Psalm 119:10

We now come to the second verse in the second section of Psalm 119 entitled Beth.

Psalms 119:10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.

This is a prayer to God that He would not permit the psalmist to wander from His commandments. That the psalmist was in earnest with this petition is seen again in the usage of the interjection O at the beginning of the prayer. The psalmist was emotional about this; he was not indifferent.

Now just exactly what it is to wander from God’s commandments? Let’s define that word wander.

Wander – Of persons or animals: To move hither and thither without fixed course or certain aim; to be (in motion) without control or direction; to roam, ramble, go idly or restlessly about; to have no fixed abode or station. fig. or in fig. context: Of persons (also of the mind, thoughts, desires, etc. personified): To turn aside from a purpose, from a determined course of conduct, or train of thought; to digress; to pass out of the control of reason or conscience; to fall into error (moral or intellectual), etc.

The person who wanders from God’s commandments loses focus on keeping them. Something else or perhaps several things are distracting him from God’s commandments. Making sure that his entire life is in conformity to God’s commandments is no longer his chief priority. He has lost that direction.

Notice that this petition is made by someone who could say of himself: “With my whole heart have I sought thee.” This is a true believer. We discovered when we considered Psalm 119:2 that seeking God with the whole heart involves a willingness to do anything and everything that God commands the way He commands us to do it. King Hezekiah is a good example of one who sought God with His whole heart. The following verse describes Hezekiah:

2 Chronicles 31:21 And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.

Observe from this verse that seeking God with the whole heart involves the house of God (the church), the law (the Bible), and the commandments (obedience). Don’t think you are seeking God with your whole heart if these three things are not given paramount consideration in your life. Seeking God with your whole heart means that every other desire or ambition you might have takes a backseat to pleasing the Lord. Now anyone who has ever sought God with his whole heart has discovered the richest and best life that a human being can have on this earth. Wholehearted service to God brings a joy that nothing else in this world can offer. If you have had that joy, then you have a dread of ever losing it. Therefore, you should earnestly pray to God to never let you wander from His commandments. If you have never had that joy, then you have never yet sought God with your whole heart.

The believer who seeks God with his whole heart is the one who is most keenly aware of a propensity within himself to be drawn away from that purpose and course of life. He is the one Satan will try hardest to lead astray. Therefore, for him to stay the course is a constant battle. Let me recall a previous quote I gave you by C. S. Lewis from Mere Christianity: “Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all…you find out the strength of the wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down.” That soul who seeks God with his whole heart will not be self-confident in his obedience. He will rather acknowledge his proneness to wander from it and will constantly strive and pray against that proneness.

On the other hand, if you do not have a struggle with a tendency to wander from God’s commandments, you have likely wandered already. You probably do not seek the Lord with your whole heart and, therefore, you perceive no danger.

Now here is a frightening thought: if we ever become lackadaisical and careless in seeking the Lord, if we do not give Him His due place in our hearts and lives, then He will withdraw His hand and let us wander from His commandments.

Psalms 81:11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.
12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!

And when we wander from God’s commandments, we will inevitably find ourselves in a way that is not good, even though we may think it is.

Isaiah 65:2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts.

May this meditation on today’s verse give you a deeper appreciation of these words taken from the song Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandr’ing heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Psalm 119:9

We now come to the second section of Psalm 119 under the title of Beth, which is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

Psalms 119:9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

Owing to the fall of man into sin, man’s nature is corrupted from his youth.

Genesis 8:21 …for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.

These words were God’s assessment of mankind after the cataclysmic judgment of a worldwide flood. Even a judgment of that magnitude did not change the bent of youth toward evil.

Youth is a time when the desires of the flesh are at their peak of intensity. Because youth are young in years, there is much of life they have not experienced and yet they intensely long to experience it. Couple this youthful passion with a sin nature and you have an explanation of why youth is often scarred with painful memories of follies and sins as these two verses show:

Job 13:26 For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.

Psalms 25:7 Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness' sake, O LORD.

Youth should be a time to perfect one’s potential and to grow upward spiritually, intellectually, and morally. Yet sadly, the trend in youth if too often downward and much of that time must be written off as wasted. The word unclean is an altogether too apt description of much of the way of youth.

The verse we are considering in today’s meditation shows how a young man can make the best of his youth, how he can maximize upon the potential of his youthful mind and vigour. Our verse shows how a young man can “clean up his act” and redirect his youth. The way to do this is to take heed to his way. Let’s define that word heed.

Heed – Careful attention, care, observation, regard. Especially in the phrase to take heed.

If a young man would clean up the way he lives, he must begin by caring! He must stop being careless and reckless. He needs to pay attention to what he doing, why he is doing it, and what will be the consequences of his choices for himself and for others. How sad it is to see a young man throw away his life in alcohol and drug abuse, pornography, premarital sex (or whoremongering, as the Bible calls it), and crime while he seems to not give a care about the consequences of his evil choices. Again, cleansing one’s way begins with caring.

Now many a young man has reformed his behaviour by beginning to care about his grades, his place on the team, his career, or maybe even his family. While this will win him approval with men, it is not enough to please God. There are a lot of “good” young people whose ways are clean in the eyes of men. We often hear them spoken of as “nice kids.” Yet their way is unclean in the eyes of God. Our verse is talking about cleansing one’s way before the Lord! In order to do that, the young man must take heed unto his way “according to thy (God’s) word.” He must see to it that the way he chooses to go in life is in agreement with what God’s requires of him in His written word.

