Psalm 119:97

Greetings, dear readers!  After a pause I’m back and ready to dive into the next octave of Psalm 119 entitled Mem.  According to the pronunciation guide in the front of my Bible, the Hebrew letter mem is pronounced like our word maim.  Now what kind of a humourous remark could I make about this without meming my reputation for a little comedy?  I think I had better pass on this one.  And, by the way, don’t quote me on that pronunciation as I do not speak Hebrew.  It’s all Greek to me. 

Psalms 119:97  ¶MEM. O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.

This octave opens with emotion, expressed by the word O.  The word how coupled with this word O is expressing the degree of emotion.

How – In direct exclamations.  In what way! to what an extent or degree!

The psalmist loved the law of God to the degree that it stirred his emotions.  It is the same when you state your love for something and then add the expression “and how!”  It is fitting, therefore, that this sentence concludes with an exclamation point.

Now the psalmist loved God’s law to such an extent, his feelings for it were stirred to such an extent that he could say:  it is my meditation all the day. All day long the psalmist reflected upon and considered the law of God. Matthew Henry remarked:  “What we love we love to think of.” Your thoughts tend to gravitate to the things you love.  So when you love the word of God to the extent the psalmist did, it is easy for your mind to go to it during the day. The love you have for it draws your thoughts there.  And it says a lot about your spiritual health when you love the law of God at all times, even when it crosses your will. 

Now it isn’t that you only think of Bible verses all day. Obviously, we have to think about our occupations and daily duties in order to perform them. But if as you encounter various situations and decisions throughout the day you think of what God’s law has to say about them, whether it be by recalling its teaching or looking up a passage in the Bible, then you are reflecting on God’s law.  This is meditating on it by definition. If your daily thoughts revolve around the teachings of the Bible, then you are meditating on them because you are taking them into consideration.  In this case you have devoted enough time to studying your Bible that its teachings mold your daily life.  Thus God’s law is your meditation all the day. And having God’s law as his meditation all the day put the psalmist in fine form to be able to say the things he did in the verses that follow in this octave.      

It follows that those who know the Lord Jesus Christ in the pardon of their sins and who have a sense of being reconciled to God by the blood of His cross, love the law of God.  Even though they have broken that law innumerable times and are condemned for having done so, they love it nevertheless because that law points them to Jesus Christ, the Saviour from sin.  They see the terror of the law directed away from them and onto Jesus Christ, Who bore its curse and freed them from it. 

Galatians 3:13  Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree....

But if you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ, then you likely do not love the law of God since its only message to you is one of condemnation and terror.  If anything I write today resonates with you, then may I appeal to you to turn from your sin to God and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, for in believing on Him you will discover pardon and peace.

Acts 13:38  Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:

39  And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.

John 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18    He that believeth on him is not condemned….

John 5:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

Psalm 119:96

We come now to the last verse in the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Lamed. 

Psalms 119:96  I have seen an end of all perfection: but thy commandment is exceeding broad.

The psalmist wrote: I have seen an end of all perfection.  And so have I.  Have you ever thought you had found the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect romance, the perfect friendship, the perfect church, or the perfect whatever only to see its perfection crumble before you leaving you so very disappointed?  We yearn for perfection.  We want to find that certain something or someone that will fill up our deficiencies and leave us without want.  But where is that perfection to be found? Our verse has the answer:  but thy commandment is exceeding broad.  God’s commandment is broad enough to take in all that you are, all that touches you, and so much more.  There is nothing in your life that the Scriptures do not speak to.  And the Scriptures teach you where to look and where not to look to find completeness and ultimate satisfaction.  I cannot improve on Matthew Henry’s comments on this verse:

“Poor perfection which one sees an end of! Yet such are all those things in this world which pass for perfections. David, in his time, had seen Goliath, the strongest, overcome, Asahel, the swiftest, overtaken, Ahithophel, the wisest, befooled, Absalom, the fairest, deformed; and, in short, he had seen an end of perfection, of all perfection....But thy commandment is broad, exceedingly broad. The word of God reaches to all cases, to all times. The divine law lays a restraint upon the whole man, is designed to sanctify us wholly. There is a great deal required and forbidden in every commandment. The divine promise (for that also is commanded) extends itself to all our burdens, wants, and grievances, and has that in it which will make a portion and happiness for us when we have seen an end of all perfection.”

