Psalm 119:164

So far in this octave of Psalm 119 entitled Schin we have found the psalmist fearing, rejoicing, hating, and loving.  In today’s verse we find him praising.  And all these varied emotions and exercises are centered on the written word of God.

Psalms 119:164  Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments.

In verses 147-148 of Psalm 119 we found the psalmist engaged in his devotions before daybreak and at various times of the night.  In today’s verse we find him praising God seven times a day. 

Recall that with the exception of verses 1-3 and verse 115, every verse in Psalm 119 is a prayer.  In the prayer of today’s verse we have the psalmist confessing to God the fact that he praised the Lord repeatedly during the day.  Thank God when we have something about ourselves besides sin to confess to Him.  And it speaks well of the psalmist that he praised God seven times a day rather than once every seven days.  How much better we would all be if we praised God at least as many times as we asked Him for something!  In fact, the continual praise of God should be the very element in which we live.

Psalms 34:1  I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth. 

Psalms 71:8  Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day.

14  But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.

15  My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof.

Psalms 145:1  I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever.

2  Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever.

Luke 24:52  And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy:

53  And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

The psalmist cited this specific reason for his repeated praising of God in a day:  because of thy righteous judgments.  Commenting before on this expression thy righteous judgments I wrote:   “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.”  God’s righteous judgments are above all a reason to praise Him repeatedly on a daily basis.  Have you ever experienced a great deliverance that caused you to frequently praise the Lord?  Perhaps it was a deliverance from a potentially fatal sickness.  Perhaps it was a deliverance from financial ruin.  Maybe it was the rescue of a loved one from the brink of destruction.  It is good that you should repeatedly praise God for such things.  But how often do you praise God for your Bible?     

Praise God we have a Bible.  Praise God we have the Bible in our mother tongue.  Praise God He has given us a heart that desires to know His righteous judgments else we would disregard them. Praise God has given us understanding of His righteous judgments else we would not know them.  Praise God that His righteous judgments restrain wickedness in this world, else we had all long since perished from the earth.  Praise God that His righteous judgments for our sin were poured out on our Substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Praise God that a Day is coming in which His righteous judgments will be manifested in the everlasting destruction of the wicked and in the everlasting life of the righteous.  Now in this paragraph I have praised God seven times today for His righteous judgments. 

And on and on I could go praising God for His righteous judgments.  For those righteous judgments encompass everything God has said in His word and everything God does, for “all His ways are judgment” and all His ways are right. 

Deuteronomy 32:4  He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

God’s righteous judgments are so all encompassing that it will take us an eternity of endless days to praise Him for them.  In fact, we are specifically told that when we get to the other side, God’s righteous judgments will be the matter of our praise.

Revelation 15:2  And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.

3  And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.

4  Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.

Psalm 119:163

We continue working our way through the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Schin.

Psalms 119:163  I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love.

Let us begin by defining the words hate and abhor.

Hate – To hold in very strong dislike; to detest; to bear malice to.  The opposite of to love.

Abhor – To shrink back from with shuddering, to view with horror or dread.  To regard with horror, extreme repugnance or disgust; to hate utterly, loathe, abominate.

The word hate suggests that the psalmist bore a very strong dislike to lying.  But the word abhor shows that his hatred of lying was so intense that he viewed it with horror and dread.  He shrank back from lying regarding it with extreme repugnance.  Since he hated lying so intensely, it follows that he loved truth instead.  And this is reflected in the statement thy law do I love.  And what is the law but the truth? 

Psalms 119:142 …thy law is the truth.

Matthew Henry rightly observed that “love and hatred are the leading affections of the soul; if those be fixed aright, the rest move accordingly.” 

The fact that the psalmist hated lying manifested that he was a righteous man.

Proverbs 13:5  A righteous man hateth lying….

Today’s verse lines up very well with the prayer of Psalm 119:29: 

Psalms 119:29  Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.

When I was dealing with Psalm 119:29 I wrote: 

“The righteous man does not want to be deceived.  He does not want the way, the course of his life to be influenced by lies.  He has an honest and good heart that is open to receiving the truth of God’s word.  He wants to know, to believe, and to practice only the truth.  He does not want to lie; he does not want to be lied to; and he does not want to live a lie.  He will pay whatever it costs him to have the truth and he will not sell it for any price.”