A young man’s way is the whole course or direction of his life that he chooses to pursue. It includes his thoughts, motives, and attitude; the choices he makes for friends, for a spouse, for a profession, for a location, for recreation, for a faith, for a church; and whatever else goes to make up the way he lives. If a young man (or woman) would live a clean life in the eyes of God – and that’s where it counts most! - he (she) must pay careful attention to what God says in His word and follow it. A young man needs two things to cleanse his way: (1) God’s word to guide his way and (2) careful attentiveness to that word. Matthew Henry said it well:

“God’s word will not do without our watchfulness, and a constant regard both to it and to our way, that we may compare them together.”

Of course, it stands that the only way any young man can cleanse his way is through the satisfaction that the Lord Jesus Christ made for God’s chosen people on the cross of Calvary. Without the blood of Christ, all our ways are unclean and can never be anything but unclean.

Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.

But thanks be to God, Christ has redeemed us by His blood from all of our sins so that we can now truly do good works, that is, we can cleanse our way according to God’s word.

Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
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.

I close this mediation by issuing this call to young men:

Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

2 Timothy 2:22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Psalm 119:8

We now come to the last verse of the first section of Psalm 119 entitled Aleph.

Psalms 119:8 I will keep thy statutes: O forsake me not utterly.

Zero in on those first two words: “I will.” In order to truly keep God’s statutes, you must exercise your will. If obedience to God is something you do on a wave of emotion, you will not stick with it. As soon as the emotion dies down, and it will, you will be on to something else. Rather, obedience to God must arise from an act of will, a determination to do it, a determination that will transcend all the ups and downs of your emotions through all the changing circumstances of life. It behooves each of us to adopt this resolve as the driving impulse of our life, the single most important goal we seek to attain. Whatever else we may do or not do, whatever of life we may experience or not experience, this one thing we will do, we will keep God’s statutes. And firmly resolving to do this will provide a grid for sorting out everything that comes into our lives demanding our time and attention.

But having made this firm resolution, the psalmist immediately follows up with the request that God not forsake him utterly. Commenting on this prayer, Charles Bridges wrote: “Firm in his purpose, but distrustful of his strength, instantly upon forming his resolution, he recollects that the performance is beyond his power.” How true! We cannot keep God’s statutes without Him. Hence, we beg God to not forsake us utterly. Now guess what comes next. You got it! To fully grasp what the psalmist is requesting, we must define our terms.

Forsake – To abandon, leave entirely, withdraw from; esp. to withdraw one’s presence and help or companionship from; to desert.

Utterly – In a complete or utter manner; to an absolute or extreme degree; altogether, entirely, absolutely; fully, thoroughly, out and out.

The psalmist is asking God not to withdraw His presence and help, at least not completely and entirely. That the prayer begins with the interjection O indicates that the psalmist was in earnest in his request. He realized how desperately he needed God’s presence and help.

Now God does indeed forsake His people at times for various reasons. The Lord may forsake us because we have forsaken Him.

2 Chronicles 15:1 And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded:
2 And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin; The LORD is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.

God might forsake us if we become overconfident in our prosperity. David experienced this.

Psalms 30:6 And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.
7 LORD, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.

Or the Lord might forsake us to try us, to bring to light some corruption lurking in our hearts. This happened to Hezekiah after God healed him of a life-threatening sickness.

2 Chronicles 32:24 In those days Hezekiah was sick to the death, and prayed unto the LORD: and he spake unto him, and he gave him a sign.
25 But Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.

Hezekiah’s heart was lifted up and he behaved unwisely in showing off the riches of his kingdom to the ambassadors of Babylon. Babylon later proved to be a formidable enemy. The Lord forsook Hezekiah for a time; He left him so as to expose this pride in his heart.

2 Chronicles 32:31 Howbeit in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.

In such cases God forsakes us to correct us, to get us back on the track of keeping His statutes. But if God should forsake us utterly, we would fail utterly. We would never be able to find our way back. Hence we pray: “O forsake me not utterly.” In dealing with my own personal weaknesses I have sometimes said to the Lord in my prayer: “Keep working with me, Lord. Do what You need to, but don’t give up on me.” In essence I was saying to the Lord, “O forsake me not utterly.”

Now the wonderful thing about it is that we have a promise from God that He will not forsake His children utterly even though they disobey Him.

Psalms 89:30 If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
31 If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;
32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
33 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.

We are actually pleading this promise when we pray to God to not forsake us utterly. Thanks be to God that though He may at times forsake His children, He only forsakes them for a little while rather than completely and forever.

Isaiah 54:7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

Psalm 119:7

It is right that when we ask something of God, that we resolve to praise Him for it when we have received it. And it is good that we tell Him that we shall do so. This is what we find happening in our verse for today’s meditation.

Psalms 119:7 I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.

I can think of three reasons why the psalmist would praise God when he had learned His righteous judgments. First, he will praise God because those righteous judgments would not be there to learn if God did not give them to us. Secondly, he will praise God for this because we would never learn God’s judgments if God did not incline our hearts to want to learn them. Thirdly, God is to be praised for this because we cannot learn His righteous judgments except He teach us. We can read them and hear them taught, but without the enabling of the Holy Spirit, we will not learn. The book we read and the teacher we hear are the instruments, but God the Holy Spirit is the teacher. No matter how good a Biblical scholar you may be, always recognize that you can only learn the Scriptures if God teaches you. Were God to withhold the enabling of His Spirit, your learning would cease. So you do well every time you seek to learn to ask God to teach you. And we shall find the psalmist doing just that repeatedly in this psalm.

