Latest / Reformed Thinking / Let Your Steadfast Love Come to Me (Psalm 119:41–48) | Charles Spurgeon

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Let Your Steadfast Love Come to Me (Psalm 119:41–48) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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You know, usually when we talk about a medical diagnosis, there
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is this expectation of, like, total precision, right?
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Yeah. If you take a bad fall in the
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ice and your arm swells up, you go to the hospital and the
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process is incredibly straightforward.
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I mean, they put you in front of an X-ray machine, the image pops
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up on a screen and the doctor just points to a jagged white
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line on the bone. Right there on the radius.
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Yeah, there it is. The problem is totally visible,
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it is measurable and the solution is prescribed with
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absolute certainty. 6 weeks in a cast and you are good to go.
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It is binary. I mean, the bone is either
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broken or it is not broken. And we find a lot of comfort in
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that kind of clarity. You know, as humans we want our
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problems to be physical, visible, and just easily
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categorize into a neat little box.
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Oh, absolutely. But then you step into the world
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of the human soul. You step into spiritual
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realities, and suddenly that pristine X-ray machine is
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completely useless. Totally useless.
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We are looking at a diagnostic landscape that is incredibly
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murky. We have these seasons where we
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feel like totally trapped by our own destructive habits, or we
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feel cornered by cynics at our workplace.
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Or, and this is a big one, we are absolutely terrified of
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losing our voice for the truth when the pressure is on.
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Yeah, that. Fear of freezing up.
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Right. And for those internal
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struggles, there is no simple physical cure.
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You cannot put a plaster cast on a wounded conscience.
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So welcome to reformed thinking. Our mission for this deep dive
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is to examine a highly specific section of Scripture today.
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Yes, verses 41 through 48 of Psalm 119.
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We are pulling heavily from Charles Spurgeon's massive
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commentary The Treasury of David, and we will be looking at
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insights from various Puritan and Reformed commentators, guys
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like Thomas Manton, William Cowper and Samuel Rutherford.
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Some of the best minds we. Have for sure.
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So if you have ever felt like you are losing the battle
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against your own hesitations, these 8 verses offer a master
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class and how God's grace creates unparalleled boldness.
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What is fascinating right out of the gate is the structural
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genius of the text itself. Like we are looking at the vow
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section of the. Psalm.
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Let's give a bit of context for that for those who might not
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know. Right, so Psalm 119 is an
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acrostic poem in Hebrew. That means each section
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corresponds to a letter of the Hebrew alphabet moving
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sequentially. So vow is the 6th letter.
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But here is the brilliant linguistic catch.
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I love this. Part.
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In the Hebrew language, almost no stand alone words begin with
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the letter vow. It is actually a conjunction.
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Meaning and or so. Right.
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Precisely that means every single verse we are about to
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discuss begins with a connecting word.
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It establishes a massive, unbroken chain reaction of grace
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and obedience. I mean nothing in this text
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happens in isolation. Everything is linked to the
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thing that came right before it. Yes, always connected.
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OK, let us break down this chain reaction starting with the very
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first link, which is verse 41. The verse, Please let thy
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mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation.
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Now what jumps out immediately is the plural nature of the word
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mercies. Oh yeah, that is key.
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The writer does not ask for a single drop of mercy, you know,
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he asks for a plural mercies. And he adds this very specific,
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almost desperate plea for even me.
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When I read this, I picture like a major medical crisis.
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Going back to the hospital analogy.
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Right. Think about a patient rushed
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into the emergency room after a catastrophic car crash.
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That patient does not just need a single doctor, they need a
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massive coordinated trauma team. They need everyone on deck.
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Yeah, they need the trauma surgeon to stop the internal
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bleeding, and they need the anesthesiologist to manage the
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pain. They need the orthopedic
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specialist to reset the shattered bones, and they need
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the respiratory therapist to keep oxygen flowing.
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And if they only get one of those interventions.
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They still die. Salvation feels very much like
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that. It is a multidisciplinary rescue
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operation for the soul. But I want to push back on the
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text just a little bit here for the sake of argument.
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Sure, go ahead. Why ask for plural mercies
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instead of just one giant act of salvation?
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Is salvation not a single comprehensive event where God
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simply declares you forgiven? Well, if we look at this through
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the lens of reformed theology, we see why the plural is
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absolutely necessary and why your trauma team analogy is spot
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on. Spurgeon notes that the writer
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is guilty as well as ignorant. Meaning we don't even know how
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bad off we are. Right.
