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.

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.

Psalm 119:124

I ain gonna tell you what octave we are going through in Psalm 119, as that should be obvious.

Psalms 119:124  Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes.

Let us begin by again defining the word mercy as this will shed light on the psalmist’s prayer.

Mercy - Forbearance and compassion shown by one person to another who is in his power and who has no claim to receive kindness; kind and compassionate treatment in a case where severity is merited or expected.

As in other places in Psalm 119, the psalmist when speaking to the Lord refers to himself as thy servant.  He served God so faithfully that he could say in verse 121 that he had “done judgment and justice.”  But a true servant of God, no matter how faithfully he serves, still recognizes his need of God’s mercy since the best service he can offer the Lord is flawed by his sinfulness and weakness.  Even though we serve the Lord the best that we can, we still have no claim to God’s kindness.  We deserve His severity instead.  And if the Lord dealt with us according to His severity, He would mark every flaw and condemn us for them.  It takes only one act of disobedience to constitute us as transgressors and deserving of God’s judgment.

James 2:10  For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

But, thanks be to God,

Psalms 103:10  He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

11    For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

Psalms 130:3  If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

4  But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.

And remember that according to this octave the psalmist was undergoing oppression and that his eyes were failing for God’s salvation. In this low condition, he begged his God to deal with him according unto His mercy, something he certainly was not receiving at the hands of his oppressors.  Note above that mercy is defined as “kind and compassionate treatment.”  Compassion is “pity that inclines one to spare or to succour.”  The psalmist needed the Lord to pity him and to be moved by his distress so as to help and deliver him. 

So this brings me to an important conclusion.  Whether you are serving God as faithfully as you can, or whether you have sinned, or whether you are being oppressed by enemies, or whether you have reached a point of exhaustion in whatever you are doing or going through, the one thing you need most of all is the mercy of God.  A prayer for mercy is a prayer for something that will cover all the bases.  This prayer:  deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy is one of the most comprehensive prayers you can pray. 

Now the psalmist added this other request to his prayer that the Lord would deal with Him according unto His mercy:  teach me thy statutes.  We met with this request in verse 64 when the psalmist acknowledged that the earth “is full” of God’s mercy.  It is interesting how the thought of God’s mercy awakened within the psalmist a desire to learn his duty as laid down in the Scriptures.  Commenting on this verse Matthew Henry wrote:  “In difficult times we should desire more to be told what we must do than what we may expect….”  I cannot say it better.  Too often we want to know the outcome of our difficulty rather than our duty in our difficulty!  If you are learning your duty to God from His word, the Lord is dealing with you according unto His mercy, no matter how bad things are.  And you have much cause to be thankful, because this shows you to be one of God’s elect, one of “the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory” (Romans 9:23).  You have some good times ahead of you!

Psalm 119:123

As we come to today’s verse of Psalm 119, we encounter the psalmist experiencing again something he expressed in verse 82:  the failing of his eyes.

Psalms 119:123  Mine eyes fail for thy salvation, and for the word of thy righteousness.

In verse 82 his eyes were failing for God’s word as a source of comfort.  Here his eyes were failing for God’s salvation and for His word.  The psalmist was obviously in the throes of trouble.  In verse 82 he was looking for some comfort.  In today’s verse he was looking for deliverance.  His trouble has dragged on so long and he looked for relief for so long that his eyes were losing their power to look any longer.  His eyes were failing. 

And his eyes were also failing for the word of God’s righteousness.  He read in his Bible and heard from his teachers the promises of God to deliver His people.  And he knew that the word He read and heard was the word of God’s righteousness, the word of a God Who is Himself righteous and Who is, therefore, righteous in all that He says and does.  He is a God Who never errs and Who cannot lie.  His judgments are “true and righteous altogether” (Psalm 19:9) and worthy of our complete confidence.  If He promises to saves us, He will save us.  But where was the promised salvation?  Why was deliverance so long in coming?  Commenting on this verse Matthew Henry wrote:  “It is often the infirmity even of good men to be weary of waiting God’s time when their time has elapsed.” 

