May it please Almighty God to bless us together this morning as we meditate in His Holy Word. Let's turn to the psalm we read, Psalm 119, and we'll read verse 97.

Psalm 119, and reading verse 97. Oh, how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day. Surely this is a very wonderful statement, and we think that David was the person that, under the influence of the Spirit of God, wrote this psalm. So here we have a statement from David, and a very grand and glorious statement. And as we read it and think, well, that was a blessing that David had, it's a great mercy if you and I also are able to make such a claim.

It's important that you and I have a right spirit, that we have a God-given spirit, that we have a spirit that indeed desires this great blessing. And so he tells us, it's very clear words, isn't it? Oh, how love I thy law. And thy law, of course, is really the whole word of God. You may remember that in this 119th Psalm, thy word occurs in every section of this Psalm. And it's a wonderful statement to realize we today have the word of God. The word of God in all those 66 books that it's contained in.

And to realize that David, of course, When he was on the earth, he didn't have all the Bible at all. He probably only had the books of Moses, which the books of Moses are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and probably Joshua. And whether the book of Job was available in those days, we're not sure. But anyway, a relatively small portion of the Word of God. And yet he is able to declare how he loved it. How he loved it. And it's good for us if we love God's Word. And it's a great test of the reality of our religion. If we love God's Word, and if we love God's Word, we'll delight in reading God's Word.

It's not something that we just pick up and mumble a few verses or just do, read just a few, a chapter here and a bit there, just to fulfil some duty. It will be because we recognise it is the Word of the ever-living and true God. And again, that's worth consideration. Because Almighty God who created all things, is the one who indicted those that wrote this gracious word. And we have this record for us, and if you add them all up, it's about 40 people who were involved in writing the word of God. and now today we here in our country are wonderfully blessed to have God's word in our language. Just try and ponder, just go back in your mind, perhaps in our country to what we term the dark ages It's in the early centuries of the, from probably zero to probably 700 or 800 AD, and there was no real Bible. People weren't able to refer to it. And if they could have referred to it, they wouldn't have been able to read it. And so today, what a blessing to think that still God's word is available to us freely and we do earnestly pray it may ever be maintained to us and to our nation and to the world at large down to the end of time.

Because what does it do? It directs us in everything. It directs us in our natural life, and more importantly, it directs us in our spiritual life. And therefore, in our spiritual life, it directs us to realise who we are and what we are before God, and it reveals to us our failure in so many ways, so that we have to stand before a holy God and recognize that we are indeed a deep-dyed sinner. And there are many examples of those who testified. We have a great testimony of the Apostle Paul, who was a great Christian man, but he confesses His sinfulness. The chief of sinners. He didn't pretend to be anything better than that. The chief of sinners.

Well, it's a good thing, you know, if you and I, before God, are convicted that we disobey God's Word. Now that was the sin, wasn't it? Right back in the beginning of the world, in the Garden of Eden, what was the great sin of Adam and Eve? What did they do? They disobeyed the Word of God. And my friends, that's true today. We all disobey the Word of God. And yet how wonderful it is when God comes and reveals that to us. So that we do stand and have to confess that we are guilty.

I wonder whether you come to that position in your life, to realize that you are a guilty sinner before a holy God. And if so, you need, we all need, that great blessing of forgiveness. We all need that great mercy to know that our sins have been removed simply because no unforgiven sinner can ever enter into glory. And so such a thought is not irrelevant. It's very important for us. And it's something you and I need to ask ourselves. The Word of God encourages us to examine ourselves, whether we are in the faith or not. That means whether you and I are a true believer or not. We're not just to pass that off and think it's something irrelevant. It's very relevant.

You may ask why it's very relevant. Simply because none of us know how long we shall live on this earth and how soon we shall pass out of time And once in eternity, the day of salvation is forever past. There's no recovery. And how solemn it is to think, therefore, that we may have passed by and been passed by because of the hardness and rebellion of our heart. What that means is really We haven't submitted ourselves under the mighty hand of God. We haven't come and bowed ourselves down before the great God and confessed our sin. There's a great need for everyone to confess sin. And never think that your sin or my sin is only small and doesn't need to be confessed. Every sin needs to be confessed. No unconfessed sinner will ever arrive in glory. So how we need to confess our sins and pray for mercy and pray for forgiveness.

Because God's Word is forever settled. The first verse we read this morning is verse 89. It tells us forever, O Lord, thy Word is settled in heaven. God's Word doesn't change. It doesn't suddenly alter the course. It's the same. His Word is yesterday and today and forever. exactly as our Saviour also is. And our Saviour, of course, is the Judge of all things. And so, may we indeed be concerned to be amongst those, like David was, who was able to declare from his heart, it wasn't just a mere statement, it was from his heart, oh, he starts off with, oh, just to emphasise it really, oh, How love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day. Well obviously he was living in the world and obviously he had to do his work and eat and drink but we can see that whenever opportunity presented itself he was desirous to meditate upon the great truth of God.

Well, it's a question that you and I need to be able to consider because often we don't meditate on the things of God. And I suppose, if we're honest, it's because we don't love God's Word as we should. Here was an example. This person wanted to meditate, to think upon God's Word whenever he could. And how important that is for you and me today.

Well, God knows our heart. God knows whether, again, you and I have a new heart. Because we all possess that heart which we were born with. A heart which is sinful. And we need a new heart. A God-given heart. A heart which seeks after spiritual blessings. A heart which desires to come before God and to pray for forgiveness and to realise that union and communion with none other than our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

True religion must be Christ-centred. And that question really is very relevant. What think ye of Christ is the test. To try both your work and your scheme, you cannot be right in the rest unless we think rightly of him. How important that is. The hymn writer nails it on the head. And my friends, you and I need to understand the relevance of it, because unless we know Christ, unless we rejoice in Christ, Unless we love Christ, there's no evidence that you and I are born again of the Spirit of God. So how important such truths are. And we should be very thankful then that God has given us his word to direct us in the right way and this 119th psalm is really a great test to the reality of our religion because we see as the psalmist goes through this psalm we see there are so many prayers in it where he desires that God indeed will bless him.

You know, the 49th verse in this psalm tells us, this is a part of the prayer, remember the word unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope. Well, David obviously had a word from God which caused him to hope. Again, the question comes back to us, doesn't it? Have we, in our spiritual experience, a word from God which has caused us to hope? Because David goes on to tell us, this is my comfort in my affliction. We do have afflictions, we have natural afflictions, we have spiritual afflictions. But it's good in those situations to be comforted by His Word, upon which our hope is fixed. And He says on, this is my comfort in my affliction, for thy Word hath quickened me, thy Word, hath made me spiritually alive. Well, what a blessing that the God's servant here had this to be able to record for our encouragement and the strengthening of our faith. What a blessing it is.

We got this wonderful statement, O how love I thy law, the word of God, It is my meditation all the night and just going back to this Part where we quoted just now remember he says thy statutes Thy laws thy word have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage The true believer is a pilgrim on this earth. That means we're not at home in this earth. That means we're a stranger on this earth because we're travelling out of this earth to our eternal home. And so he says, thy statues have been my song in the house of my pilgrimage I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night. Well, this word before us this morning is, O how I love thy law. It is my meditation all the day. And in case we're thinking that limits us just to a daytime religion, The psalmist tells us here, O Lord in the night, and have kept thy law, this I had because I kept thy precepts. Well, there are many, many precepts in the Word of God.

And my friends, it should be our desire and our concern to be found desiring to follow those great and glorious precepts. Because we love the Lord. Because we desire to do his will. Because we desire to follow his example. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he was on this earth, what did he do? He did the will of his father. And you and I today are on this earth. And it is a great blessing if we have a desire to do the will of our God. And to do the will of our God means to turn away from the poor things of time.

Indeed, the psalmist says, we read, I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love. And yet sometimes, you see, in our minds, we love vain thoughts, which we think possibly have something to do with the future. We think of them and encourage ourselves in them. Well, to hate vain thoughts is a good thing. Thy law do I love. You see, what a blessing it is to have a position like that. Oh, how love I law. It is my meditation all the day.

Coming on to the 57th verse. Again, he says, Thou art my portion, O Lord. I have said that I would keep thy words. Desire, you see, to follow God, to follow his word. There are many, many words. You only have to read through, as I've said, this 119th Psalm and all the places where He refers to God's word, thy word, his word. And realize how relevant it is to you and me today.

How cunning is the devil. Don't forget, the devil is a great deceiver. A great deceiver. He deceived Adam and Eve, didn't he? With the cunning words which he put to them, hath God said. He hasn't changed the way he operates. And again, my friends, he often comes and causes doubt in our hearts about the things of God, hath God said.

Well, may our great concern be that God's word is confirmed to us so that we can truly rejoice in it and bless God for it and to be able to check out in our spiritual life that we do possess that encouraging word from God upon which he has caused us to hope. My friends, don't wander on through life without the evidence. that Almighty God has given you and me a word upon which our hope is fixed. We don't want to go through life with no evidence of God's work in our heart. We don't want to pass out of time with no true confidence that Almighty God is our God.

