Ordered Steps
(No. 2487)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, OCTOBER 18, 1896.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
AUGUST 29, 1886.
"Order my steps in Your Word: and let not any iniquity have dominion
over me." Psalm 119:133.
NOTICE, in the previous verse, how the Psalmist expresses his longing
desire to be treated as one of the Lord's family–"Look upon me, and be
merciful to me, as You used to do to those that love Your name." We,
also, dear Friends, wish to be treated as God treats all the rest of
His children. I am sure that every humble Believer will be quite
content with that arrangement. There was a time when you would have
been willing that He should make you one of His hired servants, but you
have seen the mistake of such a desire as that and now your prayer is,
"Deal with me, O Lord, as one of Your children; treat me according to
Your custom with Your redeemed! I do not ask anything different from
the lot of the rest of the heirs of Heaven. If they are poor, I would
be poor with them. If they suffer reproach, I would be reproached with
them. If they carry a cross, I would carry a cross, too. Whatever is
the appointed portion of the Lord's children, I am prepared to share
and share alike with them. If You chasten them, I hope to have Your
chastening. If You smile upon them, I shall delight to be smiled upon
as You are known to smile on them." Brothers and Sisters, we feel a
sweet kind of communism in the Church of God–we, none of us, desire to
have anything more than this common lot of the redeemed family.
At the same time, each Believer must have and will have his own
apprehension of his personal needs and he will, therefore, present to
the Lord his own special prayer. I hoped, just now, when we were
praying, that my words might suit the cases of many of you, but I felt
more concerned that each one should be offering petitions and the
thanksgivings for himself. Oh, what power there often is in those
personal prayers where there is no audible voice, but only the lips
move, as did Hannah's! At such times the woman of a sorrowful spirit
goes her way comforted because of her secret fellowship with God. Do
not imagine that any form of prayer–liturgical or extempore–can meet
the needs of your case at all times. No, you must present your own
personal supplication, and the Lord seems to say to you, as Ahasuerus
said to Esther, "What is your petition, and it shall be granted you.
And what is your request…it shall be performed."
It seems to me that my text may suit all of us who are in this
assembly. I am sure that it suits me. I have prayed it before I have
preached from it and I desire to be praying it while I am preaching
concerning it. I commend it to those who are just beginning the Divine
Life and I suggest it as equally appropriate to those who may have
wandered somewhat out of the way of holiness. Yes, and I suggest it to
those who are venerable and full of wisdom. I suggest it even to my
elders, to the beloved fathers in our Israel, that this is a prayer
which may last all of us right up to the gates of Heaven! "Order my
steps in Your Word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me."
You, too, who are just beginning to seek the Savior, should be told
that this is the kind of spirit to which you will have to come–and if
the Lord brings you to be His own, this is the kind of prayer that you
will pray. And if you cannot pray it and will not pray it, you will
bear witness against yourselves that you are notthe children of God. I
am sure that I am not too severe when I say that.
I. As the Holy Spirit shall enable me, I want to bring out four things
in this text which are well worthy of your earnest consideration. The
first is the COMPLETE SUBSERVIENCE to the will of God of the man who
thus prayed, "Order my steps in Your Word: and let not any iniquity
have dominion over me."
You see, he begins his prayer with the word, "order." He is a man who
wishes to be under orders. He is willing to obey the Lord's commands
and he is anxious to receive them and to be made to carry them out. Now
this is notthe way of the world–worldlings say, "Who is the Lord, that
we should obey His voice? We are our own masters! Who is Lord over us?"
Free thinking and free living–these are the desires of ungodly men.
But when the Grace of God has renewed the heart, the soul finds its
true freedom in obedience to Christ's commands, and its best thinking
while sitting at the feet of Jesus to observe His gracious Words.