Notice that when speaking of learning God’s righteous judgments, the psalmist speaks in the future perfect tense. This tense shows that learning God’s judgments is something that will occur in the future. Now to be sure, other verses in this psalm show that the psalmist already knew God’s righteous judgments. Yet the fact remains that so long as we live in this world no matter how much of God’s word we know, there is always more to learn. God’s righteous judgments are an inexhaustible treasure. This writer has been studying the Scriptures for 44 years, and preaching for 41 years. Yet he feels he is but skimming the surface of all there is to know about God’s righteous judgments. It is as though he is just beginning to grasp them. There is so much more to learn!

As for praising God with uprightness of heart, let’s begin by defining the word uprightness.

Uprightness - The state or condition of being sincere, honest, or just; equity or justness in respect of principle or practice; moral integrity or rectitude.

First, God must be praised “with…heart.” To worship with the lips but without the heart is an act of hypocrisy. It is pretence. It is not true worship.

Mark 7:6 He (Jesus) answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

Secondly, God must be praised “with uprightness of heart.” For God to accept our worship, it must proceed from a heart that is sincere, and true, and clean.

Joshua 24:14 Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.

Well might we cry with the psalmist David:

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

And lastly, if we would praise God with uprightness of heart, we need to learn His righteous judgments. God will not accept just anything that calls itself worship. His worship must be according to His righteous judgments, in the way and manner He has prescribed in His word.

God grant us to learn His righteous judgments that we may render to Him the praise that is His due in the way that pleases Him.

Psalm 119:6

Before you read this meditation make sure you have reread the meditation from last week on Psalm 119:5, as that one is of prime importance. And now we turn to our verse for this week.

Psalms 119:6 Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect unto all thy commandments.

I shall not define the word ashamed as I think all of my readers know altogether too well what that word means. The way to avoid being ashamed is to have respect unto all of God’s commandments. To have respect unto God’s commandments is to have regard to them, to give them attention and consideration, to have them in view. To avoid shame, our attention and consideration must be given to all of God’s commandments. We should keep all of them before us to inform our decisions and to direct our course. To not have respect to so much as one of God’s commandments, to consider any commandment as unimportant or unnecessary, is to open the door to shame. To be sure, some commandments are weightier than others, but none are to be disrespected as the following passages make expressly clear.

Deuteronomy 4:2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

Matthew 5:19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

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

You only have to break one commandment of the law to be a lawbreaker.

The following excellent comments of Charles Bridges on this verse are well worth quoting. These comments are taken from his book entitled Psalm 119.

“The Lord expects our obedience to be not only ‘diligent,’ but universal. Willing to dispense with the least of the commandments, proves that we have yet to learn the spirit of acceptable obedience. (Matt. v.19.) Grace is given and suited for all, no less than for one of them, ‘that we might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing.” (Col. 1.10.) One lust ‘regarded in the heart’ is sufficient to keep possession for the tyrant, however others may be restrained.”

Who are we to think that any commandment of God is unimportant or unworthy of our careful observance? To disregard or slight anything God commanded is to put your opinion against His wisdom. The commandment you are not respecting may be a little one in relation to others, but the contempt you are showing for God’s authority is huge! You may be sure that God does not take kindly to that and He will put you to shame for it. Maybe you don’t feel it today, but you will! Our first parents became ashamed after they broke the one commandment to not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Saul bore the shame of losing his kingdom because he disobeyed a single commandment of God to utterly destroy all the Amalekites and their possessions (1 Samuel 15). Moses suffered the shame of not being allowed to enter the promised land because he disobeyed a single commandment regarding the rock (Numbers 20:7-13). God told him to speak to the rock and he smote it instead. Having respect unto all God’s commandment appears to be extremely important.

Yet how many think that because they keep many or even most of the commandments of God, it is no big deal if they overlook a few. The man who faithfully attends church every Sunday and gives, and yet fails to teach his children the way of the Lord will be ashamed. The same goes for the man who gives every appearance of being a devout Christian and yet does not love and cherish his wife as he ought. What of the person who professes faith in Christ who has never been properly baptized and is not a member of a true New Testament local church? Or how about the person who continues to celebrate Christmas thus violating the clear commandment to not observe pagan rites unto the Lord God (Deuteronomy 12:29-31)? Is washing of the saints’ feet something that we can take or leave with no consequence when the Saviour plainly commanded it in John 13:13-16? No amount of faithful obedience to most of the commandments will excuse disobedience to even one of the commandments.

Once we disregard one commandment, what is to keep us from disregarding others when they interfere with our agenda? Scripture clearly teaches that one act of disobedience will lead to another. As Paul put it in Romans 6:19 when speaking of the Romans before their conversion: “Ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity.” One iniquity will eventuate in another and so goes the downward spiral into a life of shame.

The way to reverse this downward spiral is to have respect unto all of God’s commandments. Give diligence to do anything and everything that God requires of you, no matter how small it may be. By this means you shall live an honourable life that will be a shining testimony before this evil world. Our goal should be to keep all the commandments of God so that we need never be shamed by a rebuke from God for disregarding any of them.

Philippians 2:14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.

Psalm 119:5

Today we continue this series of meditations on Psalm 119 by considering verse 5. This is a meditation that I suggest you read more than once and ponder very carefully.

Psalms 119:5 O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!

In this verse the psalmist expresses a desire to God. We know that it was expressed to God from the second person singular possessive pronoun thy in “thy statutes.” We noted in the last meditation that we use pronouns in the second person when we are talking to someone. The Psalmist is saying to God that he desires that his ways were directed to keep God’s statutes.

Let us next consider the definition of the word direct so that we may know precisely what the psalmist desired.

