Psalm one hundred and nineteen beginning with verse eighty-one. What was the word that you found that could sort of express the theme do you think of these eight verses beginning with verse eighty-one?
My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word. Mine eyes fail for thy word, saying, When wilt thou comfort me? (119:81-82).
That should give you a clue I think. I see in this the patience of my soul waiting for God, for the word of God to be accomplished and my soul fainting for thy salvation, I’m waiting to see God work. Thou my soul is fainting my hope is still in the word of God and my eyes fail for thy word. That is almost weary, giving up in seeing the fulfillment of your word. Then we have the question of “When will you Lord comfort me?” (119:82).
For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; (119:83).
The word bottle in the Hebrew is a wine skin. Of course they had leather wineskins that they would smoke and in the smoking process it would cause them to sort of shrivel up and become hard. So I am becoming shriveled and hard.
yet do I not forget thy statutes. How many are the days of thy servant? when wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me? (119:83-84).
How long Lord can I last? How long can I endure these things? When are you going to come and execute judgment of them that persecute me? When are you going to come Lord and deliver me?
The proud have digged pits for me, (119:85).
Going back to those times when they would trap animals many times by digging pits and covering it with branches and so forth. The digging of the pit is actually the setting of a trap. David speaks about his enemies here who had set traps for him, they have digged pits for him.
which are not after thy law. All thy commandments are faithful: they persecute me wrongfully; (119:85-86).
This is really quite a complaint to the Lord; my soul is fainting, my eyes are failing, I’m becoming shriveled and hard, How long can I last? How many are the days of your servant?, Lord when are you going to move in and help me and those that are not after your law are trying to trap me. Yet in all of the dilemma of life yet I know God that your word is faithful, your commandments are faithful and they persecute me wrongfully. Help me.
They had almost consumed me upon earth; but I forsook not thy precepts. Quicken me after thy lovingkindness; so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth (119:87-88).
The psalmist has experienced tremendous calamity. His enemies are persecuting him, they are trying to set a trap for him and it seems like God is silent. You know those are the most difficult times in our whole spiritual experience when we are under pressure and it doesn’t seem like God is doing anything. When it seems like God is silent and the pressure is increasing and I cry unto the Lord, there is where I need to have my faith rooted in the word of God as the psalmist declares concerning his own faith. He says, “I am hoping in thy word, I know that your commandments are faithful, I did not forsake thy precepts and I will keep the testimony of thy mouth”.
It is the word of God that sustained him through these dark hours. So with us, when it seems that God is silent as far as not moving immediately to correct the evil or the wrong that we see and we wonder “Lord how long are you going to let this go on”? We pray and we are concerned about the situation and nothing seems to improve, we need then to go back to the word of God and to the promises of God and let our soul rest there in the promise of God.
How many times in my own life when the pressures are on and it seems like you are going to be swallowed up with calamity, you’ve been waiting and your eyes are failing as you wait upon the Lord and you are almost giving up on any response or action? Then the spirit leads you back to the word and you realize the faithfulness of God too and there is where your soul found rest, “God it is in your hands and I’m going to trust in you”. That is such a beautiful place of rest when you finally come to that place where you exercised your emotions and all to where you are just wrung out. This is where you don’t know where to turn and you know you can’t do anything and you come to that place where you say, “God you’re just going to have to take care of it. I just can’t do it”.
Where you really turn it over to God that is the place of commitment, that is what we mean when we talk about commitment. I’m no longer striving with it and I’m no longer struggling with it. I’ve turned it over to the Lord and put it in his hands and said, “Lord, you’re just going to have to take care of it”. When I come to that place of full commitment then I rest because it’s in the Lord’s hands.
People are always trying to get you back in the middle of it and scare you but you have that beautiful rest, it’s in the Lord’s hands. Come what may, so the whole thing collapses, so the whole thing goes down the tubes, it’s in his hands he must want it to go down the tubes. How can I stop it if that’s what he wants? It’s in his hands and you come to that rest of commitment. As long I’m striving to see my will done I’m going to wrestle with it and I’m going to have mental turmoil when I’m insisting that God you do it my way or else. There is no rest as long as I am pushing and insisting that God see it my way and do it my way but when I say, “Lord you just do it, you just take care of it, the way you know is best. You do with it what you want to do” then I can kick back and say, “Well, it’s in his hands. God’s going to take care of it”.
