the word of the LORD. The thrill of the soul of the true Christian is to be living by the word of the LORD in the every day of life.

Two passages describe Biblical religion: "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doeth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. … Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world."

Blessed indeed is that life that is a true transcript of God's holy word. "Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God, not in tables of stone, in fleshly tables of the heart."

This word "blessed" can properly be connected with the concept of "happiness." Truly happy are the undefiled in the way. The Psalm is declaring that a blessing belongs to all those who hear and do the word of the LORD.

A New Testament passage speaks the same truth: "Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."

This word "undefiled" is closely allied to the Bible word "righteousness." No one can attain, by his own striving, true righteousness. For by nature we are all sinners and we all come short of uprightness. But there is a righteousness of God through faith of JESUS CHRIST unto all them that believe.

Yes, and it takes the continual power of grace to keep the believer in the right way. O my soul, seek thou thy happiness in following hard after the LORD!

In the Bible the life of the believer is called "a walk," that is a steady progress, a quiet advance. "Enoch walked with God. … Let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ."

The "law of the LORD" is not irksome to the children of the LORD. "And now, little children, abide in him; that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him."

There is a wealth of blessing -a treasure house of happiness, abounding in the truly godly life! "I am come," our LORD and Saviour is saying, "that ye might have life and have it abundantly."

The "law of the LORD" is a blessed walk. Obedience to the will of the LORD means blessed singleness of heart.

God is not to be sought after by cold reason, but by the believing heart. "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. … With my whole heart have I sought thee."

It is to those who seek the LORD that the choice blessing is given. "Blessed are they that keep his testimonies." I heard the voice of Jesus say, Look unto me, thy morn shall rise, And all thy days be bright. I looked to Jesus and I found In him my Star, my Sun, And in that Light of life I'll walk, Till traveling days are done. AMEN.

PSALM 119:4-8.

GOOD MORNING! When one begins to pray and to meditate deeply upon the development of Christian character, and the maturing of the spiritual life, realization comes to him of his deep need and true dependence upon the grace of God. "As new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby. … beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever."

The Psalmist, directed by the Holy Spirit, writes: "Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently! O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes! Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments. I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly."

It is the Christian's experience that every eager desire to make spiritual progress climaxes in yearning for more of the living God; for, when holy resolve grips the obedient child of God, he begins to pray for Divine enabling.

This is the way it is put in scripture: " Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus."

Let us, for the moment, consider this truth from the negative viewpoint: here is one who is making a determined resolution to do better, to be more obedient, more spiritual, and more useful, but at the same time without desiring Holy Spirit control. Of his life. On the authority of God's word, the whole of such an one's resolve is empty, without merit, meaningless! Man's works can neither save him, nor cause him to develop spiritually. Growth in grace calls for the presenting to God my body, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is my reasonable service. and this is in order that we may prove, in our day-by-day living, what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

The believer's concern after the deeper life is to be as the Psalmist pleads: "I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly." Obedience without dependence, or dependence without obedience are equally vain!

Then, let us learn from God's word: "Thou hast commanded us to keep Thy precepts diligently." Scripture puts it this way: "His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue."

It is the Christian's whole person that the grace of God uses to bring to pass the things that God wills in this world. We have heard the phrase, "saved to serve." It is a truth that, under varying circumstances, many a Christian does not practice. Have I forgotten that, by the new birth, I am a child of God, a citizen of the kingdom of God, a servant of the LORD. "Moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful."

The Psalmist shows me that "respect unto all GOD'S commandments" keeps me from being "ashamed" before the LORD and greatly encourages "praise" unto the LORD; and is a declaration of faithfulness to the LORD. "And now, little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming." AMEN.

PSALM 119:9-16.

GOOD MORNING! An most important question is asked and answered in the one hundred and nineteenth PSALM: The question: "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? The answer: By taking heed thereto according to thy word."

How shall I become, and be kept, a godly, CHRIST honoring person? Scripture declares, "Bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come."

Thus, the question and answer of the PSALM is worthy of our most sincere and open consideration. Surely, when life is fresh and full of promise, this question is made real by personal examination of the Scripture of Truth. Solomon by Holy Spirit direction, concludes a deep examination of the humanistic philosophy of life by pointing out that the time to "remember our Creator is in the days of our youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when one will say, I have no pleasure in them;"

The very last lines of Solomon's study speaks a personally meaningful statement: "fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil."

As is true in every portion of the Scriptures, the word of God answers the question asked in such a way as to show the will of God to each one of us. "Where-with-all shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word."

God's word is the one true blue-print for life. God's word teaches us that we are to "Receive with meekness and engrafted word, which is able to save your souls." Receiving God's word means, as the text is saying, "Taking heed to God's word." God's word is to be read and kept in daily living.

The Psalmist goes on the say: "With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments." Our LORD is teaching a loving obedience to the word of God when he saith to those who "Believed on him." "If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Our LORD and Saviour JESUS CHRIST is the way and the truth and the life and we are taught his way, his truth, his life by the Holy Spirit's illumination of the word of God, -the Holy BIBLE.

"I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. God's word teaches us to put the spiritual ahead of the material. Our LORD declared this when he said to his own disciples: "Ye cannot serve God and mammon."

Scripture gives an illumination of this fact: "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

"I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways." The one thing a child of God is capable of doing, is the offering of a willing heart of devotion with a heart aim to please the LORD. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. AMEN.