How can a young man keep his way pure?
By guarding it according to your word.
With my whole heart I seek you;
let me not wander from your commandments!
I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
Blessed are you, O Lord;
teach me your statutes!
With my lips I declare
all the rules of your mouth.
In the way of your testimonies I delight
as much as in all riches.
I will meditate on your precepts
and fix my eyes on your ways.
I will delight in your statutes;
I will not forget your word.
(Psalm 119:9-16 ESV)
“How Can a Young Man Keep His Way Pure?”
“There are many who wish to become holy, but they know not how. Many who want to put their sin to death, but they’re powerless to do it. Many who long to serve God with the whole of their life, but think it a hopeless task.”[1]
That was written by an English Pastor named Charles Simeon in 1833.[2] And though we’re almost 200 years beyond him, I wonder if what he said resonates with you.
You want to be holy, but you’re at a loss for how. You want to put your sin to death, but you feel powerless to do it. You long to serve God with the whole of your life, but that’s hard and you sometimes feel hopeless.[3]
There’s some sin in your life that you can’t shake—maybe it’s lust. Maybe it’s anger. Maybe it’s laziness, selfishness, arrogance, or bitterness. Whatever it is, you keep giving in to what you know is wrong. You’re hard-pressed by temptation and you wonder if there’s anything that can help. There is, and it’s laid out here in Psalm 119.
“By Guarding It According to Your Word”
At the start of the passage the psalmist asks a very relatable question: “How can a young man keep his way pure?”
That’s what we want to know, isn’t it? How can I be holy? How can I put my sin to death? How can I stop giving in to what I know is wrong and instead serve God with the whole of my life? With all kinds of temptations coming up from within me and coming at me from outside me, how can I keep my way pure?
Though here in our passage the Bible specifically mentions “young men,” this is a question for everybody. How can we remain faithful to Christ when we’re hard-pressed by temptation? That’s the question.
But Psalm 119 doesn’t just ask it; it gives us the answer for it. “How can a young man keep his way pure?” Answer: “By guarding it,” the psalmist says, “according to your Word” (Psalm 119:9). Here’ what the Bible is saying: the Bible itself is our most effective weapon in fighting against sin.
The remaining seven verses in Psalm 119:9-16 all flow from this first claim—that the Bible keeps us from sin. Each of the following verses are different applications of this claim. The terms you find in these verses like Word, commandments, statutes, rules, testimonies, and precepts, are all words describing the same thing: the Bible. They show us how the Bible helps guard our way.
Do you want victory over some besetting sin? Do you need help resisting the pull of your flesh? Do you want to stand firm when, in any number of ways, you’re hard-pressed by temptation to do what you know is wrong?
The message of Psalm 119:9-16 is that the Bible is your answer.
Seven Ways to Use the Bible to Fight Against Sin
Here in our passage are seven ways for how to use the Bible to fight against sin.
And the first way this: to…
1. Seek God By the Bible
“With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!” (Psalm 119:10 ESV)
“With my whole heart,” the psalmist says, “I seek you.” Now, given what he’s just said—that it’s God’s Word that guards his way—you’d think that what he’d say next is, “With my whole heart, I seek your word.” But the psalmist doesn’t say that. He says to God, “I seek you.”
And that slight shift in subject is very instructive for us. It is, in fact, the key piece in our fight against temptation and sin. Why?
Because the primary aim of the Christian life isn’t an increased understanding of the Bible; it’s a living relationship with the God of the Bible—a love for him, a desire for him, a heart that’s set on and seeks after him. That’s the marrow of Christianity. And it’s the key to walking in purity. If your heart is captivated by God, it’ll be less inclined to chase after sin.
But now think about this: how is it that a person seeks after God? We seek God, of course, through his Word. Which is why the psalmist says what he does at the end of verse 10: “With my whole heart, I seek you,” he says, then, “let me not wander from your commandments!”
Do you see the connection Psalm 119 is making? The way to walk in purity is to seek God with your whole heart. And the way to seek God with your whole heart is to keep close to his Word—to “not wander from [his] commandments.”
The Bible is the primary means by which we come to know and love God. And as we grow in knowing and loving him, we’ll grow in our ability to resist temptation.
So, whenever you come to the Bible—when you read it by yourself or study it with others or receive it from faithful Bible teachers—make sure you’re not only seeking to better understanding it, but also using it as the means to go after God himself.
