Latest / Reformed Thinking / Blessed Are Those Who Walk in God’s Law (Psalm 119:1–8) | Charles Spurgeon

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Blessed Are Those Who Walk in God’s Law (Psalm 119:1–8) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine standing on a wooden scaffold in Scotland.
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Oh wow. Yeah, in the 1500's.
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The crowd surrounding you is just dead silent, right?
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And the executioner is standing right there, just waiting.
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That is terrifying. It really is.
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But you were given one final request.
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You know you can choose a song to be sung before the sentence
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is carried out. OK, So what do you pick?
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Well, a reformer named George Wishart found himself in this
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scenario, and he made a brilliant tactical choice.
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Oh, I know this story. Yeah, he chose to sing Psalm
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119, all 176 verses of it. Which is just a massive monolith
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of a text. Absolutely.
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So because he chose it, he started singing and singing and
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singing. It took a huge amount of time, I
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bet. And before they even reached the
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final stanzas, A pardon arrived. Wow.
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Yeah, the sheer architectural scale of the text literally
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saved his life. It is an incredible historical
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event. I mean, it shows the sheer
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physical magnitude of the text we are looking at today.
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But more than just its physical length, that story captures a
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bigger truth about the specific piece of scripture.
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It is functioned as a lifeline for centuries.
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Yes, it has. When you look at it from a
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distance, it might seem like a repetitive list of ancient
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rules, but when you step inside its structure, you find
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something that actively sustains life under the most intense
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pressure imaginable. Welcome to Reformed Thinking.
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Today's session is a deep dive tailored specifically for you,
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the listener. We were so glad you were tuning
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in. We are not just skimming the
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surface of historical trivia here.
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Our source material today is Charles Spurgeon's massive
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commentary The Treasury of David Classic.
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Yeah, and we are specifically zeroing in on the 1st 8 verses
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of Psalm 119. Our mission is to unpack the
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sheer scale, the intricate structure and the really dense
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theological meat of this ancient text.
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That is a huge undertaking. It is.
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We are going to look at how it perfectly bridges the massive
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demands of God's commands with the absolute, unyielding human
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reliance on divine grace. It is a vast subject.
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When you look at an outline of this Psalm, especially if you
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are coming to it from outside the Reformed tradition, it might
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initially read like a legal dictionary.
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Oh, definitely. Like statutes, precepts, laws,
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testimonies. Precisely.
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But the text resents itself quite differently.
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It resents itself as a vibrant, burning reality.
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Yeah, this text perfectly illustrates the core tenets of
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Reformed theology, particularly the theological framework laid
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out in the Westminster Confession.
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Right, which we hold to very strongly.
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We do, and we are going to see the necessary tension between
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the strict demands of the law and our total desperate reliance
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on divine intervention to meet those demands.
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So let's start with a giant itself.
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Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the entire Bible.
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It is. Spurgeon quotes a description of
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it as being like a Celestial City that lies 4 square because
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its height and its breadth are equal.
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That is a beautiful image. It is an alphabetical acrostic.
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It has 20, 22 letters representing the Hebrew
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alphabet, and under each letter there are 8 stanzas. 8 for every
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single letter. Right.
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To a casual tourist, if I can use an architectural analogy
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here, this text might look like a repetitive pyre of stones.
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Oh, I see where you're going. You walk into a massive,
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beautifully engineered cathedral and if you do not know what you
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were looking at, you just see a lot of grey blocks stacked on
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top of each other. Just stone after stone.
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Yeah, you might think they just harp on one string here, but if
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I am hearing the analysis correctly, to an architect every
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single block is bearing weight, correct?
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That is a really great way to conceptualize it.
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I mean, superficial readers often accuse this Psalm of being
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redundant. They think it repeats too much.
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Right. They claim it lacks variety, but
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that criticism arises from the shallowness of the reader's own
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mind, not from the text. Wow, that is a strong statement.
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Well, it is true, the writer uses only a few words, law,
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testimony, precept, statute, commandment, but produces
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permutations and combinations of meaning that display an
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incredible sanctified ingenuity. So it is never just copy and
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paste. Never.
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He never truly repeats himself. If a sentiment recurs, it is
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placed in a fresh connection, exhibiting another shade of
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meaning entirely. OK, so why build it this way?
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Why an acrostic? Why 8 verses per letter?
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That is the big question. If God is communicating a grand
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theological truth, why use such a highly structured, almost
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rigid literary form? It is a brilliant accommodation
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to human limitation. What do you mean by that?
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Well, God condescends to use quaint formal structures to aid
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the human memory and to adapt to the childlike capacity of the
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recipient. Oh, that makes sense.
