Psalm 119:64

In today’s meditation we find the psalmist looking beyond himself to what he observes in the world around him.

Psalms 119:64  The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes.

To get the full impact of what the psalmist is saying, we need to understand what mercy is.

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

When God created this earth, He created it “very good” (Genesis 1:31).  He filled this earth with His goodness and His riches. 

Psalms 33:5  He loveth righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.

Psalms 104:24  O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

The mind fails in trying to comprehend the wealth of this earth, the abundance of its resources that have sustained the teeming billions of creatures that have moved upon its face.  Not only have the resources in the earth supplied the necessities to sustain the lives of the billions of mankind throughout history, but its resources have also provided much of mankind with many comforts and conveniences in addition to their necessities. 

But all this goodness and these riches that fill this earth are here only by the mercy of God.  Before God ever created the earth and filled it with His goodness, He knew that the man He would create would sin against Him.  He knew in advance all the defiance, denial, rebellion, and blasphemy that would be raised up against Him by the very men to whom He gave this earth.  Yet He made the earth anyway and gave it to men (Psalm 115:16).  Therefore, it follows that the children of men do not deserve the goodness and riches that they receive on this earth.  They rather deserve the severity and wrath of God because of their sin and rebellion.  They deserve to be banished from the earth.  Yet sinners who live on this earth enjoy the sunshine; the beautiful skies, lakes, rivers and oceans; the beauties of nature in bloom; they eat and drink of the delicious fruits of the earth; they enjoy the benefits that come from the use of the earth’s energy supplies; to name but some of the goodness and riches of the earth that men enjoy.  That God bestows upon sinful men this kindness when they merit His severity is a display of mercy by definition (see above).  When you consider how much of God’s goodness in this earth sinful men enjoy, then you understand why the psalmist wrote:  the earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy.

That God created this earth knowing what rebellious man would do was an act of mercy, as the following psalm expresses:

Psalms 136:3  O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for his mercy endureth for ever.

4  To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy endureth for ever.

5  To him that by wisdom made the heavens: for his mercy endureth for ever.

6  To him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for his mercy endureth for ever.

7  To him that made great lights: for his mercy endureth for ever:

8  The sun to rule by day: for his mercy endureth for ever:

9  The moon and stars to rule by night: for his mercy endureth for ever.

It is interesting to note that whereas many focus on the misery that fills the earth, the psalmist focused on the mercy that fills it.  Imagine how much more miserable this world would be if that misery were not tempered with God’s mercy!

But the thought runs deeper.  Before God created this earth He foresaw the fallen mass of mankind and out of that mass He chose a people to be the objects of His mercy.  He chose them to save them from their sin by His grace through His Son, Jesus Christ the Lord.  Therefore, God went ahead and created the earth knowing that from its ruins He would raise up a people to the praise of the glory of His grace.  God purposed to set His chosen people apart from the earth’s wicked inhabitants and to restore them to His righteousness thus having a testimony to His mercy and grace in the earth.  Therefore, God bears with this earth and the wicked people in it because of His chosen people, whom He is calling out for His glory. 

Romans 9:22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

He fills this earth with His goodness to provide for His chosen people.  The wicked enjoy God’s goodness in this earth only because of God’s chosen people among them.  And when the Lord removes His elect from this earth at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in glory (Matthew 24:30-31), the mercy of God will also be removed from this earth.  The wicked will be raised out of their graves to damnation and the present earth will be destroyed (John 5:28-29; 2Peter 3:10-12).  Then the wicked will be judged and consigned to their place in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:11-15).  The wicked will be removed from the place that was full of the mercy of God to a place where no mercy is extended to them.  When this occurs, the prayer of Psalm 104:35 will be answered:

Psalms 104:35  Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD.

Then the words of Solomon will be fulfilled:

 Proverbs 2:22  But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

On the other hand, the righteous will be ushered into a “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth rightouesness” (2Peter 3:13). 

Being aware that this earth is full of God’s mercy led the psalmist to make this request:  teach me thy statutes.  It tells a lot about the depth of the psalmist’s spirituality that the one mercy he would desire out of all the mercy filling the earth is the mercy of being taught God’s statutes.  There is no greater mercy than to know the Lord and His will as revealed in His word.  Mathew Henry wrote:  “A gracious heart will fetch an argument from any thing to enforce a petition for divine teaching.  Surely he that will not let his birds be unfed will not let his children be untaught.”  To this I can but add a hearty “amen”!

This brings us to the close of this octave entitled Cheth.  The next octave is called Teth.  Looking ahead from Cheth to Teth I can see that Teth like Cheth has some rich things to consider.  God willing, I will take up Teth after the first of the year.  I hope you have enjoyed our meditations on Cheth.  Be it Beth (the second octave), Cheth, or Teth, it is all good as it comes from the hand of the good Lord.  Remember now, leth you forgeth!  It’s Beth, Cheth, and Teth.

Psalm 119:63

I am amazed at how comprehensive Psalm 119 is.  It covers so many different aspects of our lives.  Psalm 119 is at once the same and yet different.  The same theme recurs throughout the psalm, that theme being the written word of God, the Scriptures.  And yet that recurring theme is related to our lives in so many different ways.  The verse we considered last time took us into midnight, when most of us are asleep or trying to sleep.  Hence, our night life was addressed.  Today’s verse speaks of our social life.

Psalms 119:63  I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.

The verse turns on that word companion.

Companion – One who associates with or accompanies another; a mate; a fellow.

