How to Read the Bible
(No. 3318)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1912.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING JUNE 21,
1866.
"Till I come, give attendance to reading." 1 Timothy 4:13.
OF course this counsel and exhortation is intended primarily as a
direction to Christian ministers and especially to young Christian
ministers. They must read much if they are to be profitable to others
as preachers. There used to be a very stupid conceit in some sections
of the Church, that if a minister read extensively, he would only give
forth stale truth, or what some simpletons called, "dead men's brains."
Men have now learned, however, that he will be most fresh and original
in his own thoughts who most diligently cultivates his mind by studying
and pondering the thoughts of other minds. He who never quotes, will
never be quoted, and he who does not read is not very likely to be
read. Of course the first thing the minister needs is to be taught of
the Spirit, but then the question is–How does the Spirit teach? He
teaches, no doubt, mainly through the Word and through our own
experimental acquaintance with that Word. But if He pleases to reveal a
Truth of God to another man, and I will not read that Truth as it has
been recorded by that other man, I have neglected the teaching of the
Spirit of God. You know, with regard to the Savior's miracles, that
there was not one of them that was unnecessary. He never did a thing by
miracle which could have been performed by the ordinary laws of Nature.
So it is with the teaching of the Spirit–I have no right to expect
that the Spirit will reveal Truth to me without the use of a book when
I can find it out for myself with the book. "The Holy Spirit helps our
infirmities," but not our idleness! He is given to us on purpose that
He may help us when we are weak, but not that we may be indulged where
we are slothful. I have sometimes had the unutterable misery of
listening to a sermon which has been professedly dictated by the Spirit
of God, but in which it was clear that the preacher had never thought
upon the subject before he spoke–and I can only say that I was quite
at a loss to perceive any peculiar beauty in the sermon, nor did I see
anything at all which made it a source of edification superior to a
sermon which had been prepared by someone else. I thought I detected a
good many traits of human ignorance–and but very few traces of the
working of the Holy Spirit.
There are many young fellows here tonight who are preparing for the
ministry. I shall not, however, enlarge on this point, but shall only
press on their earnest consideration and their most devout meditation.
This Inspired exhortation, which is not mine, nor even an Apostle's
only, but the exhortation of the Holy Spirit of God through the
Apostle– "Give attendance to reading." If, Brothers, you would bless
God's Church and train up a band of really intelligent Christians, do
not be always appealing only to the emotions, but also give out good,
sound, strong Gospel Doctrine– and illustrate the Doctrine, so as to
expound and comment to others. Do this especially by reading the words
of the greatest masters in Scripture theology–and these will prove
your delightful and dear companions and your splendid helpers in making
your ministry richly profitable to your hearers.
This, however, is not our special subject for tonight. This same
exhortation so peculiarly suitable to the minister, will suit all his
hearers, too, because the ministry is not a religious caste peculiar to
some few, but we are, all of us, to teach others according as God shall
teach us! And in order that we may be useful in our sphere, as the
minister is in his, we must adopt the same means to fit ourselves for
our high privilege and to prepare us to be used by God. As the minister
without reading will have but little power, so will it be with
Christians in general. "Give attendance to reading" is an exhortation
which I would press upon most of you, especially those of you who have
leisure and who are not called to exhausting labors which take up all
your time.
I am not, however, going to keep so closely to my text as merely to
exhort you to read. I want to ask you to read God's Word! That seems to
me to be the Christian's book. You may read other books and your mind
may thereby be well-furnished with spiritual things, but if you keep to
the Word of God, though you may be deficient in many points of a
liberal education, you will not be deficient in the education that will
fit you for blessed service here, for the service of skies, for
communion with God on earth and communion with Christ in Glory!
My objective this evening is to say a few things about how to read the
Bible. Last Thursday night we spoke at length upon God's Word as to its
excellencies. TonightI think it fitting that we should speak a little
about how to read that Word with greatest profit to our souls. In doing
so we shall hope to consider seven precepts all bearing powerfully upon
this important matter. Our first precept shall be–
I. READ AND DEPEND on the Spirit of God. How often do we open the
sacred Book and read a Chapter through, perhaps at family prayer, or
perhaps in our own private devotions and, having read from the first
verse to the last, we shut up the book thinking we have done something
very right and very proper–and in a vague way somehow profitable to
us? Very right and very proper, indeed, and yet, right and proper as
the thing is, we may really have gained nothing thereby! We may, in
fact, have only drilled ourselves in the merely external part of
religion and may not have enjoyed anything spiritual, or anything that
can be beneficial to our souls if we have forgotten the Divine Spirit
through whom the Word has come to us!