"Order my steps in Your Word." Beloved, once we lived without any order
or plan, or method, but the Grace of God makes us method-ists in the
highest possible sense. It makes us live according to God's method–and
our prayer is that we may never be disorderly, but that in all things,
just as the universe is arranged by God, and all the stars keep their
appointed courses, so we may be made to take our proper places, and may
be kept in them–joyfully obedient to the will of the Most High! It is
one of the marks of the Grace of God when we ask God to order us and
willingly put ourselves under His command.
Moreover, the Psalmist prayed, "Order my steps in Your Word." He was
perfectly satisfied with God's Revelation. He had not so much of it as
we have but there was room enough in it for all his steps. "Order my
steps in Your Word." He needed no greater liberty than the Bible gave
him, no wider range than he found in the commands of the Most High. His
prayer was like that verse we sang just now–
"Make me to walk in Your commands, 'Tis a delightful road. Nor let my
head, or heart, or hands, Offend against my God."
Are you satisfied, dear Hearer, to keep within the compass of the
Divine command? If so, take it as an evidence that God has changed your
heart! But oh, my dear Hearer, if you live outside of that Book. If you
never get inside it at all. If you never care what it says, what it
promises, what it commands–then take it as certain that you do notknow
the Lord! Let us, each one, at this moment breathe this prayer to God,
"Order my steps in Your Word. Make me to live as a man who is under
authority–one who finds directions for his living in the Law of his
God, and who makes it his desire and his delight to be conformed
thereto."
So you see the complete subservience of the man of God–his earnest
desire that he might be cleared from every kind of iniquity. I may
mention that in the Hebrew, the prayer, "Order my steps in Your Word,"
may mean, "Make my steps firm in Your Word." The Psalmist would be kept
from all vacillation, hesitation, or wandering, but he wants, when he
is right, to be firmly right, to be distinctly, decidedly right, so he
pleads, "Make my steps firm." Oh, how we often stagger along! We do
what is right, but we quiver and shake while we are doing it! Have you
not known, dear Friends, what it was to seem to be wavering? Your feet
had almost gone, your steps had well-near slipped. But the Psalmist's
prayer is that his obedience may be firm, decided, steady obedience.
You young beginners will do well to pray that this experience may be
yours. It is often given to God's saints, when they have been long in
His ways, to get confirmed in habit of righteousness so that they are
not carried about by every wind of temptation. And it should be the
prayer of all God's servants that they may be so established in
righteousness that they can say with the Apostle Paul, "From henceforth
let no man trouble me." It is no use for them to try it, for they
cannot entice me away from my dear Master's service. "I bear in my body
the marks of the Lord Jesus." I bared my back to be branded as Christ's
slave so that the mark shall never be removed as long as I live! I have
given my arm to be tattooed with the Cross, so that never, while I have
an arm to move, should it belong to anybody but to Christ Himself!
It is a blessed thing when you reach this point and say, "I cannot and
I will not listen to your temptations, O sinful world! You may call,
but I will not answer. You may invite, but I will not listen. The time
of parleying is past, the hour for making my choice is over. I belong
to God and my prayer is that my footsteps may always be confirmed in
obedience to His mind and will."
I leave this prayer with you as to its complete subservience. Do you
kick against it? Do you want to be something other than God would have
you to be? My dear Hearer, I am sorry for you! But if, on the other
hand, you yield to Him and desire to be like wax under the seal, that
God may stamp upon you His own Image–and no other then the Lord is
dealing with you in a way of Grace–then you may confidently hope that
you belong to Him.
II. Now, secondly, I call your attention to the CAREFUL WATCHFULNESS of
this prayer, the detailed watchfulness of it–"Order my steps in Your
Word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me."
