Psalms 119:175
Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; and let thy
judgments help me.
As we have walked
through this psalm we have found that the psalmist lived amidst
enemies, enemies that doubtless would have rejoiced to see him dead.
But even though death would have meant an end to the conflicts of his
life and an entrance into heavenly rest, the psalmist yet wanted to
live. He wanted his soul to abide a while longer in the body on this
earth. And all of us who live and enjoy a degree of health and
happiness in this world understand this desire. But why did the
psalmist want to live longer? Was it that he might see his children
and grandchildren grow up? Was it that he might serve his country?
Was it that he might continue to play sports? Was it that he might
pay off his house and leave his loved ones provided for? No! He
wanted his soul to live that it might
praise God. For if
the psalmist died, while his soul would praise God in heaven it
would no longer do so on this earth. And it is a great honour to God
when a soul praises Him in a body of depraved flesh that is
indisposed to His worship in the midst of a world that is in
rebellion against Him.
This
prayer of the psalmist reminds us of the prayer of Hezekiah when he
pled with God for an extension of his life. He, too, wanted his days
lengthened so that He might praise the Lord.
Isaiah 38:18 For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
19 The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.
20 The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.
21 For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.
22 Hezekiah also had said, What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?
Hezekiah reasoned with
God that if he died, he could not praise God and make known His truth
to the next generation. But, like the psalmist, he reasoned that if the Lord would let his soul
live, he could and would praise God.
So if you perceive you are facing some situation that is threatening
to shorten your days, let this be your bargaining chip with the Lord:
Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee.
As
the psalmist resolved to praise his God, he sought this help: and
let thy judgments help me.
Charles Spurgeon noted that this was the second time in this octave
that he asked for help. He wrote: “He was always in need of help,
and so are we.” In this case it was God’s judgments
that would help the psalmist. That word judgments is
one of the ten words used in this psalm to refer to the Holy
Scriptures, which we call the Bible. Now if you want to praise God,
you need to know how to do so acceptably and for that you need the
help of your Bible. If we would praise God, we must do so according
to His word. Since God is the Judge Who pronounces righteous
judgments, it is His to decide how He will be worshipped. That is
not left to our judgment! To worship God we need the right doctrine,
the right method, and the right attitude. Not just anything will do
no matter how sincere it might be. “They that worship Him must
worship
him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). That is why the psalmist
said early on in this psalm:
Psalms 119:7 I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.
True worship requires
the instruction of God’s judgments laid down in the Scriptures.
Now
notice the word let in
the prayer of this verse: let my
soul live….let thy
judgments help me. We
find this same type of prayer in other verses of this octave: “let
my
cry come before thee” (verse 169); “let
my
supplication come before thee” (verse 170); “let
thine
hand help me” (verse 173). From all these verses we see that the
psalmist was beholden to what God lets, that is, to God’s
permissive decrees. No prayer or supplication he might utter would
get through to the Lord unless He permitted it to get through. He
would receive no help from the hand of God unless God willed to let
it happen. His soul would not live unless God allowed it to live and
God’s judgments would not help him unless the Lord permitted them
to do so. Now focus on that last statement. The only way our Bible
will ever help us is if God lets it help us. So whenever you are
trying to witness to someone and you give them plain Bible verses to
show them the truth and they don’t get it, it may be that the Lord
is simply not allowing His judgments to help them. From time to time
God disallows men the help of His word. Such was the case with many
in the days of our Lord as Isaiah prophesied in these fearful words:
Isaiah 29:9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
10 For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
11 And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:
12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.
13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
It is sobering to
realize that you could have a Bible in your hand in a language you
understand and yet that Book would be closed to your understanding.
In this case, you would have the judgments of God and yet they would
not help you because God won’t let them help you. This happened to
the Jews of Christ’s day because they laid aside the commandment of
God to keep the tradition of men (Mark 7:6-8). If we reject the help
of God’s judgments and choose to follow other judgments be they our
own or those of others, the day may come when the Lord will no longer
let His judgments help us. God forbid! May
we never lose sight of just how much we need the help of God’s
judgments and may we ever pray to God to let them help us. And, most
importantly, when those judgments are made known to our understanding
so that they may help us, may we ever choose them above the doctrines
and commandments of men.
No comments:
Post a Comment