Psalm 119:19

The verse for today’s meditation describes the attitude of the spiritually minded believer regarding his life in this earth.

Psalms 119:19 I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.

Of course, let’s begin by defining that word stranger.

Stranger – One who belongs to another country, a foreigner; chiefly (now exclusively), one who resides in or comes to a country to which he is a foreigner; an alien.

God’s people are citizens of another country. This world is not their home. They have been chosen out of it.

John 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

If God’s children embrace what they are taught in the word of God, then they, like the psalmist, confess that they are strangers in this earth. They seek another country. This was the confession of the fathers of our faith.

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.

Even when the nation of Israel was settled in the land of Canaan that God had given them to inherit in this earth, they recognized that as only a temporary lodging place. They still confessed themselves to be strangers in this earth. They knew their permanent home was somewhere beyond this world. These are David’s words spoken on behalf of the Israel while they were dwelling in Canaan’s land:

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.

And this can be connected with the way Peter addressed believers in the New Testament:

1 Peter 2:11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;….

It will never do for a Christian to feel to at home in this world. He should hold everything in this world with a loose hand realizing that his permanent possession lies in what the Scriptures call “the world to come.” So if you go through this earth feeling like you haven’t arrived yet, you haven’t! You are a stranger “just a passin through,” as the old song says.

Because the psalmist was a stranger in this earth, He asked God not to hide His commandments from him. Now this is really the same petition that we studied in the previous verse. There the psalmist asked God to open his eyes to behold the wondrous things of God’s law. If our eyes are open to see something, then that something will not be hidden from us.

Now there are three things that greatly assist a stranger as he makes his way through a strange place. Those three things are a guide to point the way, a guard to keep him safe, and a companion to keep him company. God’s commandments provide all three of these things as the following passage clearly shows:

Proverbs 6:22 When thou goest, it shall lead thee (a guide); when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee (a guard); and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee (a companion).
23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:…

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The psamist asks God not to hide His commandments from him. This word commandments not only refers to those things that God has commanded us to do, which certainly provide direction for us as we travel through this strange country; but that word also refers to God’s government of this universe. Everything in this universe is subject to the command of God. It was created and continues to function by the commandment of God.

Psalms 148:4 Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.
5 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.

Isaiah 45:12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.

Job 37:11 Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud:
12 And it is turned round about by his counsels: that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth.
13 He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.

Job 38:12 Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;….

Psalms 107:25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.

It should comfort us strangers in our pilgrimage through this earth to know that everything in this world is subject to the command of the God Who loves and cares for us. And because He loves us, from time to time He exercises His power of command to deliver us.

Psalms 44:4 Thou art my King, O God: command deliverances for Jacob.

Whatever be the crisis that you are caught in, God has but to utter His word of command and you will be delivered. Well might you commit yourself to the care of such a faithful Creator, Who has all things at His command.

1 Peter 4:19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

And, of course, the sweetest of all is to see His commandment of our everlasting salvation. This assures us of a safe arrival home.

Psalms 133:3 As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

John 12:50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

Let me close with this precious thought: God has given to our personal Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Shepherd of our souls, the command of this universe. He still has the same power today that He had when he walked on this earth and had all things subject to His command. As the disciples of old, let us wonder and worship Him.

Luke 8:25 ….And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him.

Fellow stranger in this earth, may God not hide His commandments from you.

Psalm 119:18

In today’s meditation we light upon a prayer I frequently pray when I approach the Scriptures.

Psalms 119:18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

To behold a thing is to see it. If a person has not been born again, if he does not possess the gift of spiritual life; he has no capacity, no spiritual eyes with which to behold, to see, to know, and to understand the things of God’s word. He is blind and in darkness.

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Ephesians 4:17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:....

