"Good Judgment"
(No. 2688)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, AUGUST 19, 1900.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, JULY
21, 1881.
"You have dealt well with Your servant, O LORD, according unto Your
Word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed Your
Commandments." Psalm 119:65, 66.
WHEN the Psalmist wrote these words, he was contemplating the goodness
of God. In the verse preceding our text, the 64th, he sang, "The earth,
O Jehovah, is full of Your mercy!" as if he could not walk abroad
without seeing evidences of it, or look upward, or backward, or around
him, without everywhere perceiving the Omnipresent goodness of the Most
High. Whatever season of the year it is in which we take our walks
abroad into the field of Nature, we ought to be in such a condition of
mind and heart as to see proofs of the fullness of God's love
everywhere around us, but especially, I think, it should be so in these
summer months when the fields are ripening toward the harvest and we
see how God is fulfilling His ancient Covenant, "While the earth
remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and
winter, and day and night shall not cease." How thankful we ought to be
that the Lord thus remembers the earth and makes it bring forth the
corn and everything else that is necessary to supply the needs of men!
So let us bless God that the earth is still full of His mercy.
Is our own life in the same condition, or are we strangers to the
goodness of God? Is there mercy all around us, yet none for us? Well,
let others answer these questions as they may, there are many here
present who can reply most emphatically, "No, the earth is full of
God's mercy and we can, each one of us, say to Him, 'You have dealt
well with Your servant, O Lord.' Though You have had so many others of
Your creatures to care for, You have not forgotten poor me. Though I am
but the merest atom, dwelling in a world which is, itself, nothing more
than a speck when compared with the innumerable worlds that throng Your
universe, yet You have not failed to let Your mercy come to me, even to
me."
I have sometimes lighted upon a little flower right in the depths of
the forest glades. It seemed as if it were hidden quite away, utterly
concealed by the towering trees and yet it bloomed as sweetly as if it
had been watched over and cared for by the utmost skill, for somewhere
between the branches–I could not tell where–there was a little window
through which the sun shone into the heart of that tiny flower, kissing
it into perfume, and tinting it with those lovely colors which made it
so attractive! All around it, the soil was bare, but this sweet flower
flourished all by itself, and so, Brothers and Sisters, if you have
lived in the midst of those who have forgotten your God, you have been
hidden away in obscurity, yet the Lord has not forgotten you and,
somehow–yes, and continually–the beams of His gracious sunlight have
come even to you and you must bless and praise and magnify Him to whom
you owe all that you have and are! Therefore cheerfully bear witness
with the rest of God's people to this blessed fact and join with the
Psalmist in saying, "You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord,
according unto Your Word."
You may go further and say, "You have dealt well with all Your
servants, O Lord, according to Your Word." David had not always thought
so, but he did think so when he came to sum up the total of his life's
experience and to write it down in his diary–for I suppose that the
119th Psalm was made up of the entries in David's diary as he went
along. This was the summary of all that he had experienced, that God
had dealt well with him–but as he had not always thought so, he felt
that he had been very much misled and mistaken in judgment–and
therefore he prayed this prayer: "Teach me good judgment and knowledge,
for I have believed Your Commandments."
There will be three things for me to talk about tonight. First,
judgment expressed. David expressed his judgment as to how God had
dealt with him and very sound and judicious judgment it was–"You have
dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according unto Your Word."
Secondly, I shall have to speak to you about judgment desired–"Teach
me good judgment and knowledge." And, thirdly, I shall tell you about
judgment possessed. The Psalmist already possessed a measure of good
judgment–he was not altogether left to be as the foolish, for he could
truthfully say to the Lord, "I have believed Your Commandments." He had
possessed judgment enough for that and that is one reason why he might
expect to have more, for it is an old law of God's Kingdom, "Whoever
has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance."
I. First, then, here is David's JUDGMENT EXPRESSED–"You have dealt
well with Your servant, O Lord."
Looking through his past life, he came to the conclusion, first, that
God had dealt with him. It is a very awe-inspiring Truth of God and one
that should make us feel that this life is a solemn thing, because in
it God deals with us. We thought that we had been having dealings with
our fellow men and so we have, but, all the while, there has been
Another who has also been dealing with us. And we say, "Under all, and
over all, and within all, have been the dealings of His Providence."
Or, rather, let us say, "the dealings of God, Himself," so that we can
personally say, "You have dealt with Your servant." It will not be
strange if we add, "How dreadful is this place! This is none other but
the House of God and this is the gate of Heaven. Surely the Lord is in
this place."
There are some who cannot or who will not see that God deals with men
in this mortal life. Alas, for them! God is the very Life of life and
there are some of us who could not be made to think otherwise than that
God has dealt with us, for there have been portions of our life which
have been so surprising that whenever we look back upon them, they
amaze us! There is no novel that ever was written that can equal in
interest the true life of a believing man. His path is strewn with
wonders and thick with marvelous displays of his Lord's love. I will
not refer especially to any man's life. If I did, it would have to be
the one I know best, that is, my own. Each man must speak according to
his own experience and I am compelled to say, and to say it without the
slightest hesitation, "The Lord has dealt with my soul." As surely as I
live, I have spoken with Him and He has spoken with me. No, more than
that, He has dealt out innumerable mercies to me and constantly dealt
with me–and through me He has dealt with many others, also. And this I
know, that life would not be worth living if it did not continually
touch the hem of Jehovah's garments! The very virtue of life streams
into our life through our being in contact with Him. Where the little
circle of our existence impinges upon the unutterably vast
circumference of His power and Glory is where we get the blessings that
we need!
I wish that we recognized far more clearly than we do that God is
around us at all times. In the olden days, the saints often met with
God–sometimes beneath a tree, or beside a bush, or in a lone desert,
or outside a city wall, or by a brook at midnight, or in a furnace all
aglow–they met Him in all manner of places, for He was much about in
those good old days, or else there were men about, then, who were quick
to record His manifestations to His people. But have not we also beheld
His face again and again? Have not we often had communion with the
Well-Beloved? Has He not had dealings with us, also? Surely the beams
and timbers of this House of Prayer would cry out against us if we did
not say, "Verily, the Lord has been mindful of us and He has manifested
Himself unto us as He does not unto the world. Truly, God has dealt
with us."
This is also true of every man, though not in the same sense, nor to
the same extent. God has dealt with you all. Into whatever position you
have been cast, God has had some dealings with you. Take heed lest His
dealings of long-suffering, being slighted, He should begin to deal
with you after another fashion, for He has a rod of iron, and woe be to
the potter's vessels in the day when He begins to dash them in pieces!
Oh, that He might deal with us only in mercy and never come to deal
with us in wrath, as He will have to do with the men who go on in their
iniquities! That is the first judgment of David, that God had dealt
with him.
But he also judged that God had dealt well with him–"You have dealt
well with Your servant, O Lord." And this, too, is our conclusion.
Taking God's dealings as a whole, He has dealt well with us. There are
some points in His dealings with us which have been so special that the
words of our text hardly appear emphatic enough to describe them. For
instance, when I think of God's purposes concerning us from before the
foundation of the world, it hardly seems sufficient to say, "The Lord
has dealt well with us." When I remember the Covenant, that
"Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things, and sure," I want to say
something much stronger than that God has dealt well with us–I prefer
to say that He
has dealt with us like a God, in a Divine way for which there is no
earthly comparison! Then, when He gave His Son to bleed and die for us
and when He sent His Spirit to convert us, and then to dwell in us, it
is not enough if I say, "You have dealt well with Your servants." It is
better than well! It is indescribably, unutterably well that God has
dealt with us in the way of free, rich, Sovereign, Immutable,
everlasting love–glory be to His holy name!
But take our personal experience, for I suppose the Psalmist is here
referring to that. How well the Lord has dealt with us in Providence!
Adding up all our varied experiences, we can truly say that all things
have worked together for our good. Life has been a strange mixture for
some of us–our coat of arms might be the checkers, black and white,
for we have had sweets and bitters intermingled–bitter sweets and
sweet bitters. What strange compounds many of our lives are! The
evening and the morning have made the day from the creation and we have
had darkness and brightness, but, putting the whole together, the
result has been more than well. If we had been the pilot of our own
ship, we could not have steered it better than God has done–no, we
could not have guided it anything like as well as He has done. We would
have been sure to make a spiritual shipwreck long ago if we had been
our own pilots. We would have been bankrupts before now if we had been
our own managers! But God has managed our affairs so successfully that
looking upon the whole of them at this moment, we can truly say that
God has dealt well with us.