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It is often called the Christians golden alphabet.
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The Holy Spirit does not disdain to use contracted and artificial
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modes of speech, if by their use the instruction can be more
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surely fixed upon the mind. So it is basically a massive
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memory aid. Spot on.
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The structure is a concession to our weakness.
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It is designed by a loving God for His children, especially in
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an era before printed books were widely available.
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That makes perfect sense. If you need to carry something
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with you, you need it packaged in a way your brain can actually
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hold onto. Which brings to mind another
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historical figure who leaned heavily on this structure,
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William Wilberforce. Oh yes, the great abolitionist.
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Right in the year 1819, during a massive political crisis in
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London, Wilberforce was dealing with so much stress.
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The turmoil of that season was immense.
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It was, and amidst all the stir of a highly pressurized
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political season, Wilberforce wrote in his diary about walking
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from Hyde Park Corner. And what was he doing?
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What was he doing to calm his mind and anchor his soul during
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a national crisis? He was repeating this specific
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Psalm from memory. That is just incredible.
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And he noted that he did so in great comfort.
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The acrostic structure loud Wilberforce to carry this
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massive theological cathedral inside his own mind.
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He had it all right there with him.
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Yeah, he could walk through the chaotic streets of London,
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completely surrounded by the noise of the world, while
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simultaneously walking through the ordered, structured,
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peaceful chordals of this text. The text is a theological
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lifeline, not just a historical curiosity.
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And that brings us to the actual mechanics of the theology,
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starting with the concept of a double blessing.
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Let's look at verse 2. Blessed are they that keep his
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testimonies and and that seek Him with the whole heart.
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There's a lot in that single verse.
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There really is. Now, the very first verse of the
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Psalm talks about being undefiled in the way.
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So right here in verse 2, we see a progression, a second
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blessing. Right we move from the way we
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walk, to the testimonies we keep, and finally to the God we
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seek. But I have to pause here.
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I'm looking at that phrase. Seek him with the whole heart,
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OK? Let's unpack that.
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If we hold to reformed theology, we believe human nature is
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fractured. We are fallen.
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Yes, very much so. Our desires are a complete mess
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of competing interests. So if I am the listener, I am
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asking how can a fractured heart be whole?
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That is the essential question, isn't it?
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How can the fractured seek with wholeness?
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To answer this, we had to make a crucial distinction.
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A broken heart is actually the only kind of heart that can be
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whole in its seeking. Wait, a broken heart is the only
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one that can be whole? That sounds like a
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contradiction. Walk me through the mechanics of
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that. We often confuse a broken heart
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with a divided heart, but they're entirely different
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things. OK, how so?
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A divided heart is one that tries to love God and love sin
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simultaneously. It tries to serve 2 masters.
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I see it wants the comforts of religion without the cross of
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discipleship. That's the divided heart.
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And it can never truly seek God because its affections are
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constantly pulling in opposite directions.
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So the divided heart is trying to negotiate a treaty between 2
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warring kingdoms. That is a great way to put it,
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yeah. But a broken heart, a heart that
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has been crushed by the weight of its own sin, that heart is no
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longer divided by pride or self-reliance.
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Because the illusion of self-sufficiency has been
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shattered. Spot on.
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Every single fragment of a broken heart sighs and cries
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after the Great Father's face. The problem that prevents
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seeking is not brokenness. The problem is division.
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Yes, God is 1 and He will not be known until our heart is
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singularly focused on Him. When the text demands a whole
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heart, it is demanding sincerity and undivided affection that
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flows from a state of humble brokenness.
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That clears it up completely. The text also says Blessed are
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they that keep his testimonies. Yes, the keeping of the
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testimonies. I want to look at that word
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keep. What does it actually mean to
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keep a testimony in this context?
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There is a significant difference between a doctrinal
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keeping of the word and a practical keeping of the word.
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OK, break that down for me. Doctoral keeping means you are
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ready to argue for a truth, maybe even ready to die for its
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defense. You have the theology locked
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down in your head. Like you understand the
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Westminster Confession? Perfectly right, but practical
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keeping means you actually live under its force.
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You walk it out in your daily life.
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It is active, not passive. Very active and notice the
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object we are keeping is called a testimony.
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That implies a witness. It is not just a cold, sterile
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law etched into a stone tablet by an indifferent deity.
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No, it branches into two parts, the law and the Gospel.
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Both are testimonies, so the. Gospel is God's testimony
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concerning His Son revealing how a person shall be pardoned and
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reconciled. Yes, because it is a testimony
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of His love where He witnesses His favor toward us.
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We must treasure it. We have to guard it right?
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The keeping mentioned here implies guarding it as a
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watchman guards a house, or as a steward guards his Lord's.
