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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadSpurgeon Verse Expositions - Psalms 119:145 - 119:168
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Psa_119:145. I cried with my whole heart; hear me. O LORD: I will keep thy statutes.
It is sweet to look back upon our prayers, if those prayers were uttered with our whole heart, for it is no small work of divine grace to enable us to throw the whole heart into prayer; and when we get that we may be quite sure that our prayer will succeed. The God who gives us grace to pray with the whole heart will be sure to reply to the prayer. After prayer David uttered a resolution, “I will keep thy statutes.” He was resolved upon this with his whole heart, and though a resolution is not enough, for many make resolves and break them, yet no man is likely to keep God’s word who does not resolve to do so. Therefore is it needful, first, to cry in prayer, and then to resolve with the whole heart to walk according to God’s will.
Psa_119:146. I cried unto thee; save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies.
He has got on this string, you see, and he touches it again. First he said, “I cried with my whole heart.” Now again he says, “I cried unto thee.” When you are in trouble, if you can remember that you were much in prayer before you entered into the experience which led into the trouble, you can plead with God that you did not rush into it carelessly and prayerlessly; and you have a good argument to urge with him why he should help you in your time of need.
Psa_119:147-148. I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word. Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.
It was not now and then that David was in a devotional frame of mind. He continued so. He began early, but he continued late. The prayer of the down was followed by the watch of the midnight.
Psa_119:149. Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness: O LORD, quicken me according to thy judgment.
He was accustomed to put these two things together, all through this judgment — as much as if he felt that he could appeal both to the tenderness and to the justice of God for help in his time of need; for with a God who has entered into the bonds of the covenant with us, and pledged himself by promise and, by oath, we may plead both his loving-kindness and his judgment.
Psa_119:150-151. They draw nigh that follow after mischief: they are far from thy law. Thou art near, O LORD: And all thy commandments are truth.
How beautiful this! The enemies are coming near, but thou art nearer They approach me, but I abide with thee, and thou abidest with me, I am safe.
Psa_119:152. Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.
Oh! believer, what comfort there is in this for you! If you have known it all your years, it has been a blessed thing to know that God changes not —that as he spake, or ever the earth was, so will that word abide when this world shall cease to be.
Psa_119:153. Consider mine affliction, and deliver me: for I do not forgot thy law.
Lord, thy grace has helped me to remember thee. I pray thee, therefore, remember my affliction. Look at it with thy eyes of wisdom, and deliver me.
Psa_119:154-155. Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to thy word. Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not thy statutes.
Salvation is near to any man who seeks it, but the ungodly, as they will not have God’s Word, so shall they not have God’s saving grace They are far from it.
Psa_119:156. Great are thy tender mercies, O LORD: quicken me according to thy judgments.
Here again, you see, he puts judgment and mercy together — the justice and the tenderness of God, and he leans on both. It is a mark of an instructed Christian when he is able to derive comfort, not merely from the love of God, but also from the holiness and the justice of God, seeing that these are on his side, through Jesus Christ’s atoning blood.
Psa_119:157-158. Many are my persecutors and mine enemies; yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word.
O child of God, whenever you look upon the transgressors, your heart should bleed that they should transgress so good a law — that they should grieve so gracious a God — that they should bring upon themselves so terrible a penalty. “I beheld the transgressors and was grieved.”
Psa_119:159-160. Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O LORD, according to thy lovingkindness Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.
And here is the very sweetness of the gospel — that it is not a thing of today, which will lose its efficiency tomorrow. It endureth for ever. You that have got it have chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from you. All the blessings of the covenant are everlasting blessings. They are “the sure mercies of David”; and he that getteth them getteth an inheritance which he shall not lose.
Psa_119:161. Princes have persecuted me without a cause; but my heart standeth in awe of thy word.
Not in awe of their word, but in awe of thy word. The fear of God is the best cure for the fear of men. No man who is devout is cowardly. If thou fearest God with all thy heart, thou wilt defy all the devils in hell, and fear none.
Psa_119:162-165. I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil. I hate and abhor lying; but thy law do I love. Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments. Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.
Whatever happens, they shall suffer no ill from it. “There shall no evil befall such, neither shall any plague come nigh their dwelling,” for they “dwell under the shadow of the Almighty.”
Psa_119:166. LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.
Now, cannot some of you feeble people say that? You that cannot talk of full assurance, and are half afraid that you are none of the Lord’s people at all, yet you can say, “Lord, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments;” and, if so, you have done that which proves you to be his.