The psalmist chose to associate with those who fear God.  Those who fear God are also described in this verse as those who keep thy precepts.  The fear of the Lord manifests itself in obedience to His precepts.

Deuteronomy 6:2  That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son's son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.

How can one truly fear the Lord if he has no regard for what the Lord commands him to do?

Now the reason the psalmist chose those who fear the Lord for his companions is that he himself feared the Lord, as he described himself earlier in this psalm: 

Psalms 119:38  Stablish thy word unto thy servant, who is devoted to thy fear.

Indeed, birds of a feather flock together.   The man who truly fears God can never be in complete harmony with those who do not.  There will always be something missing that binds their souls together. 

Amos 3:3  Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

While we who fear God should endeavour as much as possible to live peaceably with those who do not fear Him (Romans 12:18), we will never have the degree of fellowship with them that we have with those who fear the Lord.  For, you see, the fear of the Lord and obedience to His precepts should be that which shapes, guides, and defines our deepest, truest self.  We should be so molded by the fear of God that we would not be who we are without it.  If we are thus governed by the fear of the Lord, there will be a certain sympathy that will arise between us and others who also fear our Lord.  When we meet another God-fearing person there will be a love there, a love that is born in us by our God.

1 John 5:1  Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.

2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

Obeying the Lord’s precepts is how we fear God, how we love Him, how we show that we are begotten of Him.  And when one begotten of God sees evidence in someone else that he is begotten of God, a love is shared, a potential for companionship is realized. 

Observe that the psalmist said, I am a companion of all them that fear thee.  This was the case whether he had yet met them or not.  He had a disposition to make a God-fearing person his companion whenever and wherever he met him.  It could be expressed this way:  Any friend of my Lord is a friend of mine.

Also note that the psalmist was a companion of all them that fear the Lord and keep His precepts.  He was their companion regardless of their age, their nationality, or their social status.  Paul thanked God for the Ephesians in that they, like the psalmist, had “love unto all the saints” (Ephesians 1:15).

It was conducive to the psalmist’s personal well-being and growth that he was a companion of all them that fear the Lord and keep His precepts.  Make no mistake about it.  The people you choose to associate with have an influence on you.    

Proverbs 13:20  He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.

Now we cannot altogether avoid the company of those who do not fear the Lord.  We would have to go out of the world to do that.

1 Corinthians 5:9  I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

10  Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

Nevertheless, the servants of our God should be our preferred company, the ones whose influence we most desire.

And permit me to add this admonition to any single believers who are seeking a spouse.  In Malachi 2:14 a man’s wife is called his companion.  A marriage is a companionship.  Now in the light of today’s verse doesn’t it make sense to seek a companion who fears the Lord and keeps His precepts?  While a believer/unbeliever mix in a marriage can be maintained in peace (1Corinthians 7:12-14), it is much to be preferred that you find someone who shares what should be most important to you, and that is your fear of and faith in the Lord God Almighty and His Son Jesus Christ the Lord.  Your marriage will have its share of troubles that will stress your relationship.  There may be times when your romantic love for each other will be at a low ebb, if at all.  But when both of you fear and love the Lord and want to please Him, you will find that to be the thing that will keep you together, bear you through the storms of life, and pave the way for your marital love to be restored.  You will have something that will transcend your fluctuating romantic feelings.

This has been a longer meditation.  But the subject matter is too serious to gloss over.  It merits a thorough treatment.  I close with these beautiful words taken from the hymn The House of the Lord by Austin Lane:

You may value the friendships of youth and of age,

And select for my comrades the noble and sage;

But the friends that most cheer me on life’s rugged road

Are the friends of my Master, the children of God.

If those words do not express the sentiments of your soul, you may well consider that you are backslidden and in need of returning to the Lord.

Psalm 119:62

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble going back to sleep?  If so, here is a recommendation of something you can try at such a time:

Psalms 119:62  At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments.

The psalmist being awake at midnight would not only give thanks to God, but he would rise to give thanks.  He would stir himself up to get out of his bed to worship God.  This gives us an insight into how zealous the psalmist was to render to God the thanks that is His due.

But observe why the psalmist would rise to thank God at midnight.  It was because of thy righteous judgments.  In our meditation on verse 20 of this psalm, I wrote the following about God’s righteous judgments:

“God judgments are those decrees that our righteous Judge has laid down in His word for our obedience.  They are also the accounts given in His word of His dealings with the sons of men as the Rewarder of good and the Avenger of evil.  The whole course of His government is wrapped up in those words thy judgments.” 

God’s righteous judgments consist of the commandments He has given to mankind in His law and of His dealings with men based on their obedience or disobedience to that law. 

Like the psalmist, we should continually thank God, even at midnight, for the Holy Scriptures, which contain God’s commandments, and which also contain the record of God’s judgment of men in the past and the prophecy of how He will judge men in the future.  Without God’s judgments expressed in his commandments we would have no sure guide for our conduct.  Without God’s judgments in the affairs of men there would be no restraint of wickedness and no sure reward in doing righteousness.  In giving God thanks because of His righteous judgments we are giving Him thanks that this world is governed by Him, that He is in control.  And well ought believers to give thanks also for God’s righteous judgment meted out on His Son Jesus Christ our Lord as He bore their judgment for sin that they might be judged “holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight” at the last day (Colossians 1:21-22).

Now observe that the psalmist thanked God at midnight for His righteous judgments.  Anything the Lord commands of us is right.  Any judgment He passes upon any man is right.  Unlike ourselves, the Lord never errs in judgment.  It is as David wrote in Psalm 9:4:  “thou satest in the throne judging right.”