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That is a direct nod to our total inability apart from
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divine intervention. Salvation, in the Reformed
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understanding, is not just a single historical event where
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God stamps your passport to heaven and just, you know,
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leaves you to figure out the rest.
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It's way more involved than. That it is a massive aggregate
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of mercies. It aligns perfectly with what
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theologians call the ordo salutis, the logical sequence of
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salvation. OK, let us unpack those steps
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for the listener, because theological terms can sometimes
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sound like dry textbook material, but they actually
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describe an intensely dramatic rescue.
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Oh. Absolutely.
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So you need calling Mercy to even wake you up from your
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spiritual coma. Calling mercy is like the alarm
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clock going off in a burning building.
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You would sleep right through the fire if God did not sound
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the alarm in your ears. That is a great way to put it.
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And then you need regenerating Mercy to give you an entirely
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new heart. Which is the Ezekiel 36 promise,
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right? Taking out the heart of stone
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and putting in a heart of flesh. It is a literal spiritual
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transplant. And then you need justifying
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mercy to declare you righteous in the courtroom of heaven.
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You need adopting mercy to bring you into the family.
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And you need sanctifying mercy for your daily failures.
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The psalmist understands that he requires a multitude of divine
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actions to secure his soul. When you realize how many
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distinct things have to happen to save a person, the plea, even
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me, becomes incredibly poignant. I mean, it is intensely
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personal. It really is the cry of a person
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who recognizes their absolute bankruptcy.
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It makes me think of Elizabeth Cotner's hymn from 1860.
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Even me. The imagery in that hymn is of a
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parched, thirsty patch of land receiving showers of blessing.
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The singer is watching others receive this life giving rain
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right. She is seeing God move
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elsewhere. Yeah, she is watching revivals
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happen in other towns. She is watching Grace fled into
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other families, and she is begging.
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Let some droppings fall on me, even me.
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There's a real desperation there.
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You are watching the trauma team of Grace rush into the hospital
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room next door and you are crying out from your own bed.
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Do not bypass my room. I need the same intervention.
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Yes, and that desperation is driven by a right understanding
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of who we are and who God is. We are entirely dependent on him
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initiating that contact. And William Cowper makes a
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brilliant distinction here about the motivation behind seeking
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these mercies. He points out that wicked men
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take from God without pledging any return.
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Oh wow, that is a sharp observation.
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It is they want the rain so their crops will grow and make
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some wealthy. They want the physical healing
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so they can go back to indulging their flesh.
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But they have 0 intention of honoring the giver of those
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gifts. So they just want the benefits,
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not the relationship. Spot on.
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The godly, however, seek blessings specifically so they
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can glorify the giver. They want the mercy, so their
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mouths will be open to sing and their hands will be strengthened
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to work for the Kingdom. So what does this mean for the
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person listening to us right now?
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It means that when you asked for God's help on a Tuesday morning,
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you are not asking for a temporary painkiller to make
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your life a little more comfortable.
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You are asking for a multifaceted sweeping
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intervention so that you can actually function as you were
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originally designed to function. Which is to glorify God.
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Right, and that brings us to the logical result of receiving
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those mercies, which is the next link in the vow chain of verse
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42. Receiving this multifaceted
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mercy equips the believer for external conflict.
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The verse says so shall I have where if to answer him that
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repurchase me, for I trust in thy word.
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The chain reaction continues. But here's where I get tripped
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up, and I think a lot of modern Christians do too.
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Are we not taught that faith is the evidence of things not seen?
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Why do we need ammunition? Or an answer for scoffers?
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You mean shouldn't we just ignore them?
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Yeah, should we not just keep our heads down and look toward
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heaven? Why engage with the reproach at
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all? That is a very common
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misconception about how we engage with the skeptical world.
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We're not called to a blind, irrational leap into the dark,
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ignoring all opposition, the text clearly says.
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For I trust in thy word. So it's an active, engaged
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trust. Yes, the expert commentators
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call this the logic of facts. When God grants actual, tangible
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deliverance, when those plural mercies actually show up in your
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daily reality, it provides an unanswerable rebuttal to the
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skeptic. Because it's not just a theory
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anymore. Exactly.
