Psalms 119:18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
To behold a thing is to see it. If a person has not been born again, if he does not possess the gift of spiritual life; he has no capacity, no spiritual eyes with which to behold, to see, to know, and to understand the things of God’s word. He is blind and in darkness.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Ephesians 4:17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:....
But when a man is born again and given spiritual life, he has the ability to behold the things of God’s law. He has spiritual eyes with which to see spiritual things. But the regenerate man is still saddled with a carnal nature called in the Scripture the flesh. And this carnal nature is opposed to the word of God as Paul clearly states in the following passage:
Romans 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
If this carnal nature is not kept in check, it will blind the child of God so that he does not see and understand the Scriptures. If the desires, thoughts, and emotions of our flesh are allowed to dominate us, they will distract us from the word of God so that we do not see what it is saying. We may read the words, but they will be just words. We will glean nothing, learn nothing, behold nothing. And too much of that will discourage any attempt to read and profit from the Bible. Or, something else may occur if the flesh has the upper hand and that is, when we read the Bible, even though the word is speaking clearly, by the time it enters our minds our carnal nature will pervert its message. We will interpret it according to what we want it to say, rather than seeing what it actually says. And thus we will miss the wonder of it. It was with an awareness of this fact that the psalmist prayed to God to open his eyes to behold the wondrous things out of God’s law.
We need the continued help of the Holy Spirit to keep our carnal nature in subjection, to give us repentance to see our sins and errors, and to strengthen our inward man so it may see what God is teaching in His word.
This prayer of the psalmist quite agrees with Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians.
Ephesians 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling,….
So when you sit down to read your Bible, do so with an awareness of your natural propensity for blindness. Ask God to open your eyes to behold its wondrous things.
Now the psalmist asks for God to open his eyes to behold wondrous things out of His law. The word wondrous means wonderful and wonderful means full of wonder. So let’s define the word wonder.
Wonder – Something that causes astonishment. A marvellous object; a marvel, prodigy. A deed performed or an event brought about by miraculous or supernatural power; a miracle.
The following quote taken from the writings of John Ker are very insightful.
“The great end of the Word of God in the Psalmist’s time, as now, was practical; but there is a secondary use here referred to, which is worthy of consideration, - its power of meeting man’s faculty of wonder. God knows our frame, for he made it, and he must have adapted the Bible to all its parts. If we can show this, it may be another token that the book comes from Him who made man.”
It is true that man yearns to behold astonishing and wonderful things. This can be seen from early childhood and it continues throughout life. We crave the spectacular. And the Bible is designed by our Maker to satisfy that craving.
The word wonder is used in Scripture to refer to miracles. The miracles that Moses performed in Egypt were called wonders (Exodus 4:21; 11:10). The miracles performed by Christ and His apostles were called wonders (Acts 2:22; 15:12). Now when God opens your eyes and you really behold what is in God’s law, you find that the Scriptures themselves are miraculous. You see that this is no ordinary book. It is given by the supernatural power of God. Although the Bible consists of 66 books written over a period of about 1500 years by over 40 authors in different places and different circumstances, yet there is an amazing harmony and unity in its message. It tells us of things in our universe long before science ever discovered them. It is historically accurate. It is prophetically accurate. It clearly describes the world we live in, why it is the way it is, and what will become of it. It tells us what man is, how he thinks, how he feels, what he will say, and what he will do. As we study it, it broadens our intellect, fortifies our hearts, and brings us exquisite pleasure. The more you see in the Bible, the more astounded you will be at the relevance, the truth, and the depth of its message. And, of course, it greatest wonder is the Saviour it presents, even our Lord Jesus Christ Whose name is called Wonderful (Isaiah 9:6). The Bible is a collection of miracles you can embrace in your hand at any time of the day, any day of the week. You need look no further than its pages to discover wonder upon wonder. If this is not your experience with the Bible, it is because your eyes are closed. Oh, that God may open our eyes to “behold wondrous things”out of His law.
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