“Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and keep your word. Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law. I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me! My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times. You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones, who wander from your commandments. Take away from me scorn and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies. Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes. Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.”-(Psalm 119:17-24)
On this Inauguration Day 2025, while you are watching the festivities of our nation remember…It is God and His Word that secures for us our eternal hope and blessing. While many are looking forward to sweeping change in our nation it is the growth and maturity that God works in His Church that will be the true strength of a nation. So watch and pray that God’s will …will…be done.
In our passage today; David opens with almost commanding God to do something that God has promised to do. I say commanding because it appears as though David may be desperate for reprieve from the struggles of this world causing him to take this tone towards his God. He says, “Deal bountifully with your servant” because he feels his joy/life slipping away with so much of the world seeking to press in on him, and he knows that mercy and grace come only from God giving and sustaining his life. (I say commanding here and in the next paragraph because the Hebrew and Greek are in an imperative mode…Does this say something to us about approaching God with boldness and assurance?)
He again almost commands God saying, “Open my eyes, that I may behold…”because he won’t be able to see the things of God unless God does this for him. God must open our eyes even to the simplest truths or we will not see them. And what will we see when He does, but, “Wondrous things out of His law.” Wondrous, in that, it is there alone where we find hope, assurance, comfort and a bright future in Christ and unless He opens our eyes we will NOT see them.
As David lives in this world, he recognizes that he would be in despair always if it wasn’t for the commandments of God. They are as a home to him. They provide protection and health. And when his world is upside down he says, “My soul is consumed with longing for your rules at all times”, since they are the only thing that can give him the necessary strength to endure the struggle and the distractions of this world.
Lastly, David prays that God would remove the distractions, like those who have professed faith and then wander from God’s word. Because his heart brakes for them they keep him distracted from meditating upon God’s Word. “You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones, who wander from your commandments. Take away from me scorn and contempt for I have kept your testimonies. Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes.” There is no indication that God answers this prayer, but, interestingly enough, even with the distractions, he knows he must make time to meditate on God’s Word…his very life depends upon in.
In the midst of his struggle, as he has taken time to meditate on God’s Word, he comes away realizing that it is God’s Word alone that can enable him to get through tough times for the Word alone has life-sustaining power. “Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.” There is nothing like it. Ultimately it is God’s Word alone that gives him the counsel he needs to endure and experience the blessings God has for him and the people.
I am not sure of all that y’all are dealing with this as we enter this week but I pray that God’s Word will give you the strength and hope that you need right now.
This morning consider this prayer from Charles Spurgeon:
“Lord Jesus, You are a great pillar; in You all fullness dwells. You began Your life with filling the water-pots to the full; You filled Simon Peter’s boat until it began to sink; You filled the house where Your people were met together with the presence of the Holy Ghost; You do fill heaven; You will surely fill all things; fill us, oh! fill us today with all the fullness of God, and make Your people thus joyful and strong, and gracious and heavenly to your glory! Amen and Amen”
God bless y’all and Stay Warm this week.
In His Grip,
Pastor mike
