I direct you tonight for a text
of words that we find in the book of Psalms. In the 119th
Psalm and verse 109. My soul is continually in my
hand, yet do I not forget thy law. Psalm 119. And verse 109,
my soul is continually in my hand, yet do I not forget thy
law. David's life in his hand and
God's law in his heart. That's the theme that I want
us to consider with the Lord's help tonight. We read there in
1st Samuel chapter 19 something more of David's experience we
were considering David last Lord's Day evening there at the end
of the book in 1st Samuel chapter 30 where he encouraged himself
in the Lord his God and how he encouraged himself as I remarked
this morning in respect of God's providences And not only that,
he was able to encourage himself in that God who was ever to him,
the Lord, the God of the covenant. And so as he encourages himself
in the Lord, we saw how he also inquires of the Lord. He pleads,
he prays to the Lord. And I want us, as I say tonight,
to consider something more of David. and what we learn concerning
his experience is not only in that historic account that we
have in Samuel but also in David's own writings. Here in this book
often referred to as the Psalms of David. David's life in His
hands and God's law in His heart. And how important it is with
regards to the Word of God that we know something of what it
means to have that Word in our hearts. The Word of God is vitally
important because the Word of God is that special revelation
that God has given of Himself. He reveals himself by his works,
we often refer to that, the general revelation, that he is to be
seen on every hand in all that he has created, and that creation
so remarkably sustained by the overruling providence of God. All these things have a voice,
the heavens declare his glory, the firmament showeth his handiwork,
This line goes out, says the Psalmist, into all the world
men are without any excuse, there's evidence on every hand with regards
to God. The fall that's set in his heart,
there is no God. But the Word, the Bible, why
this is a remarkable book, it's God's special revelation of himself
and as you know, In many ways this 119th Psalm is such a celebration
of the Word of God. We see here such a high doctrine
of the doctrine of Holy Scripture. The whole Psalm in the Hebrew
is in the form of an acrostic poem. At the head of all these
different sections we have the various letters of the Hebrew
alphabets and the verses there in the Hebrew Bible. Each of
them begins with that particular Hebrew letter that stands at
the head of each of the sections. and then as we read through the
Psalms we discover how that in every verse there is some reference
to God's word under various synonyms the words, the law, the statutes,
the judgments and so on and so forth and there's just two verses
we discover 122 and 132 where there's no specific reference
to the word of God but in all of course we have 176 verses here and in
174 of those verses look where you will, you'll find some mention
of the Word of God or the importance of that Word of God but how important
that we don't only have that Word as it were in our hands
But we have that word in our hearts. David says previously
at verse 11, Thy word have I hid in my heart that I sin not against
thee. And again he says, let my heart
be sound in thy statutes that I be not ashamed. He wants his
heart to be sound in the statutes, in the words, in the judgments,
in the commandments. of the Lord God. The bare words
is not really enough. The word must come into our lives,
take hold of our hearts. We're to receive it, James says. We're to receive the words with
all meekness. We're to be humbled under that
word of God. and when we do receive it into
our hearts, it becomes the engrafted or the implanted word that is
able to save our souls. Oh yes, we see the importance
of a right form when it comes to the worship of God, but we
want more than the externals. This heart says a form of words,
so air, so sound can never save us all. The Holy Ghost must give
the wound and make the wounded whole. And isn't this what David
is speaking of here in our text? My soul is continually in my
hand yet do I not forget thy law. Now trust we will be able
to show that it is because he's not forgetting that Lord of God,
that Lord of God is in his heart. It's that that is the cause of
his hand being his soul as it were being in his hand. I trust
that as we as we proceed tonight we will come to understand something
of that. First of all then let's say something
with regards to David and over here he speaks of his life being
in his hands. Puritan Joseph Carroll who wrote
a remarkable commentary on the Book of Job. He didn't just,
of course, preach from the Book of Job, he preached from many
parts of the Word of God, and he preached from the Psalms,
and he was quite a Hebrew scholar, Joseph Carroll, one of the Puritan
divines, and he says this expression, my soul is continually in my
hand, is a Hebraism, and it signifies a state of extreme peril. That's the force of the figure
that is being used here. Here is David saying that he
knew what it was to be in very dangerous situations and circumstances. Now he knew that from a youth. He was a shepherd boy. And he
would look after the sheep of his father, Jesse, and he would
venture his life to defend the sheep. And when that stripling
of a boy is ready to stand forth against the great champion, the
giant Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, and they look at him, do the Hebrews,
and think, well, what can this young stripling of a boy do against
a giant like Goliath? And David reminds them of what
his background was, how in caring for the sheep of his father he
would fight against lions and bears. We can read it there in
1st Samuel chapter 17. Oh, he knew what he was, you
see, even as a young man to imperil his life many, many times. And
certainly when he went against Goliath was not then his soul
very much in his hand We read those words when his friend Jonathan
speaks for him before his father. In 1 Samuel 19.5 he says of David,
he did put his life in his hand and slew the Philistine. And
the Lord wrought a great salvation for all Israel. Thou sawest it
and didst rejoice. Wherefore then wilt thou sin
against innocent blood to slay David without a cause? or why
this young man, he had gone out against that giant and killed
him. Yes, he knew what he was, often
to be in the greatest of danger. We finished our reading there
at the beginning of chapter 20 in 1 Samuel, when he says to
Jonathan, there is but a step between me and death. Why, my very next step, he's
saying will be my last step, I'll die. One day I'm going to
die at the hand of Saul. And at times he was in danger
from all the scheming, all the secret plots of King Saul. And we see how Saul's a man of
extreme moods. One time he's ready to receive
David, the next he's filled with hatred, wanting to kill David.
