Psalm 119:4

We have noted that the first three verses of Psalm 119 are statements regarding the effect of the scriptures on the lives of those who obey them. We have seen that the way to avoid committing iniquity and to attain true happiness is to simply do what the Bible says and to do it wholeheartedly. Now we come to verse 4 which begins a long series of prayers. With the exception of verse 115, the rest of the Psalm consists of prayers.

Psalms 119:4 Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.

Since the verse opens with the second person singular pronoun thou, we know that the psalmist is addressing God. We use second person pronouns when we are talking to someone. I say that this verse is a prayer, because we usually say we are praying when we are talking to God. We have already examined the dictionary definition of prayer and found that prayer consists of requests and thanksgivings to God. Now the verse we are considering is of itself neither a request for something nor a thanksgiving for something. It is rather an acknowledgement to God of how God wants us to keep His precepts. In fact, we do not hit upon a request until we get to verse 8. Up to the point of making this request, the Psalmist is acknowledging facts, facts about God and about himself. If you examine other prayers in the Bible, you will find this kind of thing. The person praying not only makes requests, but intersperses those requests with confessions of faith, confessions of sin, and descriptions of circumstances. To sum this up, we can say that prayer is a conversation with God in which we not only ask Him for things and thank Him for things, but in which we also just tell Him things, things about Himself and things about ourselves and others. If you think about it, it is much like talking to a friend. In fact, it is talking to a Friend, the best Friend any of us have or ever could have!

According to the verse we are considering, God not only commands us to keep His precepts, which He most certainly does in numerous places in the Bible, but God commands us to keep them diligently. God commanded Israel to keep the commandments of His law diligently.

Deuteronomy 6:17 Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee.

Deuteronomy 28:1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:

To keep the precepts diligently is to keep them with diligence. Now you know what comes next. Let’s define diligence.

Diligence – Constant and earnest effort to accomplish what is undertaken; persistent application and endeavour; industry, assiduity (constant and close attention to the business in hand, perseverance).

If we are keeping God’s commandments diligently, we are paying close attention to keeping them, we are making an earnest effort to keep them, and we are keeping them constantly. God is very displeased with a lazy, lackadaisical, indifferent attitude toward what He commands in His word. Religion is serious business with God. And if we know what is good for us, it had better be serious business with us as well. The religion of God deserves our best efforts.

Furthermore, the obedience that pleases God is an obedience that is consistent. It is not enough to occasionally do what God says. We must stay focused on doing what God says and we must continue to do it. Do you ever hear a sermon that convicts you of something amiss in your life and you really focus on making it right for a day or two only then to return to your old habits? That is not keeping the precepts diligently. For example, suppose you hear a sermon on the importance of training up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 6:4). You become convicted that you have been negligent and so for a few days you read the Bible with your children, pray with them, and really step up the discipline. Then after a few days the conviction dies down and you fall back to letting the computer and the television take over while the Bible sits on the shelf waiting to be picked up for church on Sunday. After all, we do want to look pious for church, don’t we? Is this keeping God’s commandments diligently? Hardly!

We miss so much when we do not keep God’s commandments diligently. Recall that when we studied Psalm 119:2 we saw that keeping God’s commandments is essential to seeking the Lord. With this in mind note these words:

Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

God rewards those who diligently seek Him, that is, who diligently keep His precepts. Keeping God’s precepts as He commands will enrich your life. No matter how much you achieve of power, status, or fortune in this world through your diligent efforts, if you are not diligent in keeping God’s precepts, YOU ARE A LOSER!

Psalm 119:1-3: Jesus Christ the Blessed

I had intended to launch into Psalm 119:4 for this week’s meditation. But on Sunday morning the thought occurred to me of how Psalm 119:1-3 is such a perfect description of the Lord Jesus Christ. When I introduced this series of meditations, I wrote this concerning the verses of Psalm 119: “And as I pore over them, I shall keep an eye out to behold the Lord Jesus Christ as He is certain to show Himself here as in all the other Scriptures.” So before passing beyond the first three verses of this psalm, let us see Christ in them.

