Latest / Reformed Thinking / Your Word Is a Lamp to My Feet and a Light to My Path (Psalm 119:105–112) | Charles Spurgeon
Transcript
- 0:00Welcome to Reformed Thinking. You know, usually when we talk
- 0:04about walking through a city at night, there is this total
- 0:07expectation of safety and visibility.
- 0:09Oh. Absolutely.
- 0:10I mean, you step out your front door and the streetlights just
- 0:13flick right on. Right.
- 0:14The pavement is smooth, the curbs are clearly marked, and
- 0:17like if you drop your keys, the glow from a nearby storefront
- 0:21makes them incredibly easy to find.
- 0:23Yeah, the whole thing is engineered for our comfort.
- 0:25We really like things to be visible.
- 0:27We want the path ahead to be entirely illuminated.
- 0:30We do. It is a controlled environment
- 0:32that, well, it kind of lulls us into a false sense of security
- 0:36for sure. I mean, we have essentially
- 0:39eradicated the unknown from our physical surroundings.
- 0:42But then you step into the reality of the ancient world, or
- 0:46frankly, you step into the reality of our spiritual lives,
- 0:48and suddenly those streetlights are completely gone.
- 0:50Yeah, you are looking at a landscape that is remarkably
- 0:53dark, full of hidden drops and quite honestly just terrifying
- 0:57to walk through blind. And that actually brings us to
- 0:59our objective for you. Today we are taking a deep dive
- 1:03into an amazingly striking piece of theological literature.
- 1:06Right, we are looking at Charles Spurgeon's massive work, The
- 1:09Treasury of David. Specifically, we are focusing on
- 1:12his exposition and the historical commentary he curated
- 1:15on Psalm 119 verses one O 5 through 112.
- 1:19And we should lay our cards on the table right away.
- 1:23Both of us are Protestant Christians.
- 1:25We adhere to the Westminster Confession and to reform
- 1:27theology. So as we open this text for you
- 1:30today, we are looking at these verses strictly through the lens
- 1:33of God's absolute sovereignty, our complete human dependence on
- 1:37Him, and the supreme authority of Scripture.
- 1:40Our mission for you in this deep dive is twofold, really. 1st we
- 1:43want to examine how you can walk through a dark, treacherous
- 1:45world using the Word of God as your lamp.
- 1:48Yeah, and 2nd, we want to understand the beautiful,
- 1:51intricate ways that God bends human affections toward his
- 1:54statutes. That is such a critical mission,
- 1:56especially, you know, when we consider the very first verse in
- 1:59our section today. Right Psalm 119, verse 105 Thy
- 2:03word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
- 2:07Spurgeon paints a very specific picture here.
- 2:09He talks about ancient Eastern towns and these were not places
- 2:14with fixed public lighting. No, not at all.
- 2:16If a traveler went out at night without carrying a Lantern, they
- 2:19were in immediate physical danger.
- 2:21Spurgeon notes they could fall into an open sewer or stumble
- 2:25over heaps of refuse. He calls it order that literally
- 2:28defiled the roads. The darkness was not just some
- 2:31minor inconvenience, it was a severe physical threat.
- 2:34Yes, Spurgeon says. This is a true picture of our
- 2:36path through this Dark World. We would not know the way or how
- 2:40to walk in it if Scripture did not reveal it like a blazing
- 2:43flambeau. You know, a torch.
- 2:44Let me offer a practical pushback on behalf of the
- 2:47listener, though, because the metaphor Spurgeon uses, it
- 2:50requires some scrutiny. OK, go ahead.
- 2:52Why a lamp like why not a blazing sun?
- 2:55If God is sovereign and all knowing, why does he hand us a
- 2:57small handheld Lantern instead of just lighting up the entire
- 3:00sky so we can see 5 miles down the road?
- 3:03That is a brilliant question, and we actually have an anecdote
- 3:05in the sources from an 1881 publication that speaks directly
- 3:09to this. Oh right, the Pitch Pine Torch
- 3:12story. Yeah, well, precisely that one.
- 3:14A man was visiting a rural neighborhood and he had to walk
- 3:172 miles back through the woods on a narrow path where several
- 3:22trails diverged. And it was pitch black.
- 3:25Right, right. So his host handed him a torch
- 3:28of pitch pine. Now this torch was tiny,
- 3:30weighing maybe half a pound. The man objected immediately.
