Psalm 119:128

Today’s meditation brings us to the last verse of the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Ain. 

Psalms 119:128  Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.

Like the verse that precedes this one, it begins with the word therefore.  So the thought expressed in this verse results from the thought expressed in the verse before it.  The reason the psalmist esteemed all God’s precepts to be right concerning all things was because he loved them above fine gold.  And he loved them above fine gold because men made void God’s law.  This verse and the preceding one show the psalmist reacting in the extreme against the disregard of God’s holy law that he was witnessing.  And when you consider how precious and how absolutely true the Scriptures are in every detail of them, you can understand one reacting in the extreme when they are dishonoured.  Such an extreme reaction is most certainly justified.

Let’s define that word esteem as it is key to understanding this verse.

Esteem – To estimate generally; to deem, think.  To account, consider, think, hold (a thing to be so and so). 

The psalmist considered all the precepts of God’s law concerning all things to be right.  Anything the Bible says about anything is right.  It is never wrong about anything.  Now the precepts are not right because the psalmist considered them to be.  Rather, the psalmist considered them to be right in all things because they are!  There is not one provable error in the entirety of Scripture.  But the rightness of all God’s precepts concerning all things is not going to affect you as it should if you do not esteem them to be right.  And you will not be prone to esteem them to always be right if you do not value them above the finest things this earth can offer.  If you begin to think the Bible just might not be right about something, it is most likely traceable to a warp in your value system.  There is something in this world that you love too much that one or more of the precepts of Scripture is threatening.  Therefore, you begin to doubt the correctness of the Bible to make allowance for yourself and what you love.

It is absolutely necessary that we esteem all God’s precepts to be right.  If we reject so much as one precept, then we have essentially rejected them all.  This is because all the precepts cohere together to form one law, one body of truth.  If you think one verse in the Bible is incorrect and you change it or explain it away, you will then have to change or explain away others to fit the change you have made so that you will end up making the law of God void.  So you either make God’s law void, or you esteem all its precepts concerning all things to be right.  This is an all or nothing proposition.  There is no middle ground when it comes to God’s holy word! 

Since the psalmist esteemed all God precepts concerning all things to be right, it followed that he hated every false way.  He who loved God’s commandments above fine gold hated every way than ran contrary to them.  In this case, hate was the opposite side of the coin of love.  If you really love truth, you will hate error.  How can it be otherwise?  How can you love truth above everything else and then love falsehood at the same time?  You can’t!  Commenting on the psalmist in this verse Charles Spurgeon wrote: 

“He was a good lover or a good hater, but he was never a waverer….His detestation was as unreserved as his affection; he had not a good word for any practice which would not bear the light of truth.”

This verse points us to the character of our Lord Jesus Christ of Whom it is written:

Hebrews 1:9  Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

And note that the psalmist hated every false way.  This would include not only the false ways of the profane world, but also the false ways of the religious world.  If you love God’s word as you ought and you consider everything it says to be right, then you hate false bibles, false doctrines, and false ordinances just as much as you hate idolatry, murder, fornication, adultery, sodomy, drunkenness, and theft.  It does not matter whether the false way is the moral filth that runs in the gutters of our streets and media, or the lies that dress up in the garb of piety.  If it is false, you hate it if you truly love God’s precepts above fine gold and esteem all of them concerning all things to be right.

This brings us to the end of this octave.  If you are reading and profiting from these meditations, I would appreciate receiving at least a brief comment from you to that effect.  Thank you. 

Psalm 119:127

 The verse I take up today from Psalm 119 has a special significance for me.  I have had to turn a page in my Bible to arrive at it.  It stands as the first verse in the top of the left column of the left page.  As I look over to the end of the left column on the opposite page I see verse 176 which is the last verse of Psalm 119.  So the end of this commentary that I am writing on Psalm 119 is visibly in sight.  We have only fifty verses to go.  Of course, you know how fast I can whip through fifty verses!  I jest.

In the verse that precedes the one we consider today, the psalmist spoke of those who have made void God’s law.  Today’s verse shows how this spurred an opposite reaction in the psalmist.

 Psalms 119:127  Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.

 The transition between the preceding verse and this one turns on the word therefore.

 Therefore - In consequence of that; that being so; as a result or inference from what has been stated; consequently.

The psalmist’s love of God’s commandments resulted from men making void God’s law.  The fact that men disregarded God’s law as though it were of no consequence drove him to love it.  He was not numbered among those of whom our Saviour spoke when He said:  “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12).  Our hearts are right with the Lord when the sin of others only makes us love Him and His commandments more.  The carelessness and sin of others should be our signal not to go where they are but to turn and run in the opposite direction.  Do men make void the law of God?  Then I will make sure I love and value it above the finest things this world can offer.  Maybe God’s word means nothing to them, but it means everything to me.  We should have the same reaction that Paul had when he was at Athens:

Acts 17:16  Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.

Rather than being calloused by the idolatry he saw in Athens, Paul was stirred to the point of giving one of the greatest defenses ever for the existence of the one true and living God.  The ignorance of the true God that Paul witnessed in that place stirred his love and jealously for his Lord.

The love of the psalmist for God’s commandments was so great that is exceeded his love of gold, the most precious of metals.  By means of the word yea he affirmed that he even loved God’s commandments more than fine gold, the best of the best of the precious metals.

In His commandments the Lord tells us what to do.  Now if the psalmist was in possession of much fine gold, he would have been able to do most anything he might have wanted to do in this world. But he loved being told by his God what to do more than the wealth that would put him in a position to afford to do whatever he wanted.  He loved the Book that guided him through his day more than anything money could buy. There was no position in this world, no place he could live or travel to, no possession however dear, and no opportunity for fame or fortune that dazzled him more than “thus saith the Lord.”  Now that is what I call loving the Bible!  Obviously the commandments of God gained a lot more for the psalmist than the finest gold could ever gain. 

Psalms 19:10  More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

11    Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward. 

That says it all!

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!