1 Sam 18:30, Then the commanders of the Philistines went out to battle, and it happened as often as they went out, that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul. So his name was highly esteemed. 
	We are considering the manner in which we are to behave as the beloved members of the family of God on this earth. There is to be a growing and manifested esteem for the Lord in place in our hearts that is revealed in the way in which we live on this earth before God and before man. It should be evident that we are different from others of this world, not in terms of race, gender, economic status, etc. Rather, because we so love and long for the Lord and crave that time with Him in prayer and in the reading and the study of His Word, we are changed into those people whose testimony unto God is lived before all of His creation. 
We have several types throughout the Old and the New Testaments who show, by the example of their actions and the longing of their hearts after God, that we are, as well, to order our behavior and our desire unto the Lord, Alone. We need to be showing forth our love for God and our earnest longing to know Him more as we deal with one another. Even in terms of those who would do us wrong, we need to be those witnesses of the Love of God in Christ Jesus. The evidence of our new birth in Christ is to be always expressed as we sojourn on this earth.
	We will continue forward, then, with the encouragement that we are given in Ps 119:93-106. Please turn to it as we read it together.
	Ps 119:93-106, I will never forget Thy precepts, For by them Thou hast revived me. I am Thine, save me; For I have sought Thy precepts. The wicked wait for me to destroy me; I shall diligently consider Thy testimonies. I have seen a limit to all perfection; Thy commandment is exceedingly broad. O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day. Thy commandments make me wiser than my enemies, For they are ever mine. I have more insight than all my teachers, For Thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, Because I have observed Thy precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way, That I may keep Thy word. I have not turned aside from Thine ordinances, For Thou Thyself hast taught me. How sweet are Thy words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Thy precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way. Thy word is a lamp to my feet, And a light to my path. I have sworn, and I will confirm it, That I will keep Thy righteous ordinances. 
	Notice one key truth at the onset of this passage … I will never forget Thy precepts. Inherent in this declaration is the fact that the Psalmist studied and memorized the precepts of the Lord. He spent time with the Lord, communing with Him in the feasting upon His Word. There was that recognition that the Word was so important that every opportunity to study it would increase the measure of the ability to live by it. To never forget meant that the Word was cherished and dealt with in reverent observation of each precept as given forth by God. 
	It is within the precepts of the Lord that the Psalmist finds salvation and restoration and encouragement and sustenance and perfection and wisdom. All of this is because it means that there was that studious handling of the Word of God with a desire to know it, not just mentally, but in the very fabric of his being. The Psalmist regarded the Word as precious and to be valued, not just for those times of opportunistic and obligatory recitation, but as that which the Holy Spirit, Alone, makes alive within us. It is His Word that gives greater acclimation to the manifested Love of God Incarnate. 
	Just consider some of the great proclamations made in this passage with respect to how God, through His Word, the Word made flesh, meets the every need of our daily walk and spiritual longing on this earth. O how I love Thy law! …Thy commandments make me wiser than my enemies… I have restrained my feet from every evil way, That I may keep Thy word…. I have not turned aside from Thine ordinances, For Thou Thyself hast taught me…. How sweet are Thy words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! …From Thy precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way…Thy word is a lamp to my feet, And a light to my path.
	Each of these statements deserves a study to themselves. There is the compiled manifestation of the life that we now have in Jesus Christ as He makes every provision for our needs through the working and abiding power of His Spirit within us. He opens up the every Word as spoken by God. This is not just another book which is a how to of human intellect and reason. This is the divinely inspired Word of God, given by His working and abiding power in the beings of those who were so led to write down that which He dictated.
	Unlike the tomes and volumes of man’s written works on self-enlightenment and self-expression and self-manifestation and self-realization, which all highlight and deify the human potential, the Word of God manifests the expressed being of God’s Love. The vast writings of man will all become but dust. The Word of God, Alone, is eternally and majestically glorified for all eternity as it proclaims the Savior and Lord of all those who will turn to Jesus and surrender to His Lordship in the course of each day on this earth. 
	In Jesus, Alone, there is salvation, there is refreshing, there is wisdom personified, there is satisfaction divine, there is understanding, and there is perfection. He is the Light of the world, shining so brilliantly to eradicate the darkness of this age with His triumphant victory over death and sin and the every power of this realm. He leads us in the path that we should take. He is the means of facing every day, every trial, every circumstance, and every dilemma with power and with triumphant rejoicing and glory in Him.
	One of the key facets to this growing esteem for the living relationship with God that is manifested by our devotion and dedication to Him in prayer and in the feasting upon His Word is that we are open to what He has to say to us. As we spend the time communing with Him, talking, crying out, beseeching Him to show us the manner in which we need to obey Him in every decision and every circumstance of our lives, He proves Himself as our complete source of understanding. He teaches us so very lovingly and compassionately that His will far exceeds any possible thought or imagination that we might have. 
	Our time with Him opens our hearts to the fact that He does have all things well in His Hands. There is nothing of happenstance or luck that comes into our lives. Everything is well ordered by Him in Whom is found all the provision for our lives on this earth. Our every step is ordered by Him in the manner in which His perfect will is accomplished in our walk with Him. 