Direct – To cause (a thing or person) to move or point straight to or towards a place; to aim (a missile); to make straight (a course or way) to any point; to turn (the eyes, attention, mind) straight to an object, (a person or thing) to an aim, purpose, etc.

The psalmist longed that his ways would be aimed straightly at keeping God’s statutes without any diversion or misdirection. He wanted his ways, the train of his thoughts and desires, his actions, and the events of his life to be directed to keep God’s statutes. And as we saw from the definition of the word keep used in verse two, to keep God’s statutes means to pay attention to them, to dutifully believe and practice them.

That the psalmist earnestly desired this can be seen from that simple one-letter interjection o at the beginning of the verse. So back to the dictionary we go for the definition of this word. I’ll be done with the grammar and definitions in a minute. So just hang with me and I’ll get cranking into how this all fits together.

O – In other connexions, or without construction, expressing, according to intonation, various emotions, as appeal, entreaty, surprise, pain, lament, etc.

The psalmist’s desire to have his ways directed to keep God’s statutes was so strong that it stirred his emotions. It is, therefore, quite fitting that this sentence ends with an exclamation point further stressing the emotion of the writer. Since the psalmist is addressing this desire to God, we discern an earnest appeal in the word o. We can also detect a grief that his ways were not more directed to keeping God’s statutes. These are emotions we would all do well to cultivate.

Anyone who sincerely tries to keep God’s statutes can relate to the longing of this verse. Try as we may, there are a thousand things pulling us in all kinds of directions away from keeping God’s statutes. First of all, there is the pull of our own fleshly lusts warring against the soul.

Romans 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

1 Peter 2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

You become keenly aware of the pull of your fleshly lusts when you discover God’s statutes aiming directly at the correction of some of your greatest weaknesses, weaknesses such as pride, anger, envy, hatred, evil sexual desires, evil surmisings, gluttony, slothfulness, covetousness, and backbiting, to name a few. In fact, the more you try to keep God’s statutes the more you will experience resistance against it. In his excellent work Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis wrote:

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all…you find out the strength of the wind by trying to walk against it, not by lying down.”

I could not have said it better. It stands to reason that the adversary has to put up his toughest fight against those who mount the toughest resistance.

And then there is the pull of a thousand distractions all vying to so occupy our minds and emotions that the focus on keeping God’s commandments gets shoved aside. There is the glut of media sounding everywhere calling for our attention: news clips; advertisements; campaign ads from more candidates than we can keep up with; scores of television channels to choose from; preachers and televangelists of all kinds; a barrage of movies released to the public for consumption; the internet with its offer and allure of endless information; email; facebook, twitter, and the like; two or three telephones ringing; athletes, teams, and events in more kinds of sports than you can count at all levels from elementary school through college to the professional level; entertainments galore; a vast myriad of ideas on how to stay healthy, and how to best manage your money, your time, and your relationships; not to mention well-intentioned friends who insist that you have to read this book, see this movie, hear this speaker, etc. All these are so many siren sounds beckoning for your attention. And add to all of this the cares of daily life that must be attended to. If you are a person who finds most everything fascinating and interesting, you do have your work cut out for you to come through this maze and still keep your focus where it belongs. Those with fewer and more focused interests will find it easier to sort through this pile and disregard a lot of these distractions. But even they will have to work at maintaining balance in the limited things they allow themselves to become involved with. So that in the end we must all cry: “O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!”

What might we want and expect from God in response to this longing expressed to Him? First of all, we pray that He so order the events of our lives that we not be tempted above our ability to resist. We want Him to close doors to opportunities that would too much distract us from keeping His statutes. Secondly, we earnestly desire that He would give us strength to resist the evil lusts of our flesh that we might keep His statutes. Third, we pray that God would give us good judgment so as to weigh the cost in time and energy of every thing that beckons for our attention. Never forget, every interest you choose to pursue comes with a price and if the payment of that price takes away time and energy better spent on those things most important to God, then you had best let that opportunity pass you by. Never forget this commandment given through our beloved apostle Paul:

Ephesians 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

To redeem the time you are going to have to make the choice to let some things go that you might otherwise like to pursue. You are just going to have to settle for going through this world without experiencing everything it has to offer. And that is no great loss when you consider what our Lord Jesus Christ said:

Matthew 16:26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Bishop Fulten J. Sheen wrote the following about the son of Confucius that fits so well what I am talking about:

“The son of Confucius once said to him: ‘I apply myself with diligence to every kind of study, neglect nothing that could render me clever and brilliant; but I do not advance.’ ‘Omit some of your pursuits,’ replied Confucius, ‘and you will get on better.’”

How true! Try to do everything and you won’t be that good at anything.

Speaking for myself personally, I am a very curious person. There are so many things I would like to learn and learn well, but I know that if I devote time to all of that, I will suffer loss in that one thing most needful for me to know as a man of God, and that is God’s statutes. And as time fast passes by me and age eats away at my mental and physical energy leaving me with less than I had before, how much more must I weigh the cost of everything that beckons for that time and energy. So I just have to choose to remain ignorant and inexperienced about a lot of things so as to be more directed toward and more focused on what I need to know and to do in order to be the best that I can be at what God calls me to be. God grant me wisdom to never lose sight of this and strength to apply that wisdom in every choice that I must make. But, oh, the powerful allurement of so many other things coupled together with my own personal weaknesses forces this lamentable cry from my heart: “O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!” Is it thus with you, dear reader?

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.