You see that the Psalmist enters into detail when he presents this
petition. He does not say merely, "Order my life," but, "Order my
steps." Godly men desire to be kept right by God even in the little
things of life. It is often in little things, such as steps, rather
than in long periods of running, that the good or the evil may be most
plainly seen. Blessed is that man to whom there exists no such thing as
a trifle, who desires to serve God even in the jots and tittles, for he
shall not fall by little and little, as so many have done. He shall not
have gray hairs upon him here and there, and yet not know it, for his
careful watchfulness shall enable him to detect the slightest defection
from the right way and so shall he be able to hold to the straight path
of integrity. Brothers and Sisters, the old proverb is, "Take care of
the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves," which I will
translate into the language of our text, "Take care of the steps, and
the day's walking, as a whole, will take care of itself." True
Christians want the Lord to bless them in everything, yes, even in
those plain and simple words which drop from their lips almost without
a thought. We do more wrong, perhaps, by lack of thought than by any
will to do evil and, therefore, the necessity of crying to God, "Order
my steps; take care of the little things in my life, that I sin not
against You."
"Order my steps." That prayer means, "Order my ordinary daily life." Do
not many think that religion is only something for Sundays? They put it
on with their best hat and put it away when they put that hat back into
the box. Believe me, that the religion which is taken up only once a
week and dropped during the rest of the week is neither fit to live
with nor to die with! It is like a bad bank-note–if you find such a
counterfeit, you had better lay it down and run away from it–and not
let anyone suspect that it ever belonged to you!
True godliness concerns the ordinary actions of daily life. Do not tell
me what you can say at a Prayer Meeting. What do you do in the parlor?
What do you do in the kitchen? How do you behave yourself towards your
wife? How do you act towards your children? "He is a very good man,"
said one to me, "he is a very good man, indeed, but his children are
all afraid of him." "Then," I thought, "he is nota good man, but a very
bad man, indeed." I could not conceive him to be good–I would rather
believe Rowland Hill's saying that a man was not truly converted if his
cat and his dog were not the better off for it! It ought to be a
blessing and it mustbe a blessing to everybody round about him if the
Grace of God enters into his soul. "Order my steps in Your Word,"
means, "Help me to turn the common actions of my ordinary life into a
hallowed service." When I put on my weekday clothes, may I be even as
when a priest in the olden times put on his holy vestments and
ministered before the Lord. And may everything that I do be the
exercise of a sacred priesthood to the living God. The Apostle Peter's
exhortation is still in force, "As He which has called you is holy, so
be you holy in all manner of conversation." So are Paul's injunctions,
"Whether, therefore, you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to
the glory of God." "And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him."
Thus the watchfulness included in the text concerns the little things
and the ordinary things of our lives. And following the Psalmist's
example, we shall especially pray about all our advances. It is by
steps that we go forward. This is the age of progress–everybody is
crying out, "Forward!" Well, then, here is a prayer for those who wish
to progress wisely "O Lord, order my steps in Your Word! So shall my
progress be a progress toward Yourself, a progress within the compass
of Your sacred Truth." He who outruns Scripture will have to come back
again. He who goes beyond the boundaries of the right road will lose
his way and the more progress he makes the greater will be the distance
that he will have to return if he is to reach his journey's end in
peace. Pray this prayer, young man, if you want to be safe, "O Lord,
order my steps in Your Word!"
There is great temptation, nowadays, to take up with anything that is
new. A man buttonholes you and tells you of a new discovery that he has
made. Well, hear what he has to say if you think well. "Prove all
things," but, "hold fast that which is good." And be this your
continual prayer, that your steps, when you take any steps, may always
be ordered according to the Word of God. "Well," says one, "you tie us
up pretty tightly." No, my Friend, I do not want to tie you up at all!
You can roam where you like, but I know that the tighter I am tied, the
better it is for me, and the happier I am. There is a prayer in the
118th Psalm which I always like to pray, "Bind the sacrifice with
cords, even to the horns of the altar." Lord, hold me fast from morning
till night, and through the night as well! I long that You should fill
my very dreams with thoughts of You! Lord, bind me fast, both winter
and summer, and every day in the year! I would not have a single hour
in which You did not order me and command me! Lord, bind me as to every
step I take, and every advance I make, for where may I not go if I ever
advance beyond Your Word? And what can be good for me if You do not
count it good, and what will You withhold from me if it is really good
for me?
So I commend this prayer to you, dwelling much on these two
points–first, complete subservience to the Divine will, and then
careful watchfulness about all the details of your life. Only turn them
both into prayers! Do not say, "I am going to order my steps." Are you?
Do not say, "I am going to obey God in everything." Are you? This holy
road is not fit for such feet as yours while you talk like that! Until
you are shod with a simple dependence upon God you will never take to
this narrow way. And unless the Lord holds you up in it, you will soon
either fall in it or fall from it. So make no resolutions in your own
strength, but offer the prayer of our text in the name of Jesus–and
the Lord will hear you.
III. In the third place, I call your attention to the COMPREHENSIVE
OBEDIENCE which is desired in this text.
It has two clauses, the positive and the negative. "Order my steps in
Your Word." That is, "Lord, make me positively to do the right thing!"
Then, "Let not any iniquity have dominion over me." That is, "Lord,
preserve me from any thought or word or deed which would be contrary to
your mind and will!" He is the right sort of Believer who is an
all-round Christian, one who is positive for doing right, but who is
equally determined not to do wrong. We have some very active professors
who are not, at the same time, watchful on the negative side. And we
have a great many negative professors who might offer the Pharisee's
prayer, "God, I thank You that I am not as other men are, extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican." They look to some extent
to the negative side, but then there is nothing positive for the right,
there is nothing that they are really doing to please the Lord. We need
to have a Divine amalgam of the two parts of our text, "Order my steps
in Your Word" and, "Let not any iniquity have dominion over me."
With regard to this comprehensive obedience, notice that the Psalmist
desires that no sin of any kind should be tolerated within his
heart–"Let not any iniquity have dominion over me." Some men have
their pet sins and some women have their darling sins. They cry to the
evil things within, "Out with you, out with you all, except this one."
There is a winking of the eye, or a lifting of the finger which means
to some iniquity, " You may stay behind." "But, my dear Sir," says one,
"have we not allsome besetting sin?" Possibly it is so, but what isa
besetting sin? If I were to go across a common at dead of night and
half-a-dozen men met me and gathered round me, crying, "Your money or
your life!" I should be beset by them. Suppose that I had to cross
Clapham Common tonight and that I was thus surrounded and robbed–I
should be beset by the thieves.
But suppose I went that way again tomorrow night? And on Tuesday night,
and on Wednesday night, and Thursday night, and Friday night, and
Saturday night? Do you think that I should be able to say that I was
"beset" by the robbers? People would naturally ask, "Why did you go
that way? If you are attacked and robbed once, we can understand that,
but what do you mean by going that way again?" Here is a man who says
that drinking is his besetting sin. Well, my Brother, I can understand
that you were led on, by degrees, from glass to glass till you lost
your balance and were overcome. You call that your besetting sin and
yet you still go to the public-house! Well, that is what I call going
across a common on purpose to be robbed! And I do not believe your
excuse about besetting sins.
I think that I have heard many things of that character, whereby people
try to excuse themselves on the ground that some sin besets them. The
Black man said that drunkenness was an "upsetting" sin much more than a
"besetting" sin. I think he was quite right in saying so, and there are
many other upsetting sine of that kind! Men open the door and say to
some iniquity or other, "Come in, you are my besetting sin." They put
themselves in the way of it! They indulge themselves in it and then
they talk as if they could not help it! Down on your knees and cry,
"Let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Lord, save me from it, for
my desire is to obey You completely in everything without leaving
anything out from under the dominion and sway of the Laws of Christ!"
IV. Now, lastly, this prayer commends itself very much to me, not only
for its comprehensiveness, but because of a certain CAUTIOUS
APPREHENSIVENESS which seems to lie in it.
I like the holy fear which glows within the Psalmist's prayer like the
fire within an opal. He says, "Order my steps in Your Word." He means,
"Lord, I am afraid to take a single step without Your orders. I am
afraid to put one foot before another for fear I should go wrong!"
"Happy is the man that always fears." He that was too bold was never
too wise. He that leaped before he looked, looked very sadly after he
had leaped. He shall go right who knows where he is going, is careful
about the road and afraid lest he should go astray. He is the man who
prays, "Order my steps in Your Word."
Then notice, especially in the latter sentence, "Let not any iniquity
have dominion over me," how the Psalmist seems to say, "Lord, I feel
that I am liable to the very greatest iniquity. Let not any iniquity
have dominion over me!" Is this David'praying? I think it was the man
after God's own heart who wrote this Psalm–and he proved in his life
that the very worst iniquities might assail him and that he might
become their prey for a time. O child of God, you must pray against the
blackest sin! You do not know what you may yet become if the Grace of
God does not preserve you. I am always afraid of people who are so very
good in their own esteem–superfine, hot-pressed perfectionism is
generally very poor stuff. I had an old friend who was very cautious
upon this point. He was met, one day, by a man who had been many years
the deacon of a church and who said to him, "Friend So-and-So, I want
you to lend me 50 pounds." He knew him right well and he was quite
prepared to write a check for the amount at once but the venerable
deacon said, "You know you can trust me. I am not a man of yesterday, I
am not like young people who are easily led astray to do foolish and
wicked things. I am perfectly safe."
My wise old friend then said, "I cannot lend you any money." The other
man asked, "Why not?" "I never lend money to people who are so good as
you are, for I should never see it again if I did." That man was head
over heels in debt and failed, soon after, for an enormous amount! Yet
there he stood, as bold as brass, pleading what a good man he was! So
the man who says that he cannot sin and that he is beyond the power of
temptation–well, the Lord have mercy upon him! He is already in the
snare of the devil and it may not be long before he will have
sorrowfully to find it out. No, Sir, pray, "Let not any iniquity have
dominion over me," for, unless you are kept by God's Grace, there is no
form of iniquity which may not prevail against you! The Psalmist feels
himself liable to fall into the greatest transgression, so he prays,
"Let not any iniquity have dominion over me."
But the prayer seems to me, also, to intimate that he felt fearful of
the least evil There is here, to my mind, a very sweet apprehensiveness
concerning little sins, if there are such things. "Let not any iniquity
have dominion over me. Perhaps, Lord, I shall never be a drunkard, for
You have given me reason, thought and the love of sobriety, but then,
Lord, what use is it if I should be guilty of covetousness, which is
idolatry? Let not that iniquity have dominion over me. And if I should
escape from covetousness, perhaps I may fall prey to some secret lust.
Lord, if there is a leak in the ship, the ship will go down. Even if
there is not a leak in the stern of the vessel, yet if there is a leak
in the prow, or anywhere in her hull, that will suffice to sink her.
Lord, let not any iniquity have dominion over me!" Suppose that I do
not fall by any of these known sins, yet if I do not walk with God, if
I neglect secret prayer, if I have not yielded myself fully up to the
working of the Holy Spirit upon me, the result will be the same! This
prayer is necessary for every one of us–"Let not any iniquity have
dominion over me."
Brothers and Sisters, I am not afraid for the most of you, that you
will become the prey of any overt scandalous sins, but I am afraid that
some of you may be eaten up with dry rot–that the termites may
secretly eat through you and yet leave all the skin and outside of
everything just as it used to be. We have heard travelers tell that
when they have gone into their rooms which they had left for some time,
there stood their boxes, their sets of drawers, and their tables, just
as when they left–but as soon as they have touched them, they have
dropped into so much dust–for the insects had eaten all the heart of
the wood away! Is it not possible for us to get into that state–to
seem everything that is good, and yet the very heart of us may be eaten
out? Pray, then, this prayer, "Let not any iniquity have dominion over
me."