Again, we read there, Saul even has the house watched where David
is, married to Saul's daughter Micah. Saul also sent messengers
unto David's house to watch him and to slay him in the morning.
Micah, David's wife, told him, saying, if thou save not thy
life tonight, tomorrow thou shalt be slain. Well, we know that
David how Saul was constantly practicing mischief against him. And not only the king, but when he flees to
various places, the people who initially might give him some
shelter, they turn against him. For example, in chapter 23 of
1 Samuel, he speaks of the Zivites. And the Zivites were ready to
betray him into the hand of King Saul. There in 1 Samuel 23 verse
19, Then came up the Zivites to Saul,
to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide himself with us in strongholds,
in the wood, in the hill of Heculah? which is on the south of Jeshima. Now therefore, O King, come down
according to all the desire of thy soul to come down, and our
part shall be to deliver him into the King's hand. Now we
read a few verses like that, but what danger David's in? There
is a Psalm, Psalm 54, was the product, really, of what
David was experiencing at that particular juncture in his life. Psalm 54, we're told in the title,
is a masculine psalm of David when the Ziphims came and said
to Saul, Doth not David hide himself with us? And so in the
psalm, what is his prayer? Save me, O God. So he opens that
psalm. is made to look to his God, to
cry to his God. And eventually, of course, we
know the end of 1 Samuel, we see now the Philistines at war
against Israel and Saul and his son Jonathan are killed. We come over into 2 Samuel and
we have David's great lament. And then David is proclaimed
as the king over Judah at Hebron and then he's king over all the
tribes of Israel. And yet when we read in 2 Samuel,
here is David now established in his kingdom and his son Absalom. Plots against his own father.
We're told there at the beginning of chapter 15 in that second
book how Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel and David
has to flee from his capital city which he had established
there at Jerusalem. Oh David knew in a very real
and a physical sense what it was for his soul to be continually
in his hands All these things, all these individuals
that are constantly turning against Him. Verse 95, He says, The wicked
have waited for Me to destroy Me, but I will consider thy testimonies. All the wicked, they were ever
there, ever seeking His death. Why in the very verse that follows
our text, the wicked have laid a snare for me, he says. This
is why his soul is continually in his hand. We have to take
account then of the very real concrete situation that David
was in time and time again that causes him to write as he does. He's writing out of the fullness
of his own heart. He's writing experimentally. These are things that he's experienced.
He's not just a theorist when it comes to these things. He
knows them. But is there not a deeper meaning to the words
that we have at the beginning of the text Is there not some
spiritual significance in these words? John Calvin, the reformer,
says of the Psalms, the whole of the Psalms, he says, are an
anatomy of the soul. What we have in the Psalms doesn't
just concern the outward aspects of David's life. David is writing
of his soul's experiences. And here you see, he uses the
word soul and he uses the word continually, this was his constant
experience. Not just in a physical way, but
with regards to those things that were transpiring in the
very depth of his being. And we see it with so many of
the godly. Those words that the prophet
Jeremiah speaks to Beirut, who seems to be a sort of amanuensis. It was Barak who was his scribe
who wrote down the things that the Prophet said. And there,
at the end of Jeremiah 45, as the mouthpiece of God to his
scribe, to Barak, how does the Prophet speak? Seekest thou great
things for thyself? Seek them not, for I will bring
evil upon all flesh, but thy life will I give thee for a prize
in all places whithersoever thou goest." That is the life of the
godly. It is a life that is given. It
is given by God. It's that spiritual life. If
we have spiritual life, it's not something that we've been
able in any sense to give ourselves. No, it comes from God. We can
receive no good thing except it comes from heaven. We must
be born again, born from above. that new life must be given.
And what is given is given to be prayed upon. Oh, the devil is a roaring lion,
he's walking about seeking whom he may devour, that great beast
of prey. Oh, we will seek to destroy the
work of God in your soul if you're a believer tonight. He will seek
to destroy any work of grace He hates God, he hates the people
of God, he hates the word of God, he hates the works of God. He's walking about constantly.
What does David say again in another psalm, Psalm 57, he says,
my soul is among lions. Or the devil, a roaring lion,
but he doesn't just say Lion in the singular, he says my soul
is among lions in the plural. It's not just Satan, is it? There
are many things. There's a world that lies in
that wicked one. All that is in the world, the
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life,
which is not of the Father. And we have to live our lives
surrounded by temptations on every hand. and there's that
within us of course, that all nature that is attracted to these
things oh there's so much within us, it's not only the things
without that all nature within you know the language of the
apostle when he says there in Romans 7 I know that in my that
is in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing oh that's new nature,
that divine nature that's been implanted by the grace of God
in the soul of that sinner born again by the Spirit of God, how
it's being preyed upon constantly. All the evil that is within us.
How we're brought sometimes to even hate and to abhor ourselves. The believer's life in this world
is a life that is constantly in jeopardy. constantly in jeopardy
and that's that's the experience of David, it's the experience
of David in that particular chapter that we read I remarked just
now that so often the titles of the Psalms tell us something
about the circumstances in which David was first moved to to write
those psalms and it's interesting when we look at the title for
example of the 59th psalm because you'll see how it relates to
the portion of scripture that we were reading it's a miktam that's a psalm
giving instruction miktam of David when Saul sent and they
watched the house to kill him. That's 1st Samuel 19. But look at what he says in verse
11. He says to God, it's very much
a prayer, this psalm, and he says to God, slay them not, lest
my people forget. The wisdom of God you see is
in this, that All those forces that ranged against the child
of God, all those evils that would prey upon the life of God
in the soul of a man, are there for a purpose. They serve God. They make the believer realize
his complete and utter dependence upon God. He has no strength
in himself. All his help must come from outside
of himself. And this is what we see in what
David is saying there in that 59th Psalm. Deliver me from mine
enemies, O my God. Defend me from them that rise
up against me, he says in the opening part. And then at the
end he rejoices that God hears his prayer, answers his prayer.
I will sing of thy power. Yea, I will sing aloud of thy
mercy in the morning, for thou hast been my defense and refuge
in the day of my trouble. Unto thee, O my strength, will
I sing, for God is my defense and the God of my mercy. All
these things you see here It's good that they're not all slain
at once, that we have an easy path. It's best for us that we're
not constantly involved in a conflict with sin, with Satan, with the
world. We have to fight. We have to
fight the good fight of faith. We have to lay hold on eternal
life. We have to constantly prove that God is all our salvation. There's that word, you know,
that we have in 1 Peter chapter 4, if the righteous scarcely
be saved. Now, the Arminian might seize
on that word. Oh, look what it says in your
Bible, if the righteous scarcely be saved. It is possible, you
see, for the righteous, that's a justified sinner, to lose his
salvation. You know the Doctrine of the
Perseverance of the Saints, as he stated there, in the Synods
of Dort. The fifth of the five points
of Calvinism, as we call it. We believe in the perseverance
of the saints. The Arminian denies that. He
says it's possible to be saved today, lost tomorrow. It's possible
to be in grace now. and in a moment to be outside
the grace of God. And there are scriptures, there
are verses that they appeal to, and amongst them they sometimes
might refer to those words in 1 Peter 4, 18. Give the righteous,
scarcely be saved. However, again one of the Puritans,
Richard Sibbes this time says, that is not a word of doubt,
but of danger. and that's an important distinction
it's a word of danger yes the believer is in danger my soul
is continually in my hand says David as if I might lose my soul or
what shall a man give in exchange for his soul and David is fearful
so many ranged against him But in the midst of all those
dangers, you see, he lives to prove the faithfulness of God. My soul is continually in my
hand, yet do I not forget thy law. And why does he not forget
God's law? Well, in the second place, let
us for a while consider how God's law is in the heart. As the life is in the hand, so
God's law is in the heart. That law is not forgotten. I do not forget thy law, David
says. Why is it not forgotten? Because
it's hidden there. It's hidden in his heart, thy
words. Have I hidden my heart? is what
we read back in verse 11 oh it is a fearful thing, it's an awesome
thing when we're brought into that situation where we have
dealings with God and God has dealings with us and he has dealings
with us in terms of his words it's a great blessing I suggested
really at the beginning when we think of the importance of
the word of God it's a special revelation that God has been
pleased to reveal himself and he reveals himself here in scripture and we learn so much about God
in his attributes the sort of God he is the holy one of Israel