I may go much further than that and say that if we were to take to
pieces the whole of God's dealings with us, there is not one fragment
out of it all of which we would not have to say that God has dealt well
with us in it. This is especially true of those parts of His dealings
with us which have seemed to be the roughest. Oh, how we ought to bless
God for the use He has made of the rod! Among all the blessings of the
Covenant, surely there is none that, for our present imperfect state,
has in it greater immediate virtues than the rod of the Covenant from
the strokes of which we have not been spared! How grateful we ought to
be for sanctified affliction! Wisely did the poet write, concerning the
varied experiences of God's children–
"'Tis well when on the mount They feast on dying love, And 'tis as well
in God's account, When they the furnace prove."
I am sure that in looking back upon all the way that the Lord has led
you, those of you who are His children will be bound to say that
goodness and mercy have followed you all the days of your life! There
has not been a single mistake or one unkind act on God's part. He has
sometimes cut you with the very sharpest knife He had and it was
necessary for Him to cut deeply with it so as to get out the very roots
of the cancer that was destroying you. You would have been lost if it
had not been that you lost your all–but that loss was your greatest
gain! I have heard of one who said that he never saw till he was blind.
And of another who said that he never ran in the way of God's
Commandments till he lost the use of both his legs. Oftentimes that
which has thrown us down has, in the best sense, lifted us up! So each
Believer can adopt the language of the text, and say, "You have dealt
well with Your servant, O Lord." In every place, and at every time, it
has been all well!
It has also been well in every sense of the word. "Well"–that is to
say, wise. "Well"–that is to say, kind, which is something more than
being simply wise. "Well"–that is to say, kinder than kind, the
kindest of all! What God has done for us has always been the best thing
that could be done! It could not have been better. I sometimes fear
that, on our part, it could hardly have been worse–shame on us that it
was so bad! But, on His part, nothing could possibly have excelled
it–every step that He has taken has been full of infinite love and
wisdom. And as to the ultimate effects and results of it all, it is
well. There will come something better for us out of all that God has
prepared for us than has come out of it yet. All is well, and all shall
be well. Pronounce the word with all the emphasis that you can lay upon
it and look at it from all sides, and then say, "You have dealt well
with Your servant, O Lord."
Now let me shift this kaleidoscope a little, that you may take another
peep at all the marvels that it contains. Notice, next, that God has
dealt well with us as His servants–"You have dealt well with Your
servant, O Lord." Of course He has dealt well with us as His children,
giving us the child's portion and the heir's portion! He has dealt well
with us as His bride, as the members of His mystical body and so on.
But David said to the Lord, "You have dealt well with Your servant,"
and I will try to show you how He has dealt well with us as His
servants.
First, He has given us blessed work to do. There is no such employment
as serving God–this employment is our enjoyment! To serve God is to
reign! The Lord has sometimes given us difficult service–so we have
thought–but He
has always given us proportionate strength and has never exacted of us
more than He has enabled us to accomplish. On another occasion, David
wrote, "Unto You, O Lord, belongs mercy: for You render to every man
according to his work." That is to say, "You have supplied the straw
when you have expected the bricks to be made. You have given the five
talents if you have looked for five other talents to be gained as
interest on them. You have dealt well in giving little work to those
who have had little strength and less work when the strength has grown
less, and more strength when more work had to be done and most strength
of all when work and suffering came together. You have been very
considerate of Your servant's broken bones and many weaknesses. You
have dealt well with Your servant in that way."
But servants expect to receive not only work, but provision–and the
Lord has dealt well with His servants in that respect, also. He has
always kept us in livery–sometimes we may have thought that our
clothes were getting pretty well worn out and that it was time for us
to have a change–and it has always come. We have also always had food.