If you find yourself feeling like the psalmist, let me give you this word of comfort:  even though your eyes fail for God’s salvation and His word of righteousness, His word of righteousness will never fail.  The failing is happening on your end, not on His.  He has said in the word of His righteousness:  “I will not fail thee” (Joshua 1:5).  He has said He will not suffer His faithfulness to fail (Psalms 89:33).  And it is written of Him that “His compassions fail not” (Lamentations 3:22).  Therefore, His salvation is sure, even though it be delayed.  So if your eyes are failing for God’s salvation, here is what you need:

Hebrews 10:36  For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

37  For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.

Habakkuk 2:3  For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.    

Furthermore, if you are in such a state as the psalmist was, let me give you this advice:  When you pray tell the Lord that you are waiting for the word of His righteousness.  Pit His righteousness against your doubts and despair.  Always acknowledge that He is right, no matter what may be wrong in your life.  This is putting everything on Him and what He has promised to do about it. 

And may you find comfort in these words taken from a psalm that is a prophecy of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Psalms 69:3  I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

That is Jesus talking, dear reader.  His eyes also failed as He waited for God’s salvation.  And look where He is today!  He is even “at the right hand of the throne of God” where there are “pleasures for evermore” (Hebrews 12:2; Psalm 16:11).  And so shall you be.

Revelation 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Psalm 119:122

Today we take up the second verse of the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Ain.  This verse continues the theme of the preceding verse in that it too is a prayer to be delivered from oppression.

Psalms 119:122  Be surety for thy servant for good: let not the proud oppress me.

Let it first be noted that this is one of the four verses of Psalm 119 that does not use one of the ten words used in the Psalm to refer to God’s written word.  The other verses are verses 89, 90, and 132.  But as we shall show, the instruction of this verse extends out to the overall theme of the written revelation of God to man, the Holy Scriptures.

In today’s verse the psalmist prays to God:  be surety for thy servant for good.  Now just what is a surety?

Surety – A person who undertakes some specific responsibility on behalf of another who remains primarily liable; one who makes himself liable for the default or miscarriage of another, or for the performance of some act on his part.

The psalmist adds to this request:  let not the proud oppress me.  To oppress another is to press him down, overwhelm him, trample upon him, or tyrannize him.  Now it stands to reason that the proud are just the kind of people who will oppress others.  The proud take delight in asserting their superiority, real or supposed, over others, whether it be superiority in rank, wealth, strength, or intelligence.  By putting down others the proud reinforce their feeling of superiority. 

In making his petition, the psalmist presented himself to the Lord as His servant.  A servant of God is one who seeks to do God’s will rather than his own.  And, of course, the will of God for His servants is expressed in the Holy Scriptures.  Therefore, the overall theme of Psalm 119 is found in this verse also.  And being a servant of God, he stood in stark contrast to the proud who are stuck on themselves and their will.  The proud strive to assert their will above all even when it means oppressing others, as is often the case.

Now the psalmist realized that if he was to be delivered from being oppressed by the proud, he would need someone to undertake for him that was greater than both himself and the proud.  Thus, he prayed to the Almighty God to be his surety.  The psalmist would have the Lord take up his cause as the Lord’s own cause and stand up for him.  Furthermore, he prayed that the Lord would be his surety for good, to do for him the good he could not do or had failed to do.  If the Lord does not undertake for us, then our enemies will capitalize on our faults, failures, and weaknesses in order to run us down.  This is a major ploy of our archenemy, the devil.  He is called “the accuser of our brethren” in Revelation 12:10.  But as our Surety, the Lord stands good for our debts to His justice; He imparts to us His righteousness; and He comes to our defence against our adversaries.  Even in those areas where we have failed so miserably in our battle with sin, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, Who was “made a surety of a better testament” (Hebrews 7:22), secures our pardon.  Thus we can rise up from our defeat and continue to be the servants of the Most High God, Who undertakes to maintain us in that honourable employment.  So it is written of our brethren that the devil accuses:  “And they overcame him (the devil) by the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 12:11).  The following words of Paul declare the Lord as our Surety for good:

Romans 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

34  Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

I adjoin the prayer of today’s verse with this acknowledgement of the Lord Jehovah (LORD) as our Surety for good:

Psalms 94:16  Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?

17  Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.

18  When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up.