	…I have more insight than all my teachers, For Thy testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, Because I have observed Thy precepts. I have restrained my feet from every evil way, That I may keep Thy word. I have not turned aside from Thine ordinances, For Thou Thyself hast taught me.
	We are being taught by the Holy Spirit how we are to walk on this earth. He is our source of how to deal with each person, each situation, each day of our earthly sojourn. As we need wisdom, we will find it in Him as shown in the Word that the Holy Spirit opens in our hearts and minds. We learn, as we read and study with Him in prayerful longing for His truth to be our mainstay, that He meets our every need! 
As we are dealing with those who cause us such challenges, the Holy Spirit is that quiet and soft and still voice within us which guides us into the manner in which the Love of God can be expressed through us unto those in such desperate situations. They are brought into our sphere of influence for that expressed purpose, to receive the Love that Christ is in and through us as we are obedient and dedicated and consecrated unto Him and His living Word of truth and power and understanding and compassion and mercy and grace and loving kindness. 
All of this is evidenced, as it was in David’s life, because his heart was after the Lord. His expressed love of God and the precepts of the Lord showed forth, even unto his enemies, as we have seen. There was a difference in him because he wanted, he craved, he longed for, and he committed himself to seek the Lord and to be in the Lord’s presence. He set himself into the study and learning and cherishing of the every Word that proceeded forth from the mouth of God. 
David greatly esteemed the Lord and Jehovah showed His esteem of David in the every course of his life. This was to the point that the Messiah, Jesus, would be born of the heredity of David. The promise of God to David was that there would be a king from his lineage on the throne forever and forever. That promise, as detailed by the Prophet Isaiah, in Is 9:6+7, is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten of the Father born in the city of David, Bethlehem. 
Isa 9:6+7, For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. 
	We are brought back to the manner in which man strives, on his own, to do anything on this earth. This is as opposed to what is necessary in the heart of man, as evidenced in David’s greatest esteem for the Lord and His Word. When we try to do anything of ourselves, when we are in competition with those around us in order to show how great we are and how wonderfully we can build and manufacture and promote ourselves and our efforts, we are fools. 
We are never going to do anything of eternal value with these feeble hands and these foolish minds. Even the greatest thinkers of our age are but foolishness in the light of the mind and the being of Jesus Christ. No matter how excellent the work of our hands might be in our fleeting moments on this earth, they will all crumble and disintegrate under the manifest weight of time.
	This is brought to the forefront in Eccl 4:4, as it is the reality of the work of man that is vanity and striving after that which has no true measure of successful and eternal conclusion in this age. Eccl 4:4, And I have seen that every labor and every skill which is done is the result of rivalry between a man and his neighbor. This too is vanity and striving after wind. 
	One of the great examples of the difference that is in place when we honor and seek after the Lord as opposed to those human ideological manifestations is that of Daniel and his three friends. They were faithful to Jehovah rather than to the whims and fancies of mankind. They were seeking to be pleasing to the Lord, esteeming their relationship and their dedication and their obedience unto Jehovah as vital. This was of much more consequence than even obedience to the dictates of the most powerful monarch of their day.
	As recounted in Dan 1:18-20, they stood together in the manner of even their daily food requirements in that which would honor the Lord and His specifications for them. This was in direct opposition to that which was provided from the very table of the king. They had managed to convince the overseer of their food intake to feed them what the Lord required for a period of days. 
This obedience to God would either prove their value in the eyes of Jehovah, or they would face the consequences of their refusal to partake of the food of the king’s table. They were putting their esteem of the Lord’s precepts and their obedient reliance upon God ahead of all the proffered dainties of this realm. The result is detailed in this passage.
	Dan 1:18-20, Then at the end of the days which the king had specified for presenting them, the commander of the officials presented them before Nebuchadnezzar. And the king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king's personal service. And as for every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king consulted them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his realm. 
	Not only did the Lord prove His manifested love to these men in the strength of their bodies, but also in the clarity of their minds. They were able to be of service to the king in a measure beyond all those who were the partakers of this realm’s provisions. The Lord manifested the wisdom and the strength and the measure of His love to them by making them able to meet the needs of understanding and intellect and dedication and commitment beyond the abilities of all the other humanly guided counselors of the king. 
	The Lord showed His esteem and love for these men as they put forth their very lives in witness to the fact that they loved and abided by the Word and the devotion of their entire beings unto Jehovah. They did not compromise to the easy way of this realm which would be like chasing after the wind. They offered themselves wholly to the One unto Whom they desired more than all the wealth and fame and acclamation of this age. 
These men of God revered and valued and honored Yahweh above all else, and that was evidenced in the manner in which they were of such great value to both God and to Nebuchadnezzar. God proved Himself in their lives as He did in David’s life because these men had those hearts that were completely unto Him and Him, Alone. So be it!
	Then the commanders of the Philistines went out to battle, and it happened as often as they went out, that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul. So his name was highly esteemed. Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Eph 5:8-10. for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Amen.