0558. Law
Law
"Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy Law" (Psa_119:18).
The word "law" is a word which suggests our Lord’s instructions to His people. But law is more than instructions; it is that instruction which discovers God’s will, and outlines His demands. The word occurs twenty-five times in Psalms 119. It is first used in Gen_26:5, "Because that Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statues, and My laws." The following passages will set forth some of the blessings which accrue to those who seek His Law.
1. Psa_119:97 : "O how love I Thy Law! it is my meditation all the day." The very essence of sin is "my way." Sin is the transgression (going across) of God’s Law. God has given us His Law, as the expression of His will.
The same God Who set the sand as a barrier to the sea, saying to it, "So far shalt thou proceed and no further;" has also set His Law around the actions of men. But wicked men have revolted, and gone. They have madly leaped over and dashed by every purpose of God. However, the believer is not swinging off at a tangent from God. His life revolves around the will of God, as perfectly as the earth revolves around the sun. The true believer should not only love God’s Law, but meditate in it day and night, seeking to know every detail of its demands.
2. Psa_119:1 : "Blessed are the undefiled, in the way, who walk in the Law of the Lord." It is one thing to love the Law, it is another thing to walk in the Law. The Lord commanded Joshua and Israel with these words, "This Book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth * * that thou mayest observe and do according to all that is written therein." God does not want us to take His Law, and beautifully frame it, and hang it on the wall. He wants us to translate it into action, He wants us to live it in our daily walk.
3. Psa_119:51 : "I have not declined from Thy Law." Every, one of us should exercise ourselves to have a constant joy concerning the Law of God. When God speaks we must not draw back. How beautiful is the "Here am I, Lord," spoken by the stalwart Abraham. Paul said, "I was not disobedient unto the Heavenly vision." Philip, without gainsaying, arose and went into the desert toward Gaza. Let none of us through the fear of man, from any motive whatsoever, decline from God’s Law.
4. Psa_119:53 : "Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake Thy Law." The Psalmist was startled as he beheld the wreckage caused by those who turned away from Jehovah. The one thing that stands supreme in the life of a soldier is obedience. A brave, but disobedient soldier can do no more, than bring havoc to his regiment. The sorrow, the misery, and the anguish that this old world has known because the wicked have forsaken God’s Law is immeasurable. No wonder the Psalmist said, "Horror hath taken hold upon me."
5. Psa_119:72 : "The Law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver."
Illustration: It was David Livingstone who said something like this: "I would rather be in Africa in the will of God, than to be feasting with the royalty of England." The will of Jesus Christ, no matter where it leads or what sufferings it entails is, in the end, far better than silver and gold.
If the devil flaunts before your face the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, upon the condition that you worship him, then refuse him. God’s Law is better than all the world beside.
6. Psa_119:92 : "Unless Thy Law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction." Just so, disobedience may bring temporary and fleeting favors, but disobedience leads to death. Obedience may bring temporary afflictions, but will lead to everlasting joy and peace. The Psalmist saw what disaster and ruin would have befallen him, had he turned aside from the Law of God.
7. Psa_119:165 : "Great peace have they which love Thy Law: and nothing shall offend them." Wreckage follows in the wake of those who depart from the Law; great peace belongs to those who keep the Law. When we are in the will of God, we have nothing to fear. "If God be for us who can be against us?"
Madam Guyon could well sing, even in a prison cell:
"A little bird am I,
Shut in from fields of air;
And yet I sit and sing my song,
To Him Who placed me there."
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR