Psalm 119 - Delight in the Way of the Lord

TETH
65 You have dealt well with Your servant,
O LORD, according to Your word.
66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge,
For I believe Your commandments.
67 Before I was afflicted I went astray,
But now I keep Your word.
68 You are good, and do good;
Teach me Your statutes.
69 The proud have forged a lie against me,
But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart.
70 Their heart is as fat as grease,
But I delight in Your law.
71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted,
That I may learn Your statutes.
72 The law of Your mouth is better to me
Than thousands of coins of gold and silver.
—Psalm 119:65-72 (NKJV)

May I delight in the Word of the most merciful Lord God on High. He sets our paths straight, and lifts us up from our affliction. Praise His Holy Name and His Righteous Statutes.

“Be holy, for I am holy.”

Because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, ...
—1 Peter 1:16-18 (NKJV)

Can the Lord's Word speak for itself without much commentary? Yes, I do believe it can. But for emphasis, I itinerate “Be holy, for I am holy.”

Psalm 39

Psalm 39

1 I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.
2 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred.
3 My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,
4 LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am.
5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.
6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.
7 And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee.
8 Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish.
9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.
10 Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.
11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.
12 Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
13 O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.
—Psalm 39 (KJV)

Psalm 39 is a Psalm of David. It's a prayer from relief from persecutors as much as anything. For the Christian, the world is often our persecutor. We can take solace that we are not alone. Too often, we of faith get in the flesh, however, and would curse circumstances and let out a torrent flood of anger and bitter words, hence 39:3. This is what David did! And is is what the enemy wants us to do, so as to snare us. Reacting foolishly only allows our adversaries cause to further reproach us. We can pour coals of fire on them, by heeding the commands of our Lord: "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you..." (Matthew 5:44). Sometimes, the enemy is elusive and we our own enemies. Of Psalm 39, Matthew Henry writes,

There is no solid satisfaction to be had in the creature; but it is to be found in the Lord, and in communion with him; to him we should be driven by our disappointments. If the world be nothing but vanity, may God deliver us from having or seeking our portion in it. When creature-confidences fail, it is our comfort that we have a God to go to, a God to trust in. We may see a good God doing all, and ordering all events concerning us; and a good man, for that reason, says nothing against it. He desires the pardoning of his sin, and the preventing of his shame. We must both watch and pray against sin. When under the correcting hand of the Lord, we must look to God himself for relief, not to any other. Our ways and our doings bring us into trouble, and we are beaten with a rod of our own making. What a poor thing is beauty! and what fools are those that are proud of it, when it will certainly, and may quickly, be consumed!

In any case, what we need to do is guard our ways, and turn our sights solely on Jesus Christ in the mist of calamity and harsh circumstances, and pray for guidance, blessing and relief. Providence can work in mysterious ways, and draw us closer to the Lord during trying times.

Whatever a Christian is going through in his life, he is not alone. My solace and my peace is in the Lord Jesus Christ. I find that the Psalms are a continual source of encouragement for the believer. Their richness comes out in trying times. Our desire should be to live peacably among men, and be salt and light to the world.

Related Articles:
Psalm 39 - Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
Treasury of David - Psalm 39 - C.H. Spurgeon

"Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever."

"Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever."
—Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 1.

Joy is at the heart of glorifying God. This is man's chief end: to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever. This is what the Congregational Christian preacher Jonathan Edwards taught his people.

The Puritan divine Jonathan Edwards, reminds us:

Because [God] infinitely values his own glory, consisting in the knowledge of himself, love to himself... joy in himself; he therefore valued the image, communication or participation of these, in the creature. And it is because he values himself, that he delights in the knowledge, and love, and joy of the creature; as being himself the object of this knowledge, love and complacence... [Thus] God’s respect to the creature’s good, and his respect to himself, is not a divided respect; but both are united in one, as the happiness of the creature aimed at, is happiness in union with himself.
—Edwards, Jonathan, “Essay on the Trinity,” in Treatise on Grace and Other Posthumously Published Writings, ed. Paul Helm (Cambridge, England: James Clarke and Co., 1971.) p. 118.

Least we forget the promises of God, those of faith should take comfort in the reality that God glorifies himself in our happiness in union with him. We've conquered death and the sting of sin through Christ Jesus. God delights in the joy of His flock! He is the good shepherd!