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Goods, yes. And this keeping must be
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deliberate and thoughtful. You cannot rush through it.
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There is an analogy I read once by a man named Martin Boos that
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feels incredibly relevant right here.
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Oh, I like this one. He was talking about how readers
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often approach the Bible. He said that most read their
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Bibles like cows that stand in the thick grass and trample
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under their feet the finest flowers and herbs.
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That image is so vivid. Just a herd of cattle mindlessly
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chewing, completely ignoring the intricate beauty of the orchids
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and the lilies they are crushing beneath their hooves.
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It is a tragedy. It is if we are just reading the
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text to check a box on a reading plan.
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If we are just skimming it to get it over with, we are
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trampling the flowers. We're acting like cattle, yeah.
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To keep the testimonies and seek Him with a whole heart, we have
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to stop, look at the petals, and let the text actually accomplish
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its work in US. And that deliberate consumption
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naturally and inevitably leads to the visible actions described
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in the very next verse. Which makes sense.
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The internal creates the external.
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If the internal reality is a whole heart, the external
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reality must match it. And this brings us to verse 3,
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which states they also do no iniquity.
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They walk in his ways. OK, I'm looking at verse 3 and
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honestly I am stuck. A lot of people get stuck.
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Here they do no iniquity. David wrote this and we have
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this historical record. We certainly do.
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He committed adultery, he committed murder.
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He lied. It is a dark history.
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So if I am the listener, I am looking at this absolute
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statement of purity and thinking the text is either lying or
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delusional. It feels impossible to
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reconcile. How do you reconcile a statement
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like they do no iniquity with the historical reality of the
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author's own life? The paradox is striking, and it
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requires careful theological precision to understand.
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We cannot lower the standard of the text to excuse our failures,
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but we must understand how it applies to the believer.
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The resolution rests heavily on the doctrines articulated in
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Reformed theology. Walk me through it.
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There are two primary reasons why it can be said of the
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believer that they do no iniquity.
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The first reason is rooted in our general state of
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justification in Christ. OK, let's translate that out of
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17th century theological jargon. What does the state of
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justification actually mean in practical terms for someone who
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has clearly committed iniquity? It means we look at it from a
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forensic or legal standpoint. OK, a courtroom.
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Yes, for those who are reconciled to God, sins are not
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imputed to condemnation. A veil is drawn over them.
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So the record is hidden. Think about it this way.
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Imagine you were standing in a courtroom.
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The judge holds the file containing every single crime
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you have ever committed. And the evidence is undeniable.
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Completely undeniable. But instead of reading the
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verdict of guilty, the judge takes the file, drops it in a
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shredder, and declares that legally, there's no record to
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convict you with. That leads to condemnation is
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removed because the penalty was paid by the mediator Jesus
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Christ. So when David humbled himself
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and repented, the prophet Nathan told him, The Lord have put away
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thy sin. Yes, the legal record is
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cleared. So legally, the file is
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shredded. The judge does not count the
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iniquity against them. That makes sense legally.
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But you're wondering about the practical side.
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Exactly what about the practical reality?
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Because even a justified person still commits sin.
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They do. The legal standing is perfect,
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but the daily walk is clearly flawed.
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How does the text say they do no iniquity in their daily life?
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That brings us to the believers habitual bent and inclination.
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Habitual bent. There's a massive difference
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between a habitual bend towards sin and an occasional fall into
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sin. Well, the constant actions of
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nature operate according to their kind.
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A person is known by their custom, by the regular course of
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their endeavors. Right.
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Their daily habits. A wicked person sins with
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deliberation and delight. Their bent is to do evil.
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They make provision for it. They serve it voluntarily.
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It is their default setting. Yes, but those who are renewed
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by grace have a different habitual inclination.
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Their general course is to seek and serve the Lord.
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Even if they stumble. Yes, they make it their business
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to avoid sin through watching, praying and mortifying the
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flesh. When they do sin, it is opposed
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by the new nature. There is an internal fight.
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There is resistance and afterward there is deep remorse.
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They are sufferers of sin against their wills rather than
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actors of it with their wills. I think I understand the
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mechanics of this. Is it like the difference
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between a marsh and a Meadow? Oh, that is a classic
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illustration. Think about a healthy, vibrant
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Meadow. It might be temporarily
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overflowed by a massive, unexpected storm.
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Right, a flash flood. The floodwaters wash over the
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grass. It looks like a disaster, and
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for a moment it looks exactly like a swamp.
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It looks. Ruined.
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But the water eventually recedes and the Meadow returns to its
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natural green state. The storm was an anomaly.