that God who is is just, who will by no means clear the guilt,
that God who is angry with the wicked every day, and yet that
God who is merciful and gracious and long-suffering, full of patience. These are all the things we learn
here in the Word of God. Oh, but what a fearful and awesome
thing it is when a sinner's God begins to deal with us in terms
of his words when he makes his words so meaningful to us and
that's what the Lord did with a man like Job I know it's the
devil who comes and obtains leave to assault poor Job in all sorts
of ways but God's in it I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear he says at the end now my soul seeth thee wherefore
I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. God was in it. And look at what he says, Job 13, 14. Wherefore do I take
my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand? Though he
slay me, yet will I trust in him. But I will maintain my own
ways before him. He also shall be my salvation,
for a hypocrite shall not come before him. These are the words
of Job. And isn't the language similar
to what we have in the text? Wherefore do I take my flesh
in my teeth, he says, and put my life in mine hand? And how
does he do it? Because God's dealing with him.
Though he's slain, Yet will I trust in Him, for
He will maintain His cause there before God." You see, when God
comes to deal with us in terms of His Word, where does it begin? It must in some measure, with
some it's greater at the beginning, with others it might come later
in their experience, when God's dealing with us, He brings into
our soul some sense of our sinnership. There must be that conviction
of sin. And that's the law of God. Yet do I not forget thy law,
says David. This is the law that David has
got hidden in his heart. And Paul says, I had not known
sin but by the law. For I have not known last except
the commandment said thou shalt not covet." This was the man
who was one such a proud self-righteous Pharisee who said touching the
righteousness of the Lord he was blameless. He really thought
that when he was a Pharisee. He didn't know the Lord of God.
Oh yes, he'd sat at the feet of Gamaliel, he was schooled
in all of these things, but you can't school a man in salvation.
Now that doesn't mean that there's not a place for instruction,
of course there's a place for instruction. Talking just previous
to coming to chapel tonight with Hendrik about catechism and how
with the Dutch of course they preach through the Heidelberg
Catechism. every Lord's Day. Not only that, but they instruct
the youngsters 12 to 18 every Monday evening in the catechism.
And it was once a practice here, not the Heidelberg, but the Westminster
Shores, a catechism. It's a place for instruction.
I'm not decrying that for a moment, but you cannot school a person
into salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. And
it's when the Lord takes hold of his word, takes hold of his
law. Again, the language of Paul, we know that what things soever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, who are
under the law, not believers. Believers have been delivered
from the curse of that broken law. The believers' rule of conduct
is the gospel precept. God says the Apostle, we know
that what things have the law set it set to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
become guilty before God therefore by the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. Oh, when we are those
who are in that state unsaved and God comes in his holy law
and we see what we are, and we feel what we are. That was the
apostle's experience. I was alive once without the
Lord, he says, but the commandment came. Sin revived, and I died. Oh, that was the conviction that
he felt. When that Lord of God comes into our heart, look at our heart. I think it's
heart who speaks of it in the hymn. 310. Lord, he says, when thy spirit
descends to show the badness of our hearts, astonished at
the amazing view, the soul with horror starts. Our staggering
faith gives way to doubt, our courage yields to fear, shocked
at the sight, we straight cry out, can ever God dwell here? all God's law in our hearts,
knowing it, feeling it, it shows us what we are, we see that we
are those who by nature are dead in trespasses and in sins. It's that Word of God, it's quick,
it's powerful, it's sharper than a two-edged sword, says Paul,
dividing. Oh, it divides the bones, the marrow, the soul,
the spirit. It's such a penetrating word,
that word of God. Why Paul says it's that that
worketh wrath, the law worketh wrath. It's that ministration
of condemnation, it's that ministration of death. And that's what it means to have
God's word in our heart. to feel what we are as sinners
before him to cease in smarts but slightly to own with it confession
is easier still but all to feel cuts deep beyond expression have
I really felt these things I said some have that conviction at
the beginning in a very profound sense others we have to learn
it some way or other God has to teach us if His word is in
our heart we'll know what we are, we'll know we're sinners
and sinners who can never say themselves doesn't matter what
men might say to us concerning offers and proffers and duties
we can do nothing God has shut us up to what we are thou turnest
man to destruction, Moses says that's what God does when His
law comes into the heart and he finds us out. Oh, he does
find us out all together. Whosoever shall keep the whole
law, says James, hath yet to offend in one point, one point,
and is guilty of it all. That's what the law demands,
full, complete, perfect obedience. Not only in deed, not only in
word, but also in thought. You think one sinful thought,
one angry thought, one lustful thought, that's transgression. God's law, you know. What a word
it is. Look at what it says previously.