As John Piper writes,

[F]or God to be the holy and righteous God that he is, he must delight infinitely in what is infinitely delightful. He must enjoy with unbounded joy what is most boundlessly enjoyable; he must take infinite pleasure in what is infinitely pleasant; he must love with infinite intensity what is infinitely lovely; he must be infinitely satisfied with what is infinitely satisfying.
—Piper, John. A God-Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2004.) pp. 74-75.

God loves His flock! He delights in our eternal joy. "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep" (John 10:11). And this life is preparation for the greater joy to come in the Heavenlies for all eternity. To know God intimately is to savor in the joy of our salvation. "But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation" (Psalm 13:5). Jonathan Edwards knew and preached the beauties of heaven, and of the sweetness of Christ. Edwards unashamedly proclaimed the duty of man to delight in God, and savor the joy of his salvation through Christ. Here is the way Jonathan Edwards expressed in a sermon to his congregation in 1731:

The redeemed have all their objective good in God. God himself is the great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption. He is the highest good, and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased. God is the inheritance of the saints; he is the portion of their souls. God is their wealth and treasure, their food, their life, their dwelling place, their ornament and diadem, and their everlasting honor and glory. They have none in heaven but God; he is the great good which the redeemed are received to at death, and which they are to rise to at the end of the world. The Lord God, he is the light of the heavenly Jerusalem; and is the ‘river of the water of life’ that runs, and the tree of life that grows, ‘in the midst of the paradise of God’. The glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be what will forever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love of God will be their everlasting feast. The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things; they will enjoy the angels, and will enjoy one another: but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in anything else whatsoever, that will yield then delight and happiness, will be what will be seen of God in them.
—Edwards, Jonathan. The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.) pp. 74-75.

For the redeemed of God, to enjoy God and truly fathom God in all-satisfying experience of His profound glory, he is reconciled to God in eternity, and his joy in God can only reach fruition in eternity. Yet it is never complete, because it ever increases with intimacy and intensity forever and ever. That's the love of God. That's the joy of God!

Consider Edwards' words:

I suppose it will not be denied by any, that God, in glorifying the saints in heaven with eternal felicity, aims to satisfy his infinite grace or benevolence, by the bestowment of a good [which is] infinitely valuable, because eternal: and yet there never will come the moment, when it can be said, that now this infinitely valuable good has been actually bestowed.
—Edwards, Jonathan. "The End for Which God Created the World," God's Passion for His Glory. (Wheaton: Crossway, 1998.) p. 288.

Therefore, our eternal joy in Christ will be, in the words of Edwards,

...rising higher and higher through that infinite duration, and... not with constantly diminishing (but perhaps an increasing) [velocity]... [to an] infinite height; though there never will be any particular time when it can be said already to have come to such a height.
—Edwards, Jonathan. "The End for Which God Created the World," God's Passion for His Glory. (Wheaton: Crossway, 1998.) p. 279.

So, let us of faith, delight in and savor the joy of our salvation! The wonders and joys of Heavenlies are unimaginable to us sojourners and pilgrims. "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13). Our consolation in Christ, is that God will finish the good work He has started in us, as we continue to, "[Look] unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2).

As the Apostle Paul declares, "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known" (1 Corinthians 13:12). And oh how I long to more fully know God. And how How much joy can one fathom in eternity? It's inconceivable to my finite human mind! And yet God in His wondrous majesty will make manifest His power and the riches of His glory in all eternity to His flock!

“Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4).

And oh how thankful we of faith should be for His abundant grace, love, and mercy! Let us be thankful that there is just and holy God who showers us with joy for all eternity.

Fellow believers, let us remember our flesh nature is in enmity against God. It is the new man that savors and delights in the joy of our salvation! Lay hold of the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, fight the good fight of faith, and savor the joy of your salvation. The Apostle Paul reminds us, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).

Related Reading:
A God-Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards by John Piper.
JonathanEdwards.com
The Works of Jonathan Edwards

Spurgeon Morning - August 19

"He shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord."
—Micah 5:4

Christ's reign in his Church is that of a shepherd-king. He has supremacy, but it is the superiority of a wise and tender shepherd over his needy and loving flock; he commands and receives obedience, but it is the willing obedience of the well-cared-for sheep, rendered joyfully to their beloved Shepherd, whose voice they know so well. He rules by the force of love and the energy of goodness.

