Let us turn once again to God's
Word in that portion of Scripture we were reading, the 119th Psalm,
and I want this morning to direct you to that last verse of our
reading, verse 96, Psalm 119. 96. I have seen an end of all perfection
but thy commandment is exceeding broad. I have seen an end of
all perfection but thy commandment is exceeding broad. And to take up the theme really
of the breadth of God's Word the breadth of God's Word, as
I'm sure you're well aware, this 119th Psalm is very much a celebration
of God's Word. And as I said before we read
the portion, it's divided into 22 sections, the 22 letters of
the Hebrew alphabet, and it's really built around those 22
letters in that it is in fact an acrostic poem. as those particular letters that
stand at the head of each of the sections in the Hebrew. Those letters are the opening
letters of each of the verses as we read through the various
sections. Of course that doesn't come across in the translation
in our English Bible. But besides being an acrostic
poem, it's also a long psalm, the longest of all the psalms
running to 176 verses and in 174 of those verses there is
some reference to Holy Scripture on the various synonyms the word
or the precept or the statute just two exceptions verses 122
and 132. We've mentioned some of these
things on previous occasions when we've looked at a verse
in this 119th Psalm. It certainly then teaches us
a very high doctrine of Holy Scripture and how important it
is that we recognize God's Word for what it is. Peter speaks
of how the prophets, those holy men of God, spake as they were
moved by the Spirit of God. How they were inspired into strong
words to move, to carry them along. It wasn't just that they
were inspired in their thoughts and then expressed themselves
in their own words, but the inspiration was much greater than that. They
actually were inspired in the very writings. All scripture,
we're told, is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. We should have a high view then
of the doctrine of Holy Scripture. It's God's words from beginning
to end and it is inspired in all its verses, in all its words,
plenary inspiration, Verbal inspiration, this is the doctrine that we
should contend for. There are those, of course, who
dismiss great passages of Scripture and say, oh well, these are merely
myths and fables, and we need to demythologize the Word of
God, so they don't believe great portions of the Old Testament
Scripture. No, we say this book is God's
book. and we seek to bring every one
of our thoughts into captivity to what God is saying to us here
in Holy Scripture. The Lord Jesus Christ himself,
of course, taught a very high doctrine with regards to the
Scriptures. There in the Sermon on the Mount
Verily, says Christ, till heaven and earth pass one jot or one
tittle, shall he no wise pass from the word of God till all
be fulfilled. Not one jot. Now the jot is the
very smallest of all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Very
tiny letter. Not one jot, says Christ, could
pass away, nor one tittle. The tittle is just a part of
these letters. How the Lord Jesus then clearly
teaches us to reverence the Word of God. Again, in John 10, 35,
he says, the Scripture cannot be broken. God will fulfill all
His Word, His promises, His threatenings. We need then to come and bow
before the authority of God as He speaks to us here in Holy
Scripture. Well, let us turn this morning
to the 96th verse of this psalm. I have seen an end of all perfection,
says David, but thy commandment is exceeding broad. Just two points I want to deal
with this morning. First of all, to say something
with regards to the emptiness of the world. I have seen an end of all perfection,
and then secondly, the fullness of the Word of God, Thy Commandment,
is exceeding broad. Firstly then, to say something
with regards to the testimony of the psalmist here concerning
the emptiness of the world. And there's very much a contrast
being drawn in the two clauses of the verse. And that's indicated,
of course, by the little word but. It's been introduced by
the translators. That's indicated because it appears
here in italics. You know how the men who were
responsible for our authorized version did have that high doctrine.
