Saturday, March 21, 2015

Psalm 119:126

Today’s verse from Psalm 119 is a prayer that I find myself praying from time to time since it so clearly describes the age in which we live.
Psalms 119:126  It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law.
Now just what is it for someone to make void the law of God?
Void – Of speech, action, etc.:  Ineffective, useless, leading to no result.
The adjective void can apply to many different things.  I have selected the above definition of void since it applies to speech and God’s law is His speech, His spoken word to men.  Now when it comes to the prophecies and promises of God’s word there is no man that can make those ineffective.  Everything God says will come to pass.  And every commandment that God has given to the sons of men to keep will be enforced. 
Proverbs 19:21  There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.

Isaiah 40:8  The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.

Isaiah 55:10  For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11  So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
So just how can men make the law of God ineffective and useless?  The following passages give us an idea.
Jeremiah 8:8  How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.
9  The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?
If something is made in vain it is made to no effect or purpose, that is, it is made void.
Matthew 15:3  But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
4  For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
5  But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
6  And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

Jeremiah 23:16  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.

Jeremiah 23:28  The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD.
Men make void the law of God when they reject it for something else.  Instead of being governed by God’s law, as He commanded, they are living as though the law had never been given to them.  They make it ineffective and useless to themselves.  They might as well have no Bible at all for the difference it makes.
 
Now there are any number of things that men put in the place of the law of God and thereby make it void.  They can choose to follow the tradition of men instead of the commandment of God as was the case in the passage cited above from Matthew’s gospel.  Or they can choose to follow the words of a false prophet claiming to be speaking the words of God when in reality he is but speaking his own words, as was the case in Jeremiah’s time.

When we look at the society in which we are living, people, whether they profess God or not, have made void the law of God.  God’s laws regarding sex have been abandoned wholesale as men do whatever seems right in their own eyes, no matter how perverse God’s law may declare it to be.  It reminds us of the graphic description given by Paul in Romans 1:20-32 of degenerate cultures in which men “changed the truth of God into a lie” thus making God’s law void.  Even the churches that profess to follow the words of God are following a perversion of those words.  Rare is the church that holds to the King James Bible of 1611, which is God’s pure, preserved word in the English language.  As I said in the last meditation, this is a subject all unto itself.  And, of course, throughout the history of Christendom human tradition has displaced the commandment of God in both true and false churches.  Consider the traditions of observing Christmas and Easter that have absolutely no sanction in the word of God.  These celebrations originated in paganism and were adopted by the Roman Catholic church to be celebrations of the birth and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Professing Christians will zealously observe these traditions while treating as indifferent the Scriptural order for such things as baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  And where is the church that practices a Scriptural discipline of its members?  The passages of Scripture that deal with this subject might as well have never been written as they are wholly ignored.  And on and on we could go with examples.

Living “in the midst of such a crooked and perverse nation” one is driven to cry with the psalmist:   It is time for thee, LORD, to work.  Things had reached such a pitch of wickedness in the psalmist’s day that he wearied of it.  He wanted it to end and He knew the One that could end it.  When the efforts of God-fearing people to stem the tide of corruption seem powerless, God’s power remains unchanged.  We can always appeal to the Lord when there is nothing more we can do.  No matter how bad things are, they are never beyond the reach of Almighty God to do something about them.

And when God arises to work, things will change.  Pharaoh will be overthrown in the midst of the sea.  Oppressive regimes like Assyria and Babylon will fall.  Sodom and Gomorrah will be reduced to ashes whilst God’s servants escape.  Or better, a persecutor of Christians like Saul of Tarsus will be overpowered by the grace of God and become a preacher “of the faith which once he destroyed” (Galatians 1:23).  The enemies of truth will be rendered powerless and the word of God given such free course as to convert the heathen and turn the world upside down.
Acts 17:6  And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also….

Acts 19:17  And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
18  And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.
19  Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
20  So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

Philippians 1:12  But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel;
13  So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places….

2 Timothy 2:8  Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:
9  Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.      
Just as we can go on and on with examples of how men make void the law of God, so we could go on and on with examples of the mighty works of God in dealing with those who make void His law.

In closing, let us anticipate the ultimate answer to the psalmist’s prayer when God arises to work in that day called “the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,” when God “will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Romans 2:5; Acts 17:31).  When God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, he gave assurance unto all men that a time is coming when He will work.  And when He performs that work, you do not want to be one of those who make void God’s law!  Might I urge each of you who read this meditation to make reading, learning, and obeying the law of God the top priority in your life.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Psalm 119:125


The next verse in this octave of Psalm 119 expands on the prayer of the preceding verse in which the psalmist asked the Lord to teach him His statutes.
Psalms 119:125  I am thy servant; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies.

For the third time in this octave, the psalmist identifies himself as God’s servant:  I am thy servant.  No matter what position we may occupy in this world or in the church, we ought always to see ourselves as servants of God.  God gives us our gifts and offices not that we may serve ourselves, but that we may serve Him.  Even the Son of God, Whom we call Lord and Master, “took upon him the form of a servant,” whilst He was upon this earth (Philippians 2:7).  And we will never be above Him as He said:  “The servant is not greater than his lord” (JOH 13:16). 

As a servant of God, the psalmist wanted to know God’s testimonies.  He wanted to know His Master and His will so that he might serve Him.  What servant is worth his salt that cares nothing for what his master says?  But that he might know God’s testimonies the psalmist prayed:  give me understanding.  In order to really know a thing, you need to understand it.  We have all had the experience of receiving information that we did not understand.  Understanding is the ability to apprehend the meaning of something, to be able to make sense of it.  Oh, the blessing of being able to grasp the meaning of a passage of Scripture so that is makes perfect sense!

As we have had occasion to point out before in these meditations, any teachers we have that help us to understand God’s testimonies are but God’s instruments.  Ultimately, the understanding comes from the Lord and He must be sought for it.

Proverbs 2:6  For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

2 Timothy 2:7  Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

Charles Spurgeon had this to say about this prayer for understanding:

“Moreover this gift of understanding acts also in the form of discernment and thus the good man is preserved from hoarding up that which is false and dangerous; he knows what are and what are not the testimonies of the Lord.”

In this age of so many perversions of the Bible claiming to be God’s testimonies, there is a special need for understanding to know the true testimonies of the Lord, which in English are found in the King James Bible.  But that is a subject all unto itself.

If you have the mindset of a servant of God desirous of doing His will, you will be given the understanding you need to know His testimonies so that you may keep them.  As our Lord said:

John 7:17  If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.