Well please take your Bibles in hand once again and turn back once more to Psalm 119. We have been working our way steadily through the one hundred and nineteenth psalm. We come this morning to the twenty-first and penultimate stanza of the psalm. In two weeks, God willing, we are going to begin an exposition of the first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians and I would very much covet your prayers. You might begin reading through 1 Thessalonians now and pray for me as I prepare and wrestle with the important and sometimes really difficult text of that letter. But we still have this week and next week in Psalm 119, and so let me direct your attention there.
The stanza before us, beginning in verse 161, is built around the two “S” sounds in the Hebrew alphabet – the letters “Sin” and “Shin.” The stanza has three sections – verses 161 to 163 and then 164 to 166 and 167 and 168. In each of those three sections, you’ll notice the psalmist mentions the dominant motif of this little poem – the love of the holy Scriptures. Today is Mother’s Day and we rightly celebrate the love of our mothers for us, their wonderful, sacrificial, caring love, but today in the holy Scriptures we’re studying a higher, deeper, prior love that has claim on all our hearts – the love of God’s Word. So, “I love your law,” the psalmist says in 163. “Great peace have those who love your law,” 165. “My soul keeps your testimonies; I love them exceedingly,” 167. This is a song about the ways that the love of the Bible impacts our lives. It’s designed to commend to us Bible love.
And so in the first section, 161 through 163, we learn about the impact of Bible love on the heart and the affections. Then in 164 through 166, we learn about the effects of Bible love on our behavior, on our lifestyle. And in the final section, 167 and 168, we see how Bible love results in new resolve and commitment. So the way Bible love affects our heart and our affections, our behavior and our lifestyle, our resolve and our commitment. The big idea here commending the love of the Bible, really effectively I think, summarizes the message of the whole of Psalm 119 doesn’t it. If you learn to love the Word of God, if the Word of God captures your heart by the grace of God, every part of you will be changed. Every part will be changed. There’s a lovely scene in Tolkien’s, The Fellowship of the Ring, where Frodo is remembering something that his Uncle Bilbo used to say. “It is a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no telling where it will sweep you away to.” Well it’s a dangerous business opening your Bible. God intends to sweep you away by it and to change you forever through it. No part of you will remain untouched. He wants to press the grace of Jesus Christ down into every faculty, into every pore until you look more and more like Jesus and less and less like your old self. Here’s what Bible love does to the heart and the affections, to our behavior and our lifestyle, to our resolve and our commitment. It is a dangerous business reading the Bible. If you are not careful, it will change you forever.
Well before we look at the passage together, let’s pause and pray and ask for the Lord to help us. Let us all pray.
Our God and Father, we cry to You now that Your Word would have its way in our hearts. We love Your Word exceedingly. Write it upon our hearts and minds and renovate us by the grace that it supplies for the glory of the name of Jesus, in whose name we pray, amen.
Psalm 119 at verse one hundred sixty one. This is the Word of God:
“Princes persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of your words. I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil. I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law. Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous rules. Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble. I hope for your salvation, O Lord, and I do your commandments. My soul keeps your testimonies; I love them exceedingly. I keep your precepts and testimonies, for all my ways are before you.”
Amen, and we praise God that He has spoken in His holy Word.
Let’s look at verses 161 through 163 first of all and the effects of Bible love on our hearts and affections. There are three effects mentioned here. The love of the Word produces awe and joy and discriminating love. Awe and joy and discriminating love. You’ll notice in verse 161 that the psalmist continues to suffer. He is confronted still with persecution. “Princes persecute me without cause.” There is a phenomenon called “capiophobia.” I wonder if you’ve ever heard of it; I certainly hadn’t. It is the very common fear of getting arrested. Capiophobia. Even though you’ve done nothing wrong, you see blue lights in your rearview mirror and your heart leaps through your throat, through your mouth, your palms begin to sweat, you pump the breaks even though you have valid tags and registration, you’re driving within the speed limit and on the correct side of the road. There’s just something about authority figures, isn’t there? Blue flashing lights, people with power. It’s intimidating. And in the psalmist’s case, this is not an irrational phobia. It’s not just in his head; it’s not capiophobia in this case. It’s real. Princes, people in authority, persecute him. They leverage their power to make his life miserable.