Psalms 119:1 ALEPH. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD.
2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.
3 They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.

As we have seen, these three verses describe a blessed or happy man. The verses speak in the plural and so refer to any man that wholeheartedly patterns His life according to the word of God. And, thanks be to God, He has made provision through the blood and righteousness of His Son Jesus Christ that even sinners can attain unto this blessedness.

But the most perfect, the absolutely untarnished example of the blessed man as described in these verses is our Lord Jesus Christ. First, He was undefiled in the way.

Hebrews 7:26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;

It should go without saying that walking in God’s law and keeping His testimonies pleases Him. Jesus Christ of all men walked in the law of the Lord and kept His testimonies. His entire life was spent in perfect obedience to the law of God. Thus He pleased God. Speaking of Himself He said:

John 8:29 And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

And the Lord Jesus sought God His Father with His whole heart.

John 7:18 He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.

Christ did not seek His own glory. He did not pursue His own self-interest. His whole life was about doing the will of God and glorifying God. In fact, doing the will of God was the thing that sustained Him. It was His very meat. It was what energized Him and kept Him going.

John 4:34 Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

And since our Lord flawlessly walked in God’s law, kept His testimonies, and sought Him with the whole heart, He is the only man of Whom it could be said in the fullest sense of the word that He did “no iniquity.” He is the only man in all of history of Whom words like this could be written:

1 Peter 2:22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:

Hebrews 4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ fits the description of a blessed man given in these first three verses of Psalm 119. He of all men is most supremely blessed. Well, then, might we join in chorus with those who exclaimed His praises when He entered into Jerusalem “riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass”:

Mark 11:9 And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Psalm 119:3

We come today to third verse of Psalm 119, in which the Psalmist further describes those who walk in the law of the Lord, that keep His testimonies, and that seek Him with the whole heart.

Psalms 119:3 They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.

The first three verses of this Psalm remind us of the definition of sin given by the apostle John.

1 John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

If one does what the law says, he commits no sin, he does no iniquity. If one transgresses the law he goes beyond the bounds it sets and thus breaks the law, that is, he sins and does iniquity.

Now we are straightly commanded not to sin.

Psalms 4:4 Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.

1 John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.

The way to keep from sinning is to walk in the law of the Lord, to keep His testimonies, and to seek Him with the whole heart. If you would avoid sin, simply do what the Bible says and that wholeheartedly. This also explains what it means to “walk in the Spirit” as Paul commanded us in this verse:

Galatians 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

If we are not fulfilling the lust of the flesh, we are not sinning since sin proceeds from the lust of the flesh.

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.

Now the question might arise, just how does one “walk in the Spirit”? These first three verses of Psalm 119 answer that question. To walk in the Spirit is to walk in the law of the Lord, to keep His testimonies, and to seek Him with the whole heart. This makes sense when you remember that the Scriptures are given to us by the Holy Spirit of God.

2 Peter 1:20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

Because the law comes from the Spirit of God, Paul could describe it in Romans 7:14 as spiritual.

Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual.

Therefore, our Psalm has opened up showing us how to walk in the Spirit, how to be spiritual believers. This Psalm describes those who live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). The experiences of this Psalm are intensely spiritual. The spiritual believers are those who “walk in His ways.”

Examine your ways. Do they agree with God’s ways? If not, then you are doing iniquity. If such is the case with you then there is this commandment from the law of the Lord that you need to keep:

Isaiah 55:6 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

In turning to God from your sin and in confessing your sin to God, God will forgive and cleanse you of that sin. You have His word of promise on that.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Now if you are cleansed from all unrighteousness, then you have no unrighteousness. Your unrighteousness is gone. That is, God sees you as one of those who “do no iniquity.” You are one of those described Psalm 119:3 and in this comforting verse:

Jeremiah 50:20 In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve.

Because God has pardoned you, you have no iniquity! Thanks be to God that through His pardoning mercy and the cleansing blood of our Lord Jesus Christ we can experience the blessedness, the happiness of those who walk in the law of the Lord, that keep His testimonies, that seek Him with the whole heart, and that do no iniquity.