God has never kept a stinted table and we may say of our Heavenly
Father's house that there is always bread enough and to spare for all
His servants. The Lord has supplied us in Providence and especially in
Grace. What fat things full of marrow, what wines on the lees
well-refined has He prepared for us! God never starves His servants or
puts them on short commons. No, each one of them can truly say to Him,
"You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your Word,
both in provender and in labor."
And servants like, beside that, to get a word of encouragement now and
then from their masters. There was one who left an excellent master
with whom he had traveled all over the Continent. And when his master
asked the reason why he wished to leave him, he answered, "You have not
been unkind to me; you have given me all the wages that I needed, but
when I have been with you in the darkest nights, in the heaviest
tempests, in the most terrible frosts, you have never spoken a cheering
word to me and I cannot continue to live such a life as that." You know
that a kind word or a smiling look will go a long way and in this
respect, also, we can, each one, say, "You have dealt well with Your
servant, O Lord." How graciously He has smiled upon us when we have
been trying to serve Him! How much He has made of our little! He has
often commended us even when we have been blaming ourselves–and when
we confessed that we were unprofitable servants and only spoke the
truth when we said so, He has been ready to say, "Well done, good and
faithful servants." He has often said to us, "I know your works," at
the very time when we have hardly known them ourselves! Or, if we have
known them, we have wanted not to recognize them, but to pass them by
as if they were unworthy of notice. The Lord has, indeed, dealt well
with His servants in the way of encouragement.
And so He has in respect to our wages. He has given us earnests of the
pay which we shall receive at the end of our day's toil. Oh, that
blessed pay! How rich we shall be when we receive it, not of debt, but
all of Grace–a whole Heaven and a whole Christ, and a whole God for
our whole hearts to enjoy throughout the whole of eternity! Was there
ever such a "penny" as that paid to laborers at the close of their
day's work? But even on the way the Lord has given us blessed earnests,
sweet pledges of what is yet to come to us. We have good cause to love
our Master and to love His work, and to be grateful to Him for the pay
He gives us for it. And again, each one of us can say to Him, "You have
dealt well with Your servant, O Lord." Is there any one of His servants
here who will not say this? I always think that God has dealt well with
me in not turning me out of doors and I still pray the prayer–
"Dismiss me not from Your service, Lord"– for I count it my highest
honor to be permitted to do anything for Him. He might well say to any
of us, "You are not worth your salt," and send us adrift, but He has
not done so and we can still say to Him, "You have dealt well with Your
servant, O Lord, and still permitted him to take his place in the ranks
of those that wait upon You and, therefore, blessed be Your holy name!"
So far, you see, David's judgment is one in which we fully
coincide–"You have dealt with Your servant" and, "You have dealt well
with him." But we also agree with him that God has dealt with us
according to His Word. It greatly sweetens a blessing when we know that
it comes to us by way of the promises. Whatever God has done to us, in
love and kindness, is only what He said He would do! Look back, now,
and see whether the print of Providence does not exactly answer to the
type of the promise. Concerning many things that we have needed, God
said, "I will give them to you." And now we can say to Him, "You have
done so." He promised that He would be with us. He promised that He
would bless us. He promised that bread would be given us and that our
waters should be sure. He said, "I will never leave you, nor forsake
you" and all along He has acted according to His Word!
Even when He has chastened us, He has only fulfilled His own Word, "As
many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." His pruning has been as Christ
said it would be, "Every branch that bears fruit, He purges it, that it
may bring forth more fruit." When He chastises us for our disobedience,
He only fulfils His threat, "If you walk contrary to Me, I will walk
contrary to you." It is all according to the Word and if anybody wants
to know what the life of a Christian is, let him read what the promise
of God is, for, as far as God is concerned in the life of a
Christian–the promise is a prophecy of what it will be–and the
prophecy is fulfilled in the life of every man who puts his trust in
God.
Now this was a sound judgment on David's part, but it was a judgment at
which he appears to have arrived after God's dealings with him were
almost ended. It would be far better and much wiser if we could daily
learn to say, "You are dealing well with Your servant, O Lord,
according to Your Word." But we are often so foolish that, like old
Jacob, we say, "All these things are against us." David probably felt
that in former days he had often made a mistake, so he here corrects
himself and expresses a true and just judgment concerning the dealings
of God with him. May we be taught to judge righteously of God while the
work is still going on! Is there anybody here, out of all God's people,
who will do otherwise? If so, let me just suggest that if we cannot
say, "You have dealt well with Your servant, O Lord, according to Your
Word," then, in effect, do say this, "You have not dealt well with Your
servant, O Lord–and You have not kept Your Word."