Ought we not even to remember that in order to properly understand the
Holy Word we need to have the Holy Spirit to be His own ExpositorTThe
hymn says concerning Providence–
"God is His own interpreter And He will make it plain"
and certainly it is so with regard to the Scriptures! Commentators and
expositors are very useful, indeed, but the best expositor is always
the author of a book, himself. If I had a book which I did not quite
understand, it would be a very great convenience to me to live next
door to the author, for then I could run in and ask him what he meant.
This is just your position, Christian! The Book will sometimes puzzle
you, but the Divine Author, who must know His own meaning, is always
ready to lead you into its meaning! He dwells in you, and shall be with
you, and Christ Jesus said, "When He, the Spirit of Truth is come, He
shall lead you into all Truth."
But to understand the Word is not enough. We also need that He makes us
to feel its power. How can we do this except through the Holy Spirit?
"Your Word has quickened me," O God, but it is only as You did quicken
me through it. The Word of God is to be read literally, but, "it is the
letter that kills." Only "the Spirit gives life" and, excellent as are
its statements, yet even they have no spiritual force in themselves!
Unless the Holy Spirit shall fill them, even they shall become as wells
without water and as clouds without rain. Have you not often found it
so yourselves? I appeal now to your own experience. You have sometimes
read a portion of Scripture and the page has seemed to glow, your heart
has burned within you and you have said that the Word came home to you
with power.
Just so, but it was the Holy Spirit who was bringing it home to your
spirit in its true power and making it a sweet savor of life unto life
to you! At other times, you may have read the very same page and
painfully missed the sweetness which once you had tasted–and lost the
lovely light that once flashed from it upon your mind's eye!
Everything must depend upon the Spirit speaking through it, for even
the light of the Word of God is, to a great extent, but moonlight. That
is to say, it is a reflection of the light which streams from God,
Himself, who is the one true source of light. If God shines not upon
the Word when we read it, then the Word shines not back upon us, but
becomes a dark Word to us, or as one says, "rather an obscuration than
a Revelation, rather concealing God from us, than revealing Him to us."
Look up, reader! The next time the Book is in your hands, look up
before you open it–and while your eyes are running down the page, look
up and pray that God would shine upon it! And when the Chapter is
finished and you put the Book away, take a minute, again, to look up
and ask His blessing. If by reading the Scriptures we were only always
reminded of the Holy Spirit. If we got no other good from the
Scripture, itself, except the turning of our souls to think upon that
Divine and blessed One, that would be, in itself, an inestimable
blessing! Do read, then, thoughtfully remembering the great Author.
Our second precept is–
II. READ AND MEDITATE.
There is no exercise more out of fashion, nowadays, than meditation!
And yet, to use Brookes' expression, "it is a soul-fattening duty." The
cattle crop the grass, but the nutrition comes from the chewing of the
cud! Reading is the gathering together of our food, but meditation is
the chewing of the cud, the digesting, the assimilating of the Truth of
God! I quarry out the Truth when I read, but I smelt the ore and get
the pure gold out of it when I meditate! Ruth gleaned, but afterwards
she threshed. The reader is the gleaner, but he who meditates is the
thresher, too. For lack of meditation the Truth of God runs by us and
we miss and lose it. Our treacherous memory is like a sieve–and what
we hear and what we read runs through it and leaves but little
behind–and that little is often unprofitable to us by reason of our
lack of diligence to get thoroughly at it. I often find it very
profitable to get a text as a sweet morsel under my tongue in the
morning and to keep the flavor of it, if I can, in my mouth all day!