The devil will say, you needn't worry about these things, it'll be all right in the end. It'll only be all right in the end if God in his love has confirmed to us, to you and to me, that we are his children, that we are born again of his Spirit. that we possess that new life, that we are a different character, that we are a changed person. The light of the glorious gospel has shone into our hearts and we have that great and glorious evidence that the Apostle Paul refers to when he wrote to the Ephesians and he said, and you hath he quickened. who were dead in trespasses and in sins. That means to be made spiritually alive or to still be dead with no life in our soul.

Well, it's quite clear that the psalmist here rejoiced in the truth of the Gospel, the Word of God and all that he contains. Because he says, how love I thy law. It is my meditation all the day. And what a blessing, therefore, if you and I are able to look into our hearts and remember the way that the Lord has called us, how the Lord came to us and made us spiritually alive and gave us a good hope in his mercy. And we remember it. and we therefore rejoice in it. And it's a comfort to us to know that this great God hasn't passed us by. Oh, how wonderful it is to have a God who is kind and gracious, long-suffering, and teaches us and instructs us.

David was very honest in his writings here. He tells us, I have more understanding than all my teachers, for thy testimonies are my meditation. He was able to meditate upon the great truths of God, and as I said, remember, he only really had the books of Moses, and yet there's wonderful truth in those books. wonderful instruction and may it be wonderful for you and me to meditate on the way the Lord led his ancient people You think how he came and spoke to Abraham, spoke to Isaac, spoke to Jacob, didn't leave them. He came and encouraged them, spoke to Joseph and directed him and encouraged him. And so we have this great and glorious picture.

And then, of course, as in Moses' case, when Moses was called, and Moses, of course, had to go into the backside of the desert for 40 years to be instructed by Almighty God. So we shouldn't be discouraged sometimes. if we feel that, well, we're in the back side of the desert here. It's not a very easy place. Moses was being prepared for his great work. We might think, surely, Moses, how are you ever being prepared? He was being prepared in this way. He got rid of his own strength. and he was reliant upon God. It's a wonderful lesson that he was given. It took him 40 years to come to that place where he recognised in himself he wasn't suitable, he wasn't able. But God had graciously prepared him to be that one who would come and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. And as we know in his life, there were some wonderful things. Wonderful things, no doubt, that here we have David rejoicing in, and we can go back, can't we, to that wonderful night in Egypt when Israel were freed and delivered and the wonderful picture we have was there was freedom because and only because they were under the blood of that lamb which was taken and slain and roast in the fire. And the blood put upon the doorposts and the lintels of the dwellings that they lived in. And unless they went under the blood to go into their dwellings there was no safety. But under that blood, there was safety.

And so, David would have had that picture. He would have known what it refers to. We understand, surely, how he thought upon it, meditated upon it. It was a wonderful picture. Because there was his safety. Nowhere else. And it's exactly the same for you and me today. My friends, the picture there was that which set before us the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. What a wonderful picture it was and how glorious it was for Moses and how glorious it was indeed for the children of God and we see then that that was so wonderfully typified then in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ because he came and he was slain and he shed his blood, his most precious blood in order to redeem his church and to free them from that terrible malady of sin.

Well, we've already mentioned the need to recognize our sinful nature. But you see, you and I would need more than that. You and I would need to know, just like the Israelites, as they were under the blood, you and I would need to know exactly the same, that we are under the blood. That means to know that the Lord Jesus Christ has died for us. upon that cross at Calvary.

Well, we can imagine, can't we, why the psalmist here, David, rejoiced in this great meditation of God's love to him as he thought upon that Passover. And then, of course, in the case of Moses, Moses was wonderfully privileged to be able to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, that great barrier which was there. God was with them and delivered them across the Red Sea. And then when they came into the desert, the Lord then introduced those wonderful ceremonies of the lamb slain again, night and morning they had to slay the lamb and there it was put upon the altar to picture so clearly the Lord Jesus Christ in their place. Again, this was a picture which was constant. It was there all the time. And David would have recognized this great and wonderful truth.

So surely we can understand, perhaps in some measure, when he comes and says, oh, how love I thy law. Oh, how glorious it is. It is my meditation all the day. But as I see there, my salvation. He needed faith. We all need faith to believe the truth of God. What a favour to receive that God-given faith, and to be concerned that we may have faith to believe these great and glorious truths of the Gospel, so that we come down on these things. They're not just myths, they're not just historical accounts, It's the truth of God which enters into our soul and is a comfort to us as we travel on through life with the evidence we have in our heart that it is well with our soul.

Oh, we do need. to desire and to have that confidence that it is well with our soul. So he says, O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day. Now we started by mentioning verse 89. Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven, and so it is. And that word, we're told in the 105th verse of this psalm, thy word. is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Thy word, God's word, it shines and directs us in our path. Well, can we indeed rejoice in that wonderful, wonderful truth, to think of these things, thy word, is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Clearly God's word was that to him. He rejoiced in it. Do you and I rejoice in it as you read the word of God? And perhaps some things which have been dark and mysterious and difficult, the light of God then comes and shines upon perhaps a very different verse from what you were considering. And yet that verse shines light upon the verse, perhaps, that you were pondering and that you couldn't understand.

