At Home With God’s Word (Psalm 119:9-16)

It has been pointed out that the Hebrew letter for this section is the word for ‘house’. In the section, the house is the heart of a believer and it matters a great deal what is put into it. The furniture for the believer’s heart is God’s Word, his instructions and other details, and when they are there the heart will be a happy home.

The question (v. 9)

 

How can a young man keep his way pure?

By guarding it according to your word.

 

It is not clear if the writer is thinking about himself because he is a young man or is he an experienced believer, a wise teacher, giving advice to young people as to how they should live? In a sense, it does not matter because the requirement on a young person is the same. Yet we can see from the question that the young man has a responsibility for his purity and that it is possible for him to attain it.

 

What is meant by purity? It is not merely physical purity, although that would be part of it. Jesus said in the Beatitudes that the pure in heart are blessed because they will see God. So it is straightforward to see that the focus is on the inner life of the young man and that purity is similar to holiness.

 

We can see that although the author asks the question he already knows the answer because he answers his question in the rest of the section. Yet his method is a good example of self-assessment, taking time to deal with an important spiritual issue. We must realise that it is not sufficient to know the answer for holiness; we must also practice it.

 

What is required is a true knowledge of God’s Word. The psalmist likens himself to someone who places a guard around something that is important (9b). The guard could be a fence or a wall. The pieces of the fence or the stones in the wall are the instructions and warnings and examples found in God’s Word. So how does the psalmist do this?

 

An undivided heart (v. 10)

 

With my whole heart I seek you;

let me not wander from your commandments!

 

We all know what occurs in a situation where a person has divided loyalties. The individual usually ends up doing nothing or trying to please both parties. A believer cannot keep his way if his heart is divided. How does one cease to have a divided heart? By putting God first. If anyone else or anything else is first, the heart will be divided. But if God is first, then other relationships will slot into their appropriate places. 

 

Yet although he has an undivided heart, the psalmist knows that he also has a sinful heart. He tells us that the present situation of blessing is no guarantee of success in the future. Therefore he prays that the Lord would keep him from wandering away from God’s instructions. Wandering suggests a gradual move away from God’s Word. It can happen almost without realising it until we suddenly see that we have moved away.

 

Memory work (v. 11)

 

I have stored up your word in my heart,

that I might not sin against you.

 

A challenging question could be this, ‘When did you last intentionally learn by heart a verse from the Bible?’ It used to be the case that memory work was a crucial part of children’s education. That is not often practised today, but there is no reason why it cannot be done with the Bible. Of course, what we mean by memory is not something merely mechanical. Rather, the person’s inner affections as well as his mind are involved. 

 

The word ‘stored’ indicates that we do something today that will benefit us in the future, like a farmer who stores up food now for his animals in the winter. A crucial part of a holy life in the future is connected to what I do now. We store in a spiritual sense by placing God’s Word into our hearts, and there is only one way to do that – memorisation. There are different ways of doing so – we can meditate on a verse, we can reread Bible passages, we can talk about something from God’s Word, and as we do we will find ourselves storing up help for the future.

 

The benefit that comes from this activity is that we are kept from sinning through ignorance. As has often been said, the Bible will keep us from sin, or sin will keep us from the Bible. This does not mean that we will become sinless, but it does mean that we will become sanctified. 

 

We can see from this feature of the psalmist’s life that holiness is from the heart. Obedience that is credible in God’s sight must be heart obedience. What is in the heart will come out. If God’s Word is not put in, the space will be filled with something else and others will see what it is.

 

Channel of blessing (vv. 12-13)

 

Blessed are you, O LORD;

teach me your statutes!

 

With my lips I declare

all the rules of your mouth.

 

Believers are to be teach one another. This should be a regular practice. Recall what Paul said about the Christians in Rome: ‘I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another’ (Rom. 15:14). In addition to that common activity, God calls some to the role of teaching his Word in a permanent and deeper manner. The author could have been describing himself in either way here. Maybe he was a teacher in Israel, or maybe he was desiring to be competent in his interactions with others. For both roles, divine teaching is required beforehand.

