PSALM 119:41\u201388<\/b><\/p>\n
And I will delight myself in Your commandments which I love<\/i><\/p>\n
(Ps. 119:47)<\/i>.<\/p>\n
One of the main motifs found in Psalm 119 is the writer\u2019s delight in the law of the Lord. The psalmist is motivated to obey God by nothing else than love: \u201cMy soul keeps Your statues, and I love them exceedingly\u201d (v. 167). This verse goes against the opinion that all saints of the Old Testament lived in servile fear of the law, that they had no faith, no grace, to enable them to obey God\u2019s commands. Yet the psalmist clearly says that he delights in obeying God\u2019s laws\u2014such a love as this can come from no other source than the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n
It is to the church\u2019s shame today that most believers do not exhibit even a fraction of the love for God\u2019s ways as shown in this psalm. Rarely do you hear people say, \u201cI have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches\u201d (v. 14); or, \u201cI will delight myself in Your statues; I will not forget Your word\u201d (v. 16); or, \u201cYour testimonies are my delight and my counselors\u201d (v. 24). The psalmist says God\u2019s enemies are callous and unfeeling, but \u201cI delight in Your law.\u201d Are you callous and unfeeling toward God\u2019s ways? Can you say with the psalmist as he does in verse 72, \u201cThe law from Your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver or gold\u201d?<\/p>\n
Calvin recognized the deprivation of love for God\u2019s law in the church even in his day: \u201cFor it is an indication of rare excellence when a person so arranges his sentiments and affections as to renounce all the enticements pleasant to the flesh, and take delight in nothing so much as in the service of God.\u201d There is the crux of the matter\u2014to love God\u2019s ways is to deny the flesh, to lay down your life of flesh for the glory of God.<\/p>\n
Yet the psalmist does not hesitate to do just that because he knows God\u2019s Word contains manifold comforts, \u201cI remember Your judgements of old, O Lord, and have comforted myself\u201d (v. 52) and \u201cunless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction\u201d (v. 92). Paul says God\u2019s law is holy and good, and for it we should give thanks: \u201cAt midnight I will rise to give thanks to You, because of Your righteous judgements\u201d (v. 62). Let God\u2019s ways delight your soul every day.<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
Isaiah 43\u201344<\/p>\n
Colossians 2<\/p>\n
Why can true, sincere obedience only come from a heart that loves God\u2019s ways? What is the relation between your love for Christ and delight in His commands? Can you really say that you love Christ if you hate to obey Him? If you don\u2019t love Christ can you truly be a Christian?<\/p>\n
For further study: Jer. 15:16 \u2022 Rom. 15:1\u20134 \u2022 Col. 3:15\u201317<\/i><\/p>\n
tuesday<\/p>\n
october<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PSALM 119:41\u201388 And I will delight myself in Your commandments which I love (Ps. 119:47). One of the main motifs found in Psalm 119 is the writer\u2019s delight in the law of the Lord. The psalmist is motivated to obey God by nothing else than love: \u201cMy soul keeps Your statues, and I love them … Continue reading “LOVE OF THE LAW”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}