- 3:34He said the wind might blow it out.
- 3:35And what did the host say? His host just replied, It will
- 3:39light you home. I love that.
- 3:41But the man pushed back again. Right, He said.
- 3:43But if it should rain? Yeah, and again, the host simply
- 3:46said it will light you home. I bring this up because it
- 3:49highlights a massive tension for us today.
- 3:51You and I, we often want God to give us a massive floodlight for
- 3:55our entire future. Oh. 100% we want the five year
- 3:57plan, we want all the variables totally resolved before we take
- 4:00a single step. But he gives us just enough
- 4:02light for the next step, just the half pound piece of pine.
- 4:05The historical commentators viewed that tension with
- 4:08remarkable clarity. There's a quote from the
- 4:10Expositor from 1864 that addresses this craving we have
- 4:14for the floodlight. What do they say?
- 4:16The writer says that what we want is to see wonders that daze
- 4:19us. We want ecstatic visions and
- 4:21splendors. We want meteors.
- 4:23Meteors. Why Meteors?
- 4:24Because meteors are superb and dazzling, you know they light up
- 4:28the whole sky in a flash. But a meteor crossing the sky
- 4:31does not actually help you avoid the open sewer right at your
- 4:33feet. Wow.
- 4:34Yeah, it creates A spectacle, not a safe passage.
- 4:37Spot on. The commentator notes that a
- 4:40lamp shining in a dark place is infinitely closer to our
- 4:43practical daily needs. Ambrose, the ancient church
- 4:46father. He takes this a step further in
- 4:48the material. Yeah, I love the Ambrose quote.
- 4:50He points out that Christ is the Word, and he functions as a
- 4:54great light to angels, but as a lamp to us.
- 4:57Right, because Ambrose says Christ shines in clay in a
- 5:00Potter's vessel. We are earthen vessels.
- 5:03Our faculties are incredibly limited.
- 5:05We just cannot handle the blinding light of the entire
- 5:09divine plan all at once. It would crush us.
- 5:12The lamp is scaled to our frailty.
- 5:14The scale of the light matching the capacity of the person
- 5:17holding it is just a fascinating concept.
- 5:19I am thinking about how easily we mishandle even that limited
- 5:23amount of light. Though there is another story
- 5:25here from James Wells. The one about the boy and the
- 5:29Sabbath School teacher. Yes, exactly.
- 5:31So this boy was super proud to carry the Lantern for his
- 5:34teacher. They were walking through these
- 5:36unlit, muddy streets. And he messes it up.
- 5:39Right. Big time.
- 5:40The boy was so pleased with the light itself that he held the
- 5:43Lantern far too high up in the air.
- 5:45Right, because he is just staring at the glow.
- 5:48Because the light was casting its beam into the sky instead of
- 5:51on the ground, both the boy and the teacher sank deep into the
- 5:55mud. The teacher literally had to
- 5:57stop and tell him you must hold the lamp lower.
- 5:59The application there is striking.
- 6:01You can easily hold the lamp too high, but you can hardly hold it
- 6:04too low. Yeah, the light is meant for the
- 6:06dirt in front of your toes, not the atmosphere above your head.
- 6:09That anecdote is a severe warning against
- 6:11intellectualizing theology. Holding the lamp too high
- 6:15represents treating the Word of God as an abstract academic
- 6:18pursuit. Oh for sure, we can get so
- 6:21caught up in debating high level theological concepts, staring
- 6:25into the sky, arguing about super lapsarianism or the
- 6:30intricacies of eschatology and. We completely miss the practical
- 6:34daily obedience required of us. We step right into the mud of
- 6:37sin while arguing about the stars.
- 6:39Charles Bricas, another commentator in our material,
- 6:42notes that without the teaching of the Spirit, the Word remains
- 6:45gross darkness to us. The illumination is meant for
- 6:47decision and action. Sound doctrine must direct the
- 6:51feat. It must guide our particular
- 6:52actions in the home, in the workplace and in our private
- 6:56thoughts, not just our general theological theories.
- 6:58Having the light pointed at the ground implies a massive
- 7:01responsibility though. You have to actually take the
- 7:03step. Right.