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It was not his true nature. Right, but a marsh is drowned by
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the return of every single tide. It is habitually underwater.
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It is it's very nature to be submerged.
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Yes, a believer might be overtaken by a sudden storm of
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temptation. They might be flooded for a
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moment, but their habitual marsh nature has been cured.
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They are a Meadow now. When people are overcome by the
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return of every single temptation that rolls in like
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the tide, it argues for a habit of sin, a marsh like nature.
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That analogy perfectly illustrates the theological
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concept of sanctification. The believer is not sinless, but
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their relationship to sin has fundamentally changed.
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The sin is an invader, not a welcomed guest.
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And we must also recognize that this verse is not about just
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avoiding bad behavior. What do you mean?
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The text says they walk in his ways.
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There is a necessity for positive virtue.
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Religion does not run upon negatives alone.
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Right. It is not just a list of thou
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shalt nots. It is not enough to simply say I
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am not an extortioner or unjust. A plot of ground might not bring
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forth briars and thorns, but if it yields no good crop, it is
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still worthless ground. We often cut off half the bill
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of our duties. We do.
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That distinction between negative avoidance and positive
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virtue is huge. Think about a hermit.
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OK, a hermit. A hermit escapes into a cave in
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the middle of nowhere so that he does no bad deeds.
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Right, he isolates himself. He isolates himself so he cannot
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lie, steal or cheat his neighbor.
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He achieves the negative. But he is not helping anyone.
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Either exactly. A St. lives in society to
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actually do good. Avoiding evil is only half the
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equation. Reminds me of the city of Meros
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in the Book of Judges. Oh yeah, they were cursed,
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right? Yes, they were cursed not
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because they fought against God's people, but because they
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simply did not help. They stayed neutral.
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Or look at the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.
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That is a very sobering example. Where rich man was not condemned
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to hell because he stole food from Lazarus or because he
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physically beat him. He was condemned because Lazarus
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sat at his gate starving and the rich man did absolutely nothing.
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If our religion is just a list of things we avoid, I do not
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swear, I do not steal, I do not murder.
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We are missing the positive command to walk actively in
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God's ways. And that transition from the
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negative avoidance of sin to the positive execution of
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righteousness requires a clear, firm standard.
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You cannot build a House of good works without a precise
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schematic. No, you cannot.
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Which brings us to the strict mandate laid out in verse 4.
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Thou has commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.
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There is a sudden shift in the language here.
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Yes, very noticeable. Up until this point, the writer
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has been talking about God in the third person.
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Blessed are they that keep His testimonies.
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They walk in His ways. But suddenly in verse 4, the
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writer pivots and speaks directly to God.
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Thou has commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently.
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There is an acute recognition of God's personal authority.
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We are no longer just talking about rules, we are talking to
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the law giver himself. And the command is not just to
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keep the precepts, but to keep them diligently.
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Let's think about what diligence looks like in the real world.
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Think about a merchant in business.
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A diligent merchant does not just casually hope to make a
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profit. They rise up early while it is
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still dark. They hustle.
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They sit up late analyzing the ledgers.
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They push through physical exhaustion.
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They deny themselves comfort. All to secure a profit.
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They are completely focused on the goal.
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The text is telling us that we are commanded to trade in God's
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precepts with that exact same vigorous, relentless energy.
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A careless service, a sort of hit or miss.
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Obedience is completely unacceptable.
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The theology behind this demand for diligence is vital.
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We must understand the nature of the obedience required.
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What do you mean? The command is to be diligent in
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keeping God's revealed rules, not in making up our own.
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OK. This is a crucial distinction in
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Reformed theology, which strongly opposes what is termed
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will worship or superstition. We don't get to invent the
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rules. We are not called to bind yokes
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upon our own necks or create arbitrary rules for others to
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follow. The obedience must carry the
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stamp of divine authority. True obedience is done with a
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respect to and an eye upon the divine will.
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We conform to the command not because it happens to align with
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our selfish ends or because it makes us look good in front of
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our neighbors. But out of sheer reverence for
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the law giver. Yes, if God requires something,
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we are to proceed in the course of our obedience, even if the
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world derides us for it. The diligence applies not just
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to the action, but to the motive behind the action.
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So the standard is perfection, the motive must be pure
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reverence, and the effort must be as diligent as an exhausted
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merchant pushing for a profit. It is a high bar.
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It is if I am that merchant and I am trying to obey perfectly,
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I'm eventually going to hit a wall.
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You will burn out. I am going to burn out.
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What happens when the believer inevitably realizes they do not
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have the capital to keep trading like this?