This week is the week of the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S.A.  May I suggest that as you consider the things for which you should be thankful, you make God’s judgments a priority item for giving thanks to the good Lord.  But do no take from this that today’s verse requires you to hold your Thanksgiving celebration with the turkey and dressing at midnight. 

Psalm 119:61

Today’s verse taken from Psalm 119 sets forth what should be our set of values.

Psalms 119:61  The bands of the wicked have robbed me: but I have not forgotten thy law.

The bands of the wicked had robbed the psalmist.  Let’s understand precisely what it is to be robbed.

Rob – To deprive (a person) of something by unlawful force or the exercise of superior power; to despoil by violence.

Notice that it is the wicked who rob others.  To rob another is to break the holy commandment “thou shalt not steal” and thus to commit wickedness.  Now it was the bands of wicked people that robbed the psalmist.  But what does he mean by bands?

Band – An organized company; a troop.  Said of armed men, also of robbers, assassins, etc.

A band of robbers is a group of thieves organized to carry out a robbery.  They could be a group of punks in the neighbourhood who get together and plan a theft, or they could be a highly organized crime syndicate like the Mafia.  Or they could be a band of political leaders who pass laws that amount to no more than legalized theft, depriving the rightful owners of their property to give it to those who otherwise have no right to it.  In this case the superior power of the state is exercised to deprive a person of something.  This particular form of robbery is called extortion. 

Extort – To obtain from a reluctant person by violence, torture, intimidation, or abuse of legal or official authority, or (in weaker sense) by importunity, overwhelming arguments, or any powerful influence.

Scripture speaks of princes (rulers), who commit robbery.

Isaiah 1:23  Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

Ezekiel 22:27  Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.

But notice that although the psalmist had been robbed, he still retained his most valued possession, the knowledge of the law of God:  but I have not forgotten thy law.  Later in Psalm 119 the psalmist expresses that he esteemed the law of God above the most valuable material possessions that one might have and that thieves might steal.

Psalms 119:72  The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.

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

How one responds to being robbed tells something about his set of values.  The psalmist did not let any grief he felt over being robbed drive the knowledge of God’s law out of his memory.  He held onto what he knew from his Bible.  Commenting on this verse Matthew Henry wrote:  “No care nor grief should drive God’s word out of our minds, or hinder our comfortable relish of it and converse with it.”

Have you ever been robbed?  Has your house ever been broken into and your possessions stolen? Mine once was.  Do you feel robbed when you have to pay heavy taxes to support a bureaucratic, socialistic, welfare state?  While any of us would lament being robbed by bands of wicked men, we ought not to settle into bitterness and despair.  If we know and remember God’s law and value that above all earthly possessions, we may still count ourselves rich.  Today’s verse fits well with the instructions of our Lord Jesus:

Matthew 6:19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

God’s law is an ever-enduring heavenly treasure that no thief can steal.

Psalms 119:89  For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.

For the apostle Paul, anything else he might have possessed was counted but dung in comparison with his knowledge of the Lord, which knowledge is gained from His law (Philippians 3:8).  How much do you value knowing God’s law?  

Psalm 119:60

We continue to make our way through this rich psalm that extols the word of the living God.   We are currently dealing with the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Cheth.

Psalms 119:60  I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.

Keeping God’s commandments is the most important thing you will ever do in your life.  It is your whole duty, the purpose for which God has made you and redeemed you.

Ecclesiastes 12:13  Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

Titus 2:14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Christ gave Himself to make you “zealous of good works.”  Good works may be simply defined as doing whatever God has commanded you to do. 

Since keeping God’s commandments is the single most important thing any of us can do and answers to God’s purpose for our lives, then it follows that this should receive our utmost and immediate attention.  The psalmist sets forward his zeal both positively and negatively.  Positively, he made haste to keep God’s commandments.  Negatively, he delayed not to keep God’s commandments.  The time to keep God’s commandments is now, not later!  We are not being “zealous of good works” if we procrastinate obedience to our Lord.  English author and historian Northcote Parkinson, author of Parkinson’s Law and Other Studies in Administration cited this as his fourth law:  “Delay is the deadliest form of denial.”  Nowhere is that more true than in the realm of religion.  People do not procrastinate things that they care passionately about.  Delay is a sure sign of indecisiveness, or indifference, or worse, rebellion.  And indecisiveness, indifference, and rebellion are all deadly to our Christian profession.

Now link today’s verse with the following verses all of which underscore the importance of not putting off obedience to the Lord.

Genesis 19:15  And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

Proverbs 3:27  Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it.

28  Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee.

Acts 22:16  And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.

Hebrews 3:7  Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,

8  Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

Hebrews 3:13  But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

2 Corinthians 6:1  We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.

2  (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)

Zacchaeus is a good example of one who made haste to keep the Lord’s commandment.

Luke 19:5  And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.

6  And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.  

What might Zacchaeus have missed had he delayed keeping the commandment of Christ?   

So if today you are convicted by some commandment of God you need to obey, the time to yield that obedience is today, right now!  Is there something you need to make right with the Lord?  Is there something you need to make right with a neighbour, a co-worker, a family member, or a fellow church member?  If so, then now is the time to make it right.  If you delay, you may not have another opportunity.  Hear the words of our Lord:

John 9:4  I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

Psalm 119:59

As I take up the next verse of Psalm 119, I direct your thoughts to what you think.  Think about what you think about. 

Psalms 119:59  I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.