I like to turn it over and over again in my mind, for any one text of
the Scriptures you will find to be like the kaleidoscope. Turn it one
way and you say, "What a fair Truth of God is this!" Turn it another
way and you see the same Truth, but under how different an aspect! Turn
it yet once more–and keep doing it all day–and you will be amazed and
delighted to find in how many lights the same Truth will appear and
what wonderful permutations and combinations you can find in it! When
you have been doing this all day, you will be compelled to feel that
there is an infinity about even one text, so that you can never
completely comprehend it but find it still is beyond you! If you get a
passage of Scripture given you, do not quickly give it up because you
do not immediately seize its force and fullness. The manna which fell
in the wilderness would not keep sweet beyond one day–if kept over
unto the second, it bred worms and stank. But there was one portion of
manna which was put into a golden pot and laid up in the Ark of the
Covenant which never lost its sweetness and heavenly nutriment! And
there is a way of keeping the precious portions of God's Word that are
given you today, in such a manner that you may go in the strength of it
for forty days and continue to find fresh food in the same text day
after day, and even month after month! But this is only to be done by
meditatingupon it. Our hymn has a fable in it when it says that the–
"Spicy breezes
Blow soft over Ceylon's isle."
Voyagers who have been there, tell us that they have never smelt "the
spicy breezes," for the cinnamon yields no perfume till it is bruised
and broken! And certainly God's Word is exceedingly full of perfume,
but not till it has been graciously bruised by reverent and loving
meditation. You cannot get the sweetness and fragrance from it till you
have smitten it again and again in the mortar of thought with the
pestle of recollection. Meditate, then, upon these things!
"But how can we meditate," asks one, "when we have so many things to
think of?" But "one thing is necessary," and it is necessary that the
Christian should mediate upon the things of God! I know you must give
your minds to many things and I cannot ask you not to do so, but
whenever you have time to rest, then let your minds come back to the
old home. The birds of the air are all day long picking up their food,
but they go straight away to their roost at night, and so when the
day's business is over and the daily bread has been gained, fly to your
nest and rest your soul in some precious portion of God's Word. During
the day, too, whenever you are freed from anxiety, let your mind dart
upwards–and it will help you to do so if you take a text and make it
as wings that enable you to fly to ponder heavenly things. Read and
meditate!
The third rule for our guide should be–
III. READ AND APPLY. What I mean is just this. Do not read the Bible as
a Book for other people. Do not read it merely to say, "Yes, it is
true. Very true. I believe its Doctrines to be the Revelation of the
Infallible Mind of God, Himself." But also endeavor in reading a page
of the Scriptures, always to see how much it belongs to you. For some
of you there is very little in the Word of God except threats. Pray God
to help you to feel the solemnity even of the threats, for if you feel
deeply the threats, now, you may be delivered from the tragic
fulfillment of them by-and-by! If you are made to tremble under God's
Word, you may never be made to tremble under God's hand. If you feel
the wrath to come, now, you may never have to feel it in the next
world. Ask God that His threats may drive you out of your sins and
drive you to seek pardon in Christ. Then when you read descriptions of
the human heart and the Fall, the corruption and the depravity of our
nature, look and see yourselves as in a mirror and say of each man as
you hear of his sin, "I am such a man as this was, and if I do not fall
into precisely the same sin, yet the possibility and peril of it is in
my heart and I could do so, but for God's restraining Grace." Take the
very histories home to your heart and find a point in them, either of
encourage-
ment or of warning for yourselves. As for the Doctrines, remember that
a Doctrine kills except as it is personally grasped and as you feel
your interest in it. I have known some rejoice greatly in the Doctrine
of Election who were never elected, and some who were very pleased with
the Doctrine of Justification by Faith, but who had no faith by which
to be justified! I have known of some, too, who gloried in Final
Perseverance, but who, if they had finally persevered would certainly
have been in Hell, for they were on the road there! It is one thing to
know these Truths of God, and even to fight for them with the zeal and
bitterness of a controversialist, but it is quite another thing to
enjoy them as our own heritage and our portion forever! Ask the Lord to
show you your interest in every Truth and do not be satisfied until you
have an assured personal interest in them! Especially let this be so
with the promises. "I will never leave you, nor forsake you!" Well, it
is a very fine promise, but if it is read to me thus–"I will never
leave you, nor forsake you," what a transformed and glorified promise
it then becomes! Stout old Martin Luther used to say, "All vital
religion is in the personal and possessive pronouns." Is it not so?