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I mean, absolutely. Abstract arguments can be
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debated all day long in the university classroom.
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A skill philosopher can poke holes in a logical syllogism,
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but a lived experience of God's faithfulness shuts down reproach
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completely. The changed life, the sustained
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spirit under immense trial, the actual historical deliverance.
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These are concrete facts. You can debate a syllogism, but
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you cannot argue with a resurrected life.
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If someone knew you when you were an absolute wreck, enslaved
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to anger or addiction, and now they see a person full of peace
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and self-control. I mean, they can mock your
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theology, but they cannot mock the result.
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Because the result is sitting right in front of them.
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Right, Hugo Cardinalis categorized 3 distinct types of
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blasphemers or critics that believers face, didn't he?
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He did, and he paired them with the specific answers they
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require. He said there are devils,
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heretics and slanderers. OK, let's break this down.
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So devils are answered by the internal word of humility.
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You cannot out pride, Satan. He fell because of pride.
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You defeat his accusations by humbly agreeing with your need
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for grace. Wow, that is really insightful.
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What about heretics? Heretics who actively twist the
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truth are answered by the external word of wisdom, by
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knowing the Scriptures thoroughly and correcting the
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error. But slanderers, the human
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critics who mock your faith at the office or at a family
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gathering, they are answered by the active word of a good life.
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Let us unpack the psychology of that for a second.
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Slanderers are answered by the active word of a good life.
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How does that actually work in practice?
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It works through cognitive dissonance.
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Yeah, when a slanderer mocks you, they're trying to attach a
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negative label to you, right? Like hypocrite, fool, bigot.
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But if your daily conduct, fueled by those plural mercies
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we just talked about, is full of unimpeachable integrity,
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kindness, and patience, the label refuses to stick.
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It just slides right off. The slander falls flat because
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the evidence of your life contradicts the accusation.
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Albert Barnes noted something similar when he pointed out that
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Jesus answered the tempter in the wilderness utilizing the
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exact words of Scripture. Yes, Christ did not use His
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divine might to blast Satan into oblivion in that moment.
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Which he totally could have done.
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He could have, but he used the written text demonstrating
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perfect lived out reliance on the father.
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He modeled the lived experience of trusting the word under
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pressure. And we must recognize the
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intense vulnerability here because the obvious counter
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question is, well, what happens when that defense fails?
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What happens when the believer loses the ability to speak those
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facts? That is a very dark place to be.
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The transition into verse 43 exposes A terrifying possibility
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for the Christian, the psalmist. Praise.
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Take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I
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have hoped in thy judgments. Losing your voice.
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Right. I read that and immediately
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thought of a defense attorney standing in front of a jury in a
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high stakes murder trial. The attorney steps up to the
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podium, opens his mouth to deliver the closing argument
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that will exonerate his client, and suddenly his mind goes
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completely blank. Oh, that is a nightmare
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scenario. He forgets the case law.
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He forgets the forensic evidence.
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He stammers, looks at his notes and realizes he cannot read the
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words. He's rendered completely mute
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while his client's life hangs in the balance.
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That is the agony of the mute believer.
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Charles Bridges writes extensively about this
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condition, noting how indulging and worldly habits causes a
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massive loss of liberty and speech.
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Bridges hits the nail on the head regarding the mechanics of
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shame. Think about the modern
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equivalent. Have you ever been sitting in a
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break room at work and the conversation turns toward
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mocking Christianity or tearing down biblical morality?
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I think we have all been there. You know the apologetics, you
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have read the books, You know what to say to defend the truth.
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But your throat tightens up, your heart races, and you stay
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completely silent. And why is that?
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Not because you lack the intellectual answer, but because
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you know that an hour earlier you were participating in the
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exact same toxic office gossip as everyone else.
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Your own hypocrisy creates cognitive dissonance and you
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become too ashamed of your own conduct to speak for God.
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The word of truth is taken out of your mouth by your own
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compromise. That is the paralyzing effect of
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a wounded conscience. It is brutal.
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The psychological and spiritual causes of this silence are vast
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and devastating. It could be open, unconfessed
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sin as you just described, which breeds intense shame, but it
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could also be severe depression where the believer feels
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completely abandoned by God and the theological words they used
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to sing turn to ash in their mouth.