The psalmist turned his thoughts onto his ways and well ought we to do the same.  Stop and take account of your ways, the way you think, the way you feel, the way you act, the way you worship, the way you pray, the way your spend your time, the way you spend your money, the way you relate to others, to name some of your ways.  Only by thinking on our ways will we discover if we need to redirect any of them.  Of course, the adversary would like nothing more than for us to be so caught up in the rush of living and doing that we take no time to reflect on how we are living or on what we are doing. 

Now when the psalmist turned his thoughts onto his ways, it prompted him to turn his feet unto God’s testimonies.  What began with thought ended in action.  Charles Spurgeon wrote:  “Consideration is the commencement of conversion:   first we think and then we turn.”  That this is so may be seen from the following passages:

1 Kings 8:46  If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;

47  Yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent, and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;

48  And so return unto thee with all their heart, and with all their soul, in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive, and pray unto thee toward their land, which thou gavest unto their fathers, the city which thou hast chosen, and the house which I have built for thy name:

49  Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place, and maintain their cause,

50  And forgive thy people that have sinned against thee, and all their transgressions wherein they have transgressed against thee, and give them compassion before them who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them:

Lamentations 3:40  Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.

Ezekiel 18:27  Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive.

28  Because he considereth, and turneth away from all his transgressions that he hath committed, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

God has forgiveness and healing for those who think on their ways and so turn away from their sins and unto His testimonies.  And when we turn our feet to God’s testimonies we are turning to the Lord since the Lord reveals Himself to us in those testimonies and relates to us through them.    

But it bears emphasizing that the psalmist turned his feet unto God’s testimonies.  It is not enough just to hear about God’s testimonies or to think about them or to talk of them, one must put them into practice.  As is sometimes said, we must walk the walk. 

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

1 John 2:6  He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

The prodigal son is a perfect example of one who thought on his ways and then turned his feet in the right direction.

Luke 15:17  And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

18  I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,

19  And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

When the prodigal son “came to himself,” he was thinking on his ways.  He considered the direction his life had taken and what it was costing him.  It was then he resolved to return to his father.  As the story goes, in returning to his father he was met with ready forgiveness and restoration.  Of course, this is an example for the sons of God to think on their ways, to come to themselves, and return to their Father when they have gone astray.  It is interesting that in order to come to the Lord, we need to first come to ourselves. Think of when you first turned to the Lord.  Didn't that happen as a result of taking stock of something in yourself and your life?  You thought on your ways and turned to the Lord.

So let me urge all of you to step aside from the rush of life and think on your ways.  Come to yourself, reflect on your life and its direction, and then turn unto the Lord and His testimonies, which are there to guide you in the right way. 

Haggai 1:5  Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.

Psalm 119:58

We come to the next verse in the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Cheth.

Psalms 119:58  I intreated thy favour with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to thy word.

Here we find the psalmist intreating the Lord.  To intreat is to ask, such as we do when we pray for something.  In analyzing this verse, I am going to adopt the method used by Matthew Henry as he commented on it.  Mr. Henry broke this verse down into three parts:  what the psalmist prayed for, how he prayed, and what he pleaded as he prayed. 

First, consider what the psalmist prayed for.  He asked for God’s favour and mercy:  I intreated thy favour…be merciful unto me.  Now the primary meaning of the word grace is favour.  Therefore, the psalmist is asking for God’s grace and mercy.  When God deals with us in grace, He gives us what we do not deserve.  He is doing us a favour.  Grace has been rightly defined as unmerited favour.  When God deals with us in mercy, He does not give us what we do deserve.  In asking for grace and mercy we ask God to grant us kindness, compassion, and blessing instead of the severity and wrath that we deserve.  Mercy takes away what we deserve and grace gives us what we don’t deserve.  And, thank God, there is grace and mercy available to us for the asking at the throne of grace.

Hebrews 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

God’s mercy removes our many and varied transgressions, and with them He removes His anger. 

Psalms 51:1  Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

Micah 7:18  Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.

God’s grace, His favour, provides us with help and strength for whatever we must deal with in life. 

 2 Timothy 2:1  Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

 Now this fleeting life down here is never going to be a paradise. 

Job 14:1  Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

In this life you will have your share of personal failures, grief, and pain.  But with mercy to take care of your failures and with grace to strengthen and help you to cope with whatever life throws your way, your greatest needs are provided.  What better could you ask for?

Second, mark how the psalmist asks for favour and mercy.  He does so with his whole heart.  This is no rote, halfhearted prayer.  The psalmist prays for this from the depth of his being, meaning what he says.  It is as if he is asking for his life, which in reality he is when you consider this verse:

Psalms 30:5  For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life….

What would the life of any of us be without the grace of God?  Life without God’s grace is living death!

Lastly, consider the psalmist’s plea as he presents his request:  be merciful unto me according to thy word.  The psalmist does not plead his own merit or goodness as a reason for God to be merciful to him.  Rather he pleads God’s word of promise:  according to thy word.  And God has promised His mercy to His people in His word.

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.

Acts 13:34  And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David.

Hebrews 8:12  For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

May this meditation prompt all of us to come often to the throne of grace to draw down the mercy and grace that is promised to us, who believe on our Lord Jesus Christ unto life everlasting.

Psalm 119:57

We begin with the next octave of Psalm 119 bearing the title of the Hebrew letter Cheth.

Psalms 119:57  ¶CHETH. Thou art my portion, O LORD: I have said that I would keep thy words.

What is it to have the Lord for our portion?