But when a man is born again and given spiritual life, he has the ability to behold the things of God’s law. He has spiritual eyes with which to see spiritual things. But the regenerate man is still saddled with a carnal nature called in the Scripture the flesh. And this carnal nature is opposed to the word of God as Paul clearly states in the following passage:

Romans 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

If this carnal nature is not kept in check, it will blind the child of God so that he does not see and understand the Scriptures. If the desires, thoughts, and emotions of our flesh are allowed to dominate us, they will distract us from the word of God so that we do not see what it is saying. We may read the words, but they will be just words. We will glean nothing, learn nothing, behold nothing. And too much of that will discourage any attempt to read and profit from the Bible. Or, something else may occur if the flesh has the upper hand and that is, when we read the Bible, even though the word is speaking clearly, by the time it enters our minds our carnal nature will pervert its message. We will interpret it according to what we want it to say, rather than seeing what it actually says. And thus we will miss the wonder of it. It was with an awareness of this fact that the psalmist prayed to God to open his eyes to behold the wondrous things out of God’s law.

We need the continued help of the Holy Spirit to keep our carnal nature in subjection, to give us repentance to see our sins and errors, and to strengthen our inward man so it may see what God is teaching in His word.

This prayer of the psalmist quite agrees with Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians.

Ephesians 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling,….

So when you sit down to read your Bible, do so with an awareness of your natural propensity for blindness. Ask God to open your eyes to behold its wondrous things.

Now the psalmist asks for God to open his eyes to behold wondrous things out of His law. The word wondrous means wonderful and wonderful means full of wonder. So let’s define the word wonder.

Wonder – Something that causes astonishment. A marvellous object; a marvel, prodigy. A deed performed or an event brought about by miraculous or supernatural power; a miracle.

The following quote taken from the writings of John Ker are very insightful.

“The great end of the Word of God in the Psalmist’s time, as now, was practical; but there is a secondary use here referred to, which is worthy of consideration, - its power of meeting man’s faculty of wonder. God knows our frame, for he made it, and he must have adapted the Bible to all its parts. If we can show this, it may be another token that the book comes from Him who made man.”

It is true that man yearns to behold astonishing and wonderful things. This can be seen from early childhood and it continues throughout life. We crave the spectacular. And the Bible is designed by our Maker to satisfy that craving.

The word wonder is used in Scripture to refer to miracles. The miracles that Moses performed in Egypt were called wonders (Exodus 4:21; 11:10). The miracles performed by Christ and His apostles were called wonders (Acts 2:22; 15:12). Now when God opens your eyes and you really behold what is in God’s law, you find that the Scriptures themselves are miraculous. You see that this is no ordinary book. It is given by the supernatural power of God. Although the Bible consists of 66 books written over a period of about 1500 years by over 40 authors in different places and different circumstances, yet there is an amazing harmony and unity in its message. It tells us of things in our universe long before science ever discovered them. It is historically accurate. It is prophetically accurate. It clearly describes the world we live in, why it is the way it is, and what will become of it. It tells us what man is, how he thinks, how he feels, what he will say, and what he will do. As we study it, it broadens our intellect, fortifies our hearts, and brings us exquisite pleasure. The more you see in the Bible, the more astounded you will be at the relevance, the truth, and the depth of its message. And, of course, it greatest wonder is the Saviour it presents, even our Lord Jesus Christ Whose name is called Wonderful (Isaiah 9:6). The Bible is a collection of miracles you can embrace in your hand at any time of the day, any day of the week. You need look no further than its pages to discover wonder upon wonder. If this is not your experience with the Bible, it is because your eyes are closed. Oh, that God may open our eyes to “behold wondrous things”out of His law.

Psalm 119:17

Now that I am safely returned home from my evangelistic trip to Asia, I am ready to resume this series of meditations on the 119th Psalm. We come today to the first verse of the third octave, which is entitled by the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Gimel.

Psalms 119:17 Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.

This verse is a prayer to God. It contains a specific request with a specific objective in mind, should God grant the request. The request is that God would “deal bountifully” with His servant. Although my trip to Asia was in some ways a life-changing experience for me, there is one thing that remains unchanged about me and that is my method of teaching the word of God. We begin by defining terms. In this case, we define the key word bountifully.

Bountifully – In a bountiful manner; with generous liberality, munificently, plentifully, amply.

The psalmist brings a large petition. He begs for liberal, plentiful, abundant supplies from God. He brings a large petition because He is addresses a very large God Who has large amounts to give. “The earth is the LORD’S, and the fullness thereof” (Psalm 24:1). It is His to give to as much as He will to whomever He will. All things seen and unseen belong to the Lord.

Romans 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

God is “abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6). He has a multitude of tender mercies and lovingkindnesses to bestow (Psalm 51:1; Isaiah 63:7). “With him is plenteous redemption” (Psalm 130:7). He abundantly pardons (Isaiah 55:7). And considering the abundance of my sin, this is an abundance I certainly need. His grace is exceeding abundant (1Timothy 1:14). Our Saviour came that we might have life, and “have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Because of “his riches in glory” we have the promise that our “God shall supply all your need” (Philippians 4:19). Indeed, as Paul wrote, God is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). It is no imposition to ask a God like this to deal bountifully with us.

And the psalmist brings a large petition because he has a large need. Without God’s liberal dealings with us, even at our best we are the extremity of weakness, emptiness, and nothingness.

Psalms 39:5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

We have an abundance of sin. Thank God He has a greater abundance of grace.

Romans 5:20 ....But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

Now the psalmist’s specific objective in asking God to deal bountifully with him is that he might “live, and keep thy word.” Whenever you ask God to live, to spare your life and lengthen your days, what is your reason for asking this? Is it that you might achieve certain professional goals? Is it that you might see your children or your grandchildren grow up? Is it that you might experience more of the delights of this world? Or is it that you might keep God’s word? If you ask God for life with a selfish end in view, do not be surprised if your request is denied.

James 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

In this prayer the psalmist speaks of himself as God’s servant. As servants of God, our chief aim and purpose is to do the will of our Master. God’s will is expressed in His word. You serve God by keeping His word. And it to this end the psalmist asks God to deal bountifully with him that he might live.

So if you pray and expect God to deal bountifully with you, make sure that you aim to use the bounty He bestows to serve Him and keep His word. The thought of this verse is well expressed in the following verse taken from the hymn written by Samuel Stennett entitled Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned:

Since from His bounty I receive
Such proof of love divine,
Had I a thousand hearts to give,
Lord, they should all be Thine,
Lord, they should all be Thine.

It is good to be back home doing this work of a pastor and teacher. I pray that this may bless you in reading as it has blessed me in writing.

Psalm 119:16

We now come to the last verse of this second section of Psalm 119 entitled Beth.

Psalms 119:16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.

We note again the expression “I will.” The psalmist resolves that he will delight himself in God’s statutes and will not forget His word. He will do these two things because he wants to do them and, therefore, he intends to do them. It is a fact that most people do what they want to do most of the time. If you really want to do something, you will generally find a way to do it. Most of our negligence does not arise from a lack of opportunity, but from a lack of will!

Now let’s focus on what it is to delight oneself in God’s statutes.

Delight – To be highly pleased, take great pleasure, rejoice in or to do (anything).

The psalmist is determined to take great pleasure in God’s statutes and to rejoice in them. It is interesting to note that in verse 15 he wrote: “I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies.” Now he states that he “will delight in God’s statutes.” The verb tense of have rejoiced is the present perfect tense. The present perfect tense sets forth action that took place in the past. The verb phrase will delight is in the future tense. The enjoyment the psalmist had in God’s statutes in the past was an enjoyment he would have in the future. Commenting on this verse Charles Spurgeon wrote:

“We may not promise for the future if we have altogether failed in the past; but where grace has enabled us to accomplish something, we may hopefully expect that it will enable us to do more.”

We noted in our last blog that the psalmist said he would meditate in God’s words after he had said that he had rejoiced in them. We pointed out at that time that you will devote more thought to those things that you enjoy. Now notice that after having determined to meditate in God’s precepts, the psalmist further determines to rejoice in them. Just as delight leads to meditation, meditation leads to further delight. You see, once you get into God’s word and it gets into you, you will enjoy it more and more. The joy you have had in it will provoke you to enjoy it more. Habits, be they good or bad, reinforce themselves because habits bring us some kind of pleasure or satisfaction. The more you indulge your habit the more you want to indulge it. The same holds true for the habit of meditating in God’s statutes. The more you do it, the more pleasure it brings you and the more you will want to do it.

That delight and meditation work in tandem may be seen from the very first psalm that describes the blessed man:

Psalms 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

It is also interesting to note how the psalmist applies his will to his emotion. Delight is an emotion. In this case the psalmist is going to subject his emotion to the direction of his will. Sadly, too many subject their wills to their emotions. They do what they feel like doing. Rather, we should subject our emotions to our wills. The emotion may resist at first, but eventually it will give way if you want it to. And that is the key. You have to be willing to delight in God’s statutes. If you want to enjoy the Bible, you will enjoy the Bible. The delight will come with the willingness.

Next, the psalmist resolved to remember God’s word: “I will not forget thy word.” This verse gives us two things that are helpful in remembering something. The first thing is the will: “I will not forget.” You will more likely forget something if you make no effort to remember it. And sometimes that is the wisest thing to do. We can’t remember everything. One of the keys to having a good memory is being able to sort out what needs to be remembered from what is just as well forgotten. A memory uncluttered with useless information will have more capacity for remembering what is necessary and useful. And God’s word is that one thing most necessary and useful for us to remember. Now if you are going to remember God’s word, you must want to remember it. The will must be involved. And if you really want to remember God’s word, you will focus your attention and effort upon it in order to remember it.

The second thing helpful in remembering something is the emotion. The psalmist said he would delight himself in God’s statutes and not forget His word. We generally have no problem remembering things that bring us pleasure. In his excellent book More Than Meets the Eyes, Dr. Richard A Swenson had this to say about memory: “The amount of effort we put into learning is not necessarily the most important thing. It turns out that meaning is as important to memory as intention.” Following up on this statement, I wrote this in a former blog on the subject of memory:

“You remember those things that mean the most to you. Do you have any trouble remembering the family and friends you love most? Or the experiences you most enjoyed? You can be assured that remembering my grandchildren is quite easy. Why? Because they mean so much to me! They are very much in my affections and thoughts. My wife and I speak often of them. Or turn it around. If someone forgets something that you expect them to remember, then how do you sometimes interpret their forgetfulness? Don’t you sometimes feel that you must not mean that much to them? Otherwise, they would have remembered. It appears we all understand the importance of meaning to memory…. Can you remember what you read in a novel, but not what you read in your Bible? Can you remember the content of a stirring political speech, but not the content of a stirring sermon? Do you remember when your favourite television show is on, but yet you sometimes forget when it’s communion Sunday? You will remember those things and events that your heart is most set upon because of how much they mean to you. You do not have any trouble remembering things that brought you great pleasure, do you? Things that bring you great pleasure mean a lot to you. If you delight in something, the odds are greater that you will remember it….The psalmist resolves that he will not forget God’s word. For him, memory was a matter of the will: “I will not forget.” But connected with his resolve was His delight in God’s word. The more you take pleasure in learning and obeying God’s word, the more you are going to remember it. For things that highly please you are more meaningful to you.”

If you really enjoy God’s word and you want to remember it, you will!