Is there any child of God prepared to talk like that? Not one! And if
you or I cannot say, "You are dealing well with Your servant, O Lord,
according to Your Word," then we are, in effect, saying, "You are not
dealing well with Your servant, and You are not acting according to
Your Word." Are we prepared to say that? No, not to say it–not to say
it–perhaps we would be more honest if we did, but if anybody thinks
it, let him prostrate himself before the God of Heaven and earth and
ask for the forgiveness of his ungrateful unbelief in daring to think
that God can be otherwise than good and kind towards a soul redeemed
with the heart's blood of Christ, chosen from before the foundation of
the world and ordained to everlasting glory with God Himself! May we
fall back again, then, upon the bold assertion of the text and say to
God, if we do not say it to anybody else–say it as we walk home and
say it as we kneel by our bedside–"You have dealt well with Your
servant, O Lord, according to Your Word–and blessed be Your holy
name!"
Now I must pass on to speak very briefly concerning the other two
heads–they are the practical application of this first one.
II. Secondly, we have to consider GOOD JUDGMENT DESIRED. "Teach me good
judgment and knowledge." David felt that his judgment had been greatly
at fault, so that he had made great mistakes with regard to God. And
now that he had come to a more correct judgment, he offered this
prayer: "Teach me good judgment and knowledge." This is what all
Christians need–better judgment–more good judgment–more sound
judgment. May God help us, for the future, first, to judge His
Providence better!–
"Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His Grace."
Next, judge your sufferings better and learn to believe that it is good
for you that you have been afflicted. May we get our judgment more
correct so that it may not be so hasty, or so unbelieving! May our
judgments not be, as they sometimes have been, desponding, dark,
dreary! We need to have our judgments brightened up. Pray God to make
them better.
Then we shall be able to have good judgment in matters of doctrine. I
wish we could get all Christians to have good judgment in this respect.
They go to hear one man who is very fluent. He preaches Calvinistic
doctrine and it is very sweet to them. Another preaches Arminian
doctrine and contradicts all that the first one said–but to these
people it is equally good, for he, also, is an eloquent man. Almost any
error is sucked down by nine out of ten of the professors of the
present day so long as it is sufficiently sugared! If you will but
spice it well, it matters not to them what it is. I have been shocked
to find how some will go and listen to the very drivel which is not the
Gospel of God at all, so long as it is but fitly spoken! May God give
us good judgment upon this matter! We have not as much as we ought to
have, otherwise we would have judged more wisely concerning much that
we have heard.
"Lord, teach me good judgment and knowledge," means, "Let me know You.
Let me know Your Truth. Let me know the voice of Christ, so that I may
not follow a stranger, because I know not the voice of strangers and
have that
discretion which is not to be deceived." There are some preachers who
would deceive the very elect, if it were possible, but the true saints
shall not be deceived, for God will teach them "good judgment and
knowledge."
We also need good judgment concerning our temptations. We are often
like silly little birds, which, for want of judgment, are allured by a
bird call. Satan, like a cunning fowler with foolish birds, makes sure
work of uninstructed Christians! They are taken as in a net and if the
Lord did not graciously deliver them, they could not escape. We need
good judgment to spy out the hidden temptation and to see through the
devil's tricks and traps. He does not come to men showing his hoofs and
horns–but he comes as an angel of light–and he is never so much a
devil as when he appears to be an angel of light. I feel pleased to
think that the Revised Version has altered that clause in the Lord's
prayer to, "Deliver us from the Evil One." Some do not like it because
they do not believe in the Evil One. Or, perhaps, because they are too
much his friend to wish to pray against him! But, in these days he is
so intensely an Archenemy and he slinks about so craftily, that many
people have begun to imagine that he no longer exists! And he can do
ten times more mischief because of that delusion, so we will pray
against him flat to his face, "Deliver us from the Evil One. Give us
good judgment and knowledge, that we may not be ignorant of his
devices." We also need good judgment as to the many false spirits that
are gone forth into the world. "Try the spirits," is an admonition that
is still necessary and we need to be taught good judgment that we may
be able to do it–and discern between good and evil.