"When you pass through the river I will be with you, the floods shall
not overflow you!" Oh, truly, such a promise is as a cluster of Eshcol,
but it is in Eshcol's valley and I cannot reach it there! The promise
applied is the cluster brought to me just where I amand I can receive
it and delight myself in its luscious sweetness!
Take care, none the less, to seek for the application of precepts. Some
are always looking out for other people's duty and are great judges and
critics for what others ought to do. "Who are you that judges another
man?" To his own master he stands or falls. See what precepts are
binding upon yourselfand then, as a child of God, be your feet swift to
run in the way of His commandments. Read the Bible as a man reads his
relation's will–to find what legacy there is in it for himself. Do
with the Bible as the sick man does with the doctor's
prescription–follow it by personally doing what it bids you. Ask God
not to let your Bible be another man's Bible, but your own Bible–God's
own mouth speaking to your soul of the things which make for your
peace.
Fourthly–and this is very hard work–IV. READ AND PRACTICE. If you do
not do this, you are reading to your own condemnation! If you read, "He
that believes on Him is not condemned," if you believe not, then you
are "condemned already," because you have not believed on the Son of
God! The Gospel is a very solemn thing to every man because if it is
not a savor of life unto life, since it must always be a savor of some
sort–it therefore becomes a savor of death unto death! Some seem as if
they read the Bible in order to know how not to do–the more God
commands, the more they will not obey! Though He draws them, they will
not come to Him. And when He calls them, they will give Him no answer.
A sorry, sorry heart is that which so uses God's Word as to make it an
aggravation of its sin! Our life ought to be–and if God's Grace is
much in it, it will be–a new translation of the Bible. Speak of
bringing the Bible down into the vernacular! Well, this is it! The
worldling's Bible is the Christian. He never reads the Book, but he
reads the disciple of Christ and he judges the Christian religion by
the lives of its professors! The world will learn better and will more
likely be brought to know Christ when the lives of Christians are
better, and when the Bible of the Christian Life shall be more in
accordance with the Bible of Christian Doctrine! God make us holy!
Sanctify us, spirit, soul and body, and then we shall be made finely
serviceable both to the Church and to the world! Read and practice! But
we shall only be able to do this as God the Holy Spirit shall help us.
Then let us–
V. READ AND PRAY. This is, perhaps, coming back almost to the first
point, that is, read with dependence on the Holy Spirit. But I desire
to impress a rather different thought upon your souls. Martin Luther
says he learned more by prayer than he ever learned in any other way. A
stone-breaker was one day on his knees breaking flints when a minister
came by and said, "I see you are doing what I often do, breaking up
hard things." "Yes, Sir," was the answer, "and I am doing it in the way
in which you must do it, on my knees."
A passage in Scripture will often open up when you pray over it, which
will defy mere criticism or looking to expositors. You put the text
into action and then you comprehend it. I suppose if a man were
studying anatomy and had never seen the body in life, he might not be
able to know what a certain ligature was for, or such a bone–but if he
could set that body moving, then he might understand the use of all the
different parts, supposing he were able to see them. So when a text of
Scripture lies, as it were, dead before us, we may not be able to
understand it–but when by prayer the text grows into life and we set
it in motion–we comprehend it at once! We may hammer away at a text
sometimes in meditation and strike it again and again, and yet it may
not yield to us, but we cry to God, and immediately the text opens and
we see concealed in it wondrous treasures of Divine Wisdom and of
Grace!
But the prayer should not be merely that we may understand the text. I
think we should pray over every passage in order that we may be enabled
to get out of it what God would impart to us. A text is like a treasure
chest which is locked–and prayer is the key to open it–and then we
get God's treasure! The text is God's letter, full of loving words, but
prayer must break the seal. When reading goes with praying and praying
goes with reading, then a man goes on both his feet, the bird flies
with both his wings! To only read is unprofitable–to pray without
reading is not so soul-enriching, but when the two run together, they
are like the horses pulling the chariot and they speed along right
merrily!
