Well, once again, may it please
Almighty God to bless us as we meditate in his holy word. Let's
turn to the book of Psalms and we'll read Psalm 119 and verses
165 to 168. So the four verses 165 to 168 in Psalm 119. Great peace have they which love
thy law, and nothing shall offend them. Lord, I have hoped for
thy salvation and done thy commandments. My soul hath kept thy testimonies,
and I love them exceedingly. I have kept thy precepts and
thy testimonies, for all my ways are before thee. Well, as we continue our meditation
in this psalm, we see how David really rejoices in the word of
God, rejoices in the the truth of God and tells us how he loves
it and how he indeed is brought to hope in God's salvation through
it. And so we should recognise this
great favour that we have today. And as he tells us, great peace
have they which love thy law. What a mercy it is when God gives
us peace. Peace is a blessing from God. And here we can see it's generated
by that which David loves, which is the law of God, which love
thy law. And it's because of that that
he rejoices in it and is blessed with wonderful and great peace. He tells us, and nothing shall
offend them. Well, that's to the Church of
God, and they walk through this wilderness with many things to
try them. And yet, you see, to realize
that they're not offended because they have a great Savior, they
have a great God. And they recognize what He has
done and what He walked through and how He did all that was right
in his father's sight. And so, may we today, as we now
live on the earth, with things to trouble us and perhaps offend
us and yet here we have this statement and nothing shall offend
them because they are enjoying the peace of God which passeth
all understanding and they are loving the great and glorious
law of God and these things outweigh really those things that might
offend them and then he comes and says I have hoped for thy
salvation well that can of course refer to natural things and also
more blessedly to spiritual things. So what a mercy today if we also
can echo that through the grace of God we've hoped for God's
salvation. We've been given faith to believe
the great truth of God, the great work of the Holy Spirit in our
lives, and that finished work of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He says, I have hoped for thy
salvation and done thy commandments. What a blessing that is, to be
able to make statement like that, and done thy commandments. It's so easy to ignore God's
commandments, to go our own way and consider that they are not
really relevant to us, they're relevant to everybody else. but
not to us. But here he says, I have hoped
for thy salvation and done thy commandments. Well, if we do
God's commandments, it's by his help and the strength and the
understanding that he gives to us. And what a blessing it is. And he goes on and tells us,
my soul hath kept thy testimonies, which of course is very similar
to the commandments of God. And he says, and I love them
exceedingly. Just like the first phrase, great
peace have they which love thy law. And now he says, My soul
hath kept thy testimonies, and I love them exceedingly. You see, if we ignore God's testimonies,
and if we don't keep them, then it's unlikely that we shall love
them exceedingly. What a blessing it is if we do
love them and we really Rejoice in them, you know, we read read
that 23rd chapter in Job just now And we read what Job says
about the path that God leads him in. The same as David here. He tells us in the 10th verse,
But he knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, I shall
come forth as gold. That should be a wonderful comfort
for us. As we journey on through life
to realise God knows the way. He's planned the way. It's not
to us. Well, it may appear to us to
be the unknown way, but it's not unknown to God. It's known. And because of that, surely,
we can indeed rejoice and love them exceedingly. Well, it's
a great blessing. If we do love God's Word, David's
told us several times how he loves God's Word. May we love
God's Word and His testimonies and love them exceedingly. And then he goes on and says,
I've kept thy precepts and thy testimonies. Now it's interesting
that this word precepts only occurs in the 119th Psalm. But in actual fact, in this Psalm,
it occurs 21 times. So it's interesting to note really
what it intends. And I believe it means this.
It's a proper description of the law of God. That's why it
is that which needs to be kept. I've kept thy precepts and thy
testimonies, a proper description the law of God. Well what a mercy
it is if you and I desire to follow the precepts of our God
and his testimonies and not turn away from them but recognize
how relevant they are. And then finally he says, for
all my ways are before thee. our lives laid out. God knows
all about it, every detail, and how wonderful that is, because
through that we can realize that nothing comes into our lives
unknown to God. It's all ordained and it's there
for a divine purpose to bring us each into the covenant, and
to bring us each a last home to glory. So, for all thy ways
are before me. That's the great God we have.
The great God who knows every detail, every single detail.
It's beyond our natural understanding, isn't it, to think that we have
a God who knows our thoughts, our every thought. He knows when
our hair is dropped to the ground. He knows all about us. All my
ways are before thee. Such a God, and yet such a gracious
God. God doesn't deal with us as our
sins deserve. And that brings us back really
to the beginning of this 165th verse where we read, great peace
have they which love thy law. And when we see how righteous
God's law is, how perfect it is. We won't quibble with it,
but we'll rejoice in it. And in so doing, enjoy that peace
of God, which passeth all understanding. Well, we'll leave these few comments
there.