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Yeah, that is a very real, very painful reality for a lot of
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people. Or, from a strictly Reformed
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perspective, it could be a form of severe spiritual discipline
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from God. Notice the verse mentions hoping
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in God's judgments. Right judgments aren't always
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just final condemnation. Absolutely not trusting in God's
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judgments means trusting His righteous governance of the
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entire world, whether that involves fulfilling sweet
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promises to believers or executing harsh discipline.
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Sometimes God deliberately withdraws the sense of His
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presence to discipline us, to make us realize how desperately
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we rely on Him to fill our mouths with truth.
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That brings up a heartbreaking quote from Samuel Rutherford.
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Rutherford. His letters are incredible.
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They really are. He was a brilliant 17th century
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Scottish minister, a delegate to the Westminster Assembly and a
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man who lived to preach the gospel.
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But because of his convictions he was exiled to the city of
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Aberdeen and legally forbidden from preaching.
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He was confined, silenced by the state.
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Stripped of his calling, essentially.
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Yeah, he lamented his situation in his letters saying I am a dry
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tree. He went on to say that his
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desire to worship and honor God was sick of jealousy.
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He considered preaching his one true joy outside of heaven
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itself. To have the word of truth taken
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out of his mouth by human authorities and to feel the
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silence stretching on for months and years, that was absolute
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psychological agony for him. He felt like a finely tuned
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instrument locked in a dusty case.
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Rutherford's agony proves how intensely he treasured the word.
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He was not a hired hand clocking in to do a job.
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He was a herald who felt the fire of the truth in his bones.
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For the believer who truly understands grace, being
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silenced, whether by personal sin, depression, or external
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force, is worse than being physically restrained.
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You want to avoid becoming that barren dry tree at all costs.
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But how to avoid that barrenness?
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The believer requires a supernatural sustaining grace to
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persist through the silence and the failure.
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Which connects directly to verse 44.
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The psalmist declares an incredible resolution.
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So shall I keep thy law continually, forever and ever.
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OK, here is where I have to pause and ask a very cynical
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human question. I figured you might.
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Continually, forever and ever. Are we supposed to take this
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massive stacked hyperbole literally?
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I mean in a single breath the writer uses 3 distinct phrases
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that all mean without end. He is a lot.
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Knowing human nature, knowing our propensity to fail at
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keeping a simple diet for more than 48 hours, how can anyone
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make a claim of eternal, continuous obedience with a
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straight face? It sounds like arrogant
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boasting. It sounds like boasting until
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you understand the engine driving the claim.
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Thomas Manton's analysis is incredibly helpful here, he
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says. The heaping up of these specific
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words demonstrates 2 distinct realities.
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OK, what is the first one? First, it acknowledges the
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extreme difficulty of perseverance.
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It requires constant, unrelenting vigilance.
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The writer knows he cannot just coast on yesterday's grace.
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He must actively, aggressively pursue obedience continually.
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So the repetition is almost like him bracing himself for the long
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haul. Yes, and 2nd, it shows the
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vehemence of the writer's affection.
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When you are deeply emotionally moved.
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You repeat yourself. You stack adjectives.
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You exhaust your vocabulary trying to express the magnitude
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of your intention. That makes total sense.
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But linking this back to the Westminster Confession, we have
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to look at the doctrine of the perseverance of the Saints to
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understand how this is even possible.
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Let us do an Eli 5. Explain calm like I'm 5 on the
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perseverance of the Saints. Because it is a highly
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misunderstood concept. A lot of people think it just
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means that Saints are incredibly stubborn people who white
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knuckle their way to heaven. It is the exact opposite of
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that. The doctrine states that those
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whom God has accepted in His beloved, effectually called and
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sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall
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away from the state of grace. Right.
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They shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be
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eternally saved. Yes, this perpetual obedience
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the psalmist is aiming for is not generated by human
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willpower. It is guaranteed by grace alone.
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God's sustaining grip on the believer is what guarantees that
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the believer will keep coming back to the law, repenting when
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they fail, weeping over their sin, and striving forward
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continually. So it is not about flawless
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performance. No, it is about an unbreakable
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tether. It is God holding you, not you
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holding God. When you recognize that reality,
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the timeline of your gratitude expands to Infinity.
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It makes me think of Joseph Addison's famous him verse he
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wrote. Eternity is too short to utter
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all thy praise. Beautiful lines.