Read and pray Christian! But take care you do not read without watering
your reading with your prayer. Paul may plant and Apollos may water,
but God gives the increase! And even in this blessed Book, Moses may
plant and David may water, but prayer must cry to God or else the
increase will not come! Now in the sixth place–
VI. READ AND TRY. Try what you hear. Try what you profess. Try what you
read. Goldsmiths keep bottles of acid by which they test everything
that is offered them for sale, to see whether it is gold or merely
tinsel. And the Christian should keep God's Word near at hand and
treasured in the soul, to test thereby all that he hears. "Prove all
things; hold fast that which is good." Many hearers believe all that is
said because of the person who declares it to them. This is not
according to Christ's mind! We ought to receive nothing as vital
religious truth except it is sent us from above! And however much we
may respect the pastor or the teacher, we must not so give up our
judgment to any man as to receive his teaching merely because he
chooses to utter it. Bring every form of the Truth of God that is
delivered to you, though it may glitter with oratory and seem
reasonable and proper, to the test of Scripture! It is very difficult,
however, to get men to do this. They seem to fancy that you have
sinister motives the moment you tell them so. There is a conservatism
in the nature of us all with regard to our religious faith which is
right enough if it were balanced by another principle. To hold fast
what I know is right, but to be willing to receive or to do anything
that God would teach me to receive or do is more right still. I must
know what it is to which I hold fast, or else I may be injuring myself
by the fixedness by which I stand to what I have learned. The woman of
Samaria said, "Our fathers worshipped God in this mountain." That is
the argument of numbers of persons. "Our fathers did so-and-so." This
would be a capital argument supposing that our fathers were always
right, but a very absurd argument supposing that they were wrong! I
hope we are not like that early Saxon who asked where his father and
all his ancestors had gone–and when he was told they were no doubt
lost–he replied to the missionary that he would rather go where they
were than become a Christian and be separated from them!
There are some who seem to be of this blood and boast in it. Their
ancestors believed this or that, and they desire to follow them. Many
there are who profess doctrines they have never learned and which they
do not really know and grasp. They have the shell but they never reach
the kernel. Is not this the case with many of us here tonight? If you
even have a Doctrine of God in your mind, find out the text or texts
which prove it! If there should happen to be other texts which seem to
point the other way, do not cut and pare any of them down, but accept
all and wait until the Spirit reveals wherein they really agree!
Scripture is not to fit your opinions, but your opinions to conform to
the blessed Word! There is a fable of a foolish gardener who had a tree
that would persist in growing oddly. He did not like to restrain it
and, therefore, had a wall built for it to grow upon. I think the man
was far wiser who let the wall alone and changed the tree! There are
people who are very apt to alter Scripture to suit their views, pulling
out one word until it is never so long, dropping another, or completely
changing the meaning of it, though everybody knows that it is the
forced and unnatural one, or else tinkering up a text till it will fit
some crank or peculiarity of theirs. This is not reverence! It is not
treating God's Word as it ought to be treated. God's Word is no nose of
wax to be shaped according to our fancies–or anybody else's. Though
nobody else should say what he means, God always does. He would not
have us talk in language that is capable of half-a-dozen meanings–and
He does not talk so Himself. He speaks so plainly that if we are candid
and desire to know what He means, it is not difficult to do so,
especially if we go to Him for it. Let us, then, take this advice and
try the spirits whether they are of God and, like the noble Bereans,
search the Scriptures whether these things are so–and so read the
Scriptures and try what we read.
And, lastly, the text is significantly followed by, "Give attendance to
reading, to exhortation." I will, therefore, say in the seventh place–
VII. READ AND TELL OUT what you read.
This will be an effectual way of imprinting it upon your own memory.
When you read a passage of Scripture and have any enjoyment therein, go
to your sick neighbor and tell what God has said to you. If you meet an
ignorant one
when you know somewhat of the things of God, tell them to him. Nations
are enriched by the interchanges of commerce and so are Christians! We
each have something that another has not and he has something that we
need. Let us trade together. "Then they that feared the Lord spoke
often, one to another," and it is very good that they should do so. Our
talk is, alas, too often very frivolous–there is much chaff but little
wheat. If we would but talk more of Scripture and establish it as a
fashion among Christians, we would grow much faster and stronger, and
be wiser in the things the Kingdom.