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That brings us to verse 5. That my ways were directed to
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keep thy statutes. The transition between verse 4
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and verse 5 is one of the most drastic psychological and
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theological shifts in the entire Psalm.
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It is a massive drop. We move instantly from the
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booming, authoritative command of God to the quiet, desperate,
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vulnerable sigh of the human writer.
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Verse 4 is God's imperative command.
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Verse 5 is our expression of deep, helpless desire.
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The writer feels the crushing weight of the command and
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instantly recognizes their own utter inability to fulfill it.
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Yes, this is where I hear a lot of modern listeners object.
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I am sure you do. If God commands us to do this,
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why are we immediately sighing about our inability?
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If the command is there, doesn't that imply we have the inherent
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power to do it? That is the logical assumption
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most people make. Right.
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Like why this sudden helpless sigh?
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Can't we just try harder? That assumption, that a command
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implies the inherent human ability to fulfill it, is
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precisely what Reformed theology dismantled.
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Takes a hammer to it. It brings us to the doctrine of
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total depravity. Let's unpack total depravity,
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because that term gets misunderstood a lot.
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It really does. People think it means humans are
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as evil as they could possibly be at all times.
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Right. It does not mean absolute
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maximum evil in every action. It means every part of our
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nature is tainted by sin, including our will.
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Our will is not free. We are by nature as unable to
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create a single pulse of spiritual life in our own hearts
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as we are to create a universe from nothing.
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Our wills are bound. The carnal mind is enmity
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against God. It is not subject to the law of
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God, neither indeed can be. But God still commands us.
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Yes. However, our inability does not
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cancel our obligation. We are bound to obey the
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commands of God whether we have the moral strength to do so or
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not. Because the inability is our own
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fault. Exactly.
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Our inability is our own fault. It is our sin, our guilt.
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It stops our mouths and leaves us completely destitute of any
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plea of defense before the judgement seat.
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Let me see if I can translate the mechanics of this tension
22:01
between command and ability. Please do imagine a doctor
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visits the patient who is bedridden with a severe,
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debilitating illness. The doctor prescribes A regimen
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for recovery and tells the patient you need to get out of
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bed and walk the halls for your health.
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The. Command is given.
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The patient hears the command. They agree with the command.
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They have the internal desire to get up and walk, but their body
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is completely ravaged by disease.
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They physically lack the strength to move their legs.
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We want to, but they can't. The desire is present, but the
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capacity is absent. Is that an accurate picture of
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our spiritual condition? It captures the essence
22:40
perfectly. We hear the command to keep the
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statutes diligently. The renewed heart desires to do
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it, but we find ourselves paralyzed by the lingering
22:49
effects of our fallen nature. We have the moral obligation,
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but we lack the moral capacity. Spot on.
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So if we are paralyzed in the bed and the doctor is commanding
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us to walk, what are we supposed to do?
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We have only one option. We must turn the precepts into
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prayers. Precepts into prayers.
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We return the mandate to heaven, accompanied by an earnest plea
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that the Lord would work in us what He requires of us.
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Which is beautifully captured by Augustine.
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Yes. His famous prayer Give what thou
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requires, and require what thou wilt.
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Give what thou requires, and require what thou wilt.
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That is a dangerous prayer. It requires total surrender.
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But it raises a massive question.
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Why does God demand what He knows we cannot do in our own
23:30
strength? Why command the paralyzed man to
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walk? For three distinct theological
23:35
reasons. Let's hear them. 1st to maintain
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His rightful authority and keep up his right as a creator and
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law giver. His standard does not drop just
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because we fell into sin. Right.
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The law doesn't change just because we broke it. 2nd to
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convince us of our utter impotence, so that upon trying
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to obey, we realized that without His grace we can do
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absolutely nothing. It breaks our pride.
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And 3rd, to drive us to lie at his feet begging for the very
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grace we need to obey. God gives the command not
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because we are strong, but to show us we are weak, driving us
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to the only source of strength. When that grace is actually
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given, when the Lord answers that sigh, and the believer
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begins to walk in those statutes, by the power of the
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Spirit, a massive psychological burden is lifted.
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Paralysis is broken. And we see the the result of
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that freedom in verse 6. Then shall I not be ashamed when
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I have respect unto all thy commandments?
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Shame is the natural consequence of sin.
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It is the shadow that disobedience casts upon the
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human soul. Nobody likes that feeling.
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No one likes to be ashamed or to blush When sin is present.
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The reason for shame is present, but when we pay a continual and
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universal respect to the will of the Lord, we are freed from that
24:50
burden. We can look ourselves in the
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face. And we can look upon the world
24:53
without fear. Think about the concept of the
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law as a mirror. OK, a mirror.
