It Makes Jesus Cry

“Rivers of waters run down my eyes because they do not keep your law.”

Psalm 119:136

There is nothing on earth sadder to Jesus than for one of his brothers or sisters on earth to turn away from his Father’s commandments.  To see that makes Jesus cry.

God’s Words Create

“The entrance of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.”

Psalm 119:130

If you want to understand life – others, yourself, and the ways of God, then take into your heart what God says.  God’s words create understanding in the heart that takes them in.  They are like a bright light coming into the darkness of our ignorance.

Taking in God’s Thoughts

“I esteem all your precepts concerning all things to be right.”

Psalm 119:128

I remember reading through the law of Moses when I was young in the Lord, and sometimes I would come upon a judgment of God that was different from what I would have thought.  One example is His commandment of the death penalty for kidnappers.  I would not, in myself, have thought that kidnapping was a crime deserving of that degree of punishment.  Another example is God’s commandment not to take a mother bird with her eggs to eat; it was allowed to take one or the other, but not both.

In every such case, I forsook my own thoughts and received God’s thoughts into my heart as my own.  I repented, in a manner of speaking, for my thoughts and embraced His.  I humbled my soul to what He said, and let His words shape my spirit, for I believed with all my heart that He is perfectly just and good, and I wanted to be like Him.

Take God’s thoughts in!  Let them shape your mind and your spirit!  He is good and wise, and if you repent of your own ways and take His in, you will never regret it!

“It Is Time for You To Work”

“It is time for you to work, O LORD,

for they have made your law void.”

Psalm 119:126

This was not David talking; the law was nowhere near being voided in his day.  This was the Son speaking through David, revealing that God would begin His work of making a new covenant when Israel completed their downhill slide, away from the law of Moses.

Paul said that God sent His Son “in the fullness” of time.  Part of what made the time “full” was the lack of influence Moses’ law had come to have among those who belonged to God.  They had chosen to invent their own traditions instead.

The law of the New Testament is in the holy Ghost, and for many who truly do belong to God, Christian tradition has supplanted the Spirit’s influence in their hearts.  I wonder how close we are to making the Son say again to the Father, “It is time for you to work, for they have made your law [of the Spirit] void”?

“Depart from Me!”

“Depart from me, you evildoers!

For I will keep the commandments of my God.”

Psalm 119:115

If David were alive today and made that statement in public, these are some of the responses he would receive from Christians:

Christian #1: “You’re judging!”

Christian #2: “You’re spreading hate!  We have to love everybody!”

Christian #3: “I am greatly offended!”

Christian #4: “How can you reach the lost for Jesus if you chase them away?  You have to forgive and show them love!”

Christian #5: “Now David, what would Jesus do?”

To answer the last question, we don’t know what Jesus would do if he were here, but we know what he is going to do in the Final Judgment.  He is going to tell evildoers, “Depart from me, you workers of iniquity!” and then cast them into the Lake of Fire to suffer eternal damnation.

It’s better for us to be enough like Jesus to send them away from us than to worry so much about hurting their feelings that we do them no good at all.

God’s Hatred and Cruelty

“You have trodden down all them that err from your statutes,

for their deceit is falsehood.  You put away all the wicked

of the earth like dross; therefore, I love your testimonies.”

Psalm 119:118–119

God is not intimidated by human social fads.  Even when, as in our culture now, men begin to imagine that hatred and cruelty is contrary to God’s nature and ways, God continues to hate certain people (Ps. 11:5) and to be very cruel when justice demands cruelty (Isa. 13:9).

I love God for hating what He hates, and for being cruel when He is cruel.  His hatred and His cruelty are good; they are perfect.

David went on in Psalm 119 to say this: “My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments” (Ps. 119:120).  David was wise; he humbled himself to fear God and His righteous judgments rather than pretend there is no need to fear God, since He does not hate and will never be cruel.

To Love God Is To Hate False Ways

“I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep your word.

How sweet are your words to my taste!  Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore, I hate every false way.”

Psalm 119:101, 103–104

Everyone who truly loves the truth and hates false ways does what David did and “refrains their feet” from joining others in “false ways”.   The love of God leads no one into a false way, for “loving God” is another way of saying, “hating every false way”.  God’s call for us to come out of all Christian sects is just a plea for us to love Him.  And if we truly love Him, that love creates in us such a hatred of false ways that we cannot bear to be a part of those ways.  We will not join them, and if we have joined them, we will come out of them.

What a day it will be when God’s children finally fall in love with Him and His Son Jesus!  How they will flock to Him and leave the divisive sects of men behind!  That is the day our heavenly Father is longing to see.

Praying for Vengeance and Mercy

“How many are the days of your servant?

When will you execute judgment on those who persecute me?”

Psalm 119:84

Those anguished words are from the Son of God through David, foretelling of the time he would come to earth and suffer the cruel hatred of men.  We learn from those words of the Son’s earthly struggle, that while here among us, he wondered how long the Father would keep him here, and how long it would be before the Father avenged him for the abuse he had suffered.

If you have been abused by the ungodly, you cannot avoid such feelings; your heart will cry out for God to avenge you.  Do not condemn yourself for feeling those things.  Jesus felt them, too.  At the same time, Jesus commanded us to do good to our enemies and to pray for them, as he did: “Love your enemies; bless those who curse you; do good to those who hate you; and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you” (Mt. 5:44).

The godly soul will cry out for God to avenge him of his enemies, and it will also cry out for God to show them mercy.  The godly soul will feel both feelings, and the Spirit will lead him to do both at a time when God will hear that prayer.

Two Reasons

“I am yours!  Save me!  For I have sought your precepts.”

