Psalm 119:98

Today we take up the second verse of the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Mem. 

Psalms 119:98  Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me.

In this and the next two verses the psalmist shows the edge that God’s word gave him over his enemies, his teachers, and the ancients.  I appreciate the comments of Charles Bridges on these three verses:

“He became wiser than his enemies in ‘subtlety’ (Prov. i.1, 4) – than all his teachers in doctrine – than the ancients in experience.  Yet he is not speaking of his extraordinary gifts as a prophet, but of his knowledge gained by ordinary means.”

Let’s begin by breaking down the opening phrase:  Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser.  Note that it is God that made the psalmist wiser.  Wisdom is a gift that God gives.

Proverbs 2:6  For the LORD giveth wisdom….

James 1:5  If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

Then note that God makes a man wiser through His commandments, that is, His written word.  Recall from the previous verse that the Scriptures were the psalmist’s meditation “all the day.”  He mused over His Bible and studied it.  He endeavoured to retain what he learned from his Bible so that he could say of God’s commandments:  for they are ever with me.  He kept the word of God in his heart as well as in his hand so as to always have access to it.

Psalms 119:11  Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Colossians 3:16  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom….

1 John 2:14  ….. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth (continueth) in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

And because he studied his Bible and retained what he learned, the Lord made him wise in the process.  That is how a man becomes wise!  He becomes wise through learning and retaining the Book of wisdom, which the Bible is.

As a result of his meditation in God’s word, the psalmist was made wiser than his enemies.  A believer may not be wiser than his enemies when it comes to the things of this world.  In fact, the Lord generally bypasses the wise of this world in His choice of persons.

1 Corinthians 1:26  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

28  And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.       

But God’s chosen people, who with the blessing of God study their Bibles, become wiser than their enemies in the things that matter most.  Those who know the will of God expressed in His commandments and who do it, have a divine hedge set about them that the enemy cannot break through. They can defy the threat of death itself to the utter confounding of their enemies who think to back them back down with that threat.  Such was the case with the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when they refused to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image (Daniel 3).  Such was also the case with Daniel, when he continued to pray to the God of Israel in defiance of the Persian decree that all prayers for thirty days should be addressed only to the king (Daniel 6).  Such was the case with the apostles of our Lord who underwent beatings, imprisonment, and death rather than cease to preach the Lord Jesus Christ.  They obviously knew something their enemies did not know and could, therefore, outsmart their attempts to stamp out the gospel they preached.  How many times has a humble child of God who believes, studies, and obeys his Bible been able to confound an educated enemy with a simple answer?  And even if an enemy refuses to bow to the obvious wisdom of God’s commandments, that doesn’t mean that enemy is wiser.  It just means he is a fool!  The Day of Judgment will reveal that the children of God armed with the Scriptures have outfoxed their enemies time and again.  Therefore, the gospel continues to be preached in this earth, souls continue to be converted to it, and true churches of the Lord Jesus Christ continue to exist here and there observing His ordinances as He appointed in spite of all the attempts of enemies to the contrary.  

And don’t forget the archenemy of the believer, the devil himself, who “as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1Peter 5:9).  The devil is “the prince of this world” (John 14:30).  The devil is intelligent enough to deceive the whole world and marshal its vast resources for the advancement of his cause (Revelation 12:9). Yet, a little child of God can back down that mighty prince by simply quoting a Bible verse to him, just like Jesus did when that same enemy tempted Him in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11).  Indeed, thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than my mine enemies. Praise the Lord!