His reign is practical in its character. It is said, "He shall stand and feed." The great Head of the Church is actively engaged in providing for his people. He does not sit down upon the throne in empty state, or hold a sceptre without wielding it in government. No, he stands and feeds. The expression "feed," in the original, is like an analogous one in the Greek, which means to shepherdize, to do everything expected of a shepherd: to guide, to watch, to preserve, to restore, to tend, as well as to feed.

His reign is continual in its duration. It is said, "He shall stand and feed"; not "He shall feed now and then, and leave his position"; not, "He shall one day grant a revival, and then next day leave his Church to barrenness." His eyes never slumber, and his hands never rest; his heart never ceases to beat with love, and his shoulders are never weary of carrying his people's burdens.

His reign is effectually powerful in its action; "He shall feed in the strength of Jehovah." Wherever Christ is, there is God; and whatever Christ does is the act of the Most High. Oh! it is a joyful truth to consider that he who stands to-day representing the interests of his people is very God of very God, to whom every knee shall bow. Happy are we who belong to such a shepherd, whose humanity communes with us, and whose divinity protects us. Let us worship and bow down before him as the people of his pasture.

Psalm 70

Psalm 70 (King James Version)

1 MAKE HASTE, O GOD, TO DELIVER ME; MAKE HASTE TO HELP ME, O LORD.

2 Let them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt.

3 Let them be turned back for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, aha.

4 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified.

5 But I am poor and needy: make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no tarrying.

My deep abiding hope, prayer and consolation remains forever in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God will hear my prayer and my cry from afar, and be a light and lump unto my path in the midst of discouragement. Great is thy faithfulness Oh Lord! You are the author and perfector of my faith.

Matthew Henry's commentary.

1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith

This is my statement of faith, embodied in the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. Doctrinally, it really only differs from the Westminster Confession in baptismal doctrine. Though it utilizes parallel and somewhat varied means of articulation, it essentially affirms the same thing as the Westminster standards.

There never was a man in the world without a creed. What is a creed? A creed is what you believe. What is a confession? It is a declaration of what you believe. That declaration may be oral or it may be committed to writing, but the creed is there either expressed or implied.
―B.H. Carroll

This ancient document is the most excellent epitome of the things most surely believed among us. It is not issued as an authoritative rule or code of faith, whereby you may be fettered, but as a means of edification in righteousness. It is an excellent, though not inspired, expression of the teaching of those Holy Scriptures by which all confessions are to be measured. We hold to the humbling truths of God's sovereign grace in the salvation of lost sinners. Salvation is through Christ alone and by faith alone.
—C.H. Spurgeon

CHAPTER 1 — OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES
CHAPTER 2 — OF GOD AND THE HOLY TRINITY
CHAPTER 3 — OF GOD'S DECREE
CHAPTER 4 — OF CREATION
CHAPTER 5 — OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE">OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE
CHAPTER 6 — OF THE FALL OF MAN, OF SIN AND OF THE PUNISHMENT THEREOF
CHAPTER 7 — OF GOD'S COVENANT
CHAPTER 8 — OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR
CHAPTER 9 — OF FREE WILL
CHAPTER 10 — OF EFFECTUAL CALLING
CHAPTER 11 — OF JUSTIFICATION
CHAPTER 12 — OF ADOPTION
CHAPTER 13 — OF SANCTIFICATION
CHAPTER 14 — OF SAVING FAITH
CHAPTER 15 — OF REPENTANCE UNTO LIFE AND SALVATION
CHAPTER 16 — OF GOOD WORKS
CHAPTER 17 — OF THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS
CHAPTER 18 — OF THE ASSURANCE OF GRACE AND SALVATION
CHAPTER 19 — OF THE LAW OF GOD
CHAPTER 20 — OF THE GOSPEL, AND OF THE EXTENT OF THE GRACE THEREOF
CHAPTER 21 — OF CHRISTIAN LIBERTY AND LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE
CHAPTER 22 — OF RELIGIOUS WORSHIP AND THE SABBATH DAY
CHAPTER 23 — OF LAWFUL OATHS AND VOWS
CHAPTER 24 — OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATE
CHAPTER 25 — OF MARRIAGE
CHAPTER 26 — OF THE CHURCH
CHAPTER 27 — OF THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS
CHAPTER 28 — OF BAPTISM AND THE LORD'S SUPPER
CHAPTER 29 — OF BAPTISM
CHAPTER 30 — OF THE LORD'S SUPPER
CHAPTER 31 — OF THE STATE OF MAN AFTER DEATH, AND OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
CHAPTER 32 — OF THE LAST JUDGMENT