And the psalmist tells us he is in awe, but he’s not in awe of them, is he? “Princes persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of your Word.” The Word of God fills him with an awe far greater and deeper and more profound than all the power of earthly tyrants. Jesus talks about this, do you remember, in Luke chapter 12 verses 4 through 7. He said to His disciples, “I tell you, do not fear those who kill the body and after that have nothing more that they can do, but I warn you whom to fear. Fear Him who after he has killed has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies and not one of them is forgotten by God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, you are of more value than many sparrows.” Now wait a minute, Jesus. “Fear Him who can send you to hell,” but then He says, “God has not forgotten you. Your hairs are numbered, you are more valuable than many sparrows, so fear now.” “Fear him,” Luke 12:5. “Fear not,” Luke 12:7. So which is it? Am I to fear or not to fear?
It seems like a contradiction at first, but actually Jesus is making the same point that the psalmist is making in our text, isn’t he? The fear of God drives out the fear of man. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” affords us peace and security knowing in whose hands we live every day so that we need not fear princes. You fight the fear of tomorrow, you fight the fear of others, you fight the fear of adverse circumstances, you fight a fearful heart with the higher, better, holy fear of the Lord. “Princes persecute me, but my heart is in awe of Your Word. Not in awe of them, but in awe of You as You speak to me, O Lord, in Your Word. Your Word speaks wonder and awe to my heart. Why should I tremble at the foolish posturings of petty princes when the voice of Almighty God Himself speaks His truth to my heart? Bible love generates awe.
It also gives us, notice, it gives us joy. Do you see that in verse 162? “I rejoice at Your Word like one who finds great spoil.” Scholars point out that the participial form of the Hebrew verb translated here, “I rejoice,” indicates a settled, unchanging state of affairs. So this is not a temporary flash of gratitude. It is an abiding reality in his life. And the word, “I rejoice,” is also an emphatic position in the sentence so that the joy in question is deep as well as lasting. That’s the point. You could translate it, perhaps, “I always have true joy at Your Word.” The gladness that the Word gives is both deep and enduring. Who wouldn’t want a joy like that? Deep and enduring.
But notice what it is about the Word that makes the psalmist so lastingly glad. Look at the text again. “I rejoice at Your Word like one who finds great spoil.” The Word of God is spoil. That is to say, it is like treasure collected in the wake of a great victory. It is the victor’s prize. That’s what spoil is. Princes persecute him, but even while they do their worst, he already tastes the victor’s prize as he drinks in the promises of God in holy Scripture. That’s why he is rejoicing. He knows that in the end, in the end the Lamb wins. Luther – we sang this last week – Luther captures the sense, I think, of the psalmist’s message here brilliantly. Do you remember in his great hymn, “A Mighty Fortress” – “Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing; were not the right man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing. Just ask who that may be. Christ Jesus it is He. Lord Sabbaoth His name, from age to age the same, and He must win the battle. And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him; his rage we can endure, for lo his doom is sure. One little Word shall fell him.” That’s it. That’s what the psalmist has discovered in the Word of the Lord – the assurance of victory in Jesus. And because of that glorious truth, his heart is deeply, enduringly glad. He is glad. Awe and joy.
And thirdly, discriminating love. Look at verse 163. “I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love Your law.” When the Word of God gets into your bloodstream, when it works the awe of God that casts out the fear of man into you, when it shows you the triumph, the victory of Christ, and gives you a taste of the spoils of His triumph so that you begin to rejoice, when the Word does all of this for you and in your, your appetites begin to change. Things you want, the things you love, they begin to change. There were things I hated as a child that I have learned to love as an adult. I hated olives as a wee boy; I love olives now. And there are things that I loved as a child in Scotland that I can’t stand now. So there’s a drink in Scotland, a soda, called Irn-bru – I-r-n-b-r-u – Irn-bru. It is still, actually, so popular in Scotland it’s one of the very few places around the world where a local soda outsells Coca-Cola. And I drank this stuff by the gallon as a boy. And I hadn’t had it in years and on a recent trip back I tasted some and nearly spat it across the room. It’s so sickly sweet and artificial and chemical and nasty! Growing up involves maturing tastes, right? It involves learning to love what’s best and developing a distaste for what is bad. “I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love Your law.” Awe and joy and discriminating love mark the heart and the affections of someone in whom God’s Word has really begun to take hold. And we need to be asking ourselves, scrutinizing our own hearts – Are these things that mark our hearts also?
Then look down at verses 164 through 166. So first of all, how Bible love affects the heart and the affections, and now look at what it does to our behavior and our lifestyle. And again, three things to notice. Three practical disciplines or behavior implications from the love of the Word in the psalmist’s life – worship, stability, and obedience. Worship, stability, and obedience.