The psalmist loved God’s law of commandments “above gold; yea, above fine gold” (Psalm 119:127).  And loving God’s law so much resulted in his intense hatred of lying.  As Abraham Wright observed, “All hatred comes from love.” 

The psalmist was certainly not a double minded man when it came to truth and lying.  He did not vacillate between the two.  He firmly held to the truth of God’s law and loathed the contrary lie.  You cannot love both lying and God’s law anymore than you can love both the devil and God.  The devil “is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44).  On the other hand, God is He “that cannot lie” (Titus 1:2).  You either love lying and hate God’s law, or you love God’s law and hate lying.   The Lord will not permit you to dangle between the two.  If you do not love God’s law of truth, God will abandon you to the way of lying. 

2 Thessalonians 2:10  And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

May God in His mercy forbid that we be among those of whom it is written:

Revelation 22:15  For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

Psalm 119:162

We come today to the second verse of the octave of Psalm 119 entitled schin.

Psalms 119:162  I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil.

In the previous verse the psalmist said he stood “in awe” of God’s word.  Here he rejoices at God’s word.  The more we fear the Lord and His word, the more we will rejoice in the Lord and His word.

Psalms 112:1  Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.

As we stated in the last meditation, you will be most controlled by whatever you stand most in awe of.  And the more you are under the control of the blessed word of God, the more joy you will find in it.  Think about it.  You find little joy in anything or anyone you rebel against.  Therefore, it is a sign of spiritual health when you both tremble at God’s word and rejoice in it.  In fact, God promises joy to those who tremble at His word.

Isaiah 66:5  Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.

Then the psalmist described how much he rejoiced in God’s word.  He rejoiced in it as one that findeth great spoil.  And men do rejoice when there is spoil to be gained.

Isaiah 9:3  …they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

To better appreciate this description let’s define the word spoil.

Spoil – Goods, esp. such as are valuable, taken from an enemy or captured in time of war; the possessions of which a defeated enemy is deprived or stripped by the victor; in more general sense, any goods, property, territory, etc. seized by force, acquired by confiscation, or obtained by similar means; booty, loot, plunder.

The definition of spoil suggests that there is a battle to be won and an enemy to be defeated if one is to enjoy the spoil.  The enjoyment of the spoil is a fruit of the victory.  In order for us to seize upon the riches of the Scriptures, we have to fight the lusts of our flesh and the temptations of Satan, for both our flesh and Satan are opposed to the word of God.  If you are as I, you have to overcome resistance to get into your Bible.  It is so easy to think of so many things to do instead of reading and meditating in the Scriptures.  And when I do sit down to read, I have to fight to keep my mind on what I am reading.  But whenever I suppress the flesh and resist the devil, and God opens my eyes; oh, the spoil, yea, the great spoil I find to the delight of my soul.  In fact, the spoil is so great, that the apostle Paul describes it as “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8).  I appreciate the comments of Charles Spurgeon on this point:

“The profits made in searching the Scriptures were greater than the trophies of war.  We too have to fight for divine truth; every doctrine costs us a battle, but when we gain a full understanding of it by personal struggles it becomes doubly precious to us.”

I can quite relate to what Mr. Spurgeon wrote.  When I glean something from Scripture that helps me in a personal struggle, then that indeed becomes “doubly precious” to me.  Have I got a witness?

Psalm 119:161

We now arrive at the next to the last octave of Psalm 119 entitled Schin.  According to the pronunciation guide in my Bible, this letter schin would be pronounced like our word sheen as when you refer to the shininess of something you speak of its sheen. 

Psalms 119:161  ¶SCHIN. Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word.

Let’s recall the definition of the word prince. 

Prince – 1. A sovereign ruler; a monarch, a king.  2. One who has the chief authority; a ruler, commander, governor, president; also, the head man, chief, or leader of a tribe.

This is the second verse of this psalm in which the psalmist mentions being opposed by those in chief authority.  The first verse to mention this is verse 23.

Psalms 119:23  Princes also did sit and speak against me: but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes.