I will not detain you by speaking at any length upon this point, only I
just want to say that if we have been mistaken about God, the
probability is that we have been mistaken about other things. And even
if the dealings of our own Heavenly Father have sometimes perplexed us
and we have come to wrong conclusions concerning them, we ought to
distrust our own judgment about other things and constantly go to God
the Holy Spirit for teaching and enlightening, offering this prayer,
"Teach me good judgment." I wish that those who are troubled with
skepticism and doubt would go to God in this way. If men who have
difficulties would tell them to God in prayer, spreading out their
dilemmas before the Most High, I believe He would teach them good
judgment and they would see their way where now everything seems to be
dark and dubious. Let this plan be tried and I believe it will not be
tried in vain!
III. My last point is concerning JUDGMENT POSSESSED.
The Psalmist had some good judgment and, therefore, he asked for more.
He possessed a measure of right judgment, which he expressed in these
words, "I have believed Your Commandments." That is a very unusual
expression because, generally, people believe doctrines, or believe
promises. But David says that he believed God's Commandments. That is a
phase of faith that is very seldom spoken of and it means that,
notwithstanding all David's troubles, he had believed God's sacred Law
to be a wise one, a just one and a true one. He had believed that it
came from God and he had, therefore, reverenced it. He had believed it
to be infinitely wise and, therefore, he followed it. He believed it to
be right and, therefore, he stuck to it. He believed that in the end it
would turn out to be the wisest policy to do as God had bidden him, so
he stood to that. He seems to say, "Lord, I am very foolish, yet I have
had wit enough given me, by Your Spirit, to believe that Your
Commandments are the best that can be, so I wish to keep them and to
believe that Your Commandments are the best guide to me in life and,
therefore, I desire to follow them."
Brothers and Sisters, if you do not know much, yet if you know enough
to be able to say to God, "I have believed Your Commandments and, by
Your Grace, I have not departed from Your Truth," then all will come
right with you. Suppose a man is tempted to steal. I do not mean to go
and pilfer, but to falsify an account, or cheat in business, or what is
much the same thing–to get money by borrowing it when he knows he
cannot repay it? Well, the man who acts like that does not really
believe God's Commandment, "You shall not steal." I have heard of one
who needed wood in winter time and his neighbor in the next farm had a
stack of wood. As he walked along the road, something whispered in his
ear, "All things are yours." "Well," he said, "that thought comes from
God! I will go and take home a log or two." When he had climbed over
into the field and begun to get the wood out of the stack, there came
to his mind another passage of Scripture, "You shall not steal," and he
dropped the wood at once!
My dear Friends, never believe an impression that is contrary to God's
Word! In fact, I would like you not to believe any impression but that
which comes from Scripture, itself. I met, the other day, a person who
was impressed that he was to preach for me. He said that it was
revealed to him, by the Spirit of God, that he should preach for me one
Sunday. I told him that he could do so when the Spirit of God also
revealed it to me, for I did not believe in lopsided revelations. I
thought that it was necessary for the revelation to come to me as well
as to him. When it does, I will attend to it. Some
people have, every now and then, a supposed revelation that just suits
them. A man believes that it is impressed upon him to do exactly what
he wants to do! For instance, he is sure that he ought to get married.
Many young people are quite sure about that matter when it would be far
better for them not to do anything of the sort. A man is often
impressed that he ought to do a thing simply because he wants to do
it–the wish is father to the thought. Now, if you believe God's
Commandments, you will not always believe in what looks like a
Providence. Do you not know that there are devil's providences,
sometimes? At least that is what I call them.
When Jonah went down to flee unto Tarshish, he found a ship going
there–was not that a remarkable providence? Perhaps he said to
himself, "I felt some doubt about whether I was right in going there,
but when I got down to the seashore, there was a ship–and there was
just room for me to go as a passenger, and the fare was just the amount
that I had–and so I felt that it must be of the Lord." Nonsense,
Jonah! It is of the Lord for you to do what is right! And if you have
judgment enough to do that, let others be foolish enough to follow this
impression or that, this whim or that, this notion or that which may
come to them from Satan–or their own evil hearts!