Psalm 119: Introduction, Part 3

We continue this meditation by taking up the other five words that are used in Psalm 119 to describe the Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures are also referred to in this psalm as truth and righteousness.

Truth – Something that is true. True statement or account; that which is in accordance with the fact. That which is true, real, or actual (in a general or abstract sense); reality; spec. in religious use, spiritual reality as the subject of revelation or object of faith.

Righteousness – Justice, uprightness, rectitude; conformity of life to the requirements of the divine or moral law, virtue, integrity.

God’s words are truth and righteousness. They are factual in their content and they are always right. There is nothing false or unjust about them. If you believe them you will believe the truth. If you follow them you may be assured that you are doing the right thing. They will never mislead you or betray you.

God’s words are also called His testimonies.

Testimony – 1. Personal or documentary evidence or attestation in support of a fact or statement; hence, any form of evidence or proof. 4. In Scriptural language (chiefly in O.T.). a. sing. The Mosaic law or decalogue as inscribed on the two tables of stone. b. pl. The precepts (of God), the divine law.

God’s words provide documentary evidence to support God’s claims about Himself and His works. We often quote the Bible to prove the Bible. This is not circular reasoning when you consider that the Bible is made up of sixty-six books written by some forty different authors over a period of some 1500 or more years. Therefore, the Bible is a collection of documents that all attest to the same facts. The Scriptures are God's testimonies. He Himself attests to His commandments and He cannot lie. The very integrity of God is at stake as to their truth and righteousness.

Then the Scriptures are called the way.

Way – Course of life or action, means, manner. A prescribed course of life or conduct; the law or commandments (of God); also in pl.

The commandments of God set forth the course of life and conduct that God wills for us to pursue. Simply put, to keep the commandments of God is to do the will of God. It is to be “in the way.” To break God’s commandments is to be “out of the way.”

Deuteronomy 11:28 And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.

Romans 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Our Lord Jesus Christ said that He is the Way (John 14:6). He perfectly obeyed all the commandments of God given in the Old Testament. He fulfilled the law of Moses and took it out of the way establishing the New Testament in its stead. The commandments of the law of Christ in the New Testament are the way for us today. By following the teachings and example of Christ and His apostles you will be in the way.

And lastly God’s words are referred to in this psalm as His judgments.

Judgment – Divine sentence or decision; spec. a misfortune or calamity regarded as a divine visitation or punishment, or as a token of divine displeasure. In various Biblical uses, chiefly as rendering of Heb. mishpit, in its different uses. A (divine) decree, ordinance, law, statute.

These commandments or laws of God’s word are the judicial decrees of the sovereign Judge of the world. By these laws we are to judge ourselves and others, and by them we shall be judged. This brings to mind the words of our Lord Jesus Christ:

John 12:48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

There is no escaping the words of God. You may ignore the Bible today, but you will not be able to ignore it then. If you are concerned about how you will fare in the coming Day of Judgment, I would suggest that you deal with the Scriptures now after the pattern that will unfold before us as we consider Psalm 119.

Psalm 119: Introduction, Part 2

In today’s meditation, we continue with our introduction to Psalm 119. Recall that the theme of this Psalm is the written revelation of God, the scriptures. With the exception of four verses, the entire psalm consists of prayers revolving around the word of God. Hence, the psalm is dealing with the subject of verbal communication. We communicate with God by means of prayer and God communicates with us by means of His written words.

In order to give a general overview of the message of this Psalm, I shall define all of the ten words used in this psalm for the scriptures. We begin with the word word, which is used in the singular and in the plural in this psalm.

Word - Speech, utterance, verbal expression. Religious and theological uses. a. A divine communication, command, or proclamation, as one made to or through a prophet or inspired person; esp. the message of the gospel. The Bible, Scripture, or some part or passage of it, as embodying a divine communication.

The Scriptures are the written speech or communication of Almighty God. If you want to know what God has to say, read the scriptures. Have you ever been in a situation and said, “What is the Lord trying to tell me?” The Lord is not trying to tell you anything. God has already told you what He wants you to know and that communication is found in His written word. By reading God’s word we hear what God has to say to us.

The Scriptures are also called God’s law, commandment(s), precepts, and statutes. Observe how these words are used to define each other.

Law – A rule of conduct imposed by authority. Divine law. The body of commandments which express the will of God with regard to the conduct of His intelligent creatures.

Commandment – An authoritative order or injunction; a precept given by authority. esp. A divine command.

Precept – An authoritative command to do some particular act; an order, mandate. A general command or injunction; an instruction, direction, or rule for action or conduct; esp. an injunction as to moral conduct.

Statute – A law or decree made by a sovereign or a legislative authority.

Note the words authority and authoritative used to define the above words. The scriptures set forth a body of laws or commandments that carry the authority of Almighty God. These rules of conduct are not matters indifferent. They are established by authority and will be enforced. Since God is supreme, the authority of His law is supreme. Therefore, the law of Scripture takes precedence over all other laws issued by any other authority. If the commandments of Scripture come into conflict with the commandments of men, the commandments of Scripture are to be obeyed. It is as the apostle Peter said: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

As noted already, we verbally communicate with God by prayer. Consider the definition of the word prayer.

Prayer – A solemn and humble request to God, or to an object of worship; a supplication, petition, or thanksgiving, usually expressed in words.

When we pray to God we either thank Him or we supplicate Him. Now consider the definition of supplicate.

Supplicate - To beg, pray, or entreat humbly; to present a humble petition.

