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!