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When you realize that the plural mercies from verse 41 are going
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to sustain you past your own inevitable failures, the
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hyperbole of verse 44 becomes the only logical response.
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You literally run out of earthly time to say thank you.
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Chrysostom adds another layer to this.
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Looking forward to the eschaton, you notice that this repetition
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points beyond our current life to the next well in this life.
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Our obedience is fractured. We are battling the flesh, the
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surrounding culture and the adversary.
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But Chrysostom says this forever and ever anticipates the
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glorified state in heaven. Believers will experience pure,
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exact keeping of the law without any fear of sinning.
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The internal war of Romans 7 will be over.
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Yes, we will finally be able to execute the desires of our
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renewed hearts without the frustrating interference of our
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fallen nature. That is a staggering comfort.
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The desire you have right now to live perfectly for God, a desire
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that constantly gets thwarted by your own weakness and fatigue,
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will one day be fully realized. Your performance will finally
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match your preference. But, you know, for a lot of
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people, the idea of keeping a law forever sounds like an
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eternal prison sentence. Oh.
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Absolutely. If we are brutally honest, we
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often view laws as restrictions on our joy.
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Yet the very next verse flips that modern assumption entirely
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on its head. Verse 45 says, And I will walk
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at liberty, for I seeks eye precepts.
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This is the great paradox of the Christian faith.
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The secular world views freedom as the absolute absence of all
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constraints. Autonomy is the highest cultural
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value. Nobody tells me what to do, but
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the psalmist links wide open liberty directly to seeking
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precepts, rules, statutes, commands.
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It is counterintuitive, isn't it?
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It really is. I love updating analogies for
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this because it is so difficult for the modern mind to grasp.
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Think about the operating system on a smartphone.
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OK, I like where this is going. A smartphone is an incredible
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piece of technology, capable of connecting you to the entire
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globe, taking brilliant photos and managing your life.
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But it can only do those things if it operates strictly within
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the coded parameters of its operating system.
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Right, the code dictates everything.
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If you decide that the phone is too restricted by its code and
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you jailbreak it and delete the core operating system to give it
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total freedom, you do not get a super phone with infinite
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possibilities. You get a glass and metal
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paperweight. It is entirely useless.
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That is a brilliant way to picture it.
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Or think about learning a language.
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You are only free to write beautiful sweeping poetry in
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French if you rigorously submit yourself to the strict rules of
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French grammar and vocabulary. True freedom is operating within
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the design parameters set by your Creator.
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FW Robertson unpacks the spiritual mechanics of this true
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freedom really well. He says that being free from the
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law does not mean a believer can sin without consequence or live
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chaotically. Rather, it means God's Spirit
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writes the law on our hearts through love rather than fear.
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So the motivation changes. Entirely when you are under the
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law, without grace, the law is an external terror.
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It is a harsh, unyielding taskmaster standing over you
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with a whip. You obey because you are
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terrified of the punishment. But when Greece enters the
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equation, the core motivation shifts.
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You obey because you genuinely love the Lawgiver.
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The consciousness of restraint is removed.
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You are doing what you want to do.
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Thomas Watson has a fantastic analogy for this.
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He pictures a man logged in a damp, dark prison cell.
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He is guilty. He is bound in heavy iron
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chains, and he's waiting for the executioner's footfalls in the
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hallway. Just a completely hopeless
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situation. Right, so how does he know he
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has been pardoned? He does not just get a
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certificate slid under the door while he stays in chains.
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He knows he is pardoned when the jailer comes in, knocks the
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heavy iron fetters off his wrists, opens the massive steel
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door and lets him walk out into the bright sunlight.
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The physical reality changes. Yes, Watson says.
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If the fetters of sin are broken off and we walk at liberty in
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the ways of God, this is a blessed sign we are pardoned.
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The actual lived ability to walk away from the sin that used to
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enslave you is the tangible proof of your emancipation.
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And we can add John Stevens imagery to this to capture the
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emotional reality. He likens the believer's journey
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to a traveler moving through a terrifying narrow mountain pass.
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The rock walls are closing in, boulders are falling, the path
22:16
is icy and treacherous, and one wrong step means falling into
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the abyss sounds. Highly stressful.
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It is, but then suddenly the traveler emerges from the dark
22:25
gorge into a vast, sunlit, spacious valley.