Let Scripture serve as the avenue through which you don’t merely grown smarter, but you nurture your relationship with God.
Seek God by the Bible. Next, in the second place, …
2. Fill Your Heart with the Bible
“I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:11 ESV)
“I have stored up your word in my heart,” the psalmist says, “that I might not sin against you” (ESV). Here again in verse 11 is a clear statement about how to resist the pull of sin: “I have stored up your word in my heart,” the psalmist says, “that I might not sin against you” (ESV).
How are you going to stop lusting? How are you going to refrain from lying? How are you going to fight against greed and discontentment? How are you going to put to death the evil inclinations of your heart?
By stuffing your heart, the Bible says, with the truth of God’s Word.
For some of us, it’s easy for the Bible to pass through us. But Psalm 119:11 tells us that Bible is meant to be stockpiled; received, treasured, and then tucked away for future use—stored up in the heart.
A soldier won’t be helped on the field of battle if his sword is back in his barracks. He needs it near him—on him, strapped to his hip, ready to be unsheathed—if he’s going to win. And the same thing is true for every Christian believer (Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12). Storing up God’s Word in your heart will ensure that your weapon is on-hand when temptation comes.
This was exactly the experience of Jesus. At the start of his earthly ministry, the Bible tells us in Matthew and Luke that Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit for 40 days. And what happened there? He was “tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1).
Satan threw every temptation he could at Jesus. Satan pressed Jesus hard. He came at him three different times. But do you remember how Jesus responded? He met temptation with Scripture. In each case, he responded to Satan by saying, “It is written…” and then proceeded to cut the Devil down with the truth of the Bible he had hidden in his heart (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10).
For Jesus, the sword of the Spirit was close at hand (“sword of the Spirit” is the imagery the Bible uses to describe itself in Ephesians 6:17). It was strapped to his hip, ready at a moment’s notice to be unsheathed, which is why when he was tempted in the wilderness, he was victorious (Matthew 4:11).
So, friends, make it your aim to be like Jesus. Do what you can to stuff God’s Word in your heart. Meditate on it. Memorize it. Treasure it. Hoard it. Bury God’s Word deep in your heart and keep storing it up. Do this so that when temptation comes, you can be victorious over it and cut it down with God’s Word.
Seek God by the Bible. Fill your heart with the Bible. Next,…
3. Ask God to Help You Wield the Bible
“Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes!” (Psalm 119:12 ESV)
Here in Psalm 119:12 the psalmist makes a request. He says to God, “Teach me your statutes!” In other words, he’s asking God to help him understand his Word. Like a student appealing to her professor or an apprentice seeking guidance from his master, the psalmist recognizes that he doesn’t always get what God says. But he knows that what God says is exactly what he needs if he’s going to fight against temptation and sin. So he prays to God: “Teach me what you’ve said!”
Take our soldier from earlier. It’s very good that his sword is strapped to his hip. But if he doesn’t know how to use it, the sword won’t be much help. If he’s going to be effective on the field of battle and beat back his enemy, he needs to be shown what it is, how it works, and how to wield it well. And for that to happen, he must be humble and ask for help.
And the same is true for us. What’s here in verse 12 is a great prayer to pray whenever you open your Bible: “God, teach me your statutes!”
God has spoken to us in his Word, but we need his help to understand what he’s said. We need him to open our eyes to see what’s in his Word so that we can rightly use it to fight against our sin.
And here’s what’s great: when we ask God for this kind of help, he helps!
Later in the New Testament, in the book of John, Jesus tells his disciples that after he finishes his earthly work, he was going to return to Heaven (John 17:5). He was going to leave them. But he promised that after he left, he’d give them the gift of his Holy Spirit, who would not only live in them but be a help to them (John 16:6-7).
Here’s what he tells them: “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26 ESV). The Bible says that through faith in Jesus, Christian, you’ve been given this same Holy Spirit. This means that the Person who Jesus says will teach you what’s in his Word is already living in you (1 Corinthians 3:16)!
God hasn’t just furnished you with his Word; he helps you understand it. God hasn’t just made the sword you have; by his Spirit, he teaches you how to use it,[4] so that you can beat sin back.
So, seek God by his Word, fill your heart with it, and ask him to help you wield it. Let’s consider the fourth way to use God’s Word to guard your way.