Worship first. “Seven times a day,” he says, “I praise You for Your righteous rules.” Now he may literally mean that there are seven designated periods in his own private discipline of devotion to God where he steps aside from the busyness of the day to praise and to worship. Although remember that seven is a symbolic number signifying completeness. And so it may simply be a poetic way to say something like, “All day long I praise You for Your wonderful Word and for Your righteous rules.” Either way, the point is that the psalmist is a habitual worshiper, a habitual worshiper. Christopher Ash recounts a tribute paid to William Wilberforce after his death by one of his friends. After listing his titles, the friend wrote, “Above all, his friends will never cease to remember that peculiar sunshine which he threw over a company by the influence of a mind perpetually turned to love and praise. As he walked about the house, he was generally humming the tune of a hymn of psalm as if he could not contain his pleasurable feelings of thankfulness and devotion.” I think the psalmist would have found in Wilberforce a kindred spirit, don’t you? “A mind perpetually turned to love and praise,” as if he could not contain his pleasurable feelings of thankfulness and devotion, always praising.
Now of course, to be clear, the psalmist isn’t talking about monastic retreat from the daily realities of life in order to give himself to praise like this. He’s actually talking about letting the Word of God into the daily realities of life, to shed the light of God on those realities so that we are able as we go about the day’s duties to devote them to Jesus with hearts full of praise. “Seven times a day I praise You for Your righteous rules.” What do people notice about you, about your Christian life, believer in Jesus? Is it morose negativity, always griping and complaining about this injustice or that misfortune? Or do they see someone who has been saved from sin by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and who, because of His love and sacrifice, cannot help adoring Him? There should be some sunshine in the heart of every believer that clings to Christ, and even in the hardest of days finds fuel for praise. Worship.
Then notice the focus on stability. Look at verse 165. “Great peace have those who love Your law; nothing can make them stumble.” If you hate the law of God and you live according to the appetites and desires of your flesh, you will have and you ought to have a conscience that stings and smarts and gives you no rest. Your conscience should accuse and condemn and denounce you. That’s the way it ought to be. You’re living in rebellion against God, and frankly something is really terribly wrong if your conscience is silent under the burden of your sin. But if you love the law of God and walk in its ways, you will have a quiet conscience. Walking in the warm sunshine of God’s pleasure and blessing, you will have great peace the psalmist says. “Great peace have those who love Your law.”
And so the question for us ought to be, “How can I begin to love the law of the Lord when frankly, by nature, my heart loves the darkness rather than the light?” The truth is, we don’t love holiness, do we? Not naturally. We love wickedness. We love self and sin and not obedience. How will we ever find the peace of a quiet conscience when our hearts are constantly betraying us for the illicit pleasures of sin and rebellion? Well the good news is that God has acted in Jesus Christ so that when we place our faith in Jesus Christ, His obedience, His cross, our sin is forgiven and the power of His life flows into us and enables us, enables us to live at last more and more God’s way. Love, for life God’s way, must begin with faith in God’s Son. There’s no other path to a quiet, happy conscience but this. You can have no rest, you should have no rest until you come and rest upon Jesus Christ. Only He can give you peace.
And notice what this peace producing love of God’s law does. Look at what it does. Do you see it in the text? “Great peace have those who love Your law; nothing makes them stumble.” It brings stability, steadiness, constancy. Nothing makes them stumble. Proverbs 4:18, “The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn which shines brighter and brighter until the day, but the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.” The Word of God gives light. It shows us the way. It stops us from taking the wrong turn. It exposes the pitfalls and the potholes along the road. Peace and stability flow from the Word of God doing its work in our hearts and minds and lives. What a gift God has given us in the holy Scriptures. Neglect the Bible and you are left stumbling in the dark. Learn to love the Word and the light of heaven will illuminate your life. Worship. Stability.
Finally in 166, notice obedience. “I hope for Your salvation, O Lord, and I do Your commandments.” Now this is important because we can just go through the motions of worship, can’t we. We can hum a hymn tune absentmindedly and impress others with what they might perceive to be our piety while our hearts are cold and dim. We can become students of the Bible and learn Bible facts and know lots of doctrine and theology and still be from our heart a stranger to the Christ that the Bible proclaims. The real evidence of a living hope in the salvation that God provides is found right here. “I do Your commandments.” Not in experiences, not in grand statements of personal commitment, not in accurate theological knowledge. The evidence of true conversion, of a living hope in the salvation of God lies here. Do God’s commandments.