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He is secure. He can finally take a deep
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breath. That is the massive expansion of
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mine a person experiences when they realize they are justified
22:37
by faith. The crushing claustrophobia of
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legalism is gone. The suffocating weight of trying
22:42
to earn your own salvation is lifted.
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They walk at liberty in the Valley of Grace.
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So what does this all mean for the believers?
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Interaction with the hostile world around them.
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When a person experiences this vast, spacious liberty, they
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lose their fear of human authority.
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Because when the ultimate judge of the universe has knocked the
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fetters off your wrists and declared you righteous, you stop
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trembling in front of earthly magistrates who can only harm
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the body. Which transitions us beautifully
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to the next link in the chain, verse 46.
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I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not
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be ashamed. This is the logical progression
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of the vow, the continuous and and I will walk at liberty, and
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I will speak before kings. True internal liberty eradicates
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external cowardice. It does.
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But wait, how does someone go from hiding from scoffers in the
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break room, which we talked about back in verse 42, to
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boldly lecturing monarchs? I mean, that is a massive,
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almost unbelievable leap in confidence.
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Most of us get nervous speaking up in a basic staff meeting, let
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alone standing before head of state with the power to ruin our
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lives. The difference is the sudden,
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crystal clear realization of who actually holds sovereignty.
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Matthew Henry makes an insightful observation here
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regarding the nature of earthly kings.
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What does he say? He knows that kings are
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sometimes judges, like Saul was to David when David was running
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for his life in the wilderness, and sometimes they are peers, as
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other monarchs were when David finally took the throne.
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When David was a fugitive. His life is entirely in Saul's
24:08
hands, humanly speaking. But believers must never
24:11
sacrifice their religion to statecraft, political
24:14
expediency, or polite company. Whether you are standing before
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a hostile king who holds the power of life and death over
24:20
you, or you're at a banquet with powerful cultural influencers
24:24
who could ruin your career, the mandate remains exactly the
24:27
same. Speak the testimonies of God
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without shame. Thomas LeBlanc actually outlines
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4 specific vices that believers must actively shun in these high
24:36
stakes pressure cooker situations.
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Oh, these are so practical. First, over much silence.
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We cannot just quietly smile, nod, and look at our shoes when
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the truth is being dismantled in front of us.
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Second, useless talkativeness. We are not called to be
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obnoxious, argumentative contrarians who debate trivial
24:55
things just to hear our own voices.
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We are called specifically to speak of God's testimonies.
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It's about speaking the right words, not just making noise.
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3rd Cowardice. The fear of man brings a snare,
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causing us to retreat when we should stand firm, and 4th
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cowardly bashfulness. What does he mean by that?
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That is that false humility where we say, oh, who am I to
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speak up? I am not a theologian.
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I am not articulate. When you are representing the
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King of Kings, bashfulness is actually a direct insult to your
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sender. It implies he did not equip you
25:25
for the room he placed you in. Wow.
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And Church history provides us with thrilling, blood pumping
25:31
examples of this specific verse in action.
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The Puritan writer Thomas Brooks love to catalog these historical
25:39
moments of defiance to encourage believers.
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Yes. Let us talk about Martin Luther
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standing at the Diet of Worms in 1521.
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This was not a polite theological debate.
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He was a single, relatively obscure monk standing against
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the combined terrifying might of the Holy Roman Empire and the
25:55
papacy. The weight of the world was on
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him the. Emperor, the Princess, the
26:00
bishops, they were all gathered, and they pointed to a stack of
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Luther's books on a table. They demanded he recant his
26:06
writings or face the fire, and Luther famously declared that
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his conscience was captive to the Word of God.
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He supposedly said he would go to Worms even if there were as
26:14
many devils in the city as there were tiles on the roofs.
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He stood there facing the most powerful men on earth and said,
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here I stand. I can do no other.
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That is verse 46, leaping off the page and altering human
26:24
history. Brooks also points to Hugh
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Latimer, the English reformer. Latimer was known for his blunt
26:30
boldness, and he once handed King Henry the Eighth a New
26:33
Year's gift. Now we have to set the stage
26:36
here. King Henry the Eighth was not a
26:38
man you wanted to cross, even on a good day.
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Oh, absolutely not. He was notoriously brutal,
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erratic and possessed absolute, unquestioned authority over the
26:47
church and state in England. This is a man who beheaded 2 of
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his own wives when they displeased him.