So that patience that comes through waiting on the Lord, for so long I wrestled with a Palamar property and our desire to build a conference center up there. We’ve been over two years in the permit process just trying to get the conditional use permit from the county of San Diego. I’ve heard they’re tough, that’s the understatement of the year; they are next to impossible. We have been sending volumes of information like the EIR reports are in a volume this thick that they require. They keep demanding more and more and more and more and it’s just red tape and bureaucracy like you can’t believe. I wrestle with it, I struggle with it, I was just grinding over this issue until I finally came to the place and said “Lord, it’s your problem”. Thank God he has brought me to a place of patience. He taught me a great lesson, “tribulation worketh patience”.
Tribulation and dealing with those county officials has worked patience in my heart. There is no more striving with it, it’s in the Lord’s hands. Yeah but when are you going to have your next hearing? Really I don’t know, it’s in his hands. I just thank God that I’m not grinding it. It’s in his time, in his hands and when he’s ready it will happen. It’s a good place to be resting in the Lord.
The next Lamed, next eight verses, beginning with the Hebrew letter Lamed. I see in these permanence. There are certain permanent things. The first that the psalmist mentions is the word of God.
For ever, O LORD, thy word is settle in heaven (119:89).
There’s no question. God’s word is established, it’s settled forever. It doesn’t change, it doesn’t alter. Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, my word shall never pass away”. Forever, it’s permanent. The word of God is established, settled in heaven. Not only is the word of God a permanent thing.
Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: (119:90).
The word of God, the permanency of the word and the permanency of the faithfulness of God. We can trust God to be faithful through his word.
thou hast established the earth, and it abideth (119:90).
So the permanence that we see.
They continue this day according to thine ordinances: (119:91).
In other words, we can look around today and we can see the word of God is established and the faithfulness of God is continuing. The earth is still here, they continue this day according to thine ordinances. So the eternal ordinances of God.
for all are thy servants (119:91).
That is God rules over his universe.
Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction (119:92).
If I had not been in the word of God when I was afflicted I would have been wiped out. If it weren’t for the word of God sustaining me and helping me I could have been destroyed. The value of God’s word in our hearts keeping us in those times of affliction. Have you ever noticed that Satan takes advantage of our physical weaknesses to attack us spiritually and emotionally? It’s amazing, you get down and get the flu or you get one of the viruses or something and you’re feeling rotten to begin with, you don’t feel like getting up and moving around much and you’re just sort of lying there and Satan so often uses that as a time to attack. He does this especially if you’re sick over a prolonged period, a couple weeks or so, boy does he intensify his attacks. So the word of God, I would have perished in my affliction if it weren’t for the fact that it was in the word.
I will never forget (119:93).
Now here is something. He talks about the permanency of the things of God; the word, the faithfulness and so forth yet here’s another permanency.
I will never forget thy precepts: (119:93).
I like that. It’s a response on my part. There will be things that I will be permanent in. One is the precepts of God, I will not forget them.
for with them thou hast quickened me [given me life]. I am thine, save me; for I have sought thy precepts. The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: (119:93-95).
Now remember in the previous verse the proud had digged a pit. They tried to catch me and trap me in the pit.
The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: (119:95).
They’ve been in ambush trying to wipe me out.
but I will consider thy testimonies (119:95).
The testimonies are really the stories of the Old Testament, the stories of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, the stories of Joshua, David, Samson and Gideon. These are the testimonies of God’s work on behalf of his people. These are great for us to study and to absorb because we realize God’s keeping power and God’s preservation of his people in the times of adversity, trial, warfare or whatever. We see how God watches over his people, how God triumphs and causes his people to triumph over the wicked. There are times when it seems like the battle is impossible, like the wicked are so strong and so powerful that there is no possibility of overcoming the evil that we are faced with.