They sought to give a very literal rendering as far as possible,
where they had to bring in any additional English words which
were not being used in the translation of what would have been here
in the Hebrew. They indicate that by use of italics and so
here they put this word in but to draw out the fact that there
is a contrast being drawn and first of all the contrast is
to be understood in terms of what the world is in comparison
as we shall presently see with regards to God and his work. What we have is the emptiness
the emptiness of all that the world has to offer to man. And isn't David speaking very
much out of his own experience? What remarkable experiences this
man of God, the sweet psalmist of Israel, passed through. We
have the record, of course, there in the books of Samuel, in particular,
concerning the life of David and all that befell him. And
David was familiar with men, he was familiar in some ways
we might say with the strongest of men. How he had to deal with
the great champion of the Philistines, even with Goliath. And he was
brought to see that the greatest and the strongest of this world
could produce would never be able to stand before the Lord
God himself. And we have the record of David
and the giant spoken of there in the 17th chapter of the first
book of Samuel. Now look at the words that David
himself speaks to that giant. Verse 45, Then said David to
the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear,
and with a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the Lord
of hosts, the God of the enemies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand, and I will
smite thee and take thine head from thee, and I will give the
carcasses of the host of the Philistines this day unto the
fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all
the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all the
assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and
spear, for the battle is the Lord's, and He will give you
into our hands. All the strongest that the world
could ever produce, even this great champion of the Philistines,
he could not stand before the Lord God. What is all the strength
of man in comparison with God in all his omnipotence, in all
his great power? But then also, as David as a
youth was familiar with the giant Goliath, so when we see him later
as a father, he has a son and his son Absalom is spoken of
as the fairest of men. The fairest of all the men in
the earth. What a striking man he was, how
so many would look up to him, and the glories that belonged
to him. And again we have the record there in the second book
of Samuel, in chapter 14, verse 25, we're told, In all
Israel there was none to be so praised as Absalom, for his beauty
from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head, there
was no blemish in him. And when he pulled his head,
for it was every year's end that he pulled it, because the hair
was heavy on him, therefore he pulled it, he weighed the hair
of his head at two hundred shekels after the king's weight. All
this man you see, he was a man of great appearance, so fair,
so fine, an example of manhood. And he was David's son, and yet
he's that man, of course, who rebels against his father, David,
and seeks to seize the kingdom. And David has to flee from Jerusalem. But now, ultimately, Absalom's
rebellion is put down. And what is it that brings about
his downfall? his destruction, his death, it
was that very glory, his head, his hair, it was his ruin in
the end because we're told subsequently there in 2 Samuel 18 verses 9
and 10 how his hair is caught in the branches of the tree and
Joab the great general of David comes and strikes him and kills
him. There he is suspended as he were
by his head by his glory between heaven and earth and destruction
and death come upon him. All the finest that the earth
could offer was as nothing. I have seen an end of all perfection
says David. the strongest of men, the fairest
of men. And then also David was familiar,
of course, with the wisest, the wisest of men, his friend Ahithophel. He was involved with that rebellion
of which Absalom was the leader. And David speaks of that man
in Psalm 55. He was a great friend of David. Many times David would consult
with Ahithophel. And he speaks of him there in
the Psalm, Psalm 55 and verse 14. We took sweet counsel together,
he says, and walked unto the house of God in company. Oh,
it was as if he were a spiritual companion of David, and David
greatly respected him. Oh, his counsel was as the very
oracle of God. And yet, in the end, God overturns
all his counsel. He turned from David, he follows
Absalom, he counsels Absalom, and his counsel to Absalom and
Absalom followed that counsel was good counsel, but God confounds
the man because of his sin, because of his rebellion. God overturned
all that the wisest of men could ever speak. I have seen an end
of all perfection, the emptiness of all that the world is able
to offer to man." And as here we have the testimony of David,
so we also of course have the testimony of David's son, Solomon,
the very man who follows him as king and you can read through
what Solomon has to say of this world in the book of Ecclesiastes
vanity of vanities all is vanity that's the testimony of Solomon
who was made the wisest of men he also saw an end of all perfection
all that he did There in Ecclesiastes 2.11 I looked, he says, on all
the works that my hand had wrought and on the labour that I had
labour to do and behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit
and there was no profit under the sun. The same testimony as
David And each of them, of course, David here in the Psalms, and
Solomon there in the book of Ecclesiastes, not just expressing
their own opinion, but speaking the very words of God, the vanitin
of the world, the emptiness of the world. And Paul in the New
Testament tells us, while we look not at the things which
are seen, the things which are seen are temporal. but the things
which are unseen are the eternal things. Oh God, open our eyes
to the vanity then of all those things round about us, all those
things that so often come into our lives and perplex us and
we become so anxious and concerned and we're to look above these
things, we're to look to the Lord God himself, to the eternal
God. Well let us turn from the emptiness
of the world to the fullness that is found here in the Word
of God. Oh, there's a contrast, as I
said. The emptiness of the world, the wealth of the world, the
wisdom of the world, the strength of the world, all these things
are empty, void. But all fullness is to be found
here in the Word of God. I have seen an end of all perfection
but thy commandment is exceeding broad. Is it not in a sense God's
words that shows us the emptiness of all other things? His law reveals to us that all
imagined human perfections are really nothing at all. As I said,
this word bots is in italics, therefore it's been introduced
in the translation and it draws out the contrast between each
of the clauses, but we could replace it in a sense with a
different word. For example, we could insert
the word for or because I have seen an end of all perfection
for thy commandment is exceeding broad. It's God, it's God in
His Word. There's the cause why we see
the vanity of the world and the emptiness of the world. It's
God in His Word who reveals it to us. How do we come to understand
what it is to be sinners before God? Doesn't God come and deal
with us in terms of His Word? That's the testimony of Paul
writing there in Romans chapter 7, "...I had not known sin,"
he says, "...but by the law. For I had not known last, except
the commandment had said, Thou shalt not covet." How that man
had to learn that he was a sinner? He was such a self-righteous
Pharisee, imagining that he kept the word of God, obeyed the law
of God, and yet he didn't understand it at all. And he confesses it,
there I had not known sin. How did he come to know sin?
