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.