O children of God, you who really know and love Him, be concerned about
yourselves that you be not mistaken and that you do not fall under the
supremacy of any evil and false thing! Cry mightily to God about this
matter! Search and try yourselves and make sure work for eternity. I
say this especially to myself and to all ministers, for there are so
many ways in which ministers may deceive themselves. We may preach to
others and yet be, ourselves, castaways. I say this, also, to you
Church officers and to you revered members of the Church who have grown
gray in your profession. Take heed to yourselves and everyone of you
breathe this prayer, "Let not any iniquity have dominion over me."
Then what shall I say to you who have never believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ? If the righteous are scarcely saved, where will you be found?
"Oh!" says one, "I never made a profession of religion." You are proud
of that, are you? Suppose you were brought before a magistrate and
charged with being a thief and you said to him, "I never made a
profession of being an honest man." "Oh!" he would say, "take that
fellow to prison! He is convicted out of his own mouth." You never made
a profession of fearing God? You never made a profession of believing
in Christ–is that so, Sir? Then the Day of Judgment is almost a
superfluity to you, for you have judged yourself and condemned
yourself! And before long my Lord's sheriff will lay his skeleton hand
upon you and arrest you in the name of that Divine Justice which you
have despised! There will be no resisting him and you will have to go
with him to prison and to death.
Before that dread event happens, I entreat you, by the very
reasonableness of the thing, to consider, repent and turn to the Lord!
Look to Jesus Christ upon the Cross, for He is the only way of
salvation! Find in Him the power to hate sin and the power to conquer
it, for there is no power anywhere but that which comes from His dear
streaming wounds and from His ever-living Spirit. Look to Him–and when
you have done so and have trusted Him–then pray this prayer to the
Lord, "Order my steps in Your Word: and let not any iniquity have
dominion over me, for Jesus Christ's sake! Amen."
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM119:129-144; MATTHEW 15:1-13. Psalm
119:129. Your testimonies are wonderful: therefore does my soul keep
them. It is very wonderful that God should speak to us at all, but
still more marvelous that He should write to us such a book as this
Bible. The Book itself is full of wonders and one of those wonders is
that it reveals Him whose name is "Wonderful." Observe that the
Psalmist, having said to the Lord, "Your testimonies are wonderful,"
does not add, "Therefore do I sit down and wonder at them." No, his
appreciation was practical, let ours be the same–"Your testimonies are
wonderful: therefore does my soul keep them."
130. The entrance of Your Words gives light. Those who are most
ignorant and have least confidence in their own abilities will,
nevertheless, become very wise if they study God's Word.
130-131. It gives understanding to the simple. I opened my mouth, and
panted: for I longed for Your commandments. What a wonderful verse that
is! The Psalmist cannot describe his longing for God's commandments
except by going to the brute creation for a suitable metaphor! He had
probably seen the hunted stag stand still and pant to get its breath,
all the while longing for the water brooks. So he says, "I opened my
mouth, and panted." "I could not put my prayer into words, so I panted.
My heart, my breath, my lungs, my very soul panted, for I longed for
Your commandments."
132. Look upon me–That is all the Psalmist needs and all that we need,
too. If a look from us to God will save us, what must a look from God
to us do for us? "Look upon me"–
132-134. And be merciful to me, as You used to do to those that love
Your name. Order my steps in Your Word: and let not any iniquity have
dominion over me. Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep
Your precepts. Some of you, perhaps, may hardly be able to do as you
would if you were perfectly free to act, for you are, to a certain
extent, under the government and power of ungodly persons. Well, here
is a prayer for you to present to the Lord. "Deliver me from the
oppression of man: so will I keep Your precepts."
135. Make Your face to shine upon Your servant. That is the best
sunshine for us! Let us but have the light of God's Countenance and
nothing can put us out of countenance! If the Lord will smile, men may
frown as much as they please. So we pray with the Psalmist, "Make Your
face to shine upon Your servant."