But let’s focus on the fact that God’s commandment is exceeding broad.  Any one commandment of God reaches out and touches the rest of what God has revealed.  Take this commandment for an example:  “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18).  This commandment is so broad that it includes every commandment of God.

Romans 13:9  For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

10    Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Obedience to this commandment assumes that we obey the greater commandment to love the Lord our God with all of our being (Matthew 22:37-38).  To love our neighbour more than God would be the transgression of the law rather than the fulfilling of it.  Now we love God and our neighbour, because God first loved us.  This fact reaches out and embraces the whole scheme of redemption through the gift of God’s love in sending His only begotten Son to save us.

1 John 4:10  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:19  We love him, because he first loved us.

20  If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

21  And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.

Man fell into sin because he did not love God supremely.  But God in love sent His Son to redeem His elect from that fall.  Because God loved us, we love Him.  And because we love God we love our neighbour also.  And by loving God and our neighbour we fulfill every other commandment of God.  The heaven we will inherit because of God’s love for us will itself be a place of perfect love.  There the commandment to love our neighbour as ourself will find its most perfect expression.  Indeed, the commandment to love our neighbour is so broad that it embraces the entirety of God’s revelation!

Or take another example of the breadth of God’s commandment:  “Thou shalt not covet.” 

Exodus 20:17  Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

To covet is to desire what you have no right to desire (Deuteronomy 5:21).  To covet is to lust and lust lies at the root of every sin.

Romans 7:7  What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

James 1:14  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

15  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Therefore, since the commandment to not covet forbids the lusts that lead to sin, it is broad enough to contain a prohibition of every sin.  Were there no covetousness, there would be no adultery since no one would covet his neighbour’s wife.  Without covetousness there would be no theft since no one would covet his neighbour’s property.  Without adultery and theft there would not be the lying and murder sinners often resort to in order to fulfill or cover these sins.  Were there no covetousness there would be no envy.  You would never feel any ill-will because someone has something you do not. Instead you would be content with what you have rather than coveting what another has.  And were there no envy, there would not be the wrath, strife, and hatred that envy generates.  If you eliminate covetousness, you eliminate envy and all the sins that go with it.  In fact, eliminate covetousness and you eliminate sin altogether.

Covetousness also breeds a devilish curiosity to know things that are not our right or business to know.  Eve was curious about what it would be like to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  Pornography thrives on the curiosity to know and see the sexuality of others which one has no right to know and see.  Curiosity often leads people to experiment with alcohol and drug abuse just to see what it is like to get drunk or to get high.  Curiosity takes people into the occult so they can discover things that cannot be discovered by the ordinary means of acquiring knowledge.  Curiosity leads people to become busybodies in other people’s affairs.  They covet to know about things that are none of their business.  How much backbiting and whispering would be going on if people were not curious to hear evil about other people?  Any curiosity that leads us into sin is coveting to know what we should not know.

And then to top it off, the Scriptures teach that covetousness is idolatry.

Colossians 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 

Covetousness sets up another god before the true and living God in that the covetous man makes a god of his own desire.  He wants what he wants regardless of what God has to say about it and thus he serves his desire rather than the Lord.

Psalms 10:3  For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.

4  The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. 

Therefore, the violation of the last of the Ten Commandments, “thou shalt not covet,” is a violation of the first of the Ten Commandments, “thou shalt have no other gods before me.”  This should give you some idea of just how exceeding broad this single commandment is.  If you are interested, you can review the meditation I did on Psalm 119:36:  “Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.”    

And on and on we could go with any commandment of God.  There is an exceeding breadth to them all.  There is a perfection to God’s word you will never see the end of, for it is fathomless. Blessed be God for His perfect and unfathomable word of truth!

If there is a longer than usual delay before you receive the next installment, please don’t think it is because I have given up this project.  It is just that I have some other things calling for my attention.  God willing, I purpose to resume these mediations on Psalm 119.

Psalm 119:95

We generally appreciate it when people wait for us.  But that depends on why they are waiting for us.  Here is a case where, for my part, I would say, “Don’t wait for me!”

Psalms 119:95  The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I will consider thy testimonies.