When we communicate with God, we are to do so as humble beggars, who are beholden to God for His favours. Since God is the source of all the good that we enjoy, we also thank Him when we pray. We do not command God’s favours; we rather humbly ask for them. But from the above definitions we see that when God communicates with us, He does so with authority, with the right to command. So in our communication with God, we do the begging and He does the commanding. We cannot maintain a true communion with God unless we respect and submit to His authority. Take the place of a humble suppliant and yield to God’s authority by submitting to His decisions and doing what He commands, and you and God will get along just fine. Psalm 119 will demonstrate this. We will consider the other five words in our next meditation, God willing.

Psalm 119: Introduction, Part 1

I am setting out on what looms before me as a gargantuan task. I would like to devote these meditations to a verse by verse consideration of Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is one of my favourite things in the Bible to read and think about. It is the longest psalm in the Bible. It is generally believed that David is the author of this psalm, although his name does not appear in connection with it as it does others of the psalms. The theme of this psalm is the written revelation of God to man, which is elsewhere called the scriptures and which we call the Bible. This written revelation is called by ten different names in this psalm. It is called God’s law, His commandment(s), His word(s), His way(s), His judgment(s), His precepts, His statutes, His testimony or testimonies, His righteousness, and the truth.

I am aware that some of the members of the congregation I serve have the excellent exposition of Psalm 119 written by Charles Bridges. If you do not have this book, I heartily recommend it. While I will doubtless quote Mr. Bridges in these meditations, I do not intend to merely rehash what he has already written. These will be my insights into these marvelous verses garnished with insights of other writers in just the same way as I do in all of my preaching and writing.

Psalm 119 consists of 176 verses divided into 22 sections of eight verses each. Each of the 22 sections is marked off with one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet beginning with the first letter aleph and going through the alphabet in order thus concluding with the last letter tau. Not knowing Hebrew, I cannot personally vouch for what I am about to say, but I have read that each verse of each section begins with the Hebrew letter that marks that respective section. This would doubtless have facilitated memorization and recall of the verses by the Hebrews.

The author of this psalm records a variety of experiences, emotions, and frames of mind in which he found himself. There is something in this psalm to speak to you wherever you are in whatever condition you may be. In this psalm we find the author experiencing the full range of human emotions. He felt joy (v. 162), peace (v. 165), longing (v. 20), fear (v. 120), horror (v. 53), sorrow (v. 136), grief (v. 158), anguish (143), and aversion (v. 163). At times he felt jubilant, enriched, and comforted (vs. 14, 162, 50, 52) while at other times he felt faint and withered, and wondered when he would be comforted (vs. 81-83). His varied emotions and frames of mind mirror our own. And yet the psalmist processes all of these experiences through the word of God. It is obvious from the psalm that the author’s relationship with God was grounded in and experienced through the word of God. Our relationship with God is also experienced through the written word of God, if that relationship is as it ought to be. If you think you are maintaining a healthy fellowship with God and yet you are neglecting your Bible, you are sadly deceived.

When one considers what the word of God provides, one can understand why the psalmist would process his varied experiences and emotions through it. According to this psalm, the written word of God provides us with blessedness (v. 2), honour (v. 6), cleansing (v. 9), delight, (v. 24), counsel (v. 24), answers (v. 42), freedom (v. 45), hope (v. 49), comfort, (v. 50), quickening (v. 50), songs (v. 54), riches (72), wisdom (v. 98), sweetness (v. 103), understanding (v. 104), guidance (v. 105), heritage (v. 111), truth (v. 142), peace (v. 165), and help (v. 175). What more could we want?

With the exception of verses 1-3 and verse 115, every verse in Psalm 119 is a prayer. Here is a collection of 172 short prayers that we can adopt. The psalmist’s life was so centered in the words of God that his prayers were for the word of God that he might learn it, obey it, and be helped by it. How much richer our spiritual lives would be if we prayed as much for our relationship to the word of God as we do for other things! Writing what others have said of this psalm, Matthew Henry said: “He that shall read it consistently, it will either warm him or shame him.” Doubtless we will find that true as we consider it together.

From what we have observed thus far, it may be said that the major theme of this psalm is verbal communication with God.

Communicate – To give to another as a partaker; to give a share of; to impart, confer, transmit. spec. To impart (information, knowledge, or the like); to impart or convey the knowledge of, inform a person of, tell.

By means of prayer we communicate with God. We tell God about ourselves, our problems, our wants, and what we are doing. We share ourselves with Him, both the good and the bad. By means of the Holy Scriptures God communicates with us. He tells us about Himself, what He is like, what He does, and what He requires of us. Such communication is indispensable to healthy relationships on a human level between spouses, families, brethren, and friends. And such communication is equally indispensable to a healthy relationship with God. This Psalm will teach us how to maintain communication with God.

Writing of this Psalm Charles Spurgeon said:

“It is loaded with holy sense, and is as weighty as it is bulky. Again and again have we cried while studying it, ‘Oh, the depths!’ Yet these depths are hidden beneath an apparent simplicity, as Augustine has well and wisely said, and this makes the exposition all the more difficult. Its obscurity is hidden beneath a veil of light, and hence only those discover it who are in thorough earnest, not only to look on the word, but, like the angels, to look into it.”

As I dive into these verses I fully expect to also cry, “Oh, the depths!” 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. For He said:

John 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

Next time, God willing, we shall continue to take an overview of this psalm by considering the definitions of the various words it uses for the scriptures. In the meantime, I hope this introduction will whet your appetite for a more in-depth consideration of this psalm. Do earnestly pray God’s blessing upon me as I attempt to walk you through this sacred ground. I trust through God that these meditations may prove a blessing to you.

