Word of Salvation – Vol. 26 No. 40 – July 1981

 

The Light of God’s Word

 

Sermon by Rev. D. J. Van Garderen on Psalm 119:105–112

Scripture Reading: Psalm 119:105–112

Psalter Hymnal: 183; 235; 95; 414; 249; 409

 

Dear congregation,

In the "Nun" section of Psalm 119 the Psalmist seems to stand back and look at his life as a child of God. He thinks about the past, the present and the future and talks about his faith from the beginning of his commitment to the Lord till its end.

In making an examination of this so-called "review" that the Psalmist makes of his life it is necessary to keep in mind that he is no longer a new convert. He is no raw, inexperienced recruit into the army of the Lord prone to make idealistic statements about his good or lofty intentions.

On the contrary, he is by now a man who has studied the Word of God with great intensity and also very extensively. This learning process has taken quite a number of years. Besides STUDY, he is above all a person who has been enriched and made wise with a wealth of practical experience. His had never been a life of meditation in a cloister but rather a faith lived in the midst of a community. He had gone through the trials and the triumphs, the persecutions and praises of friends and foes.

In verse 105 the Psalmist describes his ATTITUDE to God's Word. If you were to have asked the Psalmist what the single most important thing that he found his life to be built on, he would have answered with the confession found in this text: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path".

The temptation, when hearing this confession of the Psalmist is to turn these words into a sort of ideal, a MOTTO. To do this would be to rob the verse of its meaning. Mottos are usually seen as little one-line pearls of wisdom that summarize an AIM for life no matter how idealistic this aim may be. Think for example of the way this, the most popular verse of Psalm 119, is often taught to the Sunday School children. In making them learn it we tend to make it into a wise saying or proverb which we want the children to strive to life by.

However for the Psalmist, these words are not so much a MOTTO as they are a CONFESSION of what he has lived by in years gone by. They are therefore the words of an EXPERIENCED believer which describe the FAITH which has kept him standing in the midst of a world of sin and trial and temptation. He looks back at times in his life when the going was difficult, when it was hard to know where to go, what direction in life he should follow. There were times when it seemed that he was walking in great darkness, when troubles and trials blotted out all the light, and he found himself walking or blundering around in darkness. He did not know where to turn....! It was in those moments that he had discovered this: When LOST, CONFUSED, and UNABLE to find a way out: The LIGHT of the Word of God was the ONE GUIDE that directed him and showed him where to put each foot, often only one at a time, without stumbling or falling down.

I stress again: This confession is not a lofty, out of reach ideal which is as elusive as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It is rather a statement of FACT which has been as real as his own two feet in the life of the Psalmist. In no way is the Psalmist making a statement which is a theoretical thing only. He makes it because it has been real and because it has truly WORKED in his life. You notice how it uses the verb "is" in the text?

"Your word IS a lamp to my feet"? Well, in the Hebrew there is NO verb....! That means that you may just as well read it: "Your word WAS, IS and ALWAYS SHALL BE a lamp to my feet, a guide to my path".

Verse 106 illustrates the fact that he was speaking on the basis of his previous experience in making this claim about the word of God. He says: "I have taken an oath AND CONFIRMED IT, that I will follow your righteous laws." In our previous examination of earlier sections of the Psalm we have come across a number of these oaths or vows of commitment which the Psalmist made. Remember verse 57? "You are my portion, O Lord; I have promised to obey your words." and again: "I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands." These were promises and vows which utterly BOUND the Psalmist to obedience, to love and service of the Lord. These are the kind of words we use then, at the beginning of our own lives of service to the Lord through and in the power of Jesus Christ, we make a public profession of faith.

A person, new in his or her experience or awareness of faith in Christ says: "Jesus Christ is my Saviour: He is the one name given under heaven among men by which I may be cleansed from the power and pollution of sin in God's sight. Jesus Christ is my Saviour: He alone is able to give me new life, to purchase the price for my adoption as a child of God.

Jesus Christ is my LORD: He rules over me, and I obey His will, and I am a subject belonging to His kingdom, a subject longing to honour, exalt and praise my king in word and deed." Promises, vows of the Psalmist which he, and every child of God, must never delay in paying!

The Psalmist tells us that he had taken (and often repeated) this vow...... and he adds the words: "AND CONFIRMED IT". Notice them?

If you read this verse in the Authorised (King James) Version or NASB you will notice the words: "and I WILL perform it (or confirm)." These words are then made into another vow about the vow already made. It sounds like a promise for the FUTURE. Now although this may be correct, it is NOT the full sense of what the Psalmist is saying.

He is able to look over the years gone by, at some of the afflictions he has described, times when his soul was "fainting for salvation", when He felt "like a wineskin in the smoke" (vss.1,83). It was in the midst of THESE troubles that he had, by grace alone, REMAINED faithful, HAD fulfilled his oath.

It had been these times of severe trial, when the belief that God's word is a lamp to his feet had been TESTED and APPLIED, which had proved the GLORY and GOODNESS of God's Word.

The Psalmist, on the basis of experience, says of God's Word... I KNOW the light of God's word. I swore an oath saying that I would follow God's laws..... AND CONFIRMED that it is TRUE and that it WORKS!

Verses 105, 106 offer a mature reflection of the Psalmist's PAST faith and experience. The next two verses lead him from the past sufferings into the PRESENT. The Psalmist looks at himself NOW. Listen: "I have suffered much; renew my life according to your word. Accept, O Lord, the willing praise of my mouth, and teach me your laws." (Verses 107, 108).

Notice above all the HUMILITY of the Psalmist. If there is one thing he has learned from the past it is this: The daily renewal of his life, daily instruction from God's word.....!

THESE things had been the features of his life as a child of God. He had grown up, come to maturity of faith and discovered that growing up in spiritual stature is NOT a growing into independence, but rather a growing IN dependence.