 Portion – The part (of anything) allotted or belonging to one person; a share.

 Imagine God being allotted to you, belonging to you.  This is just what it means to have God for your portion.  David spoke of the Lord being his portion in the following passage taken from his psalms:

Psalms 16:5  The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.

6        The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

 Note first that if the Lord is our portion, He is so by inheritance.  We do not merely take the Lord to ourselves at our own will.  He is ours because He has allotted Himself to us to inherit.  And He remains our inheritance because He maintains our lot.  When you consider what God is then you can see why David said the lines were fallen unto him in pleasant places.  Indeed, he had a goodly heritage.  All that God is in all His perfections is our portion.  With God for our portion we have access to unlimited strength, everlasting righteousness, and unfailing goodness, compassion, and mercy.  “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1).  That being so, our portion is the One Who owns it all and controls it all.  Not a bad lot! 

The following verse shows what David found in having the Lord for His portion.  Pay careful attention to the possessive pronoun my showing that all this belonged to David.

Psalms 18:2  The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.

 With a portion like that, what more could he want?  That is why he wrote:

 Psalms 23:1  The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

 In the next psalm David affirmed again that the Lord was his portion.

Psalms 142:5  I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.

It is interesting to note that it is written in the superscription of Psalm 142:  A prayer when he was in a cave.  David may have been in a cave, an outcast with no certain dwelling place, but he had a refuge because he had the Lord for his portion.  Like the apostle Paul, David was “as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” (2Corinthians 6:10).  Better to be in a cave and have the Lord than to be in a palace without Him. 

The following verse is a sad commentary on the portion of the men of this world:

Psalms 17:14  From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

Thank God we have been chosen out of the world and granted a portion in God (John 15:19).  Unlike the portion that the men of the world have in this life, this portion we have in the Lord is forever.  It will provide us with strength when our flesh and heart fail under the stresses of life and the decline of age.

Psalms 73:26  My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

With God for our portion, we have hope and thus we have every reason to be optimistic about what lies ahead of us.

Lamentations 3:24  The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

If you truly grasp what it is to have the Lord for your portion, then what else could you want?   What can Satan dangle before you to tempt you that could begin to compare with the Lord?

Psalms 73:25  Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.

Thomas Brooks had this excellent advice to offer:  “I would counsel every Christian to answer all temptations with this short saying, ‘The Lord is my portion.’”

But let me make something clear so that no soul becomes needlessly discouraged.  I talk about the Lord being our portion and, therefore, wanting nothing else.  Having the Lord for our portion while we live in this world does not mean that we will never suffer need, or the pain of longing and desire.  Paul himself wrote that he had learned “to suffer need” (Philippians 4:12).  There will always be something lacking that we will suffer in this fallen world.  We will never reach fullness and total satisfaction until we see the Lord face to face.

Psalms 17:15  As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

But with the Lord for our portion, we will have the strength to bear need and pain.  We will never want that strength.  We will have sufficient to be content as we abide the passage of time until we arrive at the fullness of our salvation in glory.

2 Corinthians 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Now having God for our portion, the next phrase in the psalm logically follows:  I have said that I would keep thy words.  Matthew Henry wrote:  

“Those that take God for their portion must take him for their prince, and swear allegiance to him; and, having promised to keep his word, we must often put ourselves in mind of our promise.” 

If the LORD is my portion, then the LORD is my God and my King to command.  Having the Lord for my portion is having the Lord for what He is, not for what I can make of Him; and He is a King.  God is not my portion in that I control Him.  Rather He is my portion to control me.  And I need someone to control me, for if I am left to myself I will destroy myself.  My safety is in having a king, a sovereign to command and defend me; and such is the Lord my portion. 

Have you, like the psalmist, said you will keep the Lord’s words?  If you have not, then how can you claim Him for your portion?  I close with the words William Cowper speaking to this very point:

“Many will say with David, that God is their portion; but here is the point:  how do they prove it?  If God were their portion, they would love him; if they loved him they would love his word; if they loved his word they would live by it and make it the rule of their life.”

This blog has been longer than others.  I hope this has not burdened you and that you have received a blessing from it.

Psalm 119:56

We come today to the last verse of the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Zain.

Psalms 119:56 This I had, because I kept thy precepts.

The opening word this is a demonstrative pronoun. Here is its meaning:

This – Indicating a thing or person, present or near (actually in space or time, or ideally in thought, esp. as having just been mentioned and thus being present to the mind).

The psalmist is referring back to something he had just mentioned. In the previous verse he had written: I…have kept thy law. Then he wrote: this I had. The thing the psalmist had was the ability to say that he had kept God’s law. That is a great thing to have to one’s account. But why did he have this? He had this, as he wrote, because I have kept thy precepts. God’s law, singular, is made up of precepts, plural. Therefore, when one has kept God's precepts, one has kept God's law.  One can say he has kept God’s law because he has kept God’s precepts.

Furthermore, keeping the Lord’s precepts enables us to keep the Lord’s precepts. Each act of obedience to God’s law leads to further obedience. Or put it this way: obedience begets more obedience. On the other hand, each act of sin leads to another act of sin unless we “break off thy sins by righteousness” as Daniel counseled King Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel 4:27).

Commenting on today’s verse Simon de Muis (1587-1644) wrote:

“The Rabbins have an analogous saying, - The reward of a precept is a precept; or, A precept draws a precept. The meaning of which is, that he who keeps one precept, to him God grants, as if by way of reward, the ability to keep another and more difficult precept. The contrary to this is that other saying of the Rabbins, that the reward of a sin is a sin; or, Transgression draws transgression.”