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Before you leave your house for an important event, you check
25:01
the mirror, you inspect your clothes, you make sure
25:04
everything is in its proper place.
25:06
You want to look presentable. If you know you are dressed
25:09
appropriately, if the mirror confirms that you are ready, you
25:12
have absolutely no shame stepping out your front door and
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walking into the daylight. You walk out with confidence.
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You do not cower. You do not hide, but what
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happens when there is disobedience?
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Think about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
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The ultimate example of shame. The very first thing they did
25:28
after disobeying the command was experience real shame, and that
25:32
shame instantly produced the instinct to hide from the
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presence of God. Disobedience makes us naked and
25:38
ashamed. But the believer who has respect
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unto the commandments has been covered by the grace of God,
25:44
Their nakedness has been clothed, and they no longer have
25:47
to hide in the bushes. The imagery of the mirror is
25:50
very helpful, but we must pay close attention to the most
25:53
terrifying word in this verse. Which word?
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It is a small word, but it carries immense theological
25:58
weight. The word all.
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When I have respect unto all thy commandments, yes.
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A partial obedience will never satisfy a child of God.
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The exclusion of any single commandment from its supreme
26:10
regard in the heart is the absolute brand of hypocrisy.
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You cannot treat God's law like a buffet.
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No, you cannot cull out the cheap, easy parts of religion
26:19
that happened to suit your lifestyle while ignoring the
26:21
precepts that contradict your personal interests or your
26:24
favored lusts. It doesn't work that way.
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There is the same reason for obedience TO1 command as
26:30
another, and that reason is God's sovereign authority.
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If you pick and choose what to obey, you are not obeying God,
26:37
you are pleasing yourself. The historical examples of this
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buffet style religion are chilling.
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Very sobering. Look at King Saul in the Old
26:45
Testament. God gave him a direct, specific
26:48
command to destroy the Amalekites completely.
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And what did he do? Saul went to battle.
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He won the victory, and he destroyed almost everything.
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He destroyed 99% of what he was told to destroy.
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Almost obedience is still disobedience.
27:01
Right. He spared one man King a gag,
27:04
and he kept the absolute best of the sheep and the oxen.
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He offered a partial obedience. They kept a reserve.
27:10
And that single exception, that one area where he decided he
27:14
knew better than God, cost him his entire dynasty.
27:17
It cost him his throne. The prophet Samuel told him that
27:19
rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.
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Or look at. Herod in the New Testament, the
27:23
text says that Herod liked listening to John the Baptist.
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He gladly did many things that John preached about you.
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Reformed certain areas of his life.
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But he kept his favorite sin, his brother's wife.
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He kept that one corruption and it led him to murder the prophet
27:38
and face absolute disaster. If you are keeping a reserve
27:41
sin, your sincerity is rotting from the inside out.
27:45
The Apostle James addresses the same reality when he writes that
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whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles it just one point
27:53
is guilty of breaking all of it. That is a terrifying standard.
27:56
To intentionally reserve 1 area of your life from God's
27:59
authority is to reject His authority entirely.
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However, we must balance this terrifying reality with the
28:05
comfort of the gospel. Please do.
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The text says, When I have respect unto all thy
28:10
commandments. God is a gracious master.
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He accepts our weak endeavors when they are joined with
28:15
sincerity. Even if we fail.
28:17
The traveler has their eye fixed on the destination, even if
28:20
they're still far from it. If the heart's true posture is a
28:24
desire to press on to full obedience, if the eye is
28:27
genuinely looking toward all the commands without intentional
28:29
reservation, that soul shall never be put to shame.
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That is comforting. God pardons the failures of the
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sincere heart that relies on the blood of Christ.
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When the believer, fully covered by grace, looks to all the
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commands with a sincere heart, the shame vanishes.
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It is gone. And when the shame vanishes, the
28:47
silence is broken. You cannot keep a heart quiet
28:50
once it has been delivered from shame.
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The relief demands an outlet. Which brings us to the song of
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verse seven. I will praise thee with
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uprightness of heart when I shall have learned thy righteous
29:01
judgments. The sequence here is
29:03
fascinating. You learn first, then you
29:05
praise. Notice the necessary sequence.
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The learning precedes the praising.
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We must learn in order to praise, and we praise as we are
29:14
learning. It is a step by step process.
29:16
From prayer in verse 5 to deliverance from shame in verse
29:19
6, we arrive at praise in verse 7.
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It is a logical and spiritual progression.
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But we must understand what the psalmist means by learning.
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Yes. In this context, learning is not
29:30
gaining A speculative light. It is not filling your memory
29:33
with theological trivia so you can win a debate.
29:36
It is not just head knowledge. True learning in the biblical
29:39
sense forces a change in practice.