Psalm 119:2

Psalm 119 goes on in the second verse to describe those who are blessed or happy.

Psalms 119:2 Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.

They are genuinely happy who do two things: they keep God’s testimonies and they seek Him with the whole heart. As noted in the introduction, the word testimonies is one of the various words describing the word of God, the Scriptures. First of all, what is it to keep His testimonies?

Keep – To have regard, pay attention to, observe. To pay attention or regard to; to observe, stand to, or dutifully abide by (an ordinance, law, custom, practice, covenant, promise, faith, a thing prescribed or fixed, as a treaty, truce, peace, a set time or day.

The blessed souls pay attention to God’s word. They do not ignore their Bible. They read it and listen to it preached. They dutifully believe and practice what the Bible teaches. They defend the Bible. Of course, in order to keep the testimonies, it is imperative that one have the testimonies. It is pretty hard to keep something you don’t have. Duh! I thought I would throw some slang in there to give you a break from my rather lofty style of writing.

The God Who gave us His words has promised to preserve them.

Psalms 12:6 The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
7 Thou shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.

Anyone who follows my teaching knows that I believe that the A.V. 1611 or the King James Version of the Bible is the pure, preserved word of God in the English language. I consider myself blessed to have God’s testimonies and my greatest happiness is found in keeping them.

The blessed souls are also those that seek God with the whole heart. God will not be sought half-heartedly. This was one of the Lord’s chief complaints against Israel.

Jeremiah 3:10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.

God considers it pretence if you are not seeking Him with your whole heart. You may profess to be entirely devoted to God, but in reality you have something else that you are devoted to that competes with your pursuit of the Lord. It may be your educational goals, your professional goals, your financial goals, your family, your social life, or your pleasures. These things are all fine in their place so long as they are always subordinate to seeking the Lord to please Him and to do His will. If you are struggling with a divided heart, then this prayer is a suitable one for you to pray:

Psalms 86:11 Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.

One who seeks God with a united heart seeks God with his whole heart. His heart is not divided.

Observe that seeking God is connected by the word and to keeping His testimonies. God will be sought on His terms! Keeping God’s testimonies is essential to seeking God with the whole heart. And this pertains to things we might consider unimportant. The man who seeks God with his whole heart considers nothing God has said as indifferent or unimportant. When David at first attempted to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, the ark was carried on a cart drawn by oxen. When the oxen shook the ark, Uzzah put for his had to steady the ark and God smote Uzzah for it. Uzzah did not have authority from God to touch His ark. Furthermore, the ark was supposed to be carried on the shoulders of the Levites, not on a cart drawn by oxen. David later recognized his error as the following passage shows:

1 Chronicles 15:11 And David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, for Uriel, Asaiah, and Joel, Shemaiah, and Eliel, and Amminadab,
12 And said unto them, Ye are the chief of the fathers of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel unto the place that I have prepared for it.
13 For because ye did it not at the first, the LORD our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order.

How the ark was carried might seem trivial to us. Many would reason that as long as the ark got to Jerusalem that was all that mattered. But God had commanded that the ark be carried by the Levites and He would tolerate no deviation from His order of doing business. And David connects this with seeking the Lord. So do not talk about seeking God with your whole heart, unless you are willing to do anything and everything that God says the way He says to do it.

Lastly, you are indeed blessed if you are keeping God’s testimonies and seeking Him with your whole heart because these are evidences that you have the Spirit of God within you and that God has given you a new heart.

Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Jeremiah 24:7 And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.

Psalm 119:1

With a prayer for the blessing of Almighty God we are now ready to begin our verse by verse meditation of Psalm 119 starting, of course, with the first verse of the first section entitled Aleph.

Psalms 119:1 ALEPH. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD.

As noted in the introduction, the first three verses of Psalm 119 are not prayers. They are rather statements regarding the effect of the scriptures on the lives of those who obey them. Verse 1 pronounces them blessed who are undefiled in the way. It goes on to describe those who are undefiled in the way as those “who walk in the law of the LORD.” Let’s begin with considering what it means to be blessed.