135-136. And teach me Your statues. Rivers of waters run down my eyes
because they keep not Your Law. The Psalmist felt for others as well as
for himself. It was not enough for him to be holy–he would have others
to be the same. Sin in other men brought sorrow to his heart. "Rivers
of waters run down my eyes, because theykeep not Your Law."
137. Righteous are You, O LORD, and upright are Your judgments. After
having wept over the sin of men, the Psalmist turns with sweet calmness
of spirit to the goodness of God.
138. Your testimonies that You have commanded are righteous and very
faithful. "Very faithful." You who have tried and proven God's promises
must have found them so–not only faithful, but very faithful, faithful
to the letter, faithful to the moment. God seems rather to exceed His
promise than ever to fall short of it.
139-140. My zeal has consumed me, because my enemies have forgotten
Your Words. Your Word is very pure.– Just now the Psalmist said, "Your
testimonies are very faithful. Now he says, "Your Word is very pure."
There is no adulteration in this blessed Book–it is the pure Truth of
God. You cannot add to it or take from it without making it imperfect!
"Your Word is very pure."–
140. Therefore Your servant loves it. It is only a pure heart that
loves the pure Word of the Lord! So, if you love the Word of God
because of its purity, it is an argument that your heart has been
renewed by Grace!
141.I am small and despised: yet I do not forget Your precepts. In
verse 139, the Psalmist complained that his enemies had forgotten God's
Words. He does not complain of the fault in others and then fall into
it, himself, but he says, "Yet I do not forget Your percepts." There
are some people who seem to think that it does not much matter what
they do. If they were persons of influence, they think that they would
be very careful of their example. "But," says one, "I am only a feeble
woman–a poor mother with a few children." "Oh," exclaims another, "I
am only a child as yet, I cannot influence others!" "Oh," cries a
third, "I am simply an ordinary working man, nobody notices me." Listen
to what the Psalmist says, "I am small and despised: yet I do not
forget Your precepts. I do not make an excuse out of my littleness,
that I may be careless in my living." Take that message home, dear
Friends, and learn its lesson, for it applies to many of you!
142. Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness–What a
wonderful sentence! Just now, the Psalmist said, "Your testimonies that
You have commanded are righteousness." (See the marginal reading of
verse 138). Now he advances another step and says, "Your righteousness
is an everlasting righteousness."
142. And Your Law is the truth. That is what I believe this Book of God
is–" the truth." I know of nothing Infallible but the Bible. Every man
must have a fixed point somewhere–some believe in an infallible pope,
and some in an infallible church, but I believe in an Infallible Book,
expounded by the Infallible Spirit who is ready to guide us into all
truth–"Your Law is the truth."
143. Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me: yet Your commandments
are my delight. What a curious mixture this verse describes! Here is a
man full of trouble and anguish, and yet full of delight at the same
time! Little do they understand human nature and especially gracious
human nature, who cannot comprehend this paradox. There are many
seemingly contradictions in the Christian life and this is one of them.
"Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me"–as dogs lay hold of their
prey–"yet Your commandments are my delights." The Apostle Paul
pictured another such a case as this when he wrote, "We are troubled on
every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed." And he
also described the Christian paradox, "As unknown, and yet well known,
as dying and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; as
sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as
having nothing, and yet possessing all things." May we all understand
these paradoxes in our own experiences!
144. The righteousness of Your testimonies is everlasting: give me
understanding, and I shall live. Now let us read what the Lord Jesus
said to those who professed to reverence the Scripture, but who really
made it void by their traditions.
Matthew 15:1. Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of
Jerusalem, saying.–They had taken a journey to come and attack Him.
Perhaps they had been sent as a deputation to try to thwart the Savior.