I know one who, when he was a young man, read all day until evening
came and then went every evening and preached. The preaching in the
evening of what he had read during the day stamped and fastened the
Truths of God upon his own mind and made them unspeakably profitable to
him! When you have read for an hour or so, spend another half-hour in
communicating to a child, or a servant, or a seeker, or to some
bed-ridden saint the thing that has enriched and helped you.
How I would press this upon you, everyone, my dear Brothers and
Sisters, who are members of this Church. We owe very many of the
conversions that have been worked here to the personal exertions of our
Church members. God owns our ministry, but He also owns yours. It is to
our delight at Church Meetings that when converts come, they often have
to say that the Word preached from the pulpit was blessed to them, and
yet I think that almost as often they say it was the Word of God spoken
in some of the classes, or in the pews–for not a few of you have been
spiritual parents to strangers who have dropped in! Continue doing
this! Let our congregation be full of these spiritual sharpshooters who
shall pick out, each man his man, and who shall fire with the gun of
the Gospel directly at each individual!
Of course, if you know nothing, you can tell nothing. If you have never
read anything which by the blessing of God has been brought powerfully
home to your own soul, do not attempt to speak to others. There must be
something begun in your own soul, first, but if you have been brought
into personal contact with Divine Truth, let it be the first impulse of
your soul to–
"Tell to the sinners round
What a dear Savior you have found."
The woman of Samaria left her water pot and went into the city, and
said, "Come, see a Man that told me all things that ever I did; is not
this the Christ?" My Beloved, let us do the same! I do not know a
living thing, even a wild flower in the hedge, but seeks to prolong the
existence of its species. The foxglove sheds its seeds all down the
banks–no matter how tiny the flower may be, it seeks to produce its
like. So you, Christian, who are the noblest work of God, should not be
satisfied unless your life is a continually spreading around of the
Truth of God which has been made vital to you and will be new life to
others!
What a grand crown and close to this night's service it would be could
we be used of God to bring a soul from darkness to light, and from
slavery to liberty! We cannot do it of ourselves, but God may help us.
Would you not walk a mile, yes, many miles to do it? Well, you need not
walk miles! It is quite possible that the very person who, as it were
by chance, is sitting next to you tonight, is the person whom God has
predestinated to be blessed and to be blessed by you! At any rate, try
it. There shall be nothing lost, there may be much gained. Why has God
taught the Truth to you? For your own good? Yes, but you are not to be
selfish! Be you, at least, as unselfish as the three lepers who, when
they found the Syrian camp deserted and an abundance of gold and
silver, said, "We do not well to stay here. This is a day of good
tidings; let us go in the city and tell." Dear Friend, you do not well
if you read only for yourself! Having read, go out and tell what you
have read, and the blessing shall come into your own bosom, even if it
goes not out to others! And you shall be blessed and God shall be
glorified!
I would press this, in conclusion, upon some of you who are not
converted. Often men have come to Christ by reading the Scriptures.
Attend upon a preached ministry, but do also read and search the
Scriptures. I recollect when I was seeking Christ. I read Doddridge's
Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, but the book muddled me
much, though it is a very admirable book in some respects. Then I read
Alleine's Alarm, and then Baxter's Call to the Unconverted, and all
these only plowed my heart more and more. But the comfort which I got
came out of God's Word. It was from that precious text, "Look unto Me
and be you saved, all you ends of the earth." Then I got light! Turn
you away from all human books to the Divine Book, and from all human
helpers to Him upon whom help is laid and who is mighty to save!
Read God's love in the Book of Atonement upon the Cross, written in the
crimson lines of the Savior's flowing blood and streaming veins! Look
to Christ and trust in Him, and you shall live! May God bless you for
Jesus' sake.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM 119:105-115.
Verse 105. Your Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path
We are walkers through the city of this world and we are often called
to go out into its darkness–let us never venture there without the
light-giving Word of God, lest we slip. Each man should use the Word of
God personally, practically and habitually, that he may see his way and
see what lies in it. When darkness settles down upon all around me, the
Word of the Lord, like a flaming torch, reveals my way. We would not
know the way, or how to walk in it, if Scripture, like a blazing
flambeau, did not reveal it. It is a lamp by night, a light by day and
a delight at all times! David guided his own steps by it and also saw
the difficulties of his road by its beams.