To illustrate: When a baby is born we all know that the baby is TOTALLY dependent upon its parents. Without parental care and oversight the baby would perish. As the baby grows from babyhood into childhood, and from childhood into adulthood, we observe a continuing process of growing towards independence. Children, to be adults must learn to "stand on their own two feet!" Self-sufficiency is the key.

However, the growing up into SPIRITUAL maturity turns this so-called “natural order" completely upside down! The more learned and experienced a Christian becomes in his relationship to Christ, the king of His life... the more he DEPENDS, looks for daily renewal and forgiveness, looks for daily strength, guidance and help to the hand of the Lord. Christian growth is a growth from Independence from Christ into total dependence on him.

Notice how the Psalmist, a mature believer, expresses this? He sounds like a child almost.... "renew my life according to your word..... teach me your laws."

What a tremendously important and fundamental lesson there is in this for us. All too often we find ourselves trapped in a great dilemma. In life the pressure of society and the world is to hurry up and grow up... to manage yourself and stand up for yourself and work towards creating your security.... financially and in every other way.

We become confused, yes even down-hearted and destitute when we try to apply the same principle in terms of SPIRITUAL life.

- O the folly of the person who tries to stand up for himself and on his own spiritually. He shrugs aside the comfort of communion, of real sharing with other believers. He fools himself into thinking that he can do without the others....! I don't need to go to church twice. I don't need to go to their Bible-study circles. I can do it all by myself...! I AM, after all, a mature Christian who can stand up for and defend myself!" How different the Psalmist!

- O the folly of the person who thinks he has learnt enough, who thinks he at least already knows all that there is to know and learn from the Bible the important things that really matter..... He is GROWN-UP.... He has learnt it all. Independent and able to survive on what he already has. How different the Psalmist.

From the past into the present.... and from the perspective of the present the Psalmist contemplates the FUTURE! In verses 109, 110 he describes the course he will follow.... the LIGHT that will show him the path to victory.

Says the Psalmist: "Though I constantly take my life in my hands, I will not forget thy law. The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I have not strayed from your precepts." (Verses 109, 110).

In a very general sense do you notice how he bases his expectations of the future on his experience of the past?

It is, for a child of God in Christ, a matter of discovering that living according to God's word is continually beset by DANGER and threats. Taking your life in your hands is, as the literal sense of the underlying Hebrew implies, a matter of the SOUL.... the whole person in terms of his spiritual, physical and mental well being.... being put in the dangerous position where it will be attacked.

Not for the Psalmist, or for that matter the entire testimony of Scripture, is there a clinging to the myth that Christian life is a matter of sailing on an unruffled sea!

The invitation you often hear, that being a Christian will solve all your hang-ups, will make you popular and able to possess the power of winning and influencing friends.... is a myth!

The word of God, because it is divine, heavenly light, EXPOSES not only the sin of the person who follows it, but also the people who come into any form of contact with him. The faith DISCOMFORTS.... and whereas, in this discomfort the sinner turns to Christ for grace, IF that sinner is a fellow-believer, the WORLD will try to crush it like swatting a fly!

The wicked, who are made uncomfortable by the testimony of word and deed of the Psalmist, HAVE in the past and WILL in the future try to turn off the Psalmist's source of light, or failing that, destroy the Psalmist himself, or at least his faith!

The future, as the past has been .... will test and tempt the Psalmist: STRAY Psalmist, turn down the light .... don't be such a religious fanatic, such a downright prude and puritan! This world has no room for people like you!

The world blasts out its criticism, its derision and tries its hardest to make the believer look like a misfit, a weakling without a shred of independence or the ability to stand on his own two feet!

SUCH is the snare of the wicked, the way they continually force the Psalmist, because he MUST be in the world although not OF it, to take his life in his hands!

But does all this mean that there is no fun, no happiness and joy in store for the Psalmist even in this life? Must the Christian, wearing his armour, therefore expect a whole life of continual battering from evil and destructive forces?

Listen to verses 111, 112.

"Your statutes are my heritage forever, they are the joy of my heart.My heart is set on keeping your decreesto the very end".

Notice TWO features which the Psalmist speaks of as far as his future is concerned: In the midst of this life, in spite of all the snares of the wicked there is:

1. JOY and LOVE that fills his heart to overflowing

2. Conviction of a VICTORIOUS life that NOTHING can destroy.

1. Note how he speaks in both verses of what is going on in his heart. There is the "joy of my heart" he says, and the fact that "my heart is set".

As you know it is the love of God for the Psalmist which, as described in the previous (Mem) section, that FILLS the Psalmist's whole being. God's love CONTROLS him... that love, brothers and sisters, is JOY in the real and deepest sense of that word. It is the joy of peace, of being loved by one whose love never fails or dries up or turns sour. It is the joy of knowing that you are precious, infinitely precious in God's sight, and that God's sovereign power is involved in creating and providing you all good.

It is the joy of being able to sing: It is good to be alive in Christ - for THAT is life indeed, eternal life and real freedom.

2. Note how he speaks in both verses of ENDURING forever of remaining faithful to the very end. His is a life which is victorious. Christian life is a victorious life in every sense of victory of body, spirit and soul.

We ARE more than conquerors! HOW can the Psalmist or any believer claim this of himself when nobody knows what the future will bring? How, when snares are being laid by the wicked, can the Psalmist know he will overcome, be and remain a winner?

Because the God who is with him, the Lord who is his heritage IS A WINNER He is God whose grace and sovereign will and power is VICTORIOUS. If God is for us.... who can stand against us?

Brothers and Sisters, let us confess with the Psalmist: "Your Word has been, is, and shall be a lamp to my feet and a light for my path".

Amen.