Charles Spurgeon Collection: Spurgeon - C.H. - The Golden Alphabet: 13 Exposition of Psalm 119:97-104

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Charles Spurgeon Collection: Spurgeon - C.H. - The Golden Alphabet: 13 Exposition of Psalm 119:97-104



TOPIC: Spurgeon - C.H. - The Golden Alphabet (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 13 Exposition of Psalm 119:97-104

Other Subjects in this Topic:

Exposition of Psa_119:97-104

by Charles Spurgeon



97. O how love I thy law I it is my meditation all the day.

98. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than

mine enemies: for they are ever with me.

99. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy

testimonies are my meditation.

100. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy

precepts.

101. I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might

keep thy word.

102. I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast

taught me.

103. How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yes, sweeter

than honey to my mouth!

104. Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate

every false way.

97. “O how love I thy law I it is my meditation all the day.”

“O how love I thy law!” It is a note of exclamation. He loves so much

that he must express his love, and express it to God in rapturous devotion.

In making the attempt he perceives that his emotion is inexpressible, and

therefore he cries, “O how I love!” We not only reverence but love the

law, we obey it out of love, and even when it chides us for disobedience we

love it none the less. The law is God’s law, and therefore it is our love. We

love it for its holiness, and pine to be holly; we love it for its wisdom, and

study to be wise; we love it for its perfection, and long to be perfect. Those

who know the power of the gospel perceive an infinite loveliness in the law

as they see it fulfilled and embodied in Christ Jesus.

“It is my meditation all the day” This was both the effect of his love to

the law and the cause of that love. He meditated in God’s word because he

loved it, and loved it the more because he meditated in it. He could not

have enough of it, so ardently did he love it; all the day was not too long

for his converse with it. His matin prayer, his noonday thought, his

evensong were all out of Holy Writ; yea, in his worldly business he still

kept his mind saturated with the law of the Lord. It is said of some men

that the more you know them the less you admire them; but the reverse is

true of God’s word. Familiarity with the word of God breeds affection, and

affection seeks yet greater familiarity. When “thy law” and “my

meditation” are together all the day, the day grows holy, devout, and

happy, and the heart lives with God in love to his Word, and delight

therein. David turned away from all else but the word and will of the Lord,

for in the preceding verse he tells us that he had seen an end of all

perfection; but he turned in unto the law and tarried there the whole day of

his life on earth, growing henceforth wiser and holier.

98. “Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine

enemies: for they are ever with me.”

“Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine

enemies.” The commandments were his book, but God was his teacher.

The letter can make us knowing, but only the divine Spirit can make us

wise. Wisdom is knowledge put to practical use. Wisdom comes to us;

through obedience: “If any man will do his; will he shall know of the

doctrine.” We learn not only from promise, and doctrine, and sacred history,

but also from precept and command: in fact, from the commandments we

gather the most practical wisdom, and that which enables us best to cope with

our adversaries. A holy life is the highest wisdom and the surest defense. Our

enemies are renowned for subtlety, from the first father of them, the old

serpent, down to the last cockatrice that has been hatched from the egg; and it

would be vain for us to try to be a match with them in the craft and mystery of

cunning; for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the

children of light. we must go to another school and learn of a different

instructor, and then by uprightness we shall baffle fraud, by simple truth we

shall vanquish deep-laid scheming, and by open candor we shall defeat slander.

A thoroughly straightforward man, devoid of all policy, is a terrible puzzle to

diplomatists; they suspect him of a subtle duplicity through which they cannot

see; while he, indifferent to their suspicions, holds on the even tenor of his way,

and baffles all their arts. Yes, “honesty is the best policy.” He who is taught:

of God has a practical wisdom such as malice cannot supply to the crafty; while

harmless as a dove, he also exhibits more than the serpent’s wisdom.

