contains. Well, as we said last
week, God willing, we'll commence our meditation in the 119th Psalm. And the 119th Psalm is a unique
psalm. It's a wonderful psalm, and it
has so many words of instruction and direction. And again, generally,
it's thought that David did actually write the psalm, and it's also
thought that he didn't sit down and write it all in one sitting,
but that perhaps through his life he jotted down various statements. And then as he became older,
he then brought all these together. and it's formed the 119th Psalm. So we should be thankful that
we have all these statements and many of the verses just stand
up by themselves and don't have any regard really to the verses
either side of them. Well, this evening we'll just
concentrate on the first three verses of the 119th Psalm. I intend hopefully to be able
to do a section at a time. we pursue this psalm but these
first three verses tend to hang together and I just read though
the first eight verses and it starts off blessed are they undefiled
in the way who walk in the law of the Lord blessed are they
that keep his testimonies and that seek him with a whole heart
they also do no iniquity they walk in his ways there's commanding
us to Keep thy precepts diligently, O that my ways were directed
to keep thy statutes. Then shall I not be ashamed when
I have respect unto all thy commandments. I will praise thee with uprightness
of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments. I will
keep thy statutes, O forsake me not utterly. And the first verse in this psalm
reads, Well, it's quite difficult, I think, to understand the depth
that is couched beneath in such words. And when I was meditating
on this, I just I read part of Kelvin's commentary. And it's
interesting because, as you may or may not know, of course, he
wrote his commentary in French and he actually relied principally
upon the French version of the Bible. And there was a translation,
therefore, that was done from his French translation into the
translation of English. And his translation for the first
three verses is slightly different, but I think probably more helpful. Because he says, blessed are
they who are upright. That's a different word to the
one here. Blessed are the undefiled. Blessed are they who are upright
in their way, walking in the law of Jehovah. Well, we know, of course, Jehovah
is what is meant here by the Lord, with capital letters. And
then the second verse reads, blessed are they who keeping
his testimonies. Blessed are they that keep his
testimonies, it says. Keeping his testimonies in the
law of Jehovah. His Testament is, seek him with
all their heart. And then the last verse is, surely
they do not work iniquity, who walk in his ways. And again,
that's slightly different from the third verse here, which says,
they also do no iniquity, they walk in his ways. Well, we know
that while we're on the earth, we are not free from sin, sadly.
We have a sinful nature. And that's really partly why
I read that seventh chapter to the Romans, because there the
apostle tells us his own experience, his own testimony of how he felt
the battle within. And as we read together, he tells
us, for the good that I would, I do not. But the evil which
I would not, that I do. If I do that, I would not, it
is no more I that do it, but sin dwelleth in me. I find in
the law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, the inward man, of course, being the new
creature, but I see another law in my members, warring against
the law of my mind. and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members. And then he cries
out, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death. I thank God through Jesus Christ,
our Lord. So then, with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. So we're thankful, I'm sure,
to have the testimony of the Apostle Paul as he explains how
he felt the conflict between his old nature and the new nature. And it's a blessing it is if
you and I understand that. And yet we have this statement
that tells us, blessed are the undefiled in the way. Those are walking in the way
that God directs us in, not to walk contrary to God, but to
walk in his way, walk in that right way, who walk indeed in
the law of the Lord. And we might ask what the law
of the Lord is. Well, the law is really a precept or a statute. We know what a statute is, I
expect, because in our parliament, the laws which are passed are
put on what is termed the statute book, so it's the law. And here
we have this statement here. Blessed are the undefiled who
walk not in, who are undefiled in the way, who walk in the law
of the Lord. Well, I'm sure the true believer
desires indeed to walk in the way of God, in the law of God,
and to not depart from it. But as we read, we know we have
that old nature and we carry that old nature with us right
down through our life until we pass out of life into eternity. And so we should be aware of
the conflict and the battle that we have and realize the truth. Perhaps we desire to be indeed
upright in the things of God and not to give offence by our
actions or indeed by our words. Blessed are the undefiled in
the way who walk in the law of the Lord. We have a wonderful
set of laws, a wonderful set of statutes in the word of God
and we should never think that they are contrary to the will
of God for each one of us. But we should desire to have
grace and desire that we may be found walking in the law of
the Lord. He comes in and says, blessed
are they that keep his testimonies. You may say, well, that's very
similar. Surely the law is very similar.
But I think testimony can be described as a declaration about
truth. And again, the desire of a born-again
Christian is to follow the truth of God's Word, not to follow
anything which is man-made, anything that we might put our own view
upon, but to try and follow carefully the testimony, the declaration
about truth. which is so wonderful as we follow
the Word of God through and see how it all flows together and
we should be very thankful for it. And then he says that seek
Him with the whole heart. Well, that means what it says.
It means that we are to seek Him honestly with the whole heart. And not with a divided heart,
not a heart that goes after the things of time, the poor things
of time, which perish with the using, the poor things of time,
which Solomon described as vanity of vanity, all is vanity. And so what a mercy it is if
we can seek Him, Him, our blessed Savior, with a whole heart. Seek him that he may be revealed
to us as our great and glorious savior. And seek him as we view
him as that one who gave himself, gave his life so that you and
I might be given life. Seek him, not to seek anybody
else, but to seek him. What a mercy it is. that we have
so much about Him in the Word of God in the Old Testament and
in the New Testament. And as we think, of course, here,
the Psalms were written many, many years before Jesus was born,
and yet it's still important that we seek Him. The Old Testament
saints were to seek Him, to seek the Messiah, and we today are
to seek Him. And we're told this those that
seek shall find. So we should never therefore
give up. We should never think, well,
I'm never going to find the Lord. We should be encouraged to seek
him at all times and seek him with the whole heart. Well, it's
a good prayer to be able to have an honest heart and not a divided
heart and to pray to our God that we may be blessed indeed
with that whole heart. They also do no iniquity that
walk in his ways. Again, that follow his law, that
follow his testimony, that follow his example. It's all before
us in the word of God. We have a wonderful heritage
of the Bible before us. And what a blessing it is if
you and I, by the grace of God, truly desire to follow him and
to follow his way. They also do no iniquity. They
walk in his ways. And just to remind ourselves,
of course, this is a translation. And of course, in the translation,
we know there's often many things which are lost because, as I
mentioned last week, in the original, this was in the Hebrew, and every
section was a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And each
verse in that section began with the same letter. So it was a
wonderful aid to be able to remember, to learn the truth of God, to
think as people would start by the first verse and know it was
the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and then the second
verse was also started with the first letter and so on until
the second section which then started with the second letter
of the Hebrew alphabet. Well we don't have that advantage
and we don't have that benefit but nonetheless we can thank
God we do have the word of God in a very reliable translation
for which we should be indeed truly thankful. May God be gracious to us and
bless us and as we go through this psalm may we indeed be able
to meditate upon those things which We consider, week by week,
and not just pass them by, that we may indeed be able to go home
and ponder them and consider them. that they may be truly
edifying to our souls. And as I've said last week, the
importance is to be able to observe the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we can observe it, as I've
already pointed out tonight, and how good it is if we can
see Him, the blessed Saviour, as we go through this psalm. Well, my Lord, my God,