 

The basic outlook for wanting to be taught is to have a high view of God. We can see that the Psalmist had that outlook when he described the Lord as blessed. God is blessed in himself and blessed in his actions. He always does what is for his glory. The author of the psalm knew that God was like this, and therefore he engaged in adoration of the Lord. We cannot approach God appropriately in any other way. Without adoration, spiritual exercises are profitless. 

 

The psalmist knew that the Lord is always willing to help any of his people when they are in need. Since the current need was a spiritual understanding of the laws and statutes of God, the psalmist knew it was suitable for him to ask for this blessing.

 

Yet the purpose of getting blessed by God is to become a means of blessing to others. A problem with the Dead Sea is that it does not have an outflow – the Jordan flows into it and is absorbed by the chemicals there, and the result is no life. We don’t want our spiritual lives to be stagnant. In order to prevent that occurring, we must share what we know of God’s revealed will.

 

We can also see that the psalmist did not want to be selective in his declaration of God’s requirements. He is not asserting the need for balance merely, but the necessity of providing a complete explanation of all of God’s rules. He did not want to lead anyone astray by omitting something that God requires. This is an important aspect of faithfulness.

 

Delight and determination (vv. 14-16)

 

In the way of your testimonies I delight

as much as in all riches.

 

I will meditate on your precepts

and fix my eyes on your ways.

 

I will delight in your statutes;

I will not forget your word.

 

Some things just go together. Strawberries and cream, Queen and country. But some things seem inadequate by themselves. Delight by itself seems selfish, and determination by itself just seems pointless stoicism. But when they are together, delight has a purpose marked by suitable determination, and such determination has a basis for continuing along a chosen path. But having said that, it is possible to have a wrong delight or a lesser delight, and it is possible to have a sinful determination or a secondary determination that becomes primary. 

 

If we were to ask worldly persons what they would consider the basis of pleasure they would probably say riches would be necessary. People strive to obtain riches because they imagine that they provide some security and give scope for finding things to enjoy. But this psalmist knew better. He realised that delight does not come from what a person has, but comes from pleasing God.  He had discovered that there is a path through life that brings delight to the soul, and that path is the way of God’s testimonies.

 

How does a person obtain delight in God’s testimonies? The answer is by meditation, by consideration of the ways revealed in God’s Word. We might think that the psalmist is mentioning this topic rather a lot in this psalm. The reason why he was guided to do so by God is because meditation is very important. In what ways? Here are some examples. 

 

Meditating on God’s Word will cause us to see that following his ways is travelling on the road to heaven, and that will bring delight into our souls. 

Meditating on God’s precepts enables us to understand what Christlikeness is, because that is what he did, and becoming like Jesus brings joy. Of course, he was sinless, we are not. Yet by following his example, we find that something of his delight becomes ours. 

Meditating on God’s precepts also reveals to us that God has provided salvation for sinners, and that his grace will continue to work in our lives, and that also brings delight. And there are many other examples.

 

Meditation does not happen without spiritual effort on our part. There has to be resolve to search the Bible, to pray over a passage, to ask ourselves what it is saying to us about living for God. We turn the passage over, and as we do, it takes root in our minds and lodges there. Instead of forgetting God’s Word, we now find that we remember what it says.

 

Spurgeon commented: ‘The statute-book is intended to be the joy of every loyal subject. When the believer once peruses the sacred pages his soul burns within him as he turns first to one and then to another of the royal words of the great King, words full and firm, immutable and divine.’

 

We should observe the strength of the psalmist’s determination in these three verses. He was focused on ensuring that he would receive spiritual benefit, and that he would not forget what the Lord showed to him. Here is an encouragement to pray for a retentive memory. 

 

A young man is in focus in verse 9. Yet the words in this section of the psalm are not only for a young man; they are for all who profess to know the Lord. The only matter that is definitely for the young is the time when they should start following in the ways of God, which is in the days of their youth. But the practice of keeping God’s Word should mark all our days, whether we are young or old.