Remember, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upradieth not. And my friend, never be afraid, never be fearful of coming to God. and telling God you don't understand what this really means and plead that God will give you a spiritual understanding and lead you into all truth as it is in Jesus. You know when the light shines like that and the Lord has told us he is the light of the world. Oh my friends, may you and I have that grace to come to the Saviour come to the Saviour in all our time of need not stay away no, let us come to the Saviour let us tell Him everything He understands us anyway He knows all about us what a blessing therefore to be able to come and to be able to recognise such a truth as this Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet If you find something difficult, don't give up. Read on in the word of God. Read on until the light shines. Sometimes we're a bit impatient and we want things to be revealed to us now. But God has a time to reveal his will and his love to us. And he tells us, I will be inquired of. by the house of Israel to do these things for them. He causes us to pray. He causes us sometimes to wrestle in prayer. We've got that wonderful example of Jacob. He had to wrestle in prayer. And he was in that situation where he was asked to be let go and he said, I will not let thee go. except thou bless me.

It's a wonderful favour when you and I come into that condition, the time of spiritual need, when we come and have to say, I must have Christ or else I die. Well, God is faithful, my friends, and is kind and gracious. And so may we indeed realize such a great truth as this. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path, which indeed make us rejoice and desire to meditate on his word.

How love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day. Yes, well, David confesses to us, as we've already alluded in the previous verse, I am afflicted very much. You may be afflicted, afflicted in your mind, afflicted in your soul. You may suffer from the evil heart of unbelief. And that's a great affliction. But here we have the encouragement. I'm afflicted very much. Quicken me, O Lord, according unto thy word what a blessing therefore to have a statement like that which can be a strength to us and in encouragement to us and realize that we have a God who is round about us and doesn't cast us off but remembers us for that favor he bears toward his people

well in the verses we read This is some of them. Uphold me according unto thy word that I may live and let me not be ashamed of my hope. My friends, don't be ashamed of your hope. If you have a little hope, praise God and bless him for it. We're not normally favoured with great revelations. but it's wonderful to have a little hope. A hope in his mercy, a hope in his grace, a hope in his guidance and direction. Yes, what a blessing it is. Uphold me according unto thy word that I may live and let me not be ashamed of my hope. Hold thou me up and I shall be safe. Perhaps we feel we're sinking. Perhaps we feel our hope is false. Well, my friends, the hope of the hypocrite will fail. But that good hope which God gives, he keeps alive. Because it's his work. And it's that work which brings honour and glory to almighty God, hold down me up and I shall be safe.

There's only safety in God, in what he has done, and that's why it's good to think of this great statement, it is my meditation all the day, to meditate upon God's finished work, the Saviour's finished work. He completed the work that His Father gave Him to do. He took upon Him our sin, our sins, everyone, everyone, imputed to Him. And He paid the price, the enormous price, to free us from that condemnation of sin. And my friends, to realise He didn't fail. No, he didn't fail. It cost him his life. It cost him agony. It cost him the hiding of his father's face. But God gave him, his son, that grace to endure. And therefore, he was able to speak those wonderful, glorious words, it is finished. He finished the work that his father gave him to do.

Yes, he died physically, didn't die spiritually. He was raised from the dead, a conqueror over sin, death, hell, and the grave, and then raised to glory. There today, to be on the father's right hand on the throne of glory, there blessed for us He intercedes for you and me. Well, as you and I may come to this great God and understand what he's doing, interceding for us. Surely, David's got it right, hasn't he? When he said, oh, how love I thy law. It is my meditation all the day. to be able to meditate upon what Christ has done and what Christ is doing, and to believe that one day he will come and receive us unto himself, that where he is there, we shall be also forever. It's a great and glorious prospect for the Church of God, one that we can truly rejoice in.

And again, the last few verses that we read together tells us this. It is time for thee, Lords, to work, for they have made void thy law. And I believe, you know, we can come to God in a right way, in a humble spirit, and plead his promises, and plead his word, and plead such a word as this. It is time for thee, Lord, to work, for they have made void thy law. Therefore, I love thy commandments, I love thy word, above gold, yay above fine gold, because God's promises are eternal. Don't forget that. What a blessing therefore to be in that place. Well may we meditate. You can go home and you can read the 119th psalm and you can meditate upon it. Take you a long time because there's a lot to meditate upon, but it's a blessed occupation. and come to this great conclusion as the psalmist did. Oh, how love I thy law. It is my meditation all the day. Amen.