With Gideon as the Midianites had covered the land so that they were like grasshoppers, like a plague of locus. Everywhere you looked there was a tent of the Midianites, they covered the ground. The whole valley was filled with the army of the Midianites, thousands upon thousands of them. Here’s Gideon with three hundred men and it looks like there’s no chance for Gideon and his righteous band to possibly conquer over the tremendous force of evil that is there but the testimony of God’s faithfulness. God delivered the Midianites into the hand of Gideon and his band of three hundred. We see how God can cause the righteous to triumph over insurmountable odds. Thus the testimonies of God give me hope, they give me courage, they give me strength and they give me that kind of bravery to go out and to challenge the enemy that outnumbers me hopelessly. “If God be for me who can be against me?”
The wicked have waited for me to destroy me: but I will consider [remember] thy testimonies (119:95).
I consider Lord what you have done to the wicked in the past. He remembers the stories about God taking care of the wicked and has destroyed the wicked.
I have seen an end of all perfection: (119:96).
Of all of the things that I see upon the earth that seem to be perfect, I can see their end, I can see the limitations to them. I see no limits to the commandments.
but thy commandments is exceeding broad (119:96).
The word of God is all encompassing.
The next eight verses, the Mem of the Hebrew alphabet.
O how I love thy law! (119:97).
There are a lot of people who hate the law of God. Not everybody can say “O how I love thy law!” (119:97). What is your attitude towards the law of God? Paul tells us in Romans that the law is not a terror to good people, it’s only a terror to evil people. If you’re a good person you’re not worried about the laws. Well that used to be, there are some laws now that I could care less for. I mean you wonder. The laws concerning speeding and so forth, they don’t terrify me. The laws of stopping at a red light, they don’t terrify me. I can see the reasons for stopping at red lights, think of what it would be if we didn’t have such laws. If a person is constantly ripping around, running red lights and so forth then those laws could be a terror to him. If you’re a terror than the law could terrorize you.
The law of God could be a real hard thing for you but if you’re living by the law. The law is not for the righteous but the law is for the lawless people. That’s why laws are necessary but they are not really written for the righteous. We don’t need them because we live by righteous principles.
It keeps some kind of order in this world, it keeps some kind of sanity in this world.
O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day (119:97).
Going back to the first psalm, “Blessed is the man who’s delight is in the law of the Lord and his law does he meditate day and night”.
Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me (119:98).
Notice now in the proud have dug pits for him, the wicked are lying in ambush to destroy him and now he again speaks of his enemies who are constantly around him. They are ever with him, he can’t get rid of them. Yet through the commandments of God I’m wiser than they.
I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation (119:99).
So the word of God gives us wisdom, it doesn’t say, “I am more knowledgeable than my enemies” I’m just wiser than they and I have more understanding than all my teachers.
There are a lot of people that have a great deal of education, they have a lot of knowledge but they lack in wisdom and they lack in understanding. As Solomon said, “With all of thy getting, get understanding”. How important it is to have the ability to use the knowledge. The right application of knowledge is wisdom.
I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts (119:100).
I think it was Martin Luther who said, “In antiquity is many times stupidity”. We think well he’s so old he must be smart but not always so. There are a lot of old people who don’t know God and that’s not so smart.
I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word (119:101).
The keeping of the precepts, keeping of the word of God. The doers of the word and not hearers only.
I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me (119:102).
Through thy law, meditating upon it I become wiser than my enemies, I gained understanding more than my teachers and more than the ancients and you have taught me through the word.
How sweet are thy words unto my taste! (119:103).
Oh how I love thy law, how sweet are thy words to my taste. Do you have this attitude towards the Bible? When you get into the Bible does it affect you this way? Can you say, “Oh how I love to read the word. Oh how sweet the word of God is to my mouth”. That’s the way it should be.
yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (119:103).
God’s word is just glorious.
Through thy precepts I get understanding: (119:104).
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom it is said and the Bible says, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.
Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way (119:104).