There we saw those in authority using their governmental power to speak against the psalmist.  They were framing “mischief by a law” (Psalms 94:20).  In today’s verse we find these rulers persecuting the psalmist without a cause.  The psalmist had done nothing to warrant their opposing them.  He was guilty of nothing that could be construed as disobedience to their lawful authority.  He was like Daniel who was also persecuted by princes and that without a cause.

Daniel 6:4  Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him.

5  Then said these men, We shall not find any occasion against this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his God.

But the princes who persecute God’s servants are not just the princes of this world that we see; they are also the princes of this world that we do not see.  Bearing in mind that a principality is the position, dignity, or dominion of a prince, note these two verses:

Ephesians 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Colossians 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him….

Although the psalmist met with persecution from those in high places, visible and invisible, he did not let the fear of them overpower and control him.  He remained stedfast in the fear of God and His word:  but my heart standeth in awe of thy word.    

To stand in awe of:  to be greatly afraid of, to dread; later, to entertain a profound reverence for.

Whatever you stand most in awe of will be the thing that most controls you.  While on the one hand we should fear, honour and obey lawful authority figures among men, our first fear and honour is ever owing to God.

Romans 13:7  Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

Titus 3:1  Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work,

1 Peter 2:17  Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

Acts 5:29  Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

Therefore, if the fear of God ever comes into conflict with the fear of a prince, always choose the fear of God and His word.  And if you truly stand in awe of God, you will stand in awe of His word since His word is the very expression of His authority and that by which you shall be judged.  Furthermore, this awe that we should have of the word of God is a preventative against sinning against that word.

Psalms 4:4  Stand in awe, and sin not….

Today’s verse certainly points us to our Lord Jesus Christ Who was persecuted by princes, princes who were ignorant of Who He was and what He came to accomplish. 

1 Corinthians 2:6  Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:

7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

8  Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

And these princes had no cause to persecute Him and condemn Him as they did.  He was indeed persecuted without a cause.

John 15:25  But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

Luke 23:22  And he (Pilate) said unto them the third time, Why, what evil hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him: I will therefore chastise him, and let him go.

Acts 13:28  And though they found no cause of death in him, yet desired they Pilate that he should be slain.

And blessed are His followers who stand in awe of His word and are likewise persecuted without a cause.

1 Peter 4:15  But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters.

16  Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

Psalm 119:160

Today’s verse brings us to the end of the octave of Psalm 119 entitled Resh,  This verse is particularly significant to me since it carries over onto the column of Bible text on the next page.  This column of text is the last column of Psalm 119 in my Bible.  Therefore, I am quite literally into the final stretch of Psalm 119.  The end is in sight.

Psalms 119:160  Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.

God “cannot lie” (Titus 1:2).  Therefore, every word God has ever spoken is true and has been so from the beginning.  From the very first word of the Holy Scriptures in Genesis 1:1, which announces the beginning of creation, to the last “Amen” of Revelation 22:21, which completes the Scriptures, every word God has spoken from start to finish in the volume of the Book is true.   It starts out true and stays true.  Nothing that ever comes to pass will ever in any way detract from the truth of what God has said.  It will never change.

And every one of God’s righteous judgments endureth for ever.  One of the ten words used in this psalm to refer to the Scriptures is this word judgments.   Recall that this word refers to God’s decrees, ordinances, laws, and statutes.  When commenting on this word in the introduction to this psalm I wrote:  “These commandments or laws of God’s word are the judicial decrees of the sovereign Judge of the world.  By these laws we are to judge ourselves and others, and by them we shall be judged.”  Every one of God’s judgments is righteous.  He has never been mistaken in any decree or law He has handed down.  As Charles Spurgeon wrote, “The Lord has nothing to regret or retract, nothing to amend or to reverse.”  Sadly, the same cannot be said of all our judgments.  And whenever God declared a judgment to be penned in His word, that judgment will never pass away.  It will endure, that is, it will continue in existence and that for ever.  This thought echoes the words of verse 152 which concluded the previous octave.

Psalms 119:152  Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.

So today’s verse lets us know quite succinctly that our Bible is true in every single part of it and has always been true, and that every single part of it is indestructible.  Once God speaks a word, you can be sure that somewhere in this world in some language that word of truth is in existence.  Now that is something worth seeking out and something you can always depend on!