By the law of God. when God opened his eyes to the
truth of that law, when God impressed upon his own soul the point and
purpose of that law. We oft quote those words in Romans
3.19. Now we know that what thing soever
the law saith, it saith to them that under the law that every
mouth may be stopped. and all the world become guilty
before God. Therefore by the deeds of the
Law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the Law
is the knowledge of sin. I have seen an end of all perfection
for thy commandment is exceeding wrought." Mark here then the
vast extents of the Law of God. It's said to be exceeding broad,
but God's Law is also deep. It's as deep as it is broad. In Psalm 36, rather, I think it's here, isn't it? No, it's not here. It is Psalm
36. We have that verse, Thy judgments are a great deep. Thy judgments
are a great deep. It's a deep law. All of God's Word is a great
deep to us. And Paul speaks of that at the
end of Romans 11. All the depths, he says. All
the depths. of the riches, both of the wisdom
and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways
past finding out. There's a depth in the Word of
God. But as there's a depth here in Holy Scripture, so there's
also a great height to the Word of God. And here in the psalm,
we're reminded of that. Verse 89, For ever, O Lord, thy
word is settled in heaven. It's settled in the very heavens,
in the heaven of heavens, where God dwells, the third heaven,
because it's God's word, it's God's law. It's as high as it
is deep. And then here, of course, in
particular, we are reminded of how broad it is, not just broad
it says but exceeding broad in other words there's no way in
which we can escape from it turn wherever we would, go wherever
we would there's a sense in which God's Word will pursue us and
find us out and the children of Israel were very much reminded
of that fact in what they were commanded to do with God's holy
law there in Deuteronomy chapter 6 at verse 6 following God says, you remember
in the previous fifth chapter of Deuteronomy the law, the Ten
Commandments is repeated and now on the borders of the promised
land God had given those commandments some 40 years previously when
he had first brought them out of Egypt and taken them there
to the mountains of Horeb and spoken from Mount Sinai and uttered
those 10 commandments. But they've been 40 years wandering
in the wilderness. And now on the borders of that
land in chapter 5 we have Moses repeating to them the Lord of
Gods, the Ten Commandments. And then, here in chapter 6, verse 6, these words, which I
command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt
teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them
when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the
way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up, and
thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand and they shall
be as frontless between thine eyes and thou shalt write them
upon the post of thy house and on thy gates now the Jews took
that very literally and In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus
Christ himself speaks of their phylacteries. They had those
little leather boxes that they had written the Ten Commandments
upon and they would bind them. They would put the commandments
in those little leather boxes and they'd bind them around their
heads and they'd bind them on their wrists. and the Lord is
rebuking the scribes and the Pharisees here in Matthew 23
and they may draw their phylacteries and make a show of their religion
as if they are very serious about the Word of God so they have
it on their right hand and they have it before their eyes. But
that was just a show of religion. It wasn't something real. We
don't have to do that sort of thing. We have to be those who
are mindful of God's Word. Wherever we go, wherever we turn,
it is exceeding broad. It pursues us everywhere. And as it pursues us, so it's
profitable to us. All scripture is given by inspiration,
says the apostle, and is profitable. It's exceeding broad. We go where
we will. It will come to us. Why God himself is everywhere. He's the omnipresent one. He's
the omniscient one. Doesn't the 139th Psalm very
much celebrate that great truth? The God is one that we can never
escape from. Verse 7 in that Psalm, Whither
shall I go from thy spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy
presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou
art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea, even there shall
thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say
surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light
about me. Oh God is in all places. He knows us. His words runs to
and fro through the whole earth. His eye is an all-seeing and
an all-searching eye. And how, when God's word comes
to us in the way of the conviction of sin, how that law is constantly
condemning the sinner. And we discover that it requires
a full obedience, a perfect obedience. James tells us, "...whosoever
shall keep the whole law, if he offend in one point, he is
guilty of all." It has to be kept perfectly, in every part. Not one transgression. And as
it is an all-embracing law, so it is also a spiritual law. John tells us here in his first
epistle, whosoever hated his brother is a murderer. It's not
just the deed, the act of murder. It's a very thought of hatred. And of course John is simply
echoing the words of the Lord Jesus again there in the Sermon
on the Mount, remember in Matthew 5.21. The Lord makes it clear
that the sixth commandment, they shall not kill, they shall do