What a vexation of spirit it must have been to His pure and holy mind
to come into conflict with these triflers, these self-righteous,
self-confident men! Why did they some to Christ? To plead with Him for
the poor people who were perishing for lack of knowledge, or to ask Him
how souls could be saved and how God could be glorified? Oh, no! They
came to ask the Savior about a very different subject–
2. Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders?For
they wash not their hands when they eat bread. Would you have thought
that full-grown men could have made it a matter of business to come
from Jerusalem down into the country to talk to Christ about the fact
that His disciples did not always wash their hands before they ate
their breakfasts? Yet we have men, nowadays, who make a great point of
what is to be done with the so-called "consecrated" bread that is left,
and who are much concerned about what kind of a dress a "priest" ought
to wear when he is engaged in the performance of certain duties! How
sad is it that such trifles as these should occupy the minds of
immortal beings while men are dying and God is dishonored!
3. But Hie answered and said to them, Why do you, also, transgress the
commandment of God by your tradition?He answered their question by
asking another, in which he drew the contrast between transgressing the
tradition of the elders and transgressing the commandment of God!
4-6. For God commanded, saying, Honor your father andmother: and, He
that curses father or mother, let him die the death. But you say,
Whoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by
whatever you might be profited by me; and honors not his father or his
mother, he shall be free. Thus have you made the commandment of God of
no effect by your tradition. Whatever might be said about regarding the
tradition of men, God's commandment must be regarded! That stands first
and, therefore, our Lord demanded of these scribes and Pharisee an
answer to His charge that they had overridden and overlaid a
commandment of God by a tradition of their own. If a father and mother,
in great need, said to their son, "Help us, for we need bread," and he
answered, "I cannot give you anything, for all I have is dedicated to
God," the Rabbis taught that he might be exempted from relieving his
parents, although they also said that the next day he might undo the
dedication of his property and employ it exactly as he pleased. He
might use the fact that he had said, "That shekel is for God," as a
reason for not giving it to his father who was in need–and then, the
very next day–he might take that shekel and spend it exactly as he
chose. So God's commandment to honor, and love, and aid our parents was
set aside by their tradition.
7-9. You hypocrites! Well did Elijah prophesy of you, saying, This
people draws near to Me with their mouth, and honors Me with their
lips; but their heart is far from Me. But in vain do they worship Me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Our Lord never
flattered anybody! See how honestly and in what plain terms He
addressed these scribes and Pharisees! Yet these were the great
teachers of His day and thought themselves the bright light of the age,
the very leaders of the people in all that was good! But Christ
addressed them as, "You hypocrites," and gave them a text of Scripture
which clearly applied to them. They had all manner of outward forms of
worship. They talked very much about the Bible–they studied every Word
of it and even counted the letters in every chapter–but they had no
regard to the real meaning of God's Word! And their heart was not right
with the Lord. The Savior patiently talked with them, but He also
sternly rebuked them and denounced them as hypocrites.
10. And He called the multitude. As much as if He had said to the
scribes and Pharisees, "I cannot waste My time arguing with you. I am
going to talk to these poor people who are perishing and I shall have
more hope of doing good among the multitude than among you, though you
consider yourselves the aristocracy of the church."
10, 11. And said to them, Hear, and understand: not that which goes
into the mouth defiles a man; but that which comes out of the mouth,
this defiles a man. This was not very clear at first, it needed to be
thought over and well considered. The Savior dropped it into the
popular mind, like a seed, and left it to grow and develop in due
season.
12. Then came His disciples, and said to him, Do You know that the
Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? The wonder was
that they were not offended before! It certainly was not a matter of
concern to Christ whether they were offended or not–He would not tone
down the Truth of God in order to please them.
13. But He answered and said, Every plant which My heavenly Father has
not planted shall be rooted up. Every teacher whom God has not sent
will find his teaching contradicted by Christ. The Truth of God is like
a spade–it turns up the soil for that life to grow in it which should
grow–and it is also the means of killing the weeds. "Every plant which
My heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up." May we all be
plants of His right-hand planting! Amen.