4. Open Your Mouth to Share the Bible
“With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth.” (Psalm 119:13 ESV)
Look at verse 13. “With my lips,” the psalmist says, “I declare all the rules of your mouth.” I think the small sequence here in Psalm 119 is really cool: the one who asks to be taught in verse 12 becomes the teacher in verse 13—the receiver becomes the speaker. This is what’s meant to happen in the Christian life. As God’s Word really gets in you, it’s meant to seep out of you.
We’re called, yes, to store up God’s Word in our hearts, but not to keep it to ourselves! What has come from God’s mouth to you is meant to spill out of your mouth to others. And as that happens—as your lips declare his truth, as you talk about the Bible with your spouse or kids or friends or neighbors—it will have a purifying effect on you. When temptation starts pressing in on you, sharing God’s Word will help you resist it.
Engaging in the habit of speaking the truth through preaching each Sunday has really helped me stay faithful to Jesus and fight against my sin. It’s rooted the truths I’m articulating deeper in my own heart. It’s driven me to closer communion with God in prayer. It’s opened me up to examining where I’m going astray. And it’s kept me, with the help of the Spirit, walking with Christ.
Now to be clear: I’m not claiming to be some paragon of virtue. Nor am I saying that all who speak God’s Word (whether from a pulpit or over coffee) won’t struggle at all with temptation and sin. We know how easy it is to regurgitate the truth without ingesting it ourselves.
But if you’re pairing this practice with the other things we’ve seen so far in Psalm 119—seeking God by his Word, filling your heart with it, and humbly asking God to help you understand it—then sharing the truth of the Bible with others will strengthen your walk with Christ and steel you against temptation.
You can use God’s Word to fight against your sin by opening your mouth and sharing it. Then, in the fifth place…
5. See the Value of the Bible
“In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.” (Psalm 119:14 ESV)
I read a story this week about a pastor a long time ago who visited a poor family living in the mountains. When the pastor stepped into their house, he saw a $1,000 bill in a glass frame hanging on the wall. He asked the family about the framed money. They said to him, “A sick man stopped at our cabin years ago. We nursed him back to health, and when he left, he gave us that beautiful picture. It seemed like a nice souvenir, so we had it framed.” They thought the bill was a piece of art!
They were, of course, astonished when the pastor told them how much that “beautiful picture” was worth and what it could do for them.[5] He opened their eyes to its true value.
Look with me at Psalm 119:14: “In the way of your testimonies I delight,” the psalmist says, “as much as in all riches.”
Here the psalmist offers an appraisal, an assessment of the Bible’s worth. How valuable is God’s Word? The psalmist compares the Bible with what we tend to value most—riches. He delights in it “as much as in all riches.” He’s saying, “Give me a cistern of money, a mountain of gold, write as high a number as you want onto a check and you’re getting close to just how valuable God’s Word is.”
We’ve said, friends, that the Bible is our primary weapon against sin and temptation. But unless you see it for how valuable it is, it will be of no use to you. You won’t seek God by it, fill your heart with it, pursue a deeper understanding of it, or open your mouth to share it, if you don’t see its value.
There it will sit—a sword collecting dust. And this is who you will be—a soldier trying to fight without a weapon.
What is the Bible? It’s a living seed, able to impart spiritual life; it’s a shining lamp that shows us the way to live; it’s a hammer that can break the hardest heart; and it’s bread that nourishes our souls (1 Peter 1:23; Psalm 119:115; Jeremiah 23:29; Deuteronomy 8:3).
It’s perfect, sure, right, and pure. It makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, and revives the soul (Psalm 19:7-8). It is more to be desired than gold, “even much fine gold,” the Bible says (Psalm 19:10). It is “living and active,” powerful and transformative, equipping the people of God for every good work (Hebrews 4:12; 2 Timothy 3:16). The Bible is worth far more than a mountain of gold. There’s nothing else like it.
And if you don’t see the Bible that way, you won’t feel like you need it. And without it, you won’t stand a chance against temptation and sin. So, believe it! Come to God’s Word seeing it for what it is— better than “all riches.”
Which leads us to the sixth way you and I can use the Bible to walk in purity, and it’s to…
6. Fix Your Eyes on the Bible
“I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways.” (Psalm 119:15 ESV)
Let’s consider Psalm 119:15: “I will meditate on your precepts,” the psalmist says, “and fix my eyes on your ways.” He knew how easy it is to get off track and wander into sin. You and I do, too. So, what should we do to guard our way?