- 7:04Committing to follow where that light leads requires A conscious
- 7:07resolve. And the psalmist takes that step
- 7:09by making a solemn vow to God. He says in verse one, O 6 I have
- 7:13sworn and I will perform it, that I will keep thy righteous
- 7:16judgments. Now, making a vow to God feels
- 7:19incredibly risky to me. Human beings are notoriously
- 7:23prone to failure. We really are.
- 7:25We make promises we cannot keep, especially when we are under
- 7:29pressure. We see this human tendency
- 7:31perfectly captured in the epigram of Theodoricus.
- 7:35Oh I love this poem. How does it go again?
- 7:37It goes the devil was sick, the devil a monk would be.
- 7:40The devil was, well, the devil. A monk, was he?
- 7:43It is a humorous way of pointing out a truly tragic reality.
- 7:47People often make massive promises to God when they are
- 7:50lying in a hospital bed or facing a financial ruin.
- 7:53And they forget those vows the very second the trouble passes.
- 7:56So I have to wonder how a fragile human being can swear an
- 7:59oath to God and actually expect to keep it.
- 8:02Well, from a Reformed perspective, acknowledging total
- 8:04depravity means we recognize that human beings in and of
- 8:07themselves do not possess the moral strength to keep God's law
- 8:11perfectly. Right, our wills are tainted.
- 8:13So when the psalmist swears to do it, he is not making a
- 8:16declaration of self-reliance. Stephen Tarnock, a brilliant
- 8:19Puritan divine, offers the crucial insight here.
- 8:22He explains that David bound himself to God, depending
- 8:25entirely upon God's strength, not his own.
- 8:29Chanuk writes that we cannot keep ourselves from falling
- 8:32unless we first keep our resolutions from flagging he.
- 8:34Points out a fascinating psychological truth.
- 8:37Actually, a resolution in a weak person will accomplish more than
- 8:40strength in a coward. That is so good.
- 8:43David is not boasting about his own willpower.
- 8:46He is anchoring his weak will to God's sovereign strength.
- 8:50The act of swearing the oath is an act of binding oneself to the
- 8:53mast, knowing the storm is coming and knowing your own
- 8:56hands will want to let go. So the vow is less about
- 8:59claiming personal perfection and more about formally declaring
- 9:02dependence. That provides a solid framework
- 9:05for you as a listener. You might feel way too weak to
- 9:07make a promise to God. But Philip Doddridge, an English
- 9:11non conformist minister, actually advised making a very
- 9:14deliberate written dedication of oneself to God.
- 9:17He suggested setting your hand and seal to a document literally
- 9:20stating that on a specific day you resolve to serve the Lord.
- 9:24Doddridge argued that doing this deliberately acts as an anchor
- 9:27in an hour of temptation. When your feelings waiver, you
- 9:30can look back at that defined moment of resolve.
- 9:33The memory and the conscience are struck by the formality of
- 9:36the ACT. You are essentially creating a
- 9:38legal boundary for your own wandering heart.
- 9:41Doddridge adds that this surrender must be perpetual.
- 9:45You give yourself up to God in such a manner as never more to
- 9:49pretend to be your own. Which connects beautifully to
- 9:51the Westminster Confessions understanding of our duty to
- 9:54God. We are under obligations founded
- 9:57in the eternal fitness of things.
- 9:59God is the Creator, we are the creatures.
- 10:01He has the absolute right to command, and we have the
- 10:03obligation to obey. When you take the word into your
- 10:06heart, by a firm resolve to obey it, you place a lamp within your
- 10:10soul as well as in the book. The external command becomes an
- 10:13internal conviction, but we have to be realistic about what
- 10:17happens next. Because a formal resolve to
- 10:20follow God does not result in a life of ease.
- 10:23Far from it. In fact, following the light
- 10:25often leads you straight into hardship.
- 10:26Sequence of the text is really eye opening here.
- 10:29Right after the psalmist swears absolute loyalty to God in verse
- 10:32one O 7, he says I am afflicted very much.
- 10:36I want to highlight this for you because there is a super common
- 10:39misconception that obedience acts as a shield against trial.
- 10:43We often think that if we do the right things, God owes us a
- 10:46smooth Rd. The text shows us the complete
- 10:49opposite. Obedience often guarantees
- 10:52trial. We have a quote from Jean
- 10:54Baptiste Marie Vianney that captures this perfectly.