Blessed – Enjoying supreme felicity; happy, fortunate.

The word blessed translates the Hebrew word esher which means happiness. It is rendered happy in Deuteronomy 33:29; 1Kings 10:8; Psalm 127:5; 144:15; 146:5; Proverbs 3:13; 29:18.

Thus our psalm opens up by introducing us to that one thing that all men claim to want and to seek and that is to be happy. Sadly, however, most men seek happiness in the wrong way. But our verse points to the way in which men can find happiness.

In order to understand what it is to be blessed, we need to grasp what it is to be happy. For this we will examine the dictionary definition of happy.

Happy – Coming or happening by chance; fortuitous; chance. Having good ‘hap’ or fortune; lucky, fortunate; favoured by lot, position, or other external circumstance.

Now the scriptures teach that a man can be happy even when he is not favoured in his external circumstances. His happiness does not depend upon chance happenings in his life, but upon something much deeper. So we look further in the definitions and we light upon this one.

Happy - Having a feeling of great pleasure or content of mind, arising from satisfaction with one’s circumstances or condition; also in weakened sense: Glad, pleased

This more agrees with the overall teaching of scripture regarding happiness. Happiness does indeed have something to do with things that happen and with circumstances. But Biblical happiness lies in how we deal with those happenings and circumstances. The following verses will demonstrate the meaning of happiness as Psalm 119 presents it.

Luke 6:20 And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are ye that hunger now: for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now: for ye shall laugh.
22 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.
23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets.

Observe from this passage that one can be blessed or happy even in adverse external circumstances.

1 Timothy 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.
8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

James 5:10 Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.
11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

If in the midst of want and adversity you can experience great pleasure and contentment of mind, you are blessed or happy indeed. Paul obviously experienced such blessedness as he could both be “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10).

Our psalm opens with pronouncing them blessed or happy who are undefiled in the way. First of all, they are in the way. As we noted in the introduction, the way refers to the course of life and conduct God has set before us to pursue. This definition of the way is confirmed in this verse as it goes on to describe those in the way as those who walk in the law of the LORD. To better understand this, consider the definition of walk.

Walk – To journey, move about, esp. on foot. fig. Chiefly in religious use, after Bible examples: To conduct oneself, behave (ill or well, wisely or unwisely). Sometimes with reference to a metaphorical ‘path’ or ‘way.’

Those who are in the way are those whose conduct is regulated by the law of the Lord. They move about in life under the direction of that law. In other words, they live their lives according to the teachings of the Bible, doing what it commands and avoiding what it forbids. The truly happy souls are those who are in that course of life that God has prescribed in His law.

Now observe that they are undefiled in that way. They are undefiled as they conduct themselves according to God’s commandments. Their reasons for keeping God’s commandments are pure. They do not obey God to be seen of men, or to acquire money, prestige, and power for themselves. They keep God’s commandments out of a sincere conviction that this is indeed the right way to live and they want to live that right way. Their goal is to please God, not merely to please themselves. And they endeavour to keep God’s commandments purely, just as He has delivered them. They do not mix God’s commandments with the inventions of men. They are undefiled in the way.

In conclusion, consider just how blessed or happy they are that are in the way. Isaiah vividly describes their blessedness.

Isaiah 35:8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.
9 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:
10 And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Those who are undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord, are walking in “The way of holiness.” They are living clean since the unclean have no access to this way. They are “wayfaring men,” that is, they are men on a journey. This world is not their home. They are “just a passing through.” They are “marching upward to Zion, the beautiful city of God,” their eternal home. Since “they shall not err therein” they can be sure they are doing the right thing no matter what else may go wrong in their lives. Satan, the roaring lion, cannot devour them as long as they remain in this way since “no lion shall be there.” Those that walk there are "the redeemed" of the Lord. Christ has died for them and secured the forgiveness of all their sins.

Colossians 1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

The happiness that those in this way experience is an everlasting happiness with perfect joy and perfect health at the end. Indeed, “blessed are the undefiled in the way.” This, dear reader, is the way to true and lasting happiness.