According to Thine Anger

For my daily Bible reading I have been going through the book of Ezekiel. Today as I was reading chapter 35 I was struck by the following verse:

Ezekiel 35:11 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee.

In this passage God is pronouncing judgment against the nation of Edom because of their hatred and mistreatment of the nation of Israel. Although Israel had sinned against God and was being judged by Him, Edom had no right to take advantage of this against Israel. Israel may have sinned, but they were still God’s people and their enemies would have done well to remember that instead of adding to Israel’s calamities. Edom was angry against Israel and envious of them. We are here told that this anger and envy proceeded out of their hatred against them. There was obviously something about Israel that made Edom feel threatened so that they were glad to have an advantage against them. Now this verse in Ezekiel is a tremendous commentary on the psychology of fallen man.

Anger and envy are the effects of hatred. Charity or love stands in sharp antithesis to hatred. We are told in 1 Corinthians 13 that “charity envieth not…is not puffed up…is not easily provoked.” When anger and envy are the controlling emotions, charity is definitely not being exercised. Rather, hatred is at work bringing forth its evil fruit of anger and envy.

Consider the definition of envy.

Envy - Malignant or hostile feeling; ill-will, malice, enmity; The feeling of mortification and ill-will occasioned by the contemplation of superior advantages possessed by another.

If you hate someone, you will feel ill-will at any advantage you perceive that person has over you, whether that advantage be strength, beauty, knowledge, wealth, position, goodness, or authority. Conversely, if you envy someone this will lead to hatred of them, which will in turn only cause more envy against them. And, of course, envy and hatred will breed anger.

Now the thing in our passage that arrested my attention is that God told Edom: “I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them.” In other words, God would deal with Edom as they dealt with Israel. Whenever you hate someone and are angry against them, ask yourself these questions: “How would I like it if God felt toward me like I am feeling toward that person?” “What if God treated me like I am treating that person?” Sound frightening? It should!

So if you are indulging anger, envy, and hatred against someone, you had better repent of these sins, fleeing to the Lord Jesus Christ for mercy and forgiveness, and seeking grace to overcome them. Whatever personal insecurities and fears you may have, they can be resolved in a submissive, obedient relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. They cannot be resolved by anger, envy, and hatred. In her book Ten Stupid Things Men Do to Mess Up Their Lives¸ Dr. Laura Schlessinger had the following interesting thing to say about anger:

“When you draw on your anger strength instead of your vulnerability strength you create your own minefield to dance through. First of all, anger isn’t really strength; its defensiveness, fear, uncertainty, immaturity, and hurt posing as something seemingly strong – and additionally, it’s only temporary. Criticism, yelling, and violence are ultimately poor, ugly, immoral, and illegal substitutes for inner strength. Vulnerability strength is the willingness to face personal shortcomings and fears (real or otherwise), and in so doing to gain the ability to get and be better.”

From a Christian perspective, we can overcome anger, envy, and hatred when we face our own personal sins and weaknesses through repentance and find forgiveness, healing, and strength in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let these verses admonish you regarding the danger of the sins of anger, envy, and hatred:

James 1:20 For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Job 5:2 For wrath killeth the foolish man, and envy slayeth the silly one.

Proverbs 14:30 A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.

1 John 2:11 But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

1 John 3:15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

Observe in these verses that anger, envy, and hatred are sinful, physically and psychologically destructive, spiritually blinding, and eternally damning. They are not to be trifled with. God forbid that He should deal with us according to our anger and according to our envy which we use out of our hatred against others. Repent and turn to the Lord for pardon so that it may be rather said of you:

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

Without Carefulness and Without Distraction

Yesterday I brought an extremely important message to our congregation about the dangers of our modern age of technological advancement. We live in an age characterized by “the information explosion.” I pointed out that we have become a nation that is addicted to noise, constant contact, and instant information. All of this tends to crowd and overcharge the mind with the result that our love for the Lord Jesus Christ weakens or waxes cold, to borrow the language of our Lord in Matthew 24:12. I taught the church yesterday that Paul prophesied in 1Timothy 3:1-7 of perilous times in the last days. The men of these times “shall be lovers of their own selves” and “lovers of pleasures more than of God.” The love of God will definitely not be the most dominant influence in men’s lives. What I find alarming is that these times when the love of God will be suppressed, information will be exploding. During these days men shall be “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” There will be so much information available to learn, and yet with such a plethora of information there will be little arrival at truth. This led me to warn the church to keep the strictest guards on all the modern gadgets and entertainments that vie for the attention of our minds so that our love for God does not become choked by “cares and riches and pleasures of this life” (Luke 8:14).

There is a very relevant passage that I did not include in yesterday’s sermon that contains the two prepositional phrases in the title of this meditation. It is 1 Corinthians 7:29-35.

1 Corinthians 7:29 But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none;
30 And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;
31 And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.
32 But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:
33 But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.
34 There is difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
35 And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.

Let’s define the two nouns that I have italicized in this passage.

Carefulness – The quality of state of being careful. Solicitude, anxiety, concern. Heedfulness, vigilance, attentiveness, exactness, caution.

Distraction – A drawing or being drawn asunder. The drawing away (of the mind or thoughts) from one point or course to another; diversion of the mind or attention.

In the context of Paul’s admonition, carefulness refers to having things to care for.

To care for – to take thought for, provide for, look after, take care of.