See how it follows. When I really understand the right ways of God it gives me a hatred for evil. That’s real understanding, that’s real smarts, when you get to the place where you hate evil. Now look at the contrast: “Oh how I love thy law” but my love for the law of God brings a corresponding hatred for evil in my heart. The more I love the law of God the more I’m going to hate the evil ways. I saw this as perspectiveship, how God gives to us a great perspective through the word. I learn, I understand, I become wise and I receive this perspective through the word of God.
The next eight verses, the Nun in the Hebrew alphabet, I saw as performance. I saw how it is my intention to perform not to just know but the performance of the word of God.
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path (119:105).
I will walk in the light of the word of God. I will use the word of God as a guide for my life. I will use the word of God to teach me and to show me the right and the wrong in life, to lead me into the right path, to do the right things for I accept God’s word as being right and true.
I have sworn, and I will perform it, (119:106).
A real commitment of his heart to obedience to the word of God. One of the real problems in our society today is man’s lack of commitment. We seem to have sort of a half-hearted kind of an attitude towards the things of God. It’s almost a take it or leave it kind of a thing. Well I can go but maybe not. It really doesn’t matter too much you know. We don’t have that real commitment that real earnest zeal for the things of God, that all out kind of a “I have sworn and I’m going to do it. I’ve sworn that I’m going to live righteously and that I’m going to do the right thing. I’m not going to corrupt my body or my life with the evil of the word. I’m going to live a pure life”. Where I’ve made that kind of a commitment where you don’t really have or consider an alternative. If it doesn’t work than maybe we can do this or as long as it goes smooth I plan to hang in there.
You make the commitment and no matter what comes I’ve set my course. I’m not going to deviate. I’m going to serve God. I’m going to live by the word of God, I’m going to live a life of purity and holiness before the Lord, I’m determined and I’ve sworn. I will perform it, I’ve purposed in my heart that this is the way I’m going to live. So he speaks of this.
that I will keep thy righteous judgments (119:106).
There is no issue of it, I’m just going to do it. I’m going to keep the righteous judgments of God.
I am afflicted very much: (119:107).
You think you’ve got problems. Look at what this psalmist is going through. He talks so much about his afflictions, unless I had been in your word the afflictions would have destroyed me, I would have perished in my afflictions. My enemies are forever around me, they are trying to ambush me, they’re trying to trap me. I’ve been afflicted very much but Lord make me alive to your word.
quicken me, O LORD, according unto thy word (119:107).
The word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword. The entrance of the word gives life. I deplore that kind of ignorance that you sometimes hear in certain circles of the church where people speak rather disdainfully for the word of God or concerning the word of God. They seem to hold up and prize experiences and what they call the moving of the spirit. Sometimes you hear them quote that verse in Corinthians where it says, “For the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life”. Just the word of God, they interpret that to mean the word of God will just kill you. You have to have the shouting, the jumping up and down and the emotional releases in order to have life. That’s pour Biblical understanding.
It’s really sad that there are some people who say, “The word of God will just kill you. It’s dead and it will just kill you”. Not so, the psalmist is always talking about make me alive Lord. Your word makes me alive. Make me alive according to your word. The word of God is alive, it’s powerful and it’s sharper than a two edged sword. Than what does it mean “the letter killeth”? The letter of the law, if you try to obey the law as did the Pharisees, it will kill you because it will condemn you to death because you can’t do it.
The law really doesn’t make you righteous and keeping the law doesn’t make you righteous. The law shows you what sin is and it shows you that you have sinned and thus the law condemns you to death. If you try to live by the law and try to be righteous by the law you’ll end up condemned by the law and then the letter of the law kills. Spirit gives live by bringing us into that life in Christ and that righteousness which is by faith in Jesus Christ. You try to keep the law and use that as your righteous standard and it’s going to kill you because it’s going to condemn you. Make me alive Lord according to thy word.
Accept, I beseech thee, the freewill offerings of my mouth, (119:108).
In other words, as a sacrifice accept Lord the praises. In Hebrews it says, “Let us therefore offer unto him the sacrifice of praise, even the fruit of our lips”. Which is a pleasing and acceptable sacrifice to God. He’s not looking for you to bring an ox or a lamb or whatever he just wants you to spend time with him offering to him the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of your lips unto the Lord.