Psalm 119:15 tells us: we fix our eyes on God’s Word.
Like a sailor staying the course while looking at his map or a runner keeping to the path while staring at his feet, reading the Bible and studying the Bible and meditating on the Bible—keeping the Bible in front of your eyes—will help keep you from going astray.
It is God’s Word that will remind you of what’s right and what’s true. It will remind you of the joy that comes with obedience and the sorrow that comes with sin.
So, make sure, Christian, you’re not giving it a glance only every once in a while. However else you use your time and spend your energy, cultivate the discipline of keeping God’s Word before your eyes.
Regularly spending time fixing your eyes on God’s Word will help you stay the course when you feel temptation tugging at your heart.
Finally, Psalm 119 tells us that what will help guard your way when tempted to sin is if you…
7. Find Your Joy in the Bible
“I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.” (Psalm 119:16 ESV)
In Psalm 119:16 the psalmist tells us that he finds joy in the Bible: “I will delight in your statutes,” the psalmist says, “I will not forget your word.”
Now, many of us read that and are immediately discouraged. “Well good for whoever wrote this psalm, but that doesn’t describe me. I don’t delight in the Bible all that much.”
Is that you? You know the Bible is God’s Word. You know it’s valuable. You know it’ll help you in your battle against temptation. But you just aren’t drawn to it. You may even want to delight in it, but the truth is that you don’t.
So what are you supposed to do when you find yourself in that place? Here’s what to do: keep coming to it, keep reading it, because as you do, you’ll come face-to-face with the One who stands at the center of it.
The Bible isn’t a random collection of moral lessons, historic events, and strict commands. The Bible is one, big story about Jesus—how he made the world and everything in it, and then how he came to earth, died on a cross, and rose from the dead to save us from the punishment we deserve for making such a mess of it—which makes this Book unlike every other book. It’s a centuries-long true story of God’s unfolding plan to redeem sinful people through faith in his Son.
The Bible tells you what Jesus has done for you. It tells you what Jesus says about you. It tells you what Jesus has promised to you. And it tells you how Jesus is at work in you. So, here’s how the Bible will most help you in your fight against sin—by showing you, again and again, the glory and beauty of Christ. By putting in front of you something better than what sin has to offer.
When your joy is settled in Jesus (the Jesus that the Bible is all about), sin will begin to lose its appeal. This is the effect that Jesus has on those who belong to him by faith. The more you grow to delight in Christ—and all that he is for you—the more you will walk in obedience to him.
So, open the Bible to see Jesus, the One who defeated sin and will help keep your way pure. Ask God to help you see the glory of Jesus in the Bible, and to increase your delight in him. As you find your joy in him, as you get to know him through his Word, you will find that your desire for sin diminishes.
So “How can a young man [or anyone!] keep his way pure?” By guarding it according to God’s Word! How can you begin to fight sin with the Bible?
Psalm 119 would counsel you to seek God through his Word today and every day, asking for his help to understand it. As you read the Bible, store it up in your heart—find ways to memorize it and retain what you learn. Share God’s Word with others! Remember the value of the Bible and ask God to help you see it as the precious treasure that it is. Fix your eyes on the precious words of God and ask him to help you see Jesus’ glory in it, that you might find greater delight in God and his Word.
This article was adapted by permission from Josh Parson’s message, “When You’re Hard Pressed by Temptation” on Psalm 119:9-16, preached at The Orchard—North Shore.
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Sources
[1] Charles Simeon, Expository Outlines on the Whole Bible, Volume VI: Psalm 72 to End, 696. I smoothed over the language so that it would be better understood by those listening.
[2] What is now called Expository Outlines on the Whole Bible was originally titled Horae Homileticae. It’s hard to find a first publication date; the earliest I found was 1833.
[3] “The habit of wandering from God, and the long-cherished pollutions of sin, seem to form an almost invincible barrier to progress,” (Charles Bridges, Psalm 119: An Exposition, accessed on monergirms.com here).
[4] I think this is why the beginning of verse 12 says what it does: “Blessed are you, O Lord.” Why? Because he does teach us his Word.
[5] An illustration used by H.B. Charles Jr. in a sermon entitled, “How to Clean Up Your Life” on Psalm 119:9-16, as accessed at hbcharlesjr.com.