Well, this evening we'll just
concentrate on the first four verses, the first half of this
section in the 119th Psalm, which is verses 17 to 20. So we'll just read them. Deal
bountifully with thy servant, that I may live and keep thy
word. Open thou mine eyes, that I may
behold wondrous things out of thy law. I am a stranger in the
earth. Hide not thy commandments from
me. My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy
judgments at all times. Well, it's wonderful, isn't it,
to see how the Sámist desires that the Lord will deal with
him. He didn't want to be left on
one side. He wanted to have the evidence
that God indeed was dealing with him and also he wanted God to
deal with him bountifully. He realised he was coming to
the great God, the Creator of all things, who was able to do
all that was necessary. And indeed, it's a good word
to commence and to think about in our lives, to pray that God
will deal bountifully with us, deal bountifully with thy servant
that I may live. Because that was the very indication
that he possessed. the life of God in his soul. And it's the same for us today,
that if the Lord deals bountifully with us, that means he speaks
to us, that means he directs us, that means he helps us. All
those things are evidences that we possess the life of God in
our soul. So how wonderful it is that we
have statements like this too, encourage us that I may live. And then his concern is, again,
to keep God's word. The last verse of the previous
section that we thought upon was, I will not forget thy word. Again, we are blessed today,
and let us not forget the wonderful privilege which is ours of having
the Bible to read. And again, Let me remind you
as I do that many, many people in the world do not possess this
great and glorious gift. And we have it. We have it in
our language and we can read it. And what a wonderful blessing
it is. And so may God give us then that
grace to truly read his word and to keep his word. And then
he goes on and says, Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous
things out of thy law. Now we must realise that it's
likely that the psalmist, it was probably David, only really
had the books that Moses had written. That's Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. And yet he wanted God to open
his eyes, his spiritual eyes, on his natural eyes, his spiritual
eyes, so that he might behold wondrous things which are recorded
in those books of the Bible. And there are wonderful things,
wonderful things that direct us to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have it set before us in all
those sacrifices which are detailed in Leviticus. We have the wonderful
institution of the Passover which is detailed so clearly in Deuteronomy
and also it's specified in Exodus and so we have these wonderful
privileges that we have but just like the psalmist we need God's
to open our spiritual eyes so that as we read the Old Testament
we realize how in so many ways it directs us to the Lord Jesus
Christ in amazing and wonderful prophecy. We live in a world,
a sad world, even in the Christian so-called world, where people
don't fully understand and appreciate the great benefit of the Old
Testament. So never pass by it, never pass
over it. Realise how very wonderful and
how relevant it is to us. The Apostle Paul wrote to the
Ephesians, he wrote this in the first chapter, that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. It's
a very clear desire that his eyes and our eyes might truly
be opened, the eyes of your understanding. being enlightened, that ye may
know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches
of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And I believe
when God graciously shows us the blessings of the Old Testament,
reveals Christ to us in those pages, indeed, reveals to us
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, what
does it do? when I believe it makes us rejoice. It makes our heart leap as we
see the glory of the Godhead set before us in the Old Testament. So may we truly rejoice in it
and truly desire that God may show us these wondrous things
which there are out of thy law. The psalmist desired it. The
Church of God desires it, may you and I desire it, so that
his name may be honoured and glorified. Well, we should be
thankful that we have these wonderful and gracious words recorded. Again, in Colossians we're told,
in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom, knowledge referring
of course to the Word of God all the treasures we know what
treasure is naturally don't we naturally treasure valuable things
in this life but they are passed away and we can't take them with
us when we die but the things which are spiritual treasures
are centered on the knowledge of Christ which truly is more
precious than gold. So may our hearts and our attentions
be attractive to the glory of those blessings which are to
be revealed in the Word of God and may they be revealed to us
so that we may truly praise and bless God for his wonderful love
and mercy toward us. And then he tells us I am a stranger
in the earth hide not thy commandments from me you see he didn't want
to realize that there were those things that he was missing out
on those commands which were written in the Word of God and
he didn't want to pass over them he wanted them to be revealed
to him hide not thy commandments from me And that's a good desire,
a good prayer, and it's something probably we don't think about,
we may never have thought about. But there we have this desire
and prayer. And it is good that you and I
don't pass over that which God tells us what we should do and
how we should act. We should not ignore the great
commands of Almighty God. There's no bad commands. God
commands are always good and what a wonderful thing it is
therefore if these things are revealed to us and our desire
is that they might be so and he tells us prior to that I am
a stranger in the earth now the reality is that all God's people
are really strangers and you may say well why is that just
explain what that means Well, if you and I are away from home,
perhaps in another country, we're a stranger really, aren't we?
We're only at home when we are in our own home and we know what
it is. And so he tells us, I am a stranger
in the earth. Well, all God's people are really
strangers in the earth because our home by the grace of God
is in glory, in heaven at last. And that's where we're traveling
to. And it would be a great blessing
if we give the evidence that we are strangers and pilgrims
on the earth. Indeed, here we have no continuing
city, but we seek one to come. And way back in the Chronicles,
and you see the apostle, or the psalmist rather, would have been
No doubt aware of this and in the first book of the Chronicles
and the 29th chapter and verse 15, this is what we read. For
we are strangers before thee and sojourners as were all our
fathers. We're not unusual in this situation. Our days on the earth are as
a shadow and there is none abiding. We won't abide here forever.
We're passing through. And what a blessing it is then
to realize that we're going on that journey, which by the grace
of God will land us in heaven at last. And so how good it is
that we see here the desire of the psalmist. I am a stranger.
He felt it. And it's good if you and I feel.
to be a stranger in this world. This is not our home, it's not
our rest. We're passing through it. I am
a stranger in the earth. Hide not thy commandments from
me. Yes, we don't want God's commandments
hidden from us, do we? We want them to be revealed.
And then he says, my soul breaketh for the longing that it hath
unto thy judgments at all times. We get a little view of the reality
of a healthy, lively Christians as we read such a statement.
My soul, his innermost desire, the innermost being, he tells
us, breaketh. It was so great. His heart was
breaking. He longed. after the judgments,
after the mercies of Almighty God that it hath unto judgment
at all times. And again in an earlier psalm
this is really picked up in Psalm 19 verses 8 to 10 and I'll just
read it to you. The statutes of the Lord are
right. That's really the commandments
of the Lord are right. And what's the effect? Rejoicing
the heart. It's not something that we object
to. Rejoicing the heart. The commandment
of the Lord is pure. Nothing wrong with it. Righteous.
Enlightening the eyes. We've spoken about the eyes,
our spiritual eyes being opened. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. Then he makes a grand statement.
More to be desired are they than gold. So he lifts it above the
things of this world. Yea, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the
honeycomb. What a blessing it is if God
directs us in that way. If you read statements like this,
my soul breaketh the longing that it hath unto thy judgment
at all times that God may give us a right and a spiritual understanding
of the wonderful truth that it contains. And then just one final
statement in the Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 1. A wise son, a
wise son, heareth his father instructions. And this is the
word of God and if Our Father is Almighty God in heaven, then
it's instruction to us. A wise son heareth his father's
instructions, but a scorner heareth not rebuke. You and I can read
things sometimes, and we don't want to notice them, and we don't
want to recognise they speak to us, and we don't want to therefore
receive any application. Well, we should be very thankful
that God has given us this 119th Psalm that we can read and you
can see I'm sure as we've gone through these just these few
verses tonight and up to the present time that there's a great
deal of instruction in just short statements and we need to read
them and ponder them. Well may God