Month: January 2018

225. Great Peace

 Psalm 119:165

Great peace have they which love thy law:

and nothing shall offend them.

 Believers in Christ love the Law of the Lord; they don’t always keep it very well, but they repent when they fail and still love it. Those who love God’s Law repent and believe on a regular basis. For them the Lord promises great peace; it seems as if peace can have various levels or degrees from a tenuous peace to a great peace.

The world can’t give this kind of peace and the world can’t take it away. This kind of deep, abiding, inner peace provides a solid foundation for living a full life. This kind of peace comes from having peace with God, knowing that He loves us unconditionally and accepts us totally. This kind of peace makes peace with others so that relationships function smoothly. This kind of peace replaces turmoil and uncertainty inside with calm assurance. Great peace surpasses the ability of the human mind to really understand or explain. It can be so strong that one can feel it but not be able to put it into words. It also keeps our hearts and minds.

An interesting part of this promise is that “nothing shall offend them.” Those who love the law repent daily and hear the Gospel in the inner being; these have such a great peace that nothing shall offend them. A peace that guards and shield from external harm and offense must be great and strong. The peaceful believer cannot be hurt by sticks, stones or names; no matter how mean-spirited or critical the words of other people can be this person will not be touched, moved or offended because He knows who He is and where He lives; He knows God forgives, loves and accepts Him all the time no matter what. He says, “I will not be offended for I instantly forgive. God is for me.” This person enjoys the promise of great peace.

224. Righteousness and Truth

 Psalm 119:142, 160

Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,

And Thy law is the truth.

 Thy word is true from the beginning:

And every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever.

 There is a never-ending foreverness to righteousness. For Christ’s sake, by God’s Grace, God justifies us and declares us righteous; we have God’s righteousness; and the promise is that this righteousness is everlasting and endures forever. It goes with us as ours directly through death and resurrection into the next life. This is the promise that we can count on. Our future could not be more secure.

All of God’s promises and blessings are guaranteed to us with certainty forever because the Word is eternally true; the promises we believe are founded on eternal truth. From the beginning and even before the beginning, and to the end and even after the end, God’s Word is true. All lies and falsehoods have very short lives, have no lasting effect, and will pass away (along with heaven and earth), but the Word, which is Truth, will never pass away, lives forever, and has great effect. We can count on the Truth of God, even when lies presently overwhelm, we can count on decisions made according to Truth, and can count on never forever being disappointed. That’s a promise.

223. Shine Face

 Psalm 119:135

Make thy face to shine upon thy servant;

And teach me thy statutes.

 The Lord promises to make His face shine upon us; that is how He blesses us. It is thus blessed and promised to us in the familiar Aaronic Benediction: “…The Lord make his face shine upon thee…” What is a shining face? It is a beautiful and poetic way of saying He is thinking good thoughts of you and intending kind actions toward you. It is a way of saying God is making His presence known to you in order to bless you and answer your prayers.

Faces shine when they are smiling with the eyes and grinning from ear to ear. It shows that a person is happy; but more than that: with the word “upon” it means that the Lord is happy with you (well pleased). Nothing is our world could make us happier than to know that God the Almighty is happy with us. The Father is happy on the one hand because when He looks upon us He sees His Son Jesus; the Father is happy with us in the second place because He actually sees us reflecting His image as the Holy Spirit recreates it brighter and brighter in us.

We may be deceived by selfishness into thinking that other people, places, and things will make me happy, but down deep we know that we are really happiest when we make other people happy. For example, it is pleasant when we smile at someone and they smile back; that makes all happy. It is most pleasing when God makes His face shine, or smiles upon us, and we smile back. When we repent and believe the Gospel we make God most happy.

222. Understanding

Psalm 119:130

The entrance of thy words giveth light;

it giveth understanding unto the simple.

The Lord promises light from the Word; the parallel line in this verse shows that the metaphor “light” means understanding. The simple are on the same footing as the smart; the poor equal to the rich. All people equally are able to receive light and understanding from the Word of God. Anyone and everyone can understand the love of God, even the illiterate, the handicapped, the insane and babies can understand; perhaps simple, inarticulate non-adults can even understand better than complex, educated adults.

The Gospel gives light and understanding by the power of the Holy Spirit, not by the power of reason or emotion or any human capability. This is “the entrance of the Word. The promise is that when the Spirit enters the person through the Gospel light and understanding follows.

When we allow the Word to enter our inner being wonderful things happen, understanding being one of them. We understand the deepest and most complex truth in the universe: the Love of God. This remarkable gift is truly amazing. The person who understands the love of God is truly blessed; and this very fact is a promise from God.

 

 

 

 

 

221. Uphold

 Psalm 119:116

Uphold me according unto thy word that I may live:

And let me not be ashamed of my hope.

 God promises to hold me up all the time, but at certain times I feel like I am falling down and losing my grip; at those time He reaches down to hold me up and set me going on the path once again. Thus we may live, really live, just as His Word promises. Depression is a mortal enemy that robs us of living; when he lifts me up I can live again. Depression is a tool used by spiritual enemies to steal the joy of life. When the Lord comes into that depression he breaks its hold, lifts me up, and restores me to real life.

God’s Word, because it contains and applies the Gospel, has the power to provide real hope; I will not be ashamed or disappointed, because He keeps His promises. “Lift me up, hold me up, restore me to life.” This is my prayer. I have no doubt he will answer this prayer because this is exactly what He promises. He not only promises to answer my prayer, He also promises to answer just this kind of prayer: He will uphold me and give me life.

220. Hiding Place and Shield

 Psalm 119:114

Thou art my hiding place and my shield:

I hope in thy word.

 The Word of God has told me about God as a hiding place and as a shield. God says He is a hiding place for me, and if I go there I can hide from the spiritual enemies who cannot get to me. Even if they could find me they couldn’t get to me because God is a shield around me to protect me. If I am hidden and protected I can live at peace and be always rejoicing.

Believers who are spiritually attacked by sin, death, and the devil too often forget this promise of God. Those who forget to go into hiding when the enemy shows up miss out on the protections that are available. Some sinners, like Adam, even try to hide from God when their sin is exposed. Jesus Christ has made it possible to hide from Sin and from the Destroyer; it involves running to the Lord instead of running away from Him, for He is not the Destroyer; He is the Protector. And He promises a place to hide, by faith in Him.

The Word of God provides the place to hide and the way to get into the hiding place. Hope comes from His Word. Reading or hearing the Word gets you into Him where you may hide and find protection. The Holy Spirit takes a word of Gospel out of the Scriptures and lays it on the heart thereby hiding and shielding me.

219. Eternal Heritage

 Psalm 119:111

Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage forever:

For they are the rejoicing of my heart.

 We have a sure word and a promise sealed many times over from the Scriptures: we have because of Christ been given an imperishable inheritance kept in heaven. We are fellow-heirs with Christ. What Christ receives from the Father we also receive for we are identified with Him by faith. We have been promised and guaranteed a heritage forever, eternal in the heavens. In the meantime while we wait we were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance.

In addition to the promised Holy Spirit, in this present time we also have the Word of God. Jesus assures us that while heaven and earth will pass away the Word of the Lord will never pass away; it endures forever; and so it logically should endure forever, because it contains eternal promises. The Word and all the promises it contains endure forever. So do I, and I take God’s Word as a heritage forever.

When the Holy Spirit through the Gospel builds such a simple and enduring faith in my heart these words are the rejoicing of my heart. Joy and rejoicing are close to us at all times and we may reach out and take hold of His Joy any time. When we need a lift, when we need joy in the heart, we may stop what we are doing for a minute, go to that holy, quiet place within and listen to the words of promise, the Word of the Gospel once again. There are hundreds of ways of expressing the Gospel; that is why we need to be familiar with the Bible and all its pages so we can learn all the different ways of expressing and experiencing the Gospel. But we may hear the same words over and over and they never get old: “Jesus loves me; this I know.” Listen until joy floods, and refloods, the heart.

218. Light for the Way

Psalm 119:105

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,

and a light unto my path.

The promise is that the Word of God will be light for us, in us, all around us, and especially, in front of us. The Word, with its Law and Gospel, will unerringly guide us and lead us in the right way to go that will be real good and lead us daily and hourly to eternal life. The Law shows us the only right way to live that brings blessings; unfortunately, it also shows us our sin and our failure to live accordingly, and it shows the cursed consequences of disobedience.

The Gospel shows us our Savior from Sin and the blessed consequences of forgiveness and grace. This Law and Gospel message is the light that keeps us on the blessed path: The Way is Jesus (“I am the way”). Jesus does not show the way or even lead us on the way. The Word of Law and Gospel is the light that shows us the Way, which is Jesus Himself. The Law shines its light on the self pointing to the need for Jesus; the Gospel shines its blinding light on Jesus and what He does for us.

The way that leads to life is “strait and narrow” (strait means narrow). And alongside that way are many enticing and seductive exit ramps that lead to death and destruction; that way is wide and broad. It is because of these tempting seductions away from Jesus the Way that we need this promise of Light from the Word: When we lose the way the Spirit uses the Word to put us back on the Way (Jesus).

 

 

 

 

217. Wise

Psalm 119:98

Thou through Thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies:

For they are ever with me.

God uses the Word, with its universal moral Law (commandments), to make me wise, at least wiser than sin, death and the devil. I am in no way wiser by myself (as Adam demonstrated) for the devil is too subtle, but by faith in Christ we have the indwelling Holy Spirit who is wiser. He uses the Law to instruct in wise living that creates a good life through the power of the Gospel.

He who lives in me is greater and wiser than he who lives in the world. We need to believe and apply this promise by trusting that God knows best and His way is wisest. When the believer is influenced by the Spirit he will be wise and want to do what is good and wise according to the Commandments, even when the flesh and the world is telling him otherwise.

We need this promise of wisdom all day long because “they (the enemies) are always with me.” We are surrounded by both the presence of spiritual enemies and the presence of God all the time. We need to know that we can jump into The Presence of God any time, and there we choose wisely, for with Him we are wiser.

 

 

 

216. Faithfulness

 Psalm 119:90

Thy faithfulness is unto all generations:

Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.

 “Great is Thy Faithfulness.” God’s faithfulness is unto all generations. All the people on the earth at any one time are recipients of His Faithfulness. And it is for all people for all time. No one is left out of the thought and care of God. The attention and interest of God the Creator for every created person is firmly established and abides forever.

The promise is that God will be faithful, that is, God will keep His promises. Faithfulness means that a person will do what he says; he will be a man of his word; he will keep his promises; if he said it is as good as done. Faithfulness means that a person will be trusted to keep a vow or an oath. An oath may be sworn on one’s own life. A vow is spoken so that those who hear it can trust the speaker. Vows are the bedrock of marriage: faithfulness to the spouse, faithfulness to the vow, and faithfulness to the Lord before whom it is promised. When that vow is fulfilled and the promise is kept the marriage will be blessed and stable.

Social interactions as well as business dealings are based on faithfulness. Vows and promises are made all the time so that we can live and go about the business living life with other people. A trustworthy man of integrity, a man of his word, is a valued friend and associate. God the Lord is such a person, and 100% so. God makes vows and oaths and many promises to us; He is faithful to every one. He promises to be faithful to his promises.