Now once again I please God to
bless us as we turn to the 119th Psalm and this evening we'll
think on verses 101 to 104. So this evening we'll meditate
on Psalm 119 and verses 101 to verse 104. And here David tells us, I have
refrained my feet from every evil way that I might keep thy
word. I have not departed from my judgments,
for thou has taught me how sweet are thy words unto my taste,
yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth through thy precepts I
get understanding, therefore I hate every false way. As we know, David wasn't always
in this situation, which he outlines in these verses. No doubt we
feel the same not to be always in this situation. But nonetheless
it's a great mercy if we do understand the great truth that David's
able to recall here. He says, I have refrained my
feet from every evil way. We don't do that in and of ourselves.
Because in and of ourselves we go after every evil way. But what a blessing if God gives
us strength and gives us grace to refrain from walking in an
evil way. So he tells us that I might keep
thy word. What a blessing it is that we
have God's word. We have God's word to read, as
in this psalm how many times this is referred to, thy word. Let's always remember, thy word
is truth. And thy word is therefore our
encouragement. It's there for our correction.
It's there for our guidance. And what a blessing then that
we do have thy word, the word of God. And may we rejoice in
it and understand in some measure what David says when he tells
us I have refrained my feet from every evil way that I might keep
thy word obviously if we are not having our feet kept from
an evil way we don't keep the Word of God what a blessing it
is when God gives us that grace to follow that way to follow
that direction which is set before us so clearly in the Word of
God and then he says I have not departed from thy judgments,
for thou hast taught me. Well, that's very humbling, isn't
it? To think that we have a great almighty God, a creator of all
things, who has condescended to come alongside us and to teach
us. What a blessing it is to realise
that the Lord is our teacher. He does instruct us in the way
that we should go. He does direct us in what we
should think and say. And so to remember, as we're
told here, for thou hast taught me. He realised it was God who
had taught him. And what a blessing if we have
the evidence in our lives that God has and that God is teaching
us. And to recognise then that great
truth, I have not departed from thy judgments. We have God's
judgments clearly set before us in the Word of God. And left
to ourselves, we won't keep them. But what a wonderful favour if
the influence of the Holy Spirit is such that this is true in
our little lives it's very wonderful isn't it to think that Almighty
God none less takes notice and has taken notice of us as unworthy
sinners and has been gracious to us I have not departed from
thy words for thou hast taught me and then really because of
this he comes and tells us How sweet are thy words unto my taste,
yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. It's a wonderful blessing,
isn't it? When you and I come to the Word
of God and we read the Word of God and the words of God are
sweet to our taste, spiritual food for us, it's a rejoicing
of our heart. It's good, isn't it, where we
have a testimony of a man of God who's able to confirm that
the Word of God to him was very sweet. It's good when the Holy
Spirit touches our heart, so that we don't turn against the
Word of God, we don't rebel against the Word of God, we don't say,
I will not have this man to reign over me, but we humble ourselves
under the mighty hand of God, and we recognise how good the
Lord is, in giving us his word and the great truths it contains
and to be able to read especially the psalms, the spiritual experience
of the psalmist and realise that as we read those truths there
is an echo in our heart, an evidence that we are a fellow countryman,
that we're journeying along the same road and that we can rejoice,
therefore, in the Word of God. How sweet are thy words unto
my taste. And he gives us an analogy so
that we have an understanding of it. He says, yea, sweeter
than honey to my mouth. Well, we know how sweet honey
is and what a blessing it is when the Word of God is like
that to our souls. It's sweet. It does us good. It meets our case. It comes to
us in our time of need. And we can bless God that he's
given us his word. Let us always come to God and
bless him for the scriptures, for the word of God, from Genesis
to Revelation, that we have this great book, this glorious book,
which sets before us all that we need in our natural life and
all that we need in our spiritual life. And may each of us come
and be able to declare, by the grace of God, how sweet are thy
words. No doubt there was a time when
it was not so. A time when God's word meant
nothing to us. But what a blessing if there has been that blessed change. How sweet
are thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my
mouth. Again, you see, he's personal,
isn't it? It's to him. And it's wonderful
when the Word of God comes to you and me in a personal way. And then he says, through thy
precepts I get understanding. We have the Word of God with
so many precepts and words of guidance and words of instruction. And as we read and study the
Word of God, what a blessing it is that as we do these things,
we're able to confirm, yes, by the grace of God, through God's
Word, through his precepts, I get understanding, a spiritual understanding
of the right way and that by the Spirit of God enables us
to turn away from that which is wrong, that which is evil,
that which is not God-honouring. Through thy precepts I get understanding. Well, may we bless God if God
has given us a spiritual understanding to rejoice in his word and to
thank him and to recognize, I get understanding. You see, it is
so often true in the Psalms and as the people of God record their
testimonies, they are honest in their statements. And therefore,
here we have an honest statement And he does say, I get understanding. He doesn't pretend. He doesn't
know anything. By the grace of God, God has
shown him, through thy precepts, I get understanding. And what
a blessing when that enables us to hate everything which is
false, everything which is evil, everything which is not in accordance
with the Word of God. You know, it's the grace of God. which does this. And it's a wonderful
evidence of the life of God in our soul. Well may we be able
to trace it out and find indeed that we also hate every false
way. Well may God bless these few
words to