“For they are ever with me.” He was always studying or obeying the

commandments; they were his choice and constant companions. If we wish

to become proficient we must be indefatigable. If we keep the wise law

ever near us we shall become wise, and when our adversaries assail us we

shall be prepared for them with that ready wit which lies in having the

word of God at our fingers’ ends. As a soldier in battle must never lay

aside his shield, so must we never have the word of God out of our minds;

it must be ever with us.

99. “I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies

are my meditation.”

“I have more understanding than all my teachers.” That which the Lord

had taught him had been useful in the camp, and now he finds it equally

valuable in the schools. Our teachers are not always to be trusted; in fact,

we may not follow any of them implicitly, for God will call us to account

for the use of our understandings. When even our pilot errs, it behooves us

to follow closely the chart of the Word of God, that we may be able to

save the vessel. If our teachers are in all things sound and safe, they will be

right glad for us to excel them, and they will be the first to own that the

teaching of the Lord is better than any teaching which they can give us.

Disciples of Christ who sit at his feet are often better skilled in divine

things than doctors of divinity.

“For thy testimonies are my meditation.” Meditation upon the Scripture

itself is the best mode of acquiring understanding. We may hear the wisest

teachers and remain fools, but if we meditate upon the sacred word we

must become wise. There is more wisdom in the testimonies of the Lord

than in all the teachings of men if they were all gathered into one vast

library. The Book of books outweighs all the rest.

David does not hesitate to speak the truth in this place concerning himself,

even though it is to his own honor, for he is quite innocent of self-consciousness.

In speaking of his “understanding” he means to extol the law and the Lord, and

not himself. There is not a grain of boasting in these bold expressions, but only a

child-like desire to set forth the excellence of the Lord’s word. He who knows

the truths taught in the Bible will be guilty of no egotism if he believes himself to

be possessed of more important truth than all the agnostic professors in the

universe.

100. “I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.”

The men of old age, and the men of old time, were outdone by the holier

and more youthful learner, he had been taught to observe in heart and life

the precepts of the Lord, and this was more than the most venerable sinner

had ever learned, more than the philosopher of antiquity had so much as

aspired to know. He had the word with him, and so outstripped his foes; he

meditated on it, and so outran his friends; he practiced it, and so outshone

his elders. The instruction derived from Holy Scripture is useful in many

directions, superior from many points of view, unrivalled everywhere and

in every way. As our soul may make her boast in the Lord:, so may we

boast in his word. “There is none like it: give it me,” said David as to

Goliath’s sword, and we may say the same as to the word of the Lord. If

men prize antiquity they have it here. The ancients are had in high repute;

but what did they all know compared with that which we perceive in the

divine precepts? “The old is better” says one: but the oldest of all is the

best of all, and what is that but the word of the Ancient of days.

101. “I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy

word.” There is no treasuring up the holy word, unless there is a casting

out of all unholiness: if we keep the good word, we must let go the evil.

David had zealously watched his steps and put a check upon his conduct

— he had refrained his feet. No one evil way could entice him, for he knew

that if he only went astray in one road he had practically left the way of

righteousness; therefore he avoided every foul way. The by-paths were

smooth and flowery, but he knew right well that they were evil, and so he

turned his feet away, and plodded along the strait and thorny pathway

which leads to God. It is a pleasure to look back upon self-conquests —

“I have refrained,” and a greater delight still to know that we did this out of

no mere desire to stand well with our fellows, but with the one motive of

keeping the law of the Lord. Sin avoided that obedience may be perfected

is the essence of this verse; or it may be that the Psalmist would teach us

that there is no real reverence for the book where there is not carefulness

to avoid every transgression of its precepts. How can we as servants of the

Lord keep his word if we do not keep our own works and words from

bringing dishonor upon it?

102. “I have not departed from thy judgments: far thou hast taught me.”