- 10:56He said the Christian lives in the midst of crosses as the fish
- 11:00lives in the sea. Affliction is the very
- 11:03environment of the faithful believer.
- 11:05You do not ask a fish why it is what?
- 11:08And you should not ask a Christian why they are facing
- 11:10hardship. It is the medium in which they
- 11:13swim. What?
- 11:13Stands out in the text, though is not just the presence of
- 11:16affliction, but the psalmist's response to it.
- 11:19He says, I am afflicted very much.
- 11:21Quicken me, O Lord, according unto thy word.
- 11:23Notice what he does not say. He does not ask for the
- 11:26affliction to be taken away. No, he asks to be quickened,
- 11:29which means to be given life, to be a revival.
- 11:33Thomas Manton, another incredible Puritan voice,
- 11:35explains this beautifully. He asks how does God quicken us?
- 11:39God does it by reviving our suffering graces.
- 11:42He breathes new life into our hope, our patience, and our
- 11:45faith. Manton notes that discomfort and
- 11:48discouragement weaken our hands in prayer.
- 11:50Until the Lord cheers us again. We have zero life in our
- 11:53spiritual duties. The affliction is actually used
- 11:56as the means of quickening, much like stirring a fire increases
- 11:59the heat of the flame. Right, the poker disrupts the
- 12:02coals, but that disruption introduces oxygen and creates a
- 12:06way hotter fire. The blow that feels like it
- 12:09might extinguish you is actually the tool God uses to introduce
- 12:12oxygen to the coals. And the psalmist bases this
- 12:15request on a very specific foundation.
- 12:17He says, According unto thy word.
- 12:20Oliver Haywood suggests that David had a specific promise in
- 12:23mind when he prayed this. He was laying his dead, dull
- 12:26heart at Christ's feet, pleading that specific promise.
- 12:30This is a core practice in the Reformed doctrine of Providence.
- 12:33You trust God's promises, even when His Providence feels
- 12:36intensely heavy. Haywood imagines the believer
- 12:39pleading with God, reminding him of the covenant mercies, asking
- 12:42him to repair his image in the soul and to draw the heart back
- 12:45toward him. You are essentially taking God's
- 12:48own words and presenting them back to Him, asking him to honor
- 12:51the contract, he wrote. That reliance on the promises is
- 12:54what sustains the believer. Thomas Manton adds to this by
- 12:58pointing out that we have so many more promises in Scripture
- 13:01than David did. David had obscure hints compared
- 13:04to the full revelation we have. If David could stay his heart
- 13:07upon God's Word in the midst of severe affliction, how much more
- 13:11should we be able to do so? God has promised to stay his
- 13:14rough wind, to lay no more upon us than we can bear, and to
- 13:18never fail us. When God provides that reviving
- 13:21life in the middle of deep suffering, the natural,
- 13:24inevitable response of the quickened heart is to offer
- 13:27something back to the One who gave the life.
- 13:30The psalmist then prays in verse one.
- 13:31O 8 Except I beseech thee the free will offerings of my mouth,
- 13:36O Lord. Let's pause and look at that
- 13:37phrase Free will offerings. I want to contrast this with
- 13:40forced taxation. Oh, that's a great analogy.
- 13:43If you owe taxes, you pay them because you have to under threat
- 13:46of penalty. There is 0 joy in it.
- 13:48You write the check and resent the entity taking the money.
- 13:51But God's revenue of praise should never be extorted from
- 13:54his people. Thomas Manton provides A
- 13:56phenomenal illustration for this.
- 13:58He says forced worship is like water forced out of a still by
- 14:01fire. It takes intense external
- 14:04pressure to get a few drops of condensation.
- 14:07The water only moves because the heat forces it to.
- 14:10But free will offerings are like water, bubbling natively and
- 14:13freely from a fountain. The praise flows because it is
- 14:16the nature of the spring to overflow.
- 14:18The pressure is internal, born of gratitude, rather than
- 14:22external, born of fear. That distinction between forced
- 14:25extraction and natural overflow is vital for assessing our own
- 14:29worship. But William CalPERS commentary
- 14:32race is a really striking theological question here.
- 14:34What question does he ask? What do we actually have to give
- 14:37to a sovereign? All sufficient God.
- 14:40The Lord stands in need of absolutely nothing.
- 14:42He owns the cattle on 1000 Hills.