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Just walking into his presence would make a normal person's
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blood run cold. Exactly.
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I mean, totally. Yet Latimer handed him a New
27:00
Testament wrapped in a napkin. And on the outside of that
27:03
napkin, Latimer had conspicuously inscribed a motto
27:06
warning the king directly against the sin of adultery.
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That is breathtaking, almost incomprehensible courage.
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To physically step forward and hand a written warning about
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adultery to Henry the Eighth requires a level of liberty that
27:18
is entirely super. It really does.
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Latimer was walking in that spacious, sunlit valley we
27:23
talked about earlier. He feared the judgement of God
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so much that he had absolutely zero fear leftover for the King
27:30
of England. He knew the worst Henry could do
27:32
was kill him, which would only send him to the God he loved.
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But we have to ask the critical question, what actually fuels
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this kind of death defying boldness?
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It is not mere duty. A sense of duty will evaporate
27:45
the moment the executioner starts sharpening his axe.
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So true. It is not natural stubbornness
27:50
either. Stubbornness melts under the
27:52
threat of prolonged torture or social ruin.
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The only fuel that burns hot enough to sustain that kind of
27:57
courage is intense burning affection.
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You only risk everything for something you love supremely.
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And that takes us to the climax of this entire section, verses
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47 and 48, the text reads, And I will delight myself and thy
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commandments which I have loved, My hands also, while I lift up
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unto thy commandments which I have loved.
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And I will meditate in my statutes.
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The psychological progression here is beautiful.
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He starts with delighting, moves to a settled loving, then moves
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to physical action, lifting hands, and finally settles into
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deep, sustained meditation. I picture the physical action of
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lifting hands like a toddler. How do you mean?
28:36
When a father walks in the front door after a long trip, holding
28:39
a gift or even just offering an embrace, the toddler does not
28:42
just sit on the couch and intellectually appreciate the
28:45
father's presence. The child's arms shoots straight
28:48
up in the air. It is an immediate full body
28:50
reaction. Yes, they are reaching up for
28:53
something they desperately want to hold.
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It's an involuntary reflex to something beautiful.
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That is a perfect illustration of what Stephen Charnock calls
29:01
the Law of Love. Charnock, another theological
29:04
heavyweight from the Puritan era, contrast the believers
29:07
internal experience with the unbelievers.
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OK, let's look at that contrast. Before a person receives the
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plural mercies we discussed in verse 41, the law of God is a
29:16
dead letter. In fact, Charnick uses intense
29:19
language, saying it is a devilish letter to the carnal
29:22
mind. Meaning they hate it.
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Absolutely. The unredeemed person wishes the
29:27
moral law of God were completely erased from the universe because
29:30
it constantly condemns them and restricts their flesh.
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They only obey the visible portions of it out of sheer
29:36
terror of punishment. It is like a reckless driver who
29:39
only taps the brakes because he spots a police cruiser hiding
29:43
behind a billboard on the highway.
29:45
He does not love the speed limit.
29:47
He hates the speed limit. He just hates the financial
29:49
penalty of a traffic ticket more, right?
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The moment the cruiser is out of sight, he slams the accelerator
29:55
back down. That's it, perfectly.
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The compliance is entirely external and forced.
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But after grace intervenes, the law becomes a beloved internal
30:03
reality. The Holy Spirit writes it
30:05
directly on the heart. So the law itself doesn't
30:07
change, the heart does. Yes, the believer now views the
30:10
law not as a restrictive cage, but as a beautiful portrait of
30:14
the God they adore. And notice the holistic nature
30:18
of this devotion in the text. The mind is fully engaged in
30:21
meditating, the heart is fully engaged in loving and
30:24
delighting, and the hands are physically engaged in lifting.
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It involves the intellect, the affections, and the will.
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No part of the human person is left out of this worship.
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Henry Hammond actually breaks down the phrase lifting hands
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into 4 distinct meanings, all of which apply beautifully to the
30:40
Christian life. Let's hear them.
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First, it means praying for grace to act.
30:45
You are lifting empty hands to heaven, acknowledging your
30:48
weakness and asking God to fill them with the strength to obey.
30:51
Like the toddler reaching up. Second, it means blessing God
30:55
for advantages received, hands lifted in praise, acknowledging
30:58
that every good thing, every answered prayer comes directly
31:01
from Him. Third, swearing an oath of
31:04
obedience. Think of raising your right hand
31:07
in a courtroom to swear to tell the truth.