They are well taught whom God teaches. What we learn from the Lord we

never forget. God’s instruction has a practical effect — we follow his way

when he teaches us; and it has an abiding effect — we do not depart: from

holiness. Read this verse in connection with the preceding, and you get the

believer’s “I have,” and his “I have not”: he is good both positively and

negatively. What he did, namely, “refrained his feet,” preserved him from

doing that which otherwise he might have done, namely, “departed from

thy judgments.” He who is careful not to go an in aside will not leave the

road. He who never touches the intoxicating cup will never be drunk. He who

never utters an idle word will never be profane. If we begin to depart a little,

we can never tell where we shall end. The Lord brings us to persevere in

holiness by abstinence from the beginning of sin; but whatever be the method,

he is the worker of our perseverance, and to him be all the glory.

God’s word pronounces judgments as to moral actions, and we shall do

well to maintain those judgments as our infallible rule of thought and life.

103. “How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to

my mouth!”

“How sweet are thy words unto my taste!” He had not only heard the

words of God, but fed upon them: they affected his palate as well as his

ear: they had an inward effect on his taste as well as an outward effect on his

hearing. God’s words are many and varied, and the whole of them make up

what we call “the word”: David loved them each one, individually, and the

whole of them as a whole, and therefore he tasted an indescribable sweetness in

them. He expresses the fact of their sweetness; but as he cannot express the

degree of their sweetness he cries, “How sweet!” Being God’s words they

were divinely sweet to God’s servant; he who put the sweetness into them had

prepared the taste of his servant to discern and enjoy it. David makes no

distinction between promises and precepts, doctrines and threatenings; they are

all included in God’s words, and all are precious in his esteem. Oh for a deep

love to all that the Lord has revealed, whatever form it may take!

“Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” When he did not only eat but

also speak the word, by instructing others, he felt an increased delight in

it. The sweetest of all temporal things falls short: of the infinite

deliciousness of the eternal word: honey itself is outstripped in sweetness

by the word of the Lord. When the Psalmist fed on it he found it sweet; but

when he bore witness of it, it became sweeter still. How wise it will be on

our part to keep the word on our palate by meditation and on our tongue

by confession! It must be sweet to cur taste when we think of it, or it will

not be sweet to our mouth when we talk of it. We must taste in the study

what we preach in the pulpit. We must first spiritually become men of

taste, and then we shall have a true enjoyment in setting forth the beauty

and sweetness of the truth of God.

104 “Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every

false way.”

“Through thy precepts I get understanding.” God’s direction is our

instruction. Obedience to the divine will begets wisdom of mind and

action. As God’s way is always best, those who follow it are sure to be

justified by the result, If the Lawgiver were foolish his law would be the

same, and obedience to such a law would involve us in a thousand

mistakes; but as the reverse is the case, we may count ourselves happy to

have such a. wise, prudent, and beneficial law to be the rule of our lives.

We are wise if we obey, and we grow wise by obeying.

“Therefore I hate every false way.” Because he had understanding, and

because of the divine precepts, he detested sin and falsehood. Every sin is a

falsehood: we commit sin because we believe a lie, and in the end the

flattering evil turns a liar to us, and we find ourselves betrayed. True hearts

are not indifferent about falsehood, they grow warm in indignation: as

they love the truth, so they hate the lie. Saints have a universal horror of all

that is untrue; they tolerate no falsehood or folly, they set their faces

against all error of doctrine or wickedness of life. He who is a lover of one

sin is in league with the whole army of sins; we must have neither truce nor

parley with even one of these Amalekites, for the Lord hath war with them

from generation to generation, and so must we. It is well to be a good

hater. And what is that? A hater of no living being, but a hater of “every

false way.” The way of self-will, of self-righteousness, of self-seeking, of

wordliness, of pride, of unbelief, of hypocrisy, of lustfulness — these are

all false ways, and therefore not only to be shunned, but to be abhorred.

This final verse of the strophe marks a great advance in character, and

shows that the man of God is growing stronger, bolder, and happier than

aforetime. He has been taught of the Lord, so that he discerns between the

precious and the vile, and while he loves the truth fervently he hates

falsehood intensely. May all of us reach this state of discrimination and

determination, so that we may greatly glorify God!