Be you, dear Friends, wise enough to stand to the plain Commandments of
the Word. God help you to do so, for uprightness and integrity shall
preserve you and nothing else will. "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so
shall you dwell in the land, and verily you shall be fed." Those who do
not believe God's Commandments and run off to all sorts of shifts and
schemes, and tricks of their own, will have to suffer for it! Pray to
God to teach you good judgment. And if He has given you a measure of
it, may He continually give you more and more, for His name's sake!
Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM119:64-72.
Verses 64-67. The earth, O LORD, is full of Your mercy: teach me Your
statutes. You have dealt well with Your servant, O LORD, according unto
Your Word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed
Your Commandments. Before I was afflicted I went astray.–Prosperity
had been to the Psalmist like the gap in the hedge through which the
sheep wander from the shepherd, but affliction had been to him like the
prickly bushes that often stop the sheep from wandering still further,
so he says, "Before I was afflicted I went astray."
67. But now have I kept Your Word. What a benefit, then, affliction had
been to him! And what a blessing it often is to us! So, instead of
dreading it, as we usually do, we ought to welcome it and be on the
look-out for the blessing which is to come to us through it. Many a
child of God has joined with Dr. Watts in singing–
"Father, I bless Your gentle hand– How kind was Your chastising rod
That forced my conscience to a stand, And brought my wandering soul to
God! Foolish and vain, I went astray Ere I had felt Your scourges,
Lord– I left my Guide, and lost my way; But now I love and keep Your
Word."
68. You are good, and do good. What a delightful description this is of
God and His works! Who is good? Our Lord Jesus supplies the answer,
"There is none good but One, that is, God." And His works are like
Himself–"You are good, and do good."
68. Teach me Your statutes. In the 25th Psalm, David wrote, "Good and
upright is the Lord: therefore will He teach sinners in the way." And
here, because the Lord is good, and does good, the Psalmist prays,
"Teach me Your statutes." He will teach us that which is good because
He is, Himself, good. What a blessing it is for us to have such a
Teacher! How wonderful it is that God should be so condescending as to
take us into His school!
69. The proud have forged a lie against me. They have kept on hammering
away until they have finished the falsehood. They have "forged" it, as
one forges a deadly weapon in the fire.
69. But I will keep Your Precepts with my whole heart ' 'It is no use
for me to trouble about them. When they have forged one lie, they will
probably forge another and there is practically no end to that black
business. It is no use for me
to try to answer them. I will turn to a far more profitable
occupation–'I will keep Your Precepts with my whole heart.'"
70. Their heart is as fat as grease. Insensible, lifeless–they have no
conscience, no feeling–they are so proud of their prosperity that they
are afflicted with fatty degeneration of the heart.
70. But I delight in Your Law. What a blessing it is for us to find our
fatness there–to delight in the marrow and fatness of God's Law!
71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn
Your Statutes. The Psalmist was so impressed with the benefits which he
had derived from his afflictions, that he returned to the subject–"It
is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Your
Statutes." There is much teaching power about God's rod. He always
keeps one in His school and it is greatly needed for such dull scholars
as we are. Many a child of God can repeat the Psalmist's testimony–"It
is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Your
statutes." "You have whipped a little knowledge into me and not much
has come in any other way."
72. The Law of Your mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and
silver David had a great deal of gold and silver, far more than any of
us have, but yet he thought very little of it in comparison with God's
Law. Many people despise gold and silver because they have not any. The
fox said the grapes were sour because they were beyond his reach. But
here is a case in which a man had as much gold and silver as he could
ever want–yet he says that the Law of God's mouth was better than all
of it, and he was wise in saying so! For gold and silver can be stolen.
Riches often take to themselves wings and fly away. Even great wealth
may soon be spent and gone, but God's Law never leaves those who love
it, nor lets them lose it. When all our spending money is gone, then is
the Commandment of God still our treasure. Happy is everyone who can
say, with David, "The Law of Your mouth is better unto me than
thousands of gold and silver."