31:09
The believer pledges allegiance to God's statutes.
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And the 4th and 4th actively undertaking a task, rolling up
31:17
your sleeves, listing your hands to do the hard, gritty work of
31:19
living out the faith in a fallen, broken world.
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And this brings us to a fascinating historical contrast
31:25
that highlights the superiority of the gospel.
31:27
The secular philosophers of antiquity caught a tiny, blurry
31:31
glimpse of this concept, though they lacked the grace to ever
31:34
fully achieve it. You're thinking of Aristotle.
31:36
Right, yeah, Aristotle was once asked what profit he had derived
31:40
from a lifetime of studying philosophy.
31:42
He answered. I have learnt to do without
31:44
constraint that which others do from fear of the law.
31:47
Erastippus, another Greek thinker, said something similar.
31:51
If the laws were lost, all of us would live as we do now that
31:54
they are in force. They recognized purely through
31:57
human reason, that true virtue must act from internal
32:01
character, not from external coercion.
32:04
But here is where the gospel entirely surpasses human
32:06
philosophy. Philosophy can train the mind to
32:09
appreciate virtue. It can teach a person to act
32:12
politely. But it can't change the nature.
32:15
Right. Only the regenerating grace of
32:17
the Holy Spirit can resurrect A spiritually dead heart to
32:20
actually love the holy standards of God.
32:22
If a Pagan philosopher could find a measure of joy and strict
32:25
moral discipline, how much more should the Christian who knows
32:29
the law giver personally as a loving Father, delight in His
32:32
commands? Christ himself said, If a man
32:35
love me, he will keep my words. The obedience is not the
32:38
prerequisite for the love. The obedience is the natural,
32:42
inevitable overflow of the affection.
32:44
That is the complete anatomy of faith laid out in these 8
32:46
verses. It begins with acknowledging our
32:49
total inability and pleading for God's plural mercies.
32:52
It moves to experiencing the unanswerable logic of facts as
32:56
God visibly delivers us it. Groans in agony when our own sin
32:59
silences our testimony. It relies entirely on God's
33:02
preserving grace for eternal obedience.
33:04
It discovers that this rigorous obedience is actually the truest
33:07
form of liberty. It speaks this truth boldly
33:09
before the highest, most intimidating human authorities,
33:12
and it sustains all of this activity through a white hot,
33:15
holistic love for the Word of God.
33:17
It really is a massive progression.
33:19
So we bring this massive theological discussion directly
33:23
to your daily reality, to you listening right now in your car
33:26
or at your desk, or while doing the dishes.
33:29
We have covered a vast amount of ground, from the intricate steps
33:32
of the Ordos Lutis to Martin Luther staring down the Emperor
33:35
at the Diet of Worms, but it all lands right in your lap today.
33:39
It all comes down to application.
33:41
Are you reaching out to God's precepts with your head, your
33:45
heart, and your hands? Do you view biblical obedience
33:48
as a heavy iron Shane dragging you down into misery?
33:53
Or do you see it as the wide open sunlit space of true
33:56
liberty? Such an important distinction.
33:59
When you face the scoffers in your own life, whether it is a
34:02
cynical Co worker at the water cooler, a skeptical family
34:04
member at Thanksgiving dinner, or the accusing whispers of your
34:07
own adversary in the middle of the night, are you relying on
34:11
your own clever arguments or are you resting on the unanswerable
34:15
logic of God's plural mercies at work in your lived experience?
34:18
And as you consider those deeply personal questions, I want to
34:21
leave you with a final reflection to Mull over,
34:23
circling all the way back to the linguistic detail where we
34:26
started the vow. Yes.
34:28
Recall that every single verse in this section begins with the
34:30
Hebrew letter vow, meaning and or so.
34:34
This implies that in the economy of God's grace, no action and no
34:37
blessing ever stands alone in isolation.
34:39
Never alone. Every single mercy you receive
34:41
is a conjunction linking you to your next act of obedience, and
34:45
every act of your obedience is a conjunction linking you to the
34:47
next poured out blessing. Your faith is an unbroken,
34:49
divinely secured chain of ands. When God saves you, He does not
34:53
just place a period at the end of your sentence and walk away,
34:56
He places a vow. What is the next and in your
34:59
life today?