As I close my time in Psalm 119, there have been a few themes that have come up as the psalmist wraps up his tribute to the word of God. These themes include steadfastness in our devotion to God’s law or steadfastness in keeping the faith and not neglecting to call on the LORD in times of need. This psalm has been a nourishment to my soul, and it reminded me of the commandment of the LORD to Joshua through his servant Moses: “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it” (Joshua 1:8). I view Psalm 119 as an example of what it means to obey God’s command to Joshua and what the posture of our hearts should be as we seek to love God by obeying His commands. In today’s post, my goal is to highlight those themes that jumped out to me in the ending of this psalm and the truths they contain in order to encourage us in our continued walk of obedience.
The first theme I would like to highlight is what I called “steadfastness in our devotion to God’s law or steadfastness in keeping the faith”. This “steadfastness” is present irrespective of the psalmist’s situation. In verses 109-110, we are told that the psalmist’s life is constantly in danger as wicked men have laid a snare for him yet despite all his trouble and no matter how many are his foes, he says “…but I do not forget your law” or “…but I do not stray from your precepts”. The lesson for us here is to be steadfast in our devotion to God and what He says, that means our obedience to the word of God is not contingent upon what is going on in our life. We must obey the word in every circumstance we find ourselves in. Like the psalmist, even in times of danger where we are fleeing for our lives, we ought to flee to the LORD, we ought to not neglect his precepts. This is the only way to endure difficulties. Typically, when we are in danger, our instinct is to find shelter or refuge, but we seldom think of turning to the word of God or of running to the LORD who is our shelter and refuge in times of need (Psalm 46:1). As the enemy doubles back on his attacks against you, as pain gets harder, as life gets tougher, your solution is your posture towards the word of God. How you fight and remain steadfast is by continuing to love God, in other words by obeying Him.
The depth of delight the psalmist has to God’s word is on a different level and as I read, I kept thinking, how do you get to such a level? And the answer is simply by incessantly obeying God’s word. What we pay attention to, what we delight in, often can be seen in our actions. The same it is with God’s word, when we obey it, that is, being “hearers and doers” of it, it shows we delight in it, and it shows our love for our Father in heaven. At first, we can obey systematically like a soldier will obey commands from his superior but as we keep obeying a delight and a love for all that God is, erupts to the point where we now start looking like God, loving what He loves and hating what He hates. The psalmist will often refer to loving God’s precepts and hating the indecisive person, in other words the faithless or double-minded (Psalm 119:113). Indeed, the more you love the LORD, the more you hate sin and wickedness. When we dwell on God’s Law, we get to know about who He is, His character, what He likes and what He hates. As we come to know Him better, we start seeing our own filth, and the closer we get to God, the more accurate we see ourselves. I do not think we are as vehement as the psalmist is in hating the things the LORD hates. For example, when the psalmist states he hates the double-minded we may read it and find it harsh but that is what the LORD also hates. We are told that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6), and that the one who does not lose faith but perseveres until the end is the one in whom God delights (Hebrews 10:38) or think of James where he tells us that a man who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind, such a man should not think he will receive anything from the LORD (James 1:6-8). If there is something that God hates in addition to pride, it is faithlessness, the instability, walking one way today and another tomorrow. Therefore, we should take seriously the things that are pleasing to God. Far too often, we trivialise them, we think they are “cute” or unimportant to the LORD because we have made them unimportant to us. We make the mistake of thinking God is like us when in fact, it could not be further from the truth (Isaiah 55:8). When I think of the sins we tolerate, indulge in and even defend I wonder how we think at times that the LORD can be pleased with us. Proverbs tells us that “the fear of the LORD is the hatred of evil” (Proverbs 8:13). We are all familiar with the statement that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, but I wonder how many know that hatred of evil is also fearing the LORD? God is not pleased with evil; He does not make room for evil despite what we want to think or see going in the world. Our God is a consuming fire, and a time will come when He will judge the wickedness and evil of this world for good.
In the meantime, we who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb ought to walk in a manner worthy of the name of Jesus; we have to walk as redeemed creatures no longer enslaved by the passions of this passing world but instead being guided by the ways of righteousness, the law of God, His precepts, His commands. It is time to let the word of God dwell in us richly as we teach and admonish each other in all wisdom (Colossians 3:16). Instead of letting ourselves being conformed to the pattern of this world (Romans 12:2), let us fight the good fight of the faith (1 Timothy 6:12), not neglecting the word of God, sticking to the whole counsel of God, meeting with brothers and sisters, loving the Bride of Christ, learning to live selfless lives. Only when we do that can we truly call upon the name of the LORD in our distress. As the psalmist tells us, the reason he calls upon the name of the LORD in his distress is because he trusts the promises of God (Psalm 119:145, 153), he trusts the word of God and holds fast to it. Unbelief is deadly and this is not just a feeling, in fact it is what you do that shows your belief or unbelief. We have been too accustomed to say things we do not mean and judge a book by its cover yet what a person does is more revealing about the person than what they say or look like. The LORD is not fooled by our beautiful words, He sees the depth of our hearts and that is why He is able to say, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;” (Mathieu 15:8).
So then, let us not fool God, instead, let us repent of our foolishness, our disobedience and our love for the world. I pray that we will be people of faith who will persevere until the end by continually resting in the LORD through His word. May the LORD have mercy on us and hold us fast. Amen!
A Word Aptly Spoken 