Psalm 119:94

These are the two reasons God will save a soul from damnation.  First, that soul must belong to God.  As Jesus said, “You must be born again.”   And second, that soul must have sought to do God’s will.  As Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

Faith Makes Us Wise

“Through your commandments,

you have made me wiser than my enemies . . . .

I have more understanding than all my teachers,

for your testimonies are my meditation.

I understand more than the ancients, because I keep your precepts.”

Psalm 119:98–100

If we believe and do what Jesus tells us, we will become wiser than anyone who does not.

Forever Settled

“Forever, O LORD, your word is settled in heaven.”

Psalm 119:89

Whatever God thinks or says or does is eternally right.  Pray that Jesus will plant that unchangeable truth deep in your heart.  The gospel of Jesus is an eternal gospel; it will never be repealed, revised, or redone.

There are many divisions among those who believe in Jesus.  But all believers, everywhere, should agree on this, at least: whatever the right way is, it is eternally settled in heaven, and every other way is false.  Only with that truth established in our hearts are we able to sincerely ask God for knowledge of the truth so that we may be changed, and walk with Him in it.

Quickened to Obey

“Quicken me according to your lovingkindness;

so shall I keep the testimony of your mouth.”

Psalm 119:88

The only way for us to be able to obey what comes out of the mouth of God is for Him to “quicken” us; that is, for Him to give us life.  “The Spirit is life” wrote Paul, and “if any man does not have the Spirit, he does not belong to Him” (Rom. 8:9–10).  The holy Spirit is the kind of life we need!

Without life from God, that is, without God’s Spirit, we are “dead” to Him and His ways.  Without it, we can neither understand Him nor do what He says.  That is why the man of God knelt in prayer and pleaded with God, “Quicken me, so that I may do what you say!”

Every Creature in the Universe

“All are your servants.”

Psalm 119:91b

“All things are yours.  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas,

or the world, or life, or death, or things present,

or things to come, all are yours.

And you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”

1Corinthians 3:21b–23

When we trust God as Jesus did, every creature in the universe, visible or invisible, living or inanimate, becomes our servant, just as every creature was Jesus’ servant.  Even Satan was helping accomplish God’s will for Jesus when he stirred up wicked men to crucify him.  This is the truth undergirding Solomon’s arresting statement, “No evil shall happen to the just” (Prov. 12:21).

When we trust God, all things work together for our eternal blessing, just as Jesus’ horrific crucifixion worked together with God’s love for his blessing.  Together, those two things resulted in Jesus’ glorification to sit at his Father’s right hand forever.

You Are on Purpose

“Your hands have made me and fashioned me;

give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments.”

Psalm 119:73

“Do not be unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”

Ephesians 5:17

God made us on purpose; that is to say, God made us for a purpose.  Understanding that, David prayed that God would give him understanding so that he could do God’s will and, so, fulfill God’s purpose for him.

You were created with a purpose.  Be wise like David, and ask God to help you understand His will for your life.  He will help you.

They Will Be Glad

“They who fear you will be glad when they see me

because I have hoped in your word.”

Psalm 119:74

When you put your hope in Jesus, he makes you the kind of person that humble children of God are glad to see.  You don’t even have to try to make them glad.  The testimony Jesus gives you encourages them, and the love he puts in your heart makes them feel wanted.

Loving God More Than Gold

“The law of your mouth is better to me 

than thousands of pieces of gold and silver.”

Psalm 119:72

Every true minister loves God more than gold, and that love enables him to tell his congregation the truth instead of renting himself out to tell a congregation what they will pay him to say.

Only Because David Knew

“Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept your word.

It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

I know, O LORD, that your judgments are right,

and that you in faithfulness have afflicted me.”

Psalm 119:67, 71, 75

These three verses became precious to my soul after Jesus spoke to me in 1981, telling me that it is God who chastens His children, not the Devil.  David was able to see good purposes for his afflictions, and give thanks for them, only because he knew that God, not Baal, was the One afflicting him.

Obedience in Between

“Remember the word unto your servant,

upon which you have caused me to hope.

You have dealt well with your servant,

O LORD, according to your word.”

Psalm 119:49, 65

God made a promise to David which gave David hope.  In the end, David was happy because his hope had been realized.  But it is David’s obedience in between the beginning and the end that made the end a happy one for David.  Between the two verses above, 49 and 65, we find these things: 

“I have not declined from your law” (v. 51).

“I have kept your law” (v. 55).

“I kept your precepts” (v. 56).

“I made haste, and delayed not to keep your commandments” (v. 60).

“I have not forgotten your law” (v. 61).

“I am a companion of all them that fear you, and of them that keep your precepts” (v. 63).

This obedience to the will of God is what brought about the fulfillment of God’s promise to David.  Without that obedience, David could have hoped as much as he liked, but God would not have fulfilled His promise.  He would have broken it, the way He once broke His promise to Israel when they rebelled against Him (Num. 14:34).

Learning by Examples

“I am a companion of all them that fear you,

and of them that keep your precepts.”

Psalm 119:63

David became wise and good by keeping company with wise and good people.  But not only will we learn righteousness by spending time with those who are righteous, but we may also learn ungodliness by spending time with fools.  David’s Son, Solomon, said it this way: “He who walks with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed” (Prov. 13:20).

They Do That, but I Do This

“Princes sat and spoke against me,

but your servant meditated on your statutes.”

Psalm 119:23

“The proud have had me greatly in derision,

yet have I not declined from your law.”

Psalm 119:51

“The bands of the wicked have robbed me,

but I have not forgotten your law.”

Psalm 119:61

Slander, ridicule, abuse.  The righteous cannot stop them from happening.  And to respond in kind to them is wrong.

The way to overcome evil is to continue to do good.