Psa_119:167-168. My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly. I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies: for all my ways are before thee.
No man will ever take comfort in this, if he is not a renewed man, for to know that all our ways are before God is ground for great distress if we are ungodly — if we are walking contrary to his mind; but if we are, indeed, his children, we love to feel that we are always living under his eye — that there is nothing about us unknown, to him — no secret sorrow which he does not read — no invisible burden which he does not see.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 51, Psa_119:145-168.
Psa_119:145. I cried with my whole heart: hear me, O LORD: I will keep thy statutes.
In the time of trouble there is no resort like that of prayer, but it must be intense and earnest. “I cried with my whole heart.” And sometimes it should be accompanied with a resolve to profit by the affliction. “I will keep thy statutes.” As the child under the rod prays to be spared because he hopes in future to be obedient, so does the Psalmist here say, “Hear me, O Lord; I will keep thy statutes.” This ought to be the effect of every affliction, to make us more careful in our obedience. It is not always so, but so it ought always to be.
Psa_119:146. I cried unto thee: save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies.
As if he felt that the force of gratitude would constrain him to obedience. He did not merely promise it, but he prophesied it as a matter of certainty that he should keep the Lord’s testimony.
Psa_119:147. I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word.
Early prayers seem seasonable. Before we have gone into the world, should we not first go to our God? Prayer ought to be the key of the morning to open it, as well as the key of the night to close it. And notice what should always be associated with prayer, namely, hope. “I hoped in thy word.” There is no prayer like a hopeful prayer, in which a man hopes, believes, expects, that God will send him a blessing.
Psa_119:148. Mine eyes prevent the night watches, that I might meditate in thy word.
Before the watchman can cry the hour of night, mine eyes are upon the Word of God, and I am studying that. Oh! it is well when we prove our love to the Word of God by our meditation upon it, our constant, searching into it.
Psa_119:149. Hear my voice according unto thy lovingkindness:
Not according to my earnestness, much less according to my merit, but “Hear my voice, according to thy loving-kindness.” Oh! what a large measure this, for who can tell how boundless is the loving-kindness of God? Such be the answer to my prayer, O my Lord.
Psa_119:149. O LORD, quicken me according to thy judgment.
As thou dost try me, quicken me. Just as thou art I have need of it give me more spiritual life.
Psa_119:150. They draw nigh that follow after mischief: they are far from thy law.
Dogs are at my heels. I have heard them long ago pursuing me, but now they are getting nearer to me than ever.
Psa_119:151. Thou art near, O LORD;
Is not that a blessed sentence, that, when the adversaries are near, the Friend of friends is near too? What if he be like a hunted stag, and the dogs are at his heels, yet the omnipotent Lord, the Interposer, can come between and save his darling from the power of the dogs.
Psa_119:151; Psa_119:159. And all thy commandments are truth. Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.
It is an old story with me that thy love is without beginning, thy covenant from all eternity, thy grace immutable, not fickle, changeable as if it were founded yesterday upon the sand, but “Thou hast founded them for ever.”
Psa_119:153-155. Consider mine affliction, and deliver me: for I do not forget thy law. Plead my cause, and deliver me: quicken me according to thy word. Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not thy statutes.
If they sought that salvation, they would cease to be wicked; they would find salvation; but while they follow out their wicked ways they get further and further away from anything like salvation.
Psa_119:156-158. Great are thy tender mercies, O LORD: quicken me according to thy judgments. Many are my persecutors and mine enemies; yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not thy word.
It is enough to make any man grieve that the Word of God, which is so right, so just, so good, should be despised. What madness is this which is in the hearts of men, that they despise the best of the best?
Psa_119:159. Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O LORD, according to thy lovingkindness.
It is a fair argument; as a friend may say to another, “Consider how I love you;” as a child might say to his angry father when he is about to chasten him, “My father, I love you, although I have transgressed; look at my heart, and see how I love you, notwithstanding all the mistakes of my character, and even the faults that I have committed.
Psa_119:160-161. Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever. Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word.
“Princes have persecuted me without a cause; but my heart standeth in awe of” — them? No, but “of thy Word.”
Psa_119:162-166. I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil. I hate and abhor lying: but thy law do I love. Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments, Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation, and done thy commandments.
Present duty, future expectation. It is no use our hoping for great things unless we ourselves cultivate good things. God will make tomorrow bright: let us make today holy.
Psa_119:167-168. My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly.
I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies: for all my ways are before thee.