You may not have had a grand conversion story. Someone asks you for your testimony and you sort of look at the ground and kick the dust for a moment and sort of apologize because you don’t have a dramatic story to tell. You may never have had great experiences of the supernatural, you believe the Gospel, certainly, but if your testimony is measured against the sensational stories of encounters with God that we sometimes hear from others, you wonder if your testimony is real at all. But it’s not, it’s not great experiences, not even deep feelings that are the principle evidences of saving faith. One John 2 verse 3, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. By this we know that we have come to know Him, that we keep His commandments.” “I hope for Your salvation, O Lord, and I do Your commandments.” Growing in Christian obedience is the fruit of saving faith in Jesus Christ. Stop waiting around for blinding flashes from heaven and get busy obeying. The great evidence that you know Jesus Christ is that you desire nothing so much as to please Him by obeying His commands.
So Bible love transforms our hearts, our affections; it renovates our behavior and our lifestyle. And then finally, look at the last section of the stanza, verse 167 and 168. Bible love results in fresh resolve and commitment. “My soul keeps your testimonies; I love them exceedingly. I keep your precepts and testimonies, for all my ways are before you.” The verb “to keep” is repeated in each verse. Do you see that? “My soul keeps your testimonies. I keep your precepts and testimonies.” This is determined, resolved commitment. And did you see it has both an internal and an external motivation. Internally this new resolve to keep God’s testimonies results, the psalmist says, from exceeding love. “My soul keeps your testimonies; I love them exceedingly.”
Here’s the secret to progress in Christian sanctification. Are you ready for it? A secret to growing in holiness. Here is it – you do what you love, you study what you love, you are devoted to what you love. The psalmist loves the Word of God and so he keeps it. Sometimes we wonder where we’re going wrong, don’t we, as we try and fail to break some sinful habit. We think it’s merely a matter of the will. We just need to be more determined, more committed, and try harder. We think our inability to do what we ought is because we are basically weak and we just need to toughen up. It doesn’t occur to us that the real fault lies in our disordered loves. Our disordered loves. It’s not first because we are not determined enough. We are plenty determined to act upon other things that we really love, aren’t we. No, the real issue is we need to learn to love what God loves. And for that, we need to see its beauty and its value and its worth.
And in many ways, that’s the purpose of this stanza, isn’t it – to extol for believing hearts the value and the worth of the Word of God so that we love it. Look back over his argument so far. Isn’t the Word of God worth loving? It will fill you with awe, 161. It will make you rejoice, 162. It will change your appetites and educate your spiritual palate, 163. It will make you worship, 164. It will bring stability, 165. It will produce obedience, 167. What a gift. What a gift we’ve been given in God’s holy book. The more you learn to love it, the more you will devote yourself to keeping it. “My soul keeps Your testimonies; I love them exceedingly.” The internal motive for keeping God’s Word is love.
But there is also an external motive listed here for keeping God’s Word. Do you see it in verse 168? “I keep Your precepts and testimonies, for all my ways are before You.” All your ways are before the Lord. Have you forgotten that, I wonder? You live coram Deo, before the face of God, under the gaze of God. Now that’s meant both as a challenge and a comfort. It’s a challenge of course because it means we’re alway seen. There’s no hiding from the scrutiny of almighty God; no getting away with a momentary lapse. God sees it all. He sees our sin; He sees our selfishness. You can’t pretend with Him. And so we ought to obey because God sees us. That’s part of it. But I think it’s meant here mainly not as a challenge but as a comfort. The stanza begins, you remember, with persecution. “Princes persecute me.” And here it ends under the watchful eye of the God who keeps him. Human powers threaten him, but under the watchcare of the sovereign God, he knows he is secure forever.
When you live your life under the Father’s loving gaze, utterly safe in His keeping, like the psalmist, you will begin to want to live for His glory, to want to please Him, because you know His eye is always on you to keep you and guard you forever. So often our greatest moral falls happen because we forget that the gaze of God is on us. Sometimes we stray because we think we’ve been overlooked or forgotten by God, but His eye – what is it we sing? “His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.” “I keep Your precepts and testimonies, for all my ways are before You.” He watches me. He sees me. I am seen, known. He watches you, He sees you, and you are safe, always, in the attentive care of Abba Father. That’s the great challenge of this stanza if you do. If you do, it will change your heart, your affections, your behavior, your lifestyle, your resolve, your commitment. It’s going to make you like Jesus. It’s a dangerous business, reading your Bible. God intends to sweep you away and renovate you inside and out for His great glory.
May God make it so. Let us pray.
Our Father, how we bless You that You have given us Your holy Word. May it speed ahead and be honored in all our lives. May Your Word have its way that inside and out, heart and affections, behavior and lifestyle, resolve and commitments, we might live more and more cheerfully, joyfully for Your glory and praise, not according to the ideas and priorities of the world but as You regulate and guide our steps by the holy Scriptures into the way of Christlikeness. Make it so in our hearts we pray, for Jesus’ sake, amen.