29:42
To understand the word is to be framed by it.
29:46
The professors of the Christian religion were originally called
29:48
disciples, which literally means learners.
29:52
A true disciple is a perpetual student in the school of God's
29:55
grace. Exactly.
29:56
So you have to learn the music before you can sing the song.
29:58
God's Providence and His written word act as this massive,
30:02
complex music book. That is a great analogy.
30:05
As we read the history of God's righteous judgments, as we
30:08
observe his decisions concerning right and wrong passing before
30:12
our eyes, in history and in our own lives, we are learning the
30:15
notes. And as we learn the notes, we
30:18
are compelled to burst forth into expressions of holy
30:20
delight. But the praise has to be of a
30:23
specific quality, he says. I will praise thee with
30:26
uprightness of heart. It cannot be fake.
30:28
There is such a thing as false praise.
30:30
There is feigned hypocritical praise that is just noise in
30:33
God's ears. The Lord requires heart praise.
30:36
Which means the instrument has to be tuned correctly before the
30:39
song can be played. And that tuning of the
30:41
instrument brings us to the reformed understanding of
30:43
illumination. How does that work?
30:46
The Holy Spirit does not just deliver cold facts to the
30:48
intellect, He acts upon the affections.
30:51
He tunes the instrument of the heart so that the music produced
30:54
is upright, free from the dissonant chords of hypocrisy or
30:58
self seeking. So it's all grace.
30:59
This is a recognition of God's sovereignty even in our worship.
31:04
Both the matter for which we thank God, His righteous
31:07
judgments, and the grace by which we are actually able to
31:10
thank Him with an upright heart, come entirely from Him.
31:14
We are totally dependent on him. We are dependent on the teacher
31:17
not only for the lesson, but for the capacity to respond to the
31:20
lesson with genuine gratitude. So the believer is sitting at
31:24
the desk studying the judgments and simultaneously standing in
31:27
the choir loft singing the praises.
31:30
The beautiful picture. And this soaring, joyful praise
31:33
then settles down into a very calm, yet terrifyingly grounded
31:37
resolution in the final verse of our section.
31:40
Verse 8. Verse 8 I will keep thy
31:42
statutes, so forsake me not utterly.
31:44
This verse is the grand conclusion of the eight verse
31:47
sequence. It is the final summation of the
31:51
psalmist's meditation on the utility and necessity of keeping
31:54
the law of God. It contains 2 distinct elements,
31:57
doesn't it? Yes, a firm resolution and an
32:00
urgent prayer, and the relationship between these two
32:04
elements is the pinnacle of the spiritual maturity displayed in
32:07
this text. It feels like a contradiction to
32:09
me. How so?
32:10
The verse starts with this bold, ironclad vow.
32:14
I will keep thy statutes. It sounds confident, very
32:17
confident. But immediately, in the very
32:18
same breath, it is followed by a gasp of sheer terror.
32:22
Oh, forsake me. Not utterly it.
32:24
Is quite the contrast. I was trying to picture this and
32:26
it is like a man confidently stepping out onto a high wire
32:29
tightrope declaring to the crowd, I will walk across this
32:32
chasm. He's.
32:33
Bold. But the second his foot touches
32:35
the wire, he looks down, realizes the sheer drop beneath
32:39
him, and instantly cries out to the safety crew.
32:41
Do not drop the net. The confidence in the terror
32:44
exist in the exact same moment. That tightrope analogy is a
32:48
perfect visualization of the Christian life.
32:51
This verse showcases the inseparable and happy union of a
32:55
sincere obedience with an absolute dependence.
32:58
Because you need both. If you only have the vow, I will
33:01
keep the statutes. Without the prayer.
33:04
It would be arrogant presumption.
33:06
Like Peter boasting. Right Peter boasting that though
33:09
everyone else falls away, he never will, right before he
33:12
denies Christ. And what if you just have the
33:14
prayer? On the other hand, if you only
33:16
have the prayer O forsake me, not without the vow to keep the
33:20
statutes, it would be lazy begging.
33:22
You would just sit there. It would be asking God for
33:25
security while refusing to take any steps of obedience.
33:29
True spiritual maturity holds both the iron resolution to obey
33:32
and the terrified realization that without God's sustaining
33:35
hand, we will instantly plunge into ruin.
33:38
That fear of being forsaken brings up a very serious
33:40
theological concept. Desertion.
33:42
Yes. What does the psalmist mean when
33:44
he prays Forsake me? Not utterly.
33:47
Does God actually forsake his people?
33:49
It is a heavy question. The text outlines two kinds of
33:52
desertion, partial desertion and total desertion.
