Psalm 119:12

In today’s meditation we find a prayer mingled with praise and petition.

Psalms 119:12 Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.

The Psalmist gives praise to God when he states: “Blessed art thou, O LORD.”

Consider the definition of bless as it pertains to our blessing God.

Bless - To hold or call holy; to extol as holy, divine, gracious. To extol, praise, or adore (God) as holy, worthy of reverence, esp. with an added notion of thanksgiving or acknowledgement of gracious beneficence or goodness.

When the Psalmist acknowledges God as blessed, he is telling God that He is holy, gracious, and worthy to be praised. God is so holy, gracious, and great, that it is an act of worship just to admit He is thus. We worship God when we acknowledge His glorious attributes. Our brother Greg Ohly did this in our service last Sunday as he began the opening prayer by listing off to the Lord several of His divine attributes. In so many words he was saying, “Blessed art thou, O Lord.” On the other hand, to ascribe to a creature the attributes that pertain only to God is to worship the creature, which is idolatry. God alone is blessed in the way that we are considering the word bless. Only God is holy in the sense of being essentially and necessarily holy. God is holy of Himself. Hence we read:

Revelation 15:4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy:….

Any holiness that we have is a holiness that God imparts to us. It is not a holiness we have of ourselves. And since God is essentially, supremely, and perfectly holy, He is the most happy of all beings. God is indeed blessed!

Now our psalmist desires a blessing from this blessed One and that is the blessing of being taught by Him His statutes. What better teacher could there be than the blessed God? And what better instruction could be given than the statutes of the blessed God? It stands to reason that the most supremely happy Being is the one that can best teach us how to be happy, and this He does in His statutes. Indeed, the blessed God is a great teacher. When He became incarnate in flesh in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, He was known among men as Master or Rabbi, which are titles for a teacher.

John 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

John 1:38 Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?

Now God utilizes instruments when He teaches us. He does not sit across from us and carry on a discussion, as He did when He was among us on earth. Neither does He Himself audibly speak His lessons into our ear. God teaches us through the Scriptures, which Paul tells us are “profitable for doctrine” (2Timothy 3:16). Doctrine is defined as the action of teaching or instructing. When you are reading and studying your Bible, God is teaching you and you can learn a great deal by that means. But God also uses other means to teach us. God uses tribulation to teach us patience (Romans 5:3), and He uses chastening to correct us (Proverbs 3:11-12). Fathers are commanded to bring up their children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Christ has given His church pastors and teachers to teach us (Ephesians 4:11). As we sing in our service to God we are “teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Colossians 3:16). Older women are commanded to teach certain things to the younger women as it respects their character and their duties to their husbands and children (Titus 2:3-5). And then all believers are to be teachers of one another in that they are to comfort, edify, admonish, and exhort one another.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

Romans 15:14 And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.

Hebrews 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

All of these are so many instruments used by God to teach us His statutes. So when you come to church this Sunday, come with a prayer to the blessed God to teach you His statutes. And when you have been taught in the service, look beyond the pastor or whoever else may have taught you and bless God for His goodness in teaching you. If your parents taught you well, then thank God for using them to teach you. If a brother admonishes you and saves you from doing something foolish, thank God for using that brother to teach you. And continue to pray to God to teach you His statutes. He is the ultimate Teacher and nobody can teach like Him, as saith the Scripture!

Job 36:22 Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him?

Psalm 119:11

In today's meditation we come to a verse that gives us a prescription for avoiding sin in our lives. If we truly fear God, sin is something we hate and, therefore, very much want to avoid.

Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

Here is our verse for today:

Psalms 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

The psalmist hid God’s word. He did not hide God’s word for the purpose of concealing it from the view or discovery of others. He rather hid it for the purpose of safekeeping so as not to lose it. He treated God’s word like a precious treasure that he wanted to keep. Now the place where the psalmist hid the word was in his heart. The purpose for his hiding it there was that he might not sin against God.

The psalmist hid God’s word in his heart. By hiding it in his heart, he put it in the place where it would have the greatest influence upon the course of his life.

Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

It is with our heart that we think, intend, know, understand, purpose, believe, and experience emotions such as joy and sorrow (Hebrews 4:12; Ecclesiastes 1:17; Daniel 10:12; 2 Corinthians 9:7; Romans 10:9; Isaiah 65:14). Indeed, all the issues of our life can be reduced down to those things we think, know, understand, believe, decide, and feel. If God’s word is hid in our heart, the issues of our life are going to be affected by it. And since God’s word steers us away from sin, the issues of our life will also be steered away from sin.

God’s word needs to be hid in the heart. It is not enough to store it in a notebook or in a computer program. It needs to be inside of you!

Proverbs 4:20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.

Proverbs 7:1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

When you love the Scriptures, read them frequently, and meditate upon them, they will become stored up in your heart. And when you are tempted to sin, you will be able to draw upon them to resist sin just as our Lord did when Satan tempted Him to sin in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11). Each temptation was met with “It is written,” a citation from the Holy Scriptures. It was by this means our Lord avoided sin and it is by that means you will avoid it as well.

Psalms 17:4 Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.

1 John 2:14 ....I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

But if the word is not hidden in your heart, if you don’t know what the Bible teaches regarding certain sins, then you are more apt to fall into those sins when tempted. Have you ever committed a sin only to recall too late the Bible verse that forbad that sin? If you simply take a moment to think and pray before you act, that is, if you take heed to your way as verse 9 of our Psalm teaches us; and if you have the word hidden in your heart for immediate access; you greatly reduce the chances of stumbling into sin unexpectedly.

Then consider that the psalmist is telling God that he hid His word in his heart. If we would ask God to deliver us from sinning, we should be able to acknowledge to God that we have followed His prescription for avoiding sin. To ask God to deliver us from sin without taking His prescription is like expecting a doctor to heal us without taking his remedy. So if you would not sin, then get out your Bible, read it, meditate on it, and hide it in your heart.

In conclusion, notice something very interesting about the first three verses of this second section Beth as they compare with the first three verses of the first section Aleph. The first verse of Aleph speaks of “the undefiled in the way.” The first verse of Beth asks “wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way.” Both verses speak of a way, the objective being that a young man’s way corresponds to God’s way. The second verse of Aleph pronounces them blessed who seek the Lord “with the whole heart,” while in the second verse of Beth the psalmist said that he had sought God with his “whole heart.” Then the third verse of Aleph speaks of those who “do no iniquity” and the third verse of Beth teaches us how to “not sin.” Every theme mentioned in the statements of the first three verses of Aleph become prayers in the first three verses of Beth. Now is this just a coincidence or is this inspiration?