The apostle Paul conveyed the same thought in this verse:

Romans 6:19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

Iniquity leads to iniquity and righteousness leads to holiness. So you can say you have kept God’s law because you have kept God’s precepts. As you obey the Lord, He gives you more grace to obey Him yet more. As our Saviour taught, the branch that bears fruit brings forth more fruit (John 15:2). You have been obedient because you have been obedient. This you have. And this, above anything else, you want to make sure you continue have!

Psalm 119:55

What do you think about at the end of the day, when the shades of night gather around you? Where do your thoughts turn when you come apart from the business of the day? What do you think about when you lie awake on your bed at night? Our verse today from Psalm 119 presents our psalmist’s answer to these questions.

Psalms 119:55 I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law.

For most of us the nighttime is a time of leisure, a time to relax from the work of the day. We might spend some time surfing the internet, or watching television, or chatting with friends on the phone or on the computer, or going bowling, or going to a movie, or reading a good book, or some such. And any of this is fine in its place. But do your thoughts ever turn to the Lord? As you remember the events of the day or the week and muse over them, do you remember Him? In the case of our psalmist, the nighttime found him remembering God’s name: I have remembered by name, O LORD, in the night.

Now God bears the names He does because of Who He is and what He does. God’s name is the revelation of Himself. Observe how the proclamation of what God is called, what God is like, and what God does is the proclamation of His name.

Exodus 34:5 And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. 6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.

God reveals Himself in the Scriptures. When you remember something your Bible teaches you about your God, you are remembering His name. So as you remember the episode you saw last week on television and anticipate the following episode that will be featured tonight, do you in all of this remember anything you learned from the Bible recently?

It is very important to note what the psalmist connects with remembering the Lord’s name in the night: and have kept thy law. Remembering the name of the Lord and keeping His law go hand in hand. Commenting on this verse Matthew Henry wrote: “The due remembrance of God’s name, which is prefixed to his law, will have a great influence upon our observance of the law.” You will have more regard for the law when you have more regard for the One Who gave it to you and commanded you to keep it. Charles Spurgeon had some worthy comments on this verse:

“As the actions of the day often create the dreams of the night, so do the thoughts of the night produce the deeds of the day. If we do not keep the name of God in our memory we shall not keep the law of God in our conduct. Forgetfulness of mind leads up to forgetfulness of life.”

Psalm 106 is an account of the repeated sins and backslidings of God’s favoured nation of Israel. This psalm traces their failures back to their forgetfulness of the Lord.

Psalms 106:6 We have sinned with our fathers, we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly. 7 Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea.

Psalms 106:13 They soon forgat his works; they waited not for his counsel: 14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert.

Psalms 106:21 They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt…

May this sad record of Israel’s sins spur us to heed this warning:

DEU 8 11 Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:

If you would avoid sin by keeping God’s law, take care to direct your memory to God’s holy name in the night, during which time you prepare for the work of the next day.

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

Psalms 16:7 I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.

Psalms 63:5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: 6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.

Psalm 119:54

We continue today making our way through the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Zain. Up to now this octave has revealed the psalmist deriving hope and comfort from the Scriptures. Today we find that the Scriptures also provided music in his life.

Psalms 119:54 Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.

The psalmist speaks of the house of my pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is a journey made by a pilgrim. So we need to know just what a pilgrim is.

Pilgrim – One who travels from place to place; a person on a journey; a wayfarer, a traveller; a wanderer; a sojourner.

It matters not where they reside in this world or how long they live there, God’s children are on a journey to another world. Whatever house they dwell in be it rented or owned, large or small, elaborate or simple is like an inn. It is just a place to stay over temporarily. It is a house of pilgrimage. This world provides us no lasting home. We are journeying toward a world to come, to a heavenly country.

Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

1 Chronicles 29:15 For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.

Our Saviour promised us a permanent dwelling in His Father’s house above.

John 14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

That word mansion has an interesting definition.

Mansion - The action of remaining, abiding, dwelling, or staying in a place. Also, permanence or continuance in a position or state. A place where one stays or dwells; a place of abode, an abiding-place.

A mansion is a permanent dwelling place, a place where we remain and from which we are not moved. No house we possess down here has this feature of permanence. Owning one’s own house has been called the American dream. Well, it turns out that that is all that it is. It is a dream that comes in a night and flees away in a night. We can better endure the loss of a house down here when we remember it was never ours to keep in the first place. Think of moving from one house to another as moving from one hotel room to another whilst you are on a trip.

The relief we often feel upon arriving to our temporary home after a long, exhausting trip is just a little foretaste of what we shall experience when we at last arrive to our everlasting house, from which we will never have a need or desire to leave again.

Now there was music to be heard in the house of the psalmist’s pilgrimage, music to cheer him on his journey homeward. And that music was drawn from the Holy Scriptures: thy statutes have been my songs. The musical compositions that have been derived from the Holy Scriptures are innumerable. For example, there is Handel’s Messiah in which passages taken from the A.V. 1611 are set to music. Jewish cantors can chant the psalms in Hebrew. There are other examples of verses of Scripture set to music. Then there are the hymns and spiritual songs whose content is derived from the history and teachings of the Scriptures. Although the words of these songs are not direct quotations from the Bible, they are nevertheless based in the Scriptures. These are the songs that direct our hearts away from this world to the world above, where our affections should be set.