33:56
Could you explain the mechanics of how God interacts with
33:58
believers regarding desertion? Partial desertion is when God
34:03
steps back for a moment. He leaves a believer to their
34:06
own devices temporarily. Give me an example of that.
34:09
Think of God leaving Peter to his own pride in the courtyard,
34:13
or leaving Elijah to his depression under the juniper
34:15
tree. Why would God do that?
34:17
He does this to humble them, to show them how incredibly weak
34:21
they are without him, and to destroy their self-reliance.
34:24
That sounds painful. It is, but total desertion is
34:28
entirely different. Total desertion is what happened
34:30
to King Saul or to Judas Iscariot.
34:32
Where there is no return. Right where God removes his
34:35
restraining grace entirely and leaves the person completely to
34:38
their own destruction. So a Christian cannot promise
34:40
themselves immunity from partial desertion.
34:43
God may hide his face for a little season.
34:45
That is correct. He may allow the peace and joy
34:48
of our hearts to be interrupted. He may allow our spiritual
34:51
strength to abate so that we mourn under our current
34:53
condition. Yes, but the believer prays
34:57
against total desertion, relying on the promise of the covenant.
35:00
I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
35:02
Precisely the prayer O forsake me not utterly, is not a sign of
35:07
doubting God's promise. It is the natural agonizing cry
35:12
of a creature who knows that their only hope of survival
35:15
rests entirely in the preserving grace of the Creator.
35:18
We cling to Him because we have nothing else.
35:20
God will not utterly forsake His elect, but He will teach them to
35:24
cling to Him by letting them feel the horror of what it would
35:27
mean to be left alone. That brings this entire 8 verse
35:31
sequence to a close. We have gone on an incredible
35:34
exploration of this text. It is so rich.
35:36
We started out looking at a massive, architecturally
35:39
brilliant poem. We discovered that seeking God
35:42
with a whole heart actually requires a broken heart, because
35:45
a broken heart is the only one that is not divided by pride.
35:48
Such a key distinction. We learned the mechanics of
35:50
justification, where the legal file is shredded, and
35:53
sanctification, where the believers habitual nature is
35:56
changed from a marsh to a Meadow.
35:58
The. Storm versus the tide.
36:00
We saw the intense merchant like diligence required by the
36:03
command. We heard the desperate sigh of
36:05
the soul realizing its own total inability to obey.
36:09
And the turn to prayer. We learned that partial
36:11
obedience breeds shame and that we must respect all the
36:14
commandments. We saw how the Holy Spirit tunes
36:17
the heart to praise as we learn God's righteous judgments.
36:20
And then the final tightrope walk.
36:23
And finally, we saw how bold resolutions must be permanently
36:26
tethered to desperate prayers for sustaining grace.
36:29
The arc of these 8 verses is a microcosm of the entire
36:32
Christian experience. It really is.
36:34
From admiring the beauty of the law, to confronting our own
36:38
internal bankruptcy, to crying out for intervention, to resting
36:41
in the unmerited, to preserving grace of God, it is a
36:44
masterpiece of theological reality.
36:46
It absolutely is. And as we conclude, I want to
36:48
leave you, the listener, with a final thought to Mull over.
36:51
What is that? In our modern era, we have a
36:53
very specific view of rules, statutes and commandments.
36:57
We almost universally view them as restrictive cages.
37:00
We hate being told what to do. We think rules kill joy.
37:04
We think laws kill freedom. We want to be autonomous,
37:07
answering to no one, defining our own reality.
37:10
That is the modern spirit for sure.
37:12
But what if the exact opposite is true?
37:14
What if the longest, most elaborate, most structurally
37:18
complex song in the history of human literature is entirely
37:21
about the rules of God? Because true boundary less
37:25
freedom is actually terrifying. Oh, that is an interesting
37:29
thought. What if we are like children
37:30
playing near a Cliff edge and we can only truly run and play and
37:34
sing when we know the safe boundaries have been constructed
37:37
by a loving Creator? The boundary is a safety
37:39
measure. Maybe the law isn't a cage.
37:42
Maybe it's the fence that keeps us from falling off the Cliff so
37:44
we can finally enjoy the garden. The restriction of the law is
37:47
the very thing that guarantees the liberty of the soul.
37:50
That completely flips our modern understanding of freedom upside
37:53
down. Thank you for joining us for
37:55
this deep dive on Reformed thinking.
37:57
We encourage you to open up your Bible.
37:59
Turn to Psalm 119 and read it for yourself with fresh eyes.
38:02
Do not just skim the surface. Wait into the text.
38:05
Look past the glass and let yourself feel the heat of that
38:08
ancient fire.