O LORD, and teach me thy judgments (119:108).
I am determined and I’m going to keep your righteous judgments. I’ve sworn and I’m going to perform it so teach me thy judgments.
My soul is continually in my hand: (119:109).
That is my life seems to be in constant jeopardy. The soul was sort of the breathe of man in a sense, the consciousness of man. There was this constant danger that the psalmist was facing and yet I don’t forget thy law. Though I am surrounded by constant dangers, I won’t forget your law.
The wicked have laid a snare for me: (119:110).
Here they are again trapping him again. They are laying a snare for me, they have dug a pit for me and they are trying to ambush me.
yet I erred not from thy precepts. Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: (119:11).
This is my heritage, the testimony of God. This is what I live by, I trust in and I rely upon. God’s faithfulness to take care of his people, God’s faithfulness to bring his people into ultimate victory. You go back and you read over and over again God’s people always triumph. He brought them into the ultimate victory.
for they are the rejoicing of my heart (119:111).
I rejoice every time I read the story of Gideon, every time I read of Joshua and the conquest of them I rejoice. The testimony of God’s work among his people and God’s faith, it just causes my heart to rejoice “All right Lord, get them again”. I love the way God works and the way that he is so faithful. It’s the rejoicing of my heart, it delights me.
I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes always, (119:112).
Again I’ve purposed and I’ve sworn I’m going to do it. I will perform it and so I’ve inclined my heart, not my mind “Well I think I’ll try it”.
I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes always, even unto the end (119:112).
In the likening or in the identifying or the separating of man’s body and soul and spirit. The body or the basic biological functioning of the body is physical. The soul is looked upon as the area of the consciousness and the emotions of man, he soulish conscience level, so that sinners posses a soul or a consciousness. Animals posses a soul, a consciousness. Plants have a body but no soul, plants are routed and you have a body but there is no consciousness. There are some who are trying to prove plants have a consciousness and they talk to their plants but I haven’t been able to buy that one yet. Animals posses a soul, they do have a consciousness but man has a third dimension.
The seat of the soul seems to be the brain or the mind of man. We look at the mind and the soul as synonymous. The area of consciousness and emotion and so forth is in the mind of man. However, man also possesses a spirit but in the sinner that spirit is dead. It was the spirit of man that died when man disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. Now the seat of the spirit is the heart and in the heart is the area of true will and resolve. You can decide something with your mind but it may not be a real firm kind of a decision. It’s there and ya we decided to do that but I can change my mind very quickly. Something doesn’t go right and we can change our plans and we change our mind rapidly. The heart, the will, the spirit of man, is not subject to those kinds of changes. It’s where the real resolves are made within your heart. Those are the resolves that stick, those are the resolves that remain.
When a man’s spirit comes alive “You,” Paul said “as he made alive who were once dead in your trespasses”. He’s talking about the spirit and when the spirit is alive and in the spirit where you make that determination, that will is established “I’m going to follow Jesus Christ”. It’s interesting that Paul said, “For if thou shall confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and believe in your heart” not in your mind but you believe in your heart “there it is established” the permanency you believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead.
There are many people who have sort of a head religion, a head relationship. They make decisions in their emotions but they are not necessarily of the spirit, they don’t go to the depths of the spirit where I make in my heart that resolve. So the psalmist is talking about I have resolved in my heart, I’ve inclined my heart, to perform thy statutes always, even to the end. Again the permanency of I’m going to ride it out to the end, I’m going to perform your statutes to the end. So the importance of the heart, Jesus said, “For out of the heart are the issues of life. My son give me your heart” that deepest area of your being, not just the mental assent but a commitment in my heart, the resolve that comes from the area of the spirit.
Here’s an interesting contrast in verse one hundred and thirteen.
I hate vain thoughts: (119:113).
