May God instruct us from His
Holy Word, help us now to come once again to Psalm 119. And this evening we'll speak
on the 149 to 152nd verse. So Psalm 119 again, verse 149
to 152. Hear my voice. According unto thy lovingkindness,
O Lord, quicken me according to thy judgment. They draw nigh
that follow after mischief. They are far from thy law. Thou
art near, O Lord, and all thy commandments are truth. Concerning thy testimonies, I
have known them old, thou hast founded them for ever. How often as we read the great
truths of God we find the words are simple and precise. There's not a lot of wasted words
but it gives us a very direct and very clear picture. And so
as we think of this 149th verse, we hear the psalmist praying
to God. And his prayer is that God would
hear his voice. Hear his voice. And he says,
according unto thy lovingkindness, So we see here, first of all
he's praying to Almighty God, Jehovah, O Lord, and he's desiring
that because of the loving kindness of the Lord, the Lord will be
gracious to him and hear his voice. And it's a very important
consideration because by ourselves, if we view ourselves, really
there's nothing in ourselves that should merit any notice
from Almighty God. We are sinners of the earth.
And yet how wonderful it is to know that we have a God, that
because of his loving kindness toward us, he does condescend
to hear our voice, to hear our prayer. So David comes here with
this plea Hear my voice. Often, as you already noted,
we read, he asked the Lord to hear his cry. But here he comes
and says, hear my voice. According unto thy loving kindness,
O Lord. The O Lord, of course, follows
on to the second section, which says then, O Lord, quicken me. according to thy judgment. Well, he wanted to be found spiritually
alive. And what a blessing it is for
us tonight, if our desire is that the Lord will indeed quicken
us, make us spiritually alive. And he comes and says, according
to thy judgment, That really means the judgment of God. God
knows what we need. God has a perfect judgment as
to how to give these things to us. And that's why he says, according
to thy judgment. Our judgment is faulty very often
because we have a sinful nature. we have a God who is holy and
just and we can therefore come to him in all honesty and truly
desire the Lord will come and quicken me according to thy judgment. Now it's clear that the psalmist
was born again before he wrote this, otherwise he would not
have had these desires. So it would seem that when he
asked the Lord to quicken him, it means to make him spiritually
alive and perhaps enliven the spirituality of his soul. And so easily it is, and that
we can become lukewarm and we can become calmly minded. And therefore, this won't be
an unusual prayer or a strange prayer. And we can echo it and
understand why the Psalmist came into this place. O Lord, quicken
me according to thy judgment. And we're thankful that God knows
what we need. He knows how to bring it about,
the blessing that is needful for us. And then he tells us,
they draw nigh that follow after mischief. There are those who
pretend to seek God, pretend to worship God. They're not true
believers. They draw nigh with mischief,
after mischief. They don't really desire to be
quickened. They don't really desire God
to deal with them according to His loving-kindness. And therefore,
they draw nigh that follow after mischief. And he goes on to confirm
that position. He says they are far from thy
law. They don't really desire to follow
the great and glorious law of God. No, they're far off, far
away. And therefore they are doing
that which is just a formality, just something perhaps to satisfy
their conscience. And so he draws really the analogy
between a true desire and a false desire. And then he confirms
this really in the 151st verse, when he says, Thou art near,
O Lord. The Lord is near to those who
truly worship Him and truly desire to be a follower of the despised
and crucified man. Thou art near. What a blessing
that is to realise God is near to us, day by day, in whatever
situation we might find ourselves in, to think that God is near. near a hand and not afar off. Thou art near, O Lord. And then
he confesses, And all thy commandments are truth. There's no mischief
in this statement. All thy commandments are truth. We won't go wrong following the
commandments of God. They're there for God's honour
and glory. They're there for our soul's
benefit and our soul's eternal good. So let's never turn away
from God's commandments. We only have to trace out Israel
of old, and of course David would have been well able to have done
that, no doubt he had, and saw in the writings of Moses that
there were those who didn't follow the law, they didn't follow his
commandments. And yet he realized that all
the commandments of God, all the commandments he gave to the
Israelites of old were true. There was nothing false in them. They were all for the Israelites'
eternal good. And yet they didn't want to see
it. They turned away, as we know,
so many times. And God was very patient with
them. But as we know, they didn't go up and possess the land when
God commanded them. And all those who were over 20
years of age perished in the wilderness. They never came into
Canaan. Then he says, concerning thy
testimonies, truth of God, the testimony of God, the record
of God concerning thy testimonies. I have known of old that thou
hast founded them forever. They are the eternal word of
God. What a great blessing it is to
realise that we today have the Bible to read from Genesis to
Revelation, as I've quite often made the point, of course, David
didn't have that great benefit. He only had the first few books
of the Bible, but we have the whole testimony of God there
to speak to our souls, there to direct us. And he tells us
concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old, and thou hast founded
them forever. Well, God's word will stand. It will not fail. We read together
in that second epistle of Corinthians and the 20th verse in that first
chapter, for all the promises of God in him are yea. They are true. They are certain. and in him, Amen, unto the glory
of God by us. And so it's good to recognise
that the Lord confirms his truth throughout the Word of God. And
again and again there are those words which support the Word
of God and we should be thankful for it. So let us bless God tonight
for such a statement concerning thy testimonies I have known
of old that thou hast founded them forever. Yes, the word of
God is something which does not change and we can rely upon God's
truth. Well, may God bless these few
remarks to consider the great blessing we have and the truth
of God in our hands to be able to read the testimony of the
psalmist and especially this 119th Psalm which is so full
of instruction. May God bless it to us. Amen.