Well, Sir Lord, may you be pleased
to help and bless us. We'll continue our meditation
in the 119th Psalm and this evening we'll continue with verses 69
to 72. So the 119th Psalm and from verse
69 to verse 72. The proud have forged a lie against
me, but I will keep thy precepts
with my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease,
but I delight in thy law. It is good for me that I have
been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. The law of
thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. as we continue in this 119th
psalm I expect you will note that really there are a number
of what appear to be repetitions but they're not quite repetitions
because they all have a slightly different formation and it's
good for us therefore not to just pass these words over and
think well I've thought upon that before and it has no relevance
because all God's Word has relevance and we should never think that
it does not and so here as we begin these four verses The 69th
verse tells us, the proud have forged a lie against me. And really what that means is
that the enemies of God have tried to insinuate or to show
that the things that we do and the things that we believe are
not true, that they are indeed false. and therefore they endeavour
to fix, as it were, a lie upon us. And it speaks, of course,
to those who are indeed proud. Well, by nature we are all proud. Left to ourselves, we continue
to be proud. And it's a great blessing if
God gives us grace to realise what our nature is, and to be
able to accordance with God's word to humble ourselves under
the mighty hand of God that he will exalt us in due time. So let us be have a right spirit,
a meek spirit and not be surprised therefore if there are those
who rise up against us and endeavour to turn us away from the truth
of God and to perhaps pretend that we are not telling the truth. Well, let us always remember
the glorious Word of God as the Lord Jesus Christ tells us in
that high priestly prayer, the 17th chapter of John, he says,
thy word, he was praying to his Father, thy word is truth. What a blessing that is and how
strengthening that should be for us. And he goes on in his
sentence and says, but I will keep thy precepts with my whole
heart. And again, that's a wonderful
desire and a wonderful prayer to keep the law of God. And here
again, just to remember, we have spoken about it before, but to
realize that when David lived, of course, he didn't have the
Bible as we have it. And we know, of course, he didn't
have the Psalms. In fact, he probably only had the five books
of Moses and possibly Job, we don't know when Job was written,
and possibly the little book of Ruth. But apart from that,
there was no word of God that he actually had in written form. So therefore he's referring to
those things which are recorded in those first five books. And
of course, there is tremendous truth there. There is the law
of God as the Ten Commandments, spelled out clearly, especially
in Exodus. And then there's also in Leviticus, there's those great
truths spelling out all the sacrifices and the relevance and necessity
of them. And so here we read, but I will
keep thy precepts with my whole heart. And by that, we can believe
he didn't want to have a divided heart. He didn't want to believe
the things that suited him and then turn away from the things
which didn't suit him. He wanted to keep all the precepts
with a whole heart. And that's a very good word for
us today. To have a whole heart in the
things of God and not a divided heart. It's very easy to have
a divided heart. To follow with part of our heart
one way and then another part with another part of our heart.
And we can have a divided heart. which is not good and is not
right and is not prosperous and is not beneficial. But here we
have the psalmist desiring to keep these things with his whole
heart. Well, it's a good example for
us. And then he goes on to say, their heart, speaking about the
wicked, speaking about the enemies, is fat as grease. Yes, and what
it means is that they're taken up with the vanities of this
poor world. They're taken up with those things
which will not profit. Their heart is as fat as grease. And then you see, he reiterates
really in a slightly different way, he says, but I delight in
thy law. And his desire was to honestly
endeavor to keep that law, to follow that law, to be encouraged
by it, to be strengthened by it, and truly to delight in it. It's a wonderful thing if you
and I today delight in the Word of God as we read it. We don't
read it because we have to. We don't read it because we think
we should do. We read it because we delight. to read the Word of God. Well,
again, let us not forget it's a wonderful privilege that you
and I have the Bible as we think of the billions of people in
the world today who do not have the Bible. And most of them do
not have any desire after having the Bible. But we have it. What a privilege. And what a
privilege that we have the ability most of us to be able to read
the Bible. And as we read it, may we delight
in the glorious truths which it contains, especially as they
direct us to none other than the Lord Jesus Christ and that
glorious and perfect way of salvation. So let us remember, he says,
but I delight, it's personal. He doesn't look around at other
people. And neither should we. It should be a personal religion
and be able to say, by the grace of God, yes, I delight also in
thy law. And then he says, he tells us
about his life. David never had a particularly
easy life. We can read it. And we'll notice
that he was blessed on many occasions. But he also had many times of
trial, many times of temptation. And that's why he tells us, It
is good for me that I have been afflicted. And again, it's worth
pondering that, isn't it? We don't like to be afflicted.
We don't like to be ill. We don't like to not have our
health and strength. And yet what a blessing it is
to be found in the position, as David did, and able to say,
it is good. for me that I have been afflicted."
He says that because quite clearly in his time of affliction, whether
they were physical or whether they were mental, they were used
for his soul's good. And that's when and how you and
I can say it's good that we've been afflicted. It doesn't just
pass over us. It doesn't just pass us by. We're brought to situations where
because of that which God brings upon us we consider our life
we consider perhaps our latter end we question how it is with
our soul what is it? it's a time of blessing the Lord
knows how to bless and the Lord wonderfully does bless and what
a mercy if sometimes it's like this And we're able to come out
of a time of affliction, illness, and sorrow and sadness, and be
able to concur with David and say, it is good for me that I
have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. You see,
in these times, we're taught. The Lord comes to us. Perhaps
we're not able to do anything. We may be in bed. We may not
be able to concentrate very much. it's good that in that time we
do learn about God, we learn his law, we learn the glorious
truth and the way of salvation. What a blessing it is then if
these things work together for good and we can then come and
praise God for it. We read together that 94th Psalm,
really because of verses 11 to 14. And this is what they read. The Lord knoweth the thoughts
of man, that they are vanity. By nature, it's just what we
are. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, sometimes indeed
by affliction, and teachest him out of thy law, that thou mayest
give him rest the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the
wicked. For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither
will he forsake his inheritance.' That's a precious and glorious
promise, to realise that Almighty God does not cast off his people. And how comforting it is to believe
he does not cast us off, although no doubt we deserve it. Well,
we should be very thankful for that. And then he says, finally,
the law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold
and silver. We know that David was a wealthy
man. He had much gold and much silver. But it gives us this statement,
and it's a good statement to believe and to understand, the
Lord of thy mouth, the Word of God, the glory of it is better
unto me than thousands of gold and silver. The things of God,
the truth of God, the Word of God is far better than all the
things of this vain world. What a mercy then, if God directs
us and teaches us and shows us, indeed, just like he did Solomon
all those years ago, David's son, when he was able to write,
having examined everything in this world to try and find happiness,
and he concludes, all is vanity of vanity and vexation of spirit. It's a blessing when you and
I understand the great truth of that. Well, may the Lord instruct
us as we carry on through this beautiful psalm and recognise
the relevance and the importance of it. Amen.