History is replete with instances when wicked men have waited for an opportunity to destroy the righteous.  David wrote the following psalm when Saul sent messengers to wait for him to destroy him (1Samuel 19:11).

Psalms 59:1  <> Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me.

2  Deliver me from the workers of iniquity, and save me from bloody men.

3  For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O LORD.

The following two verses taken from Psalm 10 show that the wicked particularly “lieth in wait to catch the poor.”

Psalms 10:2  The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

9  He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.

This fact is very relevant to the disciples of Christ who are called by Him “the poor in sprit” (Matthew 5:3).  That they are poor makes them the target of the wicked.  Also note that the wicked lie “in wait secretly as a lion in his den.”  Recall that the devil, called by our Lord “the wicked one” (Matthew 13:19, 38), “as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1Peter 5:8).  The devil persecutes God’s poor.  He lies in wait as a lion to entrap them and destroy them.  In the face of this Peter admonishes us to “be vigilant.”  Be ever mindful of the fact that the devil is waiting for you, lurking here and there to catch you in an unguarded moment.  And isn’t it true that the things that cause you the most trouble are not the things that you worry might happen, but rather the things that slip up on you unexpectedly?  Therefore, watch out!

Today’s verse clearly testifies of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He was one of God’s poor in that He became poor for our sakes (2Corinthians 8:9) and as such the wicked lay in wait to destroy Him also.

Luke 11:53  And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things:

54  Laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him.

And today’s verse may also be applied to false teachers who lie in wait to entrap us with destructive doctrines.  Paul writes of these in the following verse:

Ephesians 4:14  That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive….

Mark well the psalmist’s recourse against the lying in wait of the wicked:  but I will consider thy testimonies.  Consider the definition of consider.  Of course, you will need to know what consider means if you are going to consider it. 

Consider – To contemplate mentally, fix the mind upon; to think over, meditate or reflect on, bestow attentive thought upon, give heed to, take note of.

Over against the lying in wait of the wicked for him, the psalmist resolved to fix his mind upon and to meditate on the Scriptures.  He would allow no threat of the enemy to so capture his mind and thoughts that he could not attend to his Bible.   And this shows us where the real danger lies, where the real battle is.  The real battle is for the control of our minds.  That is what the devil aims at when he attacks us.  He wants us to be so upset and distracted that we can’t focus our attention upon what God says in His word.  If the enemy can distract us, he stands a better chance of deceiving us.  But we will frustrate the design of our enemy if we keep our thoughts fixed on God’s testimonies.  Commenting on today’s verse Charles Spurgeon wrote:  “If the enemy cannot cause us to withdraw our thoughts from holy study, or our feet from holy walking, or our hearts from holy aspirations, he has met with poor success in his assaults.”  And add to this the fact that if you are considering God’s testimonies, this is your best defense against those who lie in wait to deceive you.  Whatever may be out there lying in wait for you, may God grant you grace to consider His testimonies.    

Psalm 119:94

Today’s verse is a concise and comprehensive statement regarding a believer’s relationship to God.  It states his relationship to God, the clearest evidence of that relationship, and what he can expect from that relationship.

Psalms 119:94  I am thine, save me; for I have sought thy precepts.

I am thine.  The pronoun thine is in the possessive case.  It states that the psalmist was God’s possession, that he belonged to the Lord.  All men and all things belong to God as their Maker.

Psalms 24:1  The earth is the LORD'S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

But God has chosen out of mankind a number of people who belong to Him in a way that the rest of them do not.

Deuteronomy 32:8  When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

9  For the LORD'S portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

Psalms 33:12  Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.

Those whom God has chosen, He has also redeemed from sin by the blood of His Son so that they are His not only by choice, but also by purchase.

1 Corinthians 6:19  What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Titus 2:14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Consider that word peculiar which is used to describe those whom Christ has redeemed.

Peculiar – That is one’s own private property; that belongs or pertains to, or characterizes, an individual person, place, or thing, or group of persons or things, as distinct from others.

Christ by His sacrifice has redeemed and purified unto Himself a people that are His own private property and are distinct from others.  Now when one chooses a house and purchases it, we say that he takes possession of it when he moves in and dwells in it.  It is the same with God’s people.  Being chosen and purchased by Him, God also possesses them by dwelling in them.  This is seen from 1Corinthians 6:19, which we cited above, and also in this verse: 

Romans 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

If the Spirit of God never indwells a man, that man does not belong to Christ.   “He is none of his.”  Therefore, being chosen, redeemed, and indwelt by God we may say with the psalmist:  I am thine. 