no murder, isn't just to be understood with regards to the deed, we're
to understand it also with regards to the thought, the intent of
the heart, that unlawful hatred. And then the Lord goes on at
verse 27 of that chapter to speak of the seventh commandment, Thou
shalt not commit adultery, and he says that a wanton look, a
lustful thought, why, that is the transgression. Oh God's Lord,
it's a spiritual law. And now it was the Apostle Paul
who had to discover that great truth when the Lord dealt with
him, as he makes so clear there in that seventh chapter of the
epistle to the Romans. We know that the law is spiritual,
he says. But I am carnal, I'm a natural
man. I have a fallen nature. I'm sold
on the sin. Oh, I had not known sin but by
the law. I had not known lust except the
commandment said thou shalt not covet. It was in terms of that
tenth commandment as we've already said that the Lord God taught
him and showed him what he is. There's no hope you see. No hope
in self. no help in self this is what the text is teaching
us surely I have seen an end of all perfection
the Lord God turns man to destruction when he begins to deal with the
sinner he comes to that spot where he sees all is lost why
thy commandment is exceeding draw there's no escaping God
and His Word but then we have to remember this there is
a connection between the scriptures which this psalm is so much celebrating
and the Lord Jesus Christ because He is the Word incarnate Is it
not remarkable that what we have before us here in our Bibles,
we have the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. But Christ is
also one who is spoken of as that Word, the Logos. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. the sign was
in the beginning with God we're familiar with that remarkable
language in the opening verses of the Gospel according to Saint
John and then how it continues and the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth or what comes by the Lord Jesus
Christ, grace and truth. The law was given by Moses. And
here, as I say, we have these various synonyms constantly being
used with regards to God's words. In these verses throughout the
Psalms, sometimes we read the word law, other times the word
precept, judgment, statutes. But we're not to think simply
in terms of that law that came by Moses. Because when we think
of the Word of God, we think also of the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ. All the Scriptures and the Lords
bear one tremendous name. The written and incarnate Word
in all things are the same. And isn't the Lord Jesus Christ
therefore to be discerned in the words of our text this morning
it's not just that commandment that finds us out to sinners it's that God who in Christ reveals
himself as the savior of sinners Oh, in the Lord Jesus Christ
we see the breadth, the length, the depth and the height of the
love of God. Remember the prayer of Paul at
the end of Ephesians chapter 3. Aren't those prayers of the
Apostle that we discover scattered throughout his various epistles
a real comfort to us? and there at the end of Ephesians
chapter 3 this is his prayer for the Ephesians that Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded
in love may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according
to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.
Amen." Now he prays concerning His desire that they might comprehend
something that is really incomprehensible. That they might come to grasp
something that really passes all knowledge. He wants them
to be rooted and grounded in love, able to comprehend with
all saints the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to
know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. that ye might
be filled, he says, with all the fullness of God. Why? In the Lord Jesus Christ
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And isn't the Lord Jesus Christ,
as I said, here in the words of our text? That's commandments, that words
that is exceeding broad, that will come to us wherever we are,
whatever situation we might find ourselves in, whatever be the
circumstances of our lives, that we'll find something of Christ
and the comforts of the Gospel in the Word of God. Sin is awful. and the law reveals
to us what we are as sinners, but remember where where sin
abounds, grace does so much more abound. The Lord Jesus Christ
has overcome sin. He's overcome all the enemies
of the souls of his people. O death where is thy sting? O
grave where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, the
strength of sin is the law, but Paul says thanks be to God. which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We find so much here that troubles
us and perplexes us. We can't find that that is quite
right or perfect. No, we only find those things
in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as
we come to the Word of God, as we come under the Word of God,
or let us be those who would desire that we might discover
something more and more of all that fullness of grace that God
has laid up in the person and work of His only begotten Son,
even our Lord Jesus Christ. The testimony of David, I have
seen an end of all perfection, all the emptiness of the world,
But thy commandment is exceeding, Lord, the fullness of the Word
of God, and all that glorious fullness that is in the Lord
Jesus Christ, that has been laid up for such needy sinners as
we are. The Lord be pleased to teach
us in from His Word, to show us ourselves, but also to reveal
to us the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, may the Lord Bless is truth
to us to die. Amen.