PS 119:97-104 TEXT: v97 HOW I LOVE THY LAW… MEDITATION
O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.
Often when we pray, we bring God a shopping list of wants and requests.
Not bad in itself: Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto
God. (Philippians 4:6) Such is life in this present evil world for a
Christian. We could not hope to survive for one moment without God
upholding us with his hand and it is a recognition/our helplessness to
ask God for the things we need.
However, it is imbalanced praying to merely come to God with the
proverbial shopping list. In itself, such would be very cold praying
and so lacking appreciation as to be off putting altogether:
[i] It hardly recognises the debt we owe to God
As human beings/born again believers, saved by sovereign grace
[ii] It hardly recognises the Father/Son relationship - the empty hand reaches out and a benevolent hand fills it
Of course, we know it can be more than that, but only if we make it so
and therefore our praying ought to be more rounded and include the
element of worship and praise which will inject a warmth and pleasure
into such praying. Such we have in our text. It is addressed to God.
David tells the Lord that He loves His word.
4 reasons why He loves God's word
1) HE LOVED GOD'S WORD BECAUSE OF ITS SOURCE:
A/ The Bible is indeed God's revealed word
Fundamental/Christian Faith - No fellowship with any deniers
Reduce it to a mere specimen of high literature, up there with Plato/Shakespeare etc., and you deny its most fundamental claim
Many evidences of the claim (but another matter/another day)
Therefore we must insist on this premise to get anywhere or to have even basic fellowship with other people
B/ David loved God in the Glories of His Person
He said so: "I love the Lord" (Psalm 116:1)
He said why: "Because He hath heard my voice" (ibid)
David loved the attributes/God:
He rejoiced in His wisdom/power/holiness/justice/goodness/truth
Few did as much as David to make known the glory of God
He wrote for His people, but also entreated the whole earth to see the greatness/God and to worship Him
The LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof (Psalm 97:1)
C/ Because He loved God, then He also loved His word
Cannot separate God from His Word
If you do…In danger/Romans 1 condemnation where God gives you up
to the imaginations/your heart and lets you think you're doing Him
service while all the time you're nearer/hell than before
D/ Therefore David loved the Book we call the Bible (as far as it had then revealed) because He loved its Divine Author
He stood indebted/God (as seen) and therefore He sought to lay hands on and read everything God had spoken
Piety should not a cold hearted thing at all
If it is…just about the worst experience (pain apart) on earth
Senses get dulled/times stands still etc., but not, if we love God with all our heart/soul/mind/strength
2) HE LOVED GOD'S WORD BECAUSE OF ITS SUSTENANCE:
A/ He meditated upon it. It was food for His soul.
This Book had sustained him in his deepest trials
When enemies arose within and without and his soul was in deep fainting
fits and distresses…the word/God carried him through
Not hard to go through this Psalm alone and classify its verses into several sections:
[i] Identify the people who opposed David:
Examples: Princes (v23) bands/wicked (v61) proud (v69) etc.,
[ii] Identify their dark deeds against David:
Examples: Lied against him (v69) Dealt perversely without cause (v78) Almost consumed him/off the earth (v87) etc.,
[iii] Identify the effect such people/deeds had against his soul
I am small/despised (v141) Trouble/anguish (v143) etc.,
B/ But David survived them all.
Why? Because
Ultimately: Not because he lived on his wits or because he had a general second to none in Joab etc., but ultimately because:
He meditated upon the word/God
He discovered 2 great truths which will help us also
[i] There is no new thing under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9)
Human race keeps playing out the same old routines - just different actors/different scenes but the same basic script
By so meditating…David could plan accordingly
[ii] That God will not deny Himself and therefore could be trusted. And
while others would have sought to have engineered situations, David
claimed the promises/God which he knew could not fear.
Humanly speaking, David took risks on the basis of his faith but (Divinely speaking) there is no risk in trusting God
"Never forget in the dark what God has told you in the light"
C/ More you meditate upon /Bible, the more you know you can trust God. It is really is food for your soul.
It will sustain you in the darkest hours when all else fails
Without switching texts…think of these words:
At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. (Psalm 119:62)
Whatever God does, He does well and the Psalmist was not only sustained in his meditation upon the word but able to rejoice
3) HE LOVED GOD'S WORD BECAUSE OF ITS STRENGTH:
A/ Thought of its source/sustenance…think now of its strength
Many titles given to God's word in this great Psalm:
His word/testimonies/precepts etc.,
Here David calls it "thy law"
B/ It is binding. It restricts on one hand…obliges on the other
The carnal mind hates it for these very reasons
Carnal mind does not want 10 Commandments forbidding him to indulge in his carnal lusts to his wicked hearts content
Carnal mind does not want to be commanded to worship God and in a way
which God Himself commands and to love His neighbour as himself, in
honour preferring one another etc.,
Carnal mind wants all that is fleshly and worldly without any
restraint. Wicked heart is lawless/nature and it is only the merciful
power/God which restrains wickedness from breaking out more than it
does at present (Psalm 76:10)
C/ But David loved the law/God for this very same reason
The spiritual man loves what the carnal man hates
The Spiritual man wants to break free from those sins which do so easily beset him.
The Spiritual man wants to worship God in spirit/truth etc.,
"The law" in our text takes in, but means much more, than a bare set/rules. It stands for the word/God as a whole.
The law/itself cannot enable us to keep its precepts, but the spiritual
man has the Spirit within him enabling him to obey the word/God,
perhaps not perfectly, but certainly acceptably to God
D/ Need to avoid the kind/Christianity so common today that avoids
giving the Believer any responsibility at all and allows him to live
like the world as if there was to be no difference
4) HE LOVED GOD'S WORD BECAUSE OF ITS SENSITIVITY:
What do I mean by that?
A/ David loved the law/God. It evoked a deep passion/heart.
Yes…it was objective: For ever settled/Heaven (v89)
Also subjective: He had strong feelings/passions/responses to it
B/ The Book was given for a reason. That men might glorify God and
enjoy Him forever. Worked for David who said that God was His chief
delight and exceeding joy (Psalm 43:4)
C/ So it should be for us. Let it grab/satisfy your heart!