Colossians 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

Charles Bridges in his excellent commentary on Psalm 119 wrote this warning: “What reason have we then every moment to guard against the debasing, stupefying influence of the world, which makes us forget the proper character of a pilgrim!” Never let this world make you feel at home.

It is also telling that the psalmist found songs in God’s statutes, the laws He has given to us as our Sovereign Lord, laws we are to obey. For the psalmist, living under God’s authority was not a matter of complaint, but rather a matter of celebration in song. Linking today’s verse with the one that precedes it, Charles Spurgeon wrote: “Saints find horror in sin, and harmony in holiness.”

May I ask you, believer, are the songs of God’s statutes ever heard in the house of your pilgrimage?

Psalm 119:53

Psalm 119 addresses a wide range of emotions both pleasant and painful. The verse we consider today brings before us one of the most painful human emotions, the emotion of horror.

Psalms 119:53 Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.

We begin by defining the word horror.

Horror – A painful emotion compounded of loathing and fear; a shuddering with terror and repugnance; strong aversion mingled with dread; the feeling excited by something shocking or frightful.

The psalmist is in a state of shock. He has been confronted with something he loathes, something he dreads, something he does not want to accept. This thing has taken hold of him. He cannot escape its painful reality. Think of the most shocking news you have ever heard. Recall how you felt, how you wished it were no so, and you will have some insight into the emotion of the psalmist expressed in this verse.

But look at what caused this horror. Horror took hold of the psalmist because of the wicked that forsake thy law. His horror did not just arise from some frightening thing that happened to him or to his loved ones, as is often the case with our experiences of horror. Rather, his horror arose from what the wicked were doing to God’s law! The psalmist so deeply loved and revered God’s law, that it horrified him to see wicked men forsake it.

Now just what is it to forsake the law?

Forsake – To deny, renounce, or repudiate allegiance to. To refuse respect or obedience to (a command, duty, etc.); to disregard. Also, to neglect (to do something). To break off from, renounce (a belief, doctrine).

To forsake the law is to deny it, to renounce it; it is to refuse to respect or obey it. Forsaking the law of God is what wicked people do. That is why they are wicked. When we look about us in the world, we see the Bible denied everywhere. We see its commandments ridiculed and flagrantly disobeyed. In Jeremiah’s day the religious leaders and the people alike were involved in scandalous behaviour. The sight of this horrified that holy man of God.

Jeremiah 23:14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.

Our nation today has also become “as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.” It is common today to see the sin of sodomy presented in television programs and movies as an acceptable thing. As Jermiah said, it is “an horrible thing”!

But you don’t just see the forsaking of God’s law in the secular world, you see in the world of professing Christendom. You see professing Christians tossing aside the pure text of the Scriptures as preserved in the Authorized Version of 1611 for a corrupt text, thus forsaking the law of God. These corrupt texts water down verses that speak sharply against certain sins. Organizations claiming to be churches of the Lord Jesus Christ routinely disregard the New Testament order of worship, ministry, and discipline substituting rites and programs that are neither commanded nor exemplified in Scripture. The church is made to conform to the will of the people rather than the people being made to conform to the will of God. This is a horrible thing!

Jeremiah 5:30 A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; 31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

The danger in this day of mass media is that we are being exposed to so much forsaking of the law, that we are becoming calloused and indifferent to it. We no longer feel horror at such wholesale forsaking of God's law. Our ability to feel horror at what we see is being worn down by overmuch exposure. To be indifferent rather than horrified at the forsaking of the law of God is a sign of spiritual decay and will lead to further decay if not corrected. Alexander Pope expressed it well in this short poem:

Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,

As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;

Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,

We first endure, then pity, then embrace.

The lesson here is that we need less exposure to sinful media and more exposure to things that are pure, holy, and good so that we maintain our ability to be horrified when God’s law is forsaken. For the more horrified we are at the wicked forsaking God’s law, the less chance there will be that we will forsake it ourselves, because the thought of doing so will horrify us!

Psalm 119:52

The verse we take up today is sandwiched between two verses, both of which speak of things that stressed the psalmist. Verse 51 speaks of the stress of being had greatly in derision by the proud. Verse 53 speaks of the horror that took hold of him because of the wicked that forsake God’s law. The psalmist was stressed by what the wicked were doing to him and by what they were doing to God’s law. Now the verse we consider today shows us how the psalmist was comforted in the midst of this stress.

Psalms 119:52 I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD; and have comforted myself.

The psalmist found comfort in remembering God’s judgments of old. First off, let’s understand that God’s judgments refer not only to his punishment of the wicked for their wickedness, but it also refers to God's rewarding of the righteous for their righteousness. When God either punishes or rewards, He is judging; this is an act of judgment by the Lord.

2 Chronicles 6:23 Then hear thou from heaven, and do, and judge thy servants, by requiting the wicked, by recompensing his way upon his own head; and by justifying the righteous, by giving him according to his righteousness.

The Bible is a book of history. It records the dealings of God with men from the beginning of time to the generation of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a period of about four thousand years. It also prophesies of how God will deal with men for the remainder of time until the end of the world and then into eternity. In the history recorded in the Bible we find example after example of God’s judgments. We see Him recompensing the way of the wicked in such events as the flood of Noah, the destruction of the Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues of Egypt, the final overthrow of Pharaoh and his chariots in the Red Sea, the chastisement of David for his adultery, the captivity of Israel by the Assyrians, the fall of Judah to the Babylonians, and the subsequent fall of Babylon, to name a few. We also see the Lord rewarding the righteous in the translation of Enoch, the deliverance of Noah and his family through the flood, the raising up of Joseph to a position of power second only to Pharaoh, the provisions God made for virtuous Ruth, the protection of David from the pursuits of Saul, etc. It was from this history of God’s judgments that the psalmist drew his comfort in the midst of the persecution of the righteous and the abandonment of God’s law by the wicked.