But how do you know that you belong to the Lord?  You may be assured that you are the Lord’s when you can say as did the psalmist:  for I have sought thy precepts.  If you seek to know and obey the Lord’s precepts, then by this you show that you are His.  You prove whose you are by whom you serve.

Acts 27:23  For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve….

Romans 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

1 John 3:24  And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

If you have the proof that you are the Lord’s, then you may boldly come to Him with this request:  Save me.  If we are the Lord’s by choice, redemption, and indwelling, we are already eternally saved.  But there are still many temptations and troubles in this life from which we need to be saved.  For example, we have already seen that the psalmist was beset by enemies that sought to destroy him.  In fact, they had “almost consumed” him upon earth and would have completely consumed him if God had not heard his prayer for deliverance (Psalm 119:87).  Charles Bridges expanded on this prayer thusly:  “Save me from the love of sin, from the daily guilt and power of sin; from the treachery of my own foolish heart:  from all this, and all besides, which thou seest ensnaring to my soul.”  That is the kind of prayer someone prays who is seeking God’s precepts.  If we belong to the Lord, it honours Him when we call upon Him to save us in a time of trouble.  By this means we show that we believe His love for us and His power to save us.

Psalms 50:14  Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:

15    And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

As a servant of Christ you have no greater privilege than that of belonging to Him.  Take advantage of that relationship and “come boldly” unto His throne of grace that you “may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).  Say unto God:  I am thine, save me.

Psalm 119:93

In verse 16 of Psalm 119 the psalmist had stated:  “I will not forget thy word.”  In the verse we consider today, taken from the octave entitled Lamed, we find the psalmist resolving again not to forget his Bible. 

Psalms 119:93 I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me.

In this verse the psalmist said he would never forget the Lord’s precepts.

Never – At no time, on no occasion.

The psalmist was determined that there would never be a time or an occasion in which he would forget the precepts of Scripture.  The Lord’s precepts are His rules for our conduct.  The psalmist always consulted with those precepts to see what they had to say about whatever he encountered in life.  His Bible was indeed the manual by which he lived.    

As we noted before when we considered verse 16, the will plays a major role in remembering something.  I will never forget.  You tend to remember the things you want to remember.  If you will to remember something, you will focus your attention on it and make greater effort not to forget it.  So much of our forgetting arises not from a lack of ability to remember, but from a lack of will to remember.    

The reason the psalmist determined never to forget God’s precepts was that with them thou hast quickened me.  Let us consider again the definition of quicken. 

Quicken – To give or restore life to; to make alive; to vivify or revive; to animate. To give, add, or restore vigour to (a person or thing); to stimulate, stir up, rouse, excite, inspire.

Now some erroneously use this verse to teach that the Scriptures are the means God uses to give everlasting life to sinners.  However, if one hears and believes the word of God he is already in possession of everlasting life as the following verse makes quite clear. 

John 5:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath (not “will have) everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed (not “will pass”) from death unto life.

Therefore, the precepts are not the instrument to give us everlasting life, but they are the instrument the Lord uses to nourish that life and to stir it up.

1 Peter 2:2  As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby….

Acts 2:40  And with many other words did he testify and exhort (to urge by stimulating words to conduct regarded as laudable), saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

Acts 20:32  And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.

In the psalmist’s experience, the precepts of Scripture had revived him when he was worn down.  They roused him to action when he needed a boost.  We do indeed have a tendency to remember those things that stimulate us, that restore our vigour when it is depleted.  As I write these words you can probably recall someone or something that lifted your spirit when you were down.  This was what the precepts had done for the psalmist and would continue to do for him.  Hence, he resolved he would never forget them.  If you would stay the course in running the Christian’s race, if you would keep up the good fight of faith, if you would maintain your zeal in the cause of Christ, then make it a point to never forget the precepts of the Lord for with them He quickens you.

Tomorrow will mark the beginning of the year 2014.  Let me take this opportunity to wish all of my readers who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and in truth a most blessed new year.