Now there are several other verses in this psalm that speak of delight in God’s word. But do not fear that we shall be saying the same things when we get to those verses. The subject of delight is a great one with broad application. The other verses dealing with this subject will bear this out. In connection with this, consider this comment on Psalm 119 from Charles Spurgeon’s book entitled The Treasury of David:

“Something in the position of each verse affects it meaning, so that even where its words are almost identical with those of another the sense is delightfully varied. If we do not see an infinite variety of fine shades of thought in this psalm we may conclude that we are colour-blind; if we do not hear many sweet harmonies, we may judge our ears to be dull of hearing, but we may not suspect the Spirit of God of monotony.”

To which I add a hearty “Amen.”

This will be the last blog that I shall write until after I return in the middle of May from my evangelistic trip to the Far East. So for now, I leave you with these meditations from Beth. I did not want to leave Beth hanging before I departed for Asia. God has blessed me with the closure that I desired. If the Lord will, we will take up with Gimel when I return and am recovered from the trip. May God bless these meditations to His glory and the good of your souls.

Psalm 119:15

We continue our series of meditations on Psalm 119. We are currently working our way through the second section entitled Beth and we now come to verse 15.

Psalms 119:15 I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.

The psalmist resolves that he will meditate in God’s precepts. Let’s define the word meditate.

Meditate - To muse over or reflect upon; to consider, study, ponder.

The psalmist would not just read or hear God’s precepts. He would focus his thoughts on them and toss them over in his mind. The verse we consider today follows logically from the preceding verse in which the psalmist stated that he had rejoiced in the way of God’s testimonies. If you really enjoy something, you will devote more thought to it. Commenting on this verse, Charles Bridges wrote: “The thoughts follow the affections.” How true! Therefore, we must guard against allowing our minds to become so crowded with the cares and pleasures of this life that they dampen the joy we have in the way of God’s testimonies.

Zero in on those first two words: “I will.” We considered these words when we dealt with verse 8: “I will keep thy statutes.” We pointed out at that time that you must exercise your will in order to obey God’s commandments. If you only obey God on a wave of emotion, you will not stick with it. As soon as the emotion dies down, and it will, you will be on to something else. The same applies to meditation. You have to determine to meditate whether you feel like doing it or not. The thoughts of the mind must be harnessed and forced to focus on God’s word if we are to derive maximum benefit from it. Failure to spend time meditating on God’s word is not really owing to a lack of time. It is owing to a lack of will. If you want to do something enough, you will find a way to do it. If you discipline yourself to study God’s word, it will yield its treasures to you.

In connection with meditating on God’s precepts, the psalmist said to God, “I will…have respect unto thy ways.” To have respect unto God’s ways is to have regard to them, to give them attention and consideration, to have them in view. Meditation in God’s precepts is an essential step in giving due regard to God’s ways.

The expression thy ways can refer to the things God does, how He deals with His creation and especially with His children.

Job 26:12 He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud.
13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.
14 Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?

Psalms 103:7 He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.

Now we can never exhaustively understand God’s ways.

Romans 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

But while we cannot fully know all of God’s ways, we can know some of them to some extent. And what we can know will be a great help to us. The expression thy ways also refers to the ways that God’s wants us to walk in this world, how He wants us to act and react.

Deuteronomy 8:6 Therefore thou shalt keep the commandments of the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.

The more thought you devote to God’s word, the more respect you will have unto it. As you study and consider God’s word, its teaching will become embedded in your mind so that you will be able to recall it as you confront the difficulties and decisions of life. You will better understand how God is dealing with you and what He expects of you. This will not occur if you just casually read and listen to the Scriptures without really focusing your thoughts upon them. Commenting on this verse in his commentary on Psalm 119, Charles Bridges offered this quote by Professor Francke:

“If a chapter be read with the eye merely, while the mind remains inattentive, and the book be shut as soon as the chapter is finished, and thus, what has been read immediately escape the memory; what is there to surprise, if, after the whole Bible has been several times read through, we discover in ourselves no increase of piety and devotion?”

That sums up quite well what Psalm 119:15 is teaching us.