The judgments of God show us that there is a limit to how far wicked men can go in their wickedness before God puts a stop to it. This is a comfort to a God-fearing man. I even derive comfort from knowing God judges His children for their wicked ways as He did David. That means that God puts a curb upon my own sin. If He did not to do so, I would destroy myself. Were not the Lord in the business of restraining wicked men by his judgments, they would long since have destroyed God’s word and His people from this earth to say nothing of destroying each other. For when men have no regard for the righteousness of God’s law, no one is safe.

In addition, the history of God’s judgments confirms the truth of these two verses:

Psalms 58:11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.

Ephesians 6:8 Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.

By remembering God’s judgments of old God’s servants are assured that in the end righteousness pays off though for the present they may be suffering on account of it. The remembrance of this is a great comfort. It encourages us to continue doing good.

One reason we can derive such comfort from remembering God’s judgments of old is that the Lord doesn’t change.

Malachi 3:6 For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.

He continues today to judge men as He did then. It is as we sometimes sing in church: “And the God that lived in the olden times is just the same today!” It is here we find comfort.

Remembering the judgments of old executed by our immutable God we may join the psalmist David in praying this prayer:

Psalms 7:8 The LORD shall judge the people: judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me. 9 Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.

Now the next thing I wish to point out in this verse is extremely important. Observe that the psalmist said that remembering God’s judgments of old, I…have comforted myself. To comfort oneself is to strengthen oneself, to encourage oneself. Now God gives His people ministers of the word of God and one of their jobs is to comfort His people.

1 Thessalonians 3:2 And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith:

And believers have a responsibility to comfort one another.

1 Thessalonians 4:18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

It is a grand thing to have other people in our life who can comfort us. But we have a responsibility to remember what we have been taught so that in times of distress we can comfort ourselves. We need to be able to reach down into the storehouse of our own knowledge and find that which will impart strength and encourage us. You see, you can and ought to become your own therapist so that you are not so completely dependent on others to help you with your struggles!

To be able to comfort yourself is a sign of spiritual maturity. Make it your goal to be like David. When the wives and children of David and his men had been carried away captive by the Amalekites, and his men spake of stoning him, and David was “greatly distressed” – who wouldn’t be under those circumstances - it is written that David “encouraged himself in the LORD his God” (1Samuel 30:1-6). David was able to comfort himself. God grant us grace to remember His judgments of old that we may comfort ourselves in times of distress.

Psalm 119:51

We continue today with our meditations taken from the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Zain

Psalms 119:51 The proud have had me greatly in derision: yet have I not declined from thy law.

Derision is the action of deriding. So let’s define the word deride.

Deride – To laugh at in contempt or scorn; to laugh to scorn; to make sport of, mock.

The man of God writes in this psalm of the yearnings and experiences of God’s chosen and redeemed family, who keep His law. One of those experiences is to be the object of derision, to be laughed at in contempt, to be made fun of.

Note that the ones who hold them in contempt are called the proud. Anyone who would make fun of a person for fearing God has a very high opinion of himself; he is very full of himself. His expression of contempt for God’s servant is in reality an expression of contempt for God Himself and His holy law. No greater expression of arrogance can be imagined than to thus boldly mock the Almighty God of heaven and earth, Who holds in His hand the breath of every living thing. The Lord has but to nod and that arrogant fool would be reduced to nothingness. Yet he dares to defy the living God and mock His chosen ones with the very breath His Maker gives Him.

Not only do the proud have God’s servants in derision; they have had them greatly in derision.

Psalms 123:4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.

It is hard to imagine any passage more relevant to the age in which we live than the verse we consider today. Observe how much, yea, how greatly the media makes fun of Christianity and its followers. If a television show or a movie has a character that is a preacher, how many times is that preacher presented as a bungling idiot or a crook? Authoritative leaders who enforce righteousness are cast in a dim light. It is they who must be broken. They are the villain.

But over against all this derision, the psalmist states: yet have I not declined from thy law.

Decline – To turn aside, deviate. fig. To turn aside in conduct; esp. to swerve or fall away (from rectitude, duty, allegiance, instructions, etc.).

The psalmist did not let the scorn of the proud intimidate him into backing off from his devotion to God’s law and neither should we. As Matthew Henry pointed out, the psalmist was “jeered for his religion,” but he was not “jeered out of his religion.” He would bear the laughter; he would be the brunt of the joke; he would endure the embarrassment. Because, you see, in the end, it is God and His servants who will have the last laugh.

Psalms 2:4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. 5 Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.

Luke 6:21 …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.

The day is coming when the derision of the proud aimed at the righteous will be forever silenced.

Jude 1:14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

But before we leave this meditation today, let us “consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself,” even our Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12:3). Today’s verse speaks so plainly of Him. Whilst hanging on His cross bearing our reproach and sin, it was written of Him:

Luke 23:35 And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. 36 And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar, 37 And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself.

He, too, was had greatly in derision by the proud who encircled His cross and poked fun at Him and His claims, and dared Him to come down from the cross. Yet, thank God, He did not decline from the law that required His suffering on that cross. Instead of coming down from the cross, He bore its curse to the death thus fulfilling the law and bringing in our everlasting salvation. Praise ye the Lord!