If one is careful or full of care, he has a lot of things to care for. Therefore, to be without carefulness is to have fewer things to care for or to look after. The fewer things one has to look after, the fewer things there are to cause distraction, fewer things that draw the mind and thoughts away from what they should be focused upon. That is why I stressed in my message the necessity for stepping back from the rush and racket of our fast-paced life and considering our ways. How many activities do we do and how many things do we possess that needlessly clutter our lives and cause distraction? And make no mistake about it! Nothing pleases our adversary the devil more than to have our minds and thoughts so drawn away to other things, that we have difficulty focusing when it comes to attending upon the Lord.

In the passage we are considering Paul lists several things such as having a spouse, weeping, rejoicing, buying, possessing, and generally using the world. All these things he listed are certainly lawful and may be used. But he warns against their being abused. When these things so occupy our minds that they come ahead of the Lord and those things which He commands of us, then we have abused them. It is a great blessing to have a spouse. “Marriage is honourable in all” (Hebrews 13:4). But when the spouse is cared for ahead of the Lord, then the spouse has become a distraction. If you have time and money for cable television, movies, computer games, sports, internet surfing, vacations, or whatever; but you set aside little or nothing to give to God, you never crack a Bible, or you scarcely pray, you are not attending upon the Lord without distraction. No relationship, no grief, no pleasure, and no possession should ever be allowed to so claim our attention, that God’s interests get shoved into the background.

We would all do well to seek out ways to simplify our lives and eliminate cares so that we may attend upon the Lord without distraction. If something you are using is claiming too much attention, then cut it back or cut it out. I know whereof I speak. God willing, I will be hosting a day of prayer in my home in two days. Today I had a chance to go and do something that I very much enjoy, and when I say “very much” I mean very much. But I feared that engaging in this fun today might take too much out of me. I believe I need to rest up and orient my thoughts toward attending upon the Lord that day without distraction. Therefore, I declined the opportunity. Although this is displeasing to the flesh, I know I have made the right decision. This is just a tiny example of the kinds of decisions we sometimes ought to make so that, as Paul says, we “may attend upon the Lord without distraction.”

If it pains you to part with things to simplify your life or to eliminate distraction, then remember something I said yesterday in my sermon: We profess to be followers of One Who never owned a home and, when He needed an ass, He borrowed one. May God bless this meditation to your soul and to His glory. Amen.

Unsolicited Advice

Are you one of those people who spend advice freely even when it is not asked for? You mean well. Whenever you hear of a problem, you want to fix it. You want to help people because you care. But have you ever noticed that very often your advice is not followed? The reason for this is likely because your advice was not sought in the first place. You just gave it anyway.

Solomon, the wisest of men, teaches us that it is a wise man who will take advice.

Proverbs 1:5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:

Proverbs 9:9 Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.

But the reason a wise man will so readily receive advice is because he seeks it!

Proverbs 15:14 The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.

Proverbs 18:15 The heart of the prudent getteth knowledge; and the ear of the wise seeketh knowledge.

Our Lord also taught that it is the seeker that finds.

Matthew 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

In fact, our Lord likened the kingdom of heaven to a man seeking goodly pearls and finding “one pearl of great price.”

Matthew 13:45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:
46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

Here is an interesting verse in this connection:

Proverbs 20:5 Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out.

There are people who are not free with their advice. They keep their advice deep down within them. But a man of understanding who wants to learn will find ways to draw that counsel out of them. It may take some time and probing, but he will not pass up good counsel if he thinks it is to be had. He will make an effort to draw it out. A man of understanding will leave no stone unturned in his effort to get answers.

While a wise man will seek counsel, a fool and a scorner will not only not seek advice, they will despise and reject it when it is given.

Proverbs 1:22 How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.
24 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;
25 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:…
30 They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.

Proverbs 15:12 A scorner loveth not one that reproveth him: neither will he go unto the wise.

It has been said that when there is a student, there will be a teacher. One must have a desire to learn before he will learn. A man is not as likely to follow advice that he is not looking for. I know I have spent a lot of time advising people on how to handle a problem and my advice has not been followed. But when I think back on it, when the person told me his/her problem, they did not ask for advice on how to handle it. They were just venting or complaining. They were not seeking a solution.

Now to be sure, sometimes we just want to talk about our problem. I have found that often in talking out a problem with a friend, as I bring the problem before him I am actually getting it out of me and in front of me so as to more objectively consider it. In so doing, I sometimes find the answer. That is one thing. But then there are times when we just want to complain because we want attention and sympathy or we want someone else to rescue us from something that is ours to deal with. This is not healthy. People who do this a lot should not be surprised if others avoid them. We only have so much sympathy to give to others before we become weary with the complaining. At that point we just want to tell that person something like this: “Look! This is the hand you have been dealt. Just deal with it.” And when you think about it, that isn’t bad advice. However, it is apt to be resented by a chronic complainer.

Sometimes the wisest thing to do is to step back and let the person with the problem suffer to the point where they genuinely want a solution. When they are ready for an answer, then they are more apt to seek it. And that is when your advice will do the most good.

So next time someone brings a problem to you, but does not seek advice, just listen and see if they come up with an answer. If they keep coming to you with the same set of complaints, ask the person if they are just venting or do they want a solution. That may just set them to thinking about what they are doing. When they ask for your advice, then meekly give it. If they insist on continuing to complain and you suspect that they will resent and reject any advice you attempt to give, you may just have to back off and leave them to their choice. Scripture will support such a decision.

Proverbs 9:7 He that reproveth a scorner getteth to himself shame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man getteth himself a blot.
8 Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee.

Proverbs 23:9 Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.

In conclusion, a good suggestion is to be sparing and selective with your advice. If you would save yourself some time, breath, and frustration, it might be a good idea to withhold your advice until it is sought.