Verse 96, I have seen an end of all perfection but thy commandment
is exceeding broad." Now, you will see that the word but is
italicized. Literally, I have seen an end
of all perfection. Thy commandment is exceeding
broad. How did he see an end of all
perfection in himself? Nothing in himself that he could
bring to present to God because God's commandment which was in
his heart is extending, is exceeding broad. It reached to every possible
aspect of his life, how God finds us out. He finds us out all together.
And this is why David's soul is continually in his hand in
a spiritual sense because of this Lord of God that's in his
heart. It's forever finding him out, it's forever condemning
him. But it doesn't end there, does
it? there must be that realization that we are sinners you can't
know Christ as Savior unless you know something of what it
is to be a sinner he comes not to call the righteous
but sinners to repentance but he doesn't just convince
the sinner of his sin That very Word of God that brings condemnation
through the law also brings comfort to sinners. Or look at what David says, verse 75, I know, O LORD, that
thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast
afflicted mine. Oh, when David's afflicted when
he's in that state and he's so conscious of what he is, he knows
himself to be a sinner. We have his great penitential
psalm, Psalm 51. Oh, he knew it against thee,
thee only have I sinned, done this evil in thy sight. Oh, he
had sinned. And yet he can say that in faithfulness God had
afflicted him. God had convinced him of his
sin. God had made him sad as a sinner in order to comfort
him. This is the way of God. We see
it again and again. Look at the song of Moses back in Deuteronomy 32. And there, as God's mouthpiece,
he speaks, see now, that I, even I am he, and there is no God
with me. I kill, and I make alive. I wound and heal. Neither is
there any that can deliver out of my hand. Why the God who wounds
is the God who heals. The God who kills is the same
God who makes alive. It's the same in the experience
of Job, we just referred to Job, Job 5.18, He maketh sore, and
bindeth up, he woundeth, and his hands make holes, says Job. We see time and again the experiences
of these godly people, they're not all the same experiences,
but there's a vine that runs right through it all. These men,
these women in scripture, they knew what sin was, they knew
what salvation. is. It was Huntington who said,
where we get our wounding, there we find our healing. That's the
wonder of the Word of God. And this book, as I said, Psalm
119 celebrates the Word of God. What a wondrous book it is. It
wounds us and it heals us. It convinces us, it comforts
us. It kills us and yet it brings life into our souls or that we
might be those friends who only desire to be ever searching
it, reading it, feeding upon it or to know something of the
experience of this man David I always remember this, David
is the man after God's own heart great sinner that he was the
man after God's own heart ought to be men and women after God's
own hearts and then we'll say with David my soul is continually
in my hand yes do I not forget thy law all we want is that the
Lord should deal with us awesome as that might be fearful as that
might be the worst thing is for God to leave us to ourselves
Woe to them that are at ease in Zion. Oh God forbid that we
should be at ease. We spoke last Thursday of the
Great Tribulation, there in Revelation 7. And I said then that those who
come out of that Great Tribulation, they've washed their robes, they've
made them white in the blood of the Lamb, who are they? Oh,
it's the redeemed of the Lord from every generation. It is
through much tribulation that we must enter into the kingdom
of God. Oh the Lord then, be pleased
to bless this word to us tonight. Amen.