Psalm 119:156

Once again we take up a verse from the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Resh.

Psalms 119:156  Great are thy tender mercies, O LORD: quicken me according to thy judgments.

This verse like the rest is a prayer to God.  In this prayer there is a confession of what God’s mercies are like and then a request. Three things in this verse describe God’s mercy.  Firstly, there are multiple instances of God’s mercy.  Hence, the word mercy is in the plural, mercies. Secondly, God’s mercies are great.  And thirdly, God’s mercies are tender. 

Thanks be to God for multiplied mercies.  As we pointed out when we dealt with Psalm 119:41, our sins are innumerable (Psalms 40:12) and our soul is full of troubles (Psalms 88:3).  Each sin and each trouble calls for mercy.  So mercy toward each sin and in each trouble amounts to mercies.

Then when you consider the multitude of sins and troubles of each individual child of God and then multiply that by all the innumerable children of God, the word great most fitly describes God’s mercies.  Great sinners in great troubles need great mercies.  And thank God He has them to dispense!  So great are His mercies that they are quite past our reckoning.

Psalms 103:11  For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

Psalms 103:17  But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children;

18  To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

Psalms 40:5  Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.

God’s great mercies are also tender.  I commented on the expression tender mercies when I dealt with verse 77 of this psalm.  I repeat what I wrote then:  “The Lord does not bestow His mercies upon us begrudgingly.  His mercies flow out of a gentle, kind, and loving disposition.  God bestows mercy because He loves to and wants to.”  Therefore, we need never fear that we are wearying the Lord when we beg for mercy.  He has plenty of mercies to pass out and He dispenses them quite readily.

Psalms 86:5  For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.

The psalmist then attaches this request to his acknowledgement of the greatness of God’s tender mercies:  quicken me according to thy judgments.  This is the second time in this octave that the psalmist prays to be quickened.  In verse 154 he prayed to be quickened according to God’s word.  Here he prays to quickened according to God’s judgments.  We noted in the introduction of this psalm that this word judgments refers to God’s decrees, ordinances, laws, and statutes.  God’s word, singular, is a collection of His judgments, plural.  And the Lord’s judgments, plural, so interconnect that they can also be called His judgment, singular, as they were in verse 149:  “quicken me according to thy judgment.”  The psalmist craved no revival, no added or restored vigour but such as was in keeping with the judgments of God that he read in his Bible.  Never expect the Lord to enliven your drooping spirits if you ignore or break His ordinances and laws.  So you feel down, so down that you do not feel like going to church and worshipping God in His house according to His holy judgments.  So you feel depressed, so depressed that you neglect to pray, give thanks, or read your Bible.  So you are sulking because you feel shunned or crossed by another, so much so that you would rather pout in your sullen mood that deal with the issue according to God’s law.  Well, down, depressed, and sullen you will remain until you bow to God’s judgments and handle things His way.  And when you yield to God’s judgments, you can be assured that the Lord, whose tender mercies are great, will lift you up, dust you off, put His strength in you, and set you on your way rejoicing.  That is, He will quicken you according to His judgments.

Psalm 119:155

We continue making our way through the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Resh.

Psalms 119:155  Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not thy statutes.

In this verse the psalmist makes a declarative statement:  Salvation is far from the wicked.  Then he advances a reason for making this statement:  for they seek not thy statutes.  Since the fall of Adam plunged the human race into sin, all men are by nature wicked. 

Romans 3:9  What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

10  As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

11  There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

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

13  Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

14  Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

15  Their feet are swift to shed blood:

16  Destruction and misery are in their ways:

17  And the way of peace have they not known:

18  There is no fear of God before their eyes.

This passage in which Paul proves that all are “under sin” consists of various quotes from the Old Testament.  In some of these quotations from the Old Testament the writer is unquestionably describing the wicked calling them just that.  Hence, we say that all men under sin are wicked.

In their wicked state men do not seek after God.  “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”  Therefore, it follows that inasmuch as they do not seek after God and do not fear Him, they also seek not His statutes.  It is little wonder that the wicked do not seek God’s statutes when they have this attitude:

Job 21:14  Therefore they say unto God, Depart from us; for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.

15  What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?

The wicked do not want anything to do with a Bible, a true Bible that is.  They want no part of a Book that exposes them for what they are.

John 3:20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

The fact that wicked men do not seek God’s statutes is an evidence of their lost and ruined state.  Their aversion to God’s statutes demonstrates that God’s salvation is far from them.  That they will not hear the words of God shows that they are not of God. 

John 8:47  He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.

1 John 4:6  We (the apostles) are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

Salvation is far from those who are not of God.  Since God’s salvation is far from the wicked, the Lord does not consider their affliction, plead their cause, deliver them, and quicken them as the psalmist trusted God to do for him.  On the other hand, if a man does seek God’s statutes, that is evidence that he possesses eternal life and, therefore, God’s salvation is very nigh unto him.   

John 5:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

Such a man not only possesses eternal life right now, but God is nigh unto him to hear his prayers, and to help and deliver him from evil in this present world.

Psalms 46:1  God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Psalms 138:6  Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off.

7  Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.

Psalms 145:18  The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.

19  He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them.

20  The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy.

Lastly, let us all take warning from this verse that it is a wicked thing indeed to not seek God’s statutes.  Let this fact spur all of us to be more diligent to take our Bible in hand, and seek out its teaching and direction for our lives.