- 14:44We, on the other hand, are essentially beggars.
- 14:47CalPERS says we get our light from the sun, our clothes from
- 14:49the worms in our food from the dirt.
- 14:52We rely entirely on the physical creation just to survive another
- 14:55day. So what could we possibly offer
- 14:57a king who needs nothing from us?
- 15:00We only give back what we have already received from him.
- 15:02David has no physical sacrifice at this moment.
- 15:05He is on the run, likely hiding in caves from his enemies.
- 15:07He cannot get to the temple. He has no bulls or goats to
- 15:11offer. So he offers the calves of our
- 15:13lips his prayer, his pray, that his confession, his testimony,
- 15:17it is a sacrifice of words. And yet God accepts there is no
- 15:22fair sake boasting here. The psalmist is incredibly
- 15:25humble. He says, Except I beseech thee.
- 15:28He knows his words are inadequate and what I find so
- 15:30compelling is the second-half of the verse.
- 15:32Right after he offers his praise, he immediately says, And
- 15:35teach me thy judgments. The moment we render our best to
- 15:38God, we immediately realize our inadequacy.
- 15:41The act of drawing near to the light exposes how much darkness
- 15:44we still possess. We realize how much more we need
- 15:47to learn. That is the whole cycle of
- 15:49sanctification and Reformed thought.
- 15:51The more you know God, the more you praise Him.
- 15:54The more you praise Him, the more you realize your ignorance
- 15:56and your sin. Which naturally leads you to ask
- 15:58for more teaching. Matthew Henry points out that we
- 16:01cannot offer anything to God that he will accept unless he is
- 16:04pleased to instruct us in the doing of it.
- 16:06We must be as earnest for the grace of God in us As for the
- 16:10favor of God toward us. This ongoing instruction is
- 16:13absolutely critical. Why?
- 16:16Because the believers life is not lived in a safe enclosed
- 16:19sanctuary where no harm can reach them.
- 16:21No, it is lived on a battlefield filled with hidden,
- 16:24sophisticated dangers that require constant vigilance.
- 16:28The reality of that danger hits US hard as the text continues,
- 16:32the psalmist writes. My soul is continually in my
- 16:34hand. The wicked have laid a snare for
- 16:37me. I want to stop and thoroughly
- 16:38examine this phrase soul in my hand.
- 16:41It is a Hebrew ISM, a specific ancient idiom.
- 16:44To modern ears, having your life in your hands sounds like taking
- 16:48control of your own destiny, taking charge, being the master
- 16:51of your fate. But that is the complete
- 16:53opposite of what the idiom actually means in the original
- 16:55context. Jon Trapp uses the imagery of a
- 16:58child holding a bird in an open palm.
- 17:00The bird is not secure at all. It could fly away at any second.
- 17:04Andreas Ruvetas offers another analogy.
- 17:07He describes a person carrying a fragile glass vessel filled with
- 17:11a precious liquid walking through a highly dangerous area.
- 17:14The vessel could be shattered at any moment by a slight misstep
- 17:18or a sudden attack. Joseph Carroll expands on this
- 17:21elegantly. He notes that carrying something
- 17:24openly in the hand exposes it to peril.
- 17:26It is ready to be snatched away. It is not locked in a safe or
- 17:30hidden in a fortress. But Carroll also points out a
- 17:33beautiful secondary meaning. When a person is about to
- 17:36deliver a thing or give it up to someone else, they take it in
- 17:39their hand. To have your soul in your hand
- 17:42means you are constantly ready to hand your life over to God as
- 17:45an offering, or to trust Him to protect it when you are in
- 17:48extreme peril. You are walking through a war
- 17:50zone, holding your life open, trusting the Creator with the
- 17:53outcome rather than clutching it to your chest in panic.
- 17:56And the war zone is filled with specific traps, the text says.
- 17:59The wicked have laid a snare for me.
- 18:01The word for snare here, according to William Latham
- 18:05Bevan, refers to a physical trap set underground in an animal's
- 18:09run. Specifically designed to catch
- 18:11the animal by the leg. Malicious people do not treat
- 18:14the godly with chivalry, they treat them like vermin to be
- 18:17exterminated. Jarola, most of Honorola lists
- 18:21the ways these spiritual traps are set in our daily lives.