106. I have sworn, and I will perform it, that I will keep Your
righteous judgments. Under the influence of the clear light of
knowledge he had firmly made up his mind and solemnly declared his
resolve in the sight of God. Perhaps mistrusting his own fickle mind,
he had pledged himself in sacred form to abide faithful to the
determinations and decisions of his God. Whatever path might open
before him, he was sworn to follow that only upon which the lamp of the
Word of God was shining.
107. I am afflicted very much: quicken me, O LORD, according unto Your
Word. According to the last verse he had been sworn in as a soldier of
the Lord, and in this next verse he is called to suffer hardness in
that capacity. Our service of the Lord does not screen us from trial,
but rather secures it for us! The Psalmist was a consecrated man and
yet a chastened man. Quickening is the best remedy for tribulation–the
soul is raised above the thought of present distress and is filled with
that holy joy which attends all vigorous spiritual life–and so the
affliction grows light.
108. Accept, I beseech You, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O LORD,
and teach me Your judgments. He offers prayer, praise, confession and
testimony–these, presented with his voice in the presence of an
audience–were the tribute of his mouth unto Jehovah. He trembles lest
these should be so ill-uttered as to displease the Lord and, therefore,
he implores acceptance. When we render unto the Lord our best, we
become all the more concerned to do better. If, indeed, the Lord shall
accept us, we then desire to be further instructed that we may be still
more acceptable.
109. My soul is continually in my hand: yet do I not forget Your Law.
He lived in the midst of danger. He had to be always fighting for
existence–hiding in caves, or contending in battles. This is a very
uncomfortable and trying state of affairs, and men are apt to think any
expedient justifiable by which they can end such a condition. But David
did not turn aside to find safety in sin. They say that all things are
fair in love and war–but the holy man thought not so–while he carried
his life in his hand, he also carried the Law of God in his heart!
110. The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred not from Your
precepts. Spiritual life is the scene of constant danger–the Believer
lives with his life in his hand, and meanwhile all seem plotting to
take it from him–by cunning if they cannot by violence. We shall not
find it an easy thing to live the life of the faithful. Wicked spirits
and wicked men will leave no stone unturned for our destruction. David
was not snared, for he kept his eyes open and kept near his God.
111. Your testimonies have I taken as an heritage forever: for they are
the rejoicing of my heart. He chose them as his lot, his portion, his
estate. And what is more, he laid hold upon them and made them
so–taking them into possession and enjoyment. David's choice is our
choice. If we might have our desire, we would desire to keep the
commands of God perfectly. To know the Doctrines, to enjoy the
promises, to practice the commands–be this a kingdom large enough for
me!
112. I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes always, even
unto the end. He was not half inclined to virtue, but heartily inclined
to it. His whole heart was bent on practical, persevering godliness. He
was resolved to keep the statutes of the Lord with all his heart,
throughout all his time, without erring or ending! He made it his end
to keep the Law unto the end and that without end.
113. I hate vain thoughts: but Your Law do I love. The opposite of the
fixed and Infallible Law of God is the wavering, changing opinion of
men! David had an utter contempt and abhorrence for this–all his
reverence and regard went to the sure Word of Testimony. In proportion
to his love to the Law was his hate of man's inventions. The thoughts
of men are vanity, but the thoughts of God are Truth.
114. You are my hiding place and my shield: I hope in Your Word. To his
God he ran for shelter from vain thoughts! There he hid himself away
from their tormenting intrusions and in solemn silence of the soul he
found God to be his hiding place. When called into the world, if he
could not be alone with God as his hiding place, he could have the Lord
with him as his shield–and by this means he could ward off the attacks
of wicked suggestions.
115. Depart from me, you evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of
my God. If we fly to God from vain thoughts, much more shall we avoid
vain men. Evildoers make evil counselors. Those who say unto God,
"Depart from us," ought to hear the immediate echo of their words from
the mouths of God's children, "Depart from us. We cannot eat bread with
traitors."