- 18:24He says in eating the enemy sets the snare of gluttony, in labor
- 18:29sluggishness and conversation envy in governing covetousness.
- 18:35The snares are not abstract evils.
- 18:37They are tailored to our specific, mundane daily
- 18:39activities. They are placed exactly where we
- 18:42are most likely to stop. They're late in our usual runs,
- 18:45as Spurgeon says, but the Believers defense is not to
- 18:47become obsessed with the traps. The defense is found in the
- 18:50second part of the verse, yet I erred not from my precepts.
- 18:53Thomas Watson offers a brilliant insight here.
- 18:56He says it is not the laying the bait hurts the fish if the fish
- 18:59do not bite. The believer avoids the bait by
- 19:01refusing to stray from God's commands.
- 19:03Obedience provides security because when you were walking
- 19:06strictly on the King's Hwy., your feet cannot become
- 19:10entangled in the Nets laid in the wilderness.
- 19:13The Nets are off the path. If you stay on the path, the
- 19:15Nets cannot touch you. You keep your eyes on the lamp,
- 19:18not on the shadows in the bushes.
- 19:20Choosing to avoid the bait implies that the fish has found
- 19:22something better to eat, though. It implies the believer has
- 19:25found a much better, infinitely more satisfying prize than
- 19:29whatever the trap is offering. The psalmist declares in verse
- 19:32111. Thy testimonies have I taken as
- 19:35an heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.
- 19:38Let's look at this word heritage.
- 19:40How can written laws and testimonies be be considered an
- 19:43estate or an inheritance? We usually think of an
- 19:47inheritance as land or money or a house, a physical asset that
- 19:51can be passed down. Richard Holdsworth provides a
- 19:53phenomenal legal analogy for this.
- 19:56He explains that the Word of God functions as the evidence or the
- 19:59title deeds to the heavenly estate.
- 20:01Think about how property ownership actually works.
- 20:04A person might hold a dusty worm, eaten piece of paper or
- 20:07parchment. To the untrained eye, it is just
- 20:10an old piece of paper. It has 0 intrinsic value.
- 20:13Yet that specific paper is worth an entire county because it
- 20:16legally proves ownership. The Scriptures are the deed of
- 20:19gift conveying all our hopes of heaven.
- 20:22What's our title any St. has to heaven?
- 20:24He has it in and out of the Word of God.
- 20:26The promises written on those pages are the legal guarantee of
- 20:30the inheritance to come. You are literally holding the
- 20:32legal proof of your future inheritance in your hands when
- 20:36you hold the Bible. No wonder, the psalmist says.
- 20:38They are the rejoicing of my heart.
- 20:39Abraham Wright provides a sharp contrast to this true joy.
- 20:43He points out that a person can have all the worldly joys
- 20:46imaginable. Like corn, wine society, music.
- 20:49Right. And still possess an empty Husky
- 20:52Chaffee soul. Worldly wealth does not seal up
- 20:54special favor. It's completely temporary.
- 20:57It rusts, it breaks, it gets stolen.
- 20:59But true joy, the joy that acts as the earnest or the down
- 21:02payment of heaven, is found in the testimonies of God.
- 21:06It is an unlosable wealth. You can strip a believer of all
- 21:09their physical possessions, but you cannot take away the title
- 21:12deed written on their heart. To hold on to this heritage
- 21:15forever, though, to keep gripping that title deed,
- 21:18requires a heart that is permanently bent in the right
- 21:21direction. It requires A fundamental
- 21:23orientation of the soul. The psalmist concludes this
- 21:26section in verse 112 by stating, I have inclined my heart to
- 21:29perform Thy statutes always, even unto the end.
- 21:33I have to stop here and ask a defining theological question,
- 21:36because this strikes at the very core of the reformed worldview.
- 21:40Go for it. If Reformed theology teaches
- 21:42that human beings are totally depraved, that our wills are in
- 21:46bondage to sin, how can the psalmist possibly say, I have
- 21:50inclined my heart? Yeah, that phrasing is tricky.
- 21:53We literally just discussed how we rely on God's strength for
- 21:56everything. This makes it sound like the
- 21:57psalmist is claiming he reached inside his own chest and changed
- 22:01his own spiritual orientation by sheer willpower.
- 22:03Wolfgang Musculus directly resolves this tension for us in
- 22:07the commentary. How does he explain it?
- 22:09He points out that earlier in this exact same Psalm, in verse
- 22:1236, David prays, Incline my heart unto thy testimonies.
- 22:16So David explicitly knows God must do the work.
- 22:20Musculus explains that man inclines by striving, but God
- 22:23inclines by affecting. Right.
- 22:25It is God who gives both to will and to do of His good pleasure,
- 22:29as Philippians 2.13 tells us. The believers effort, the
- 22:33driving, the choosing, the resolving, is the direct result
- 22:37of God's sovereign grace already being at work in the soul.
- 22:40Man is active, but only because God has already sovereignly
- 22:44acted upon him to make that activity actually possible.
- 22:47It is like the lungs breathing. The person is doing the
- 22:50breathing. They are actively taking in air.
- 22:52But God provided the air, the lungs, and the involuntary
- 22:56muscle response that makes the breath possible in the first
- 22:58place. Nathaniel Random New gives us an
- 23:00even better analogy from the historical commentary.
- 23:03He talks about the Bloodstone or the magnet.
- 23:05He says a carnal heart naturally cleaves to earthly things, just
- 23:08like iron naturally flies to a magnet.
- 23:11The 2 unite effortlessly. But the mind of a believer must
- 23:14intentionally take the heart and bend it toward the Word.
- 23:17Why? Because holy duties will not
- 23:20come to us naturally. We must bring our hearts to
- 23:22them. We have to apply force to pull
- 23:25the iron away from the earth and press it against the things of
- 23:28God. That intentional bending of the
- 23:30heart is the essence of true religion.
- 23:32John Calvin notes that true religion applies not just hands
- 23:36and feet to the law, but begins with the affection of the heart.
- 23:39You're not just going through the motions of outward
- 23:41compliance, you are actively training your desires to want
- 23:46the things God wants. And notice the timeline given
- 23:49here. The psalmist says he will
- 23:51perform these statutes all way, even unto the end.
- 23:55This ties directly into the Reformed doctrine of the
- 23:58perseverance of the Saints. The grace that sovereignly bends
- 24:01the heart at the beginning of the Christian life is the exact
- 24:04same grace that keeps the heart bent unto the very end of life.
- 24:08The magnetism does not fail. So we have covered a massive
- 24:12progression of the Christian life today.
- 24:13We really have. We start in the dark and we pick
- 24:16up the lamp for our daily walk, trusting it for just the next
- 24:19step. Then we make a formal resolve to
- 24:21obey, relying entirely on God's strength to keep that vow.
- 24:25When affliction inevitably hits, we do not ask for a way out.
- 24:29We plead for new life, trusting God's specific promises.
- 24:33Quickened by that life, we offer our free praise as beggars,
- 24:37giving back what we were given. We walk carefully, our lives
- 24:41open in our hands, past the hidden traps of the wicked.
- 24:44We grip the Scriptures as our literal title deed to eternal
- 24:48joy. And finally, we trust God's
- 24:51sovereign grace to bend our stubborn hearts toward Him
- 24:54forever. The question you have to ask
- 24:56yourself after looking at all of this is incredibly practical.
- 24:59Where is your lamp pointed today?
- 25:01Are you holding it far too high in the air?
- 25:03Lost in abstract theological theory.
- 25:05Debating the stars. Or are you shining it directly
- 25:08on the ground, illuminating the very next immediate step you
- 25:11need to take in obedience? And I want to leave you with a
- 25:13final thought regarding that perseverance to the end.
- 25:16William Cowper brings up a fascinating detail from the Old
- 25:19Testament law. When an animal was sacrificed,
- 25:21the tail of the beast was sacrificed along with the rest
- 25:23of it. It was completely consumed on
- 25:25the altar. Cowper uses this to ask a
- 25:27piercing question. If your life is a sacrifice to
- 25:31God, are you prepared to offer Him the tale?
- 25:34Are you prepared to offer him the very end of your days, when
- 25:37your strength is gone and your mind is fading?
- 25:40Because your willingness to persevere to the end is the
- 25:42ultimate proof that your faith was real at the beginning.
- 25:45You cannot just offer the prime years of your strength, you must
- 25:48offer the tale. So as you step back out into the
- 25:51dark streets, listen for the wind, watch out for the mud, and
- 25:55keep the lamp aimed right at your feet.
- 25:57It will let you home.