I hate those empty heads, those empty thoughts. In contrast and this is Hebrew poetry in its classic form because Hebrew poetry comes in the parallelism of thoughts or in the contrast of thoughts. Parallel thoughts, building on it or contrasting thoughts there is no rhyme to it but it’s in the thought itself they consider the beauty of poetry.
but thy law do I love. Thou art my hiding place and my shield: (119:113-114).
You are my defense Lord. You are the place of my defense.
I hope in thy word (119:114).
So I love the law, my hope is in the word.
Depart from me, ye evildoers: for I will keep the commandments of my God (119:115).
There are always those that would seek to turn you aside from God’s path. There are always those that will seek to lead you into evil. There is tremendous pressure to go after the realm of the flesh and the ways of the flesh. Tremendous pressures to try drugs, to try this and to try that and the other. People say, “Ah go ahead, you’re just chicken. It won’t hurt you” and those pressures. He says, get away you evil doers I hate your vain thoughts and I love the law of God and I’m going to keep the commandments of my God.
Now his prayer having made that resolve.
Uphold me according unto thy word, (119:116).
Let your word Lord just hold me up. Give me strength there are the pressures that are coming around me and Lord I need you. Let your word just hold me up, give me strength, hold me up.
that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope (119:116).
Help to stand up for what is right. Don’t let me ashamed. When all of this pressure comes to do evil and they are making fun of me help me not to be ashamed of my hope.
Hold me up, (119:117).
I love that.
Hold me up, and I shall be safe: (119:117).
Oh if God is holding me up then I don’t need to worry, I know I’m safe. I love that verse that says, “And underneath are the everlasting arms” holding me up. What’s holding me up? God’s everlasting arms. Now that really thrills me because when I look out at the sky away form the pollution of light you can see Orion chasing Taurus over the southern sky, you can see the dipper the little dipper you can rarely see unless you are out in the desert. People misidentify the Pleiades as the Little Dipper when actually the North Star is a part of the little dipper and it’s up in the north. You look at these stars and looking at Orion take a look at the left shoulder of Orion that is the star Betelgeuse it is four hundred and fifteen million miles in diameter. If you would hollow out Betelgeuse leaving a crust a hundred miles thick you can set the sun inside of Betelgeuse and let the earth rotate around it. That’s huge.
The psalmist in another place said, “When I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers”. I look at Betelgeuse and I see it in its orbit traveling through space at a tremendous speed what thrust do you suppose it took do you suppose it took to get a star that big accelerated to that speed? Some twenty five miles per second. What thrust do you suppose it took to get something that huge into that accelerated speed? According to the psalmist it was just a flick. “Consider the heavens the work of thy fingers. He stretched the heavens as a curtain”. That wall that they just discovered they found the curtain out there that the psalmist is talking about, this five hundred million light years long wall.
Now if the heavens are the work of his fingers I need never worry about falling if underneath me are the everlasting arms. If he can create the heavens with his fingers he can hold me up with arms for sure.
Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe: (119:117).
You bet I’m safe when God’s holding me up and God will hold me up.
and I will have respect unto thy statutes continually. Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes: (119:117-118).
You can get that in the testimonies of God as has trodden down the enemies, those that have turned their hearts and backs against God. Even Israel when they turned their backs upon God they were trodden down and they were trodden down and they were overcome by their enemies.
for their deceit is falsehood. Thou puttest away all the wicked of the earth like dross: therefore I love thy testimonies (119:118-119).
Again it’s in the testimonies that I learn these things about God, how he sets aside the wicked and the evil ways of people.
My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments (119:20).
The final eight verses.
I have done judgment and justice: leave me not to mine oppressors (119:121).
Of course there we are again enemies, wicked, oppressors. Because Lord I’ve tried to do the right thing don’t leave me to my oppressors, deliver me.
Be surely for thy servant for good: (119:122).
Lord guarantee my good is what he’s asking. God I want some kind of a guarantee for good.
let not the proud oppress me. Mine eyes fail (119:122-123).
In verse eighty-one “My soul is fainting” verse eighty-two, “My eyes fail” it talks about the eyes failing for thy salvation and for God’s deliverance. It seems I’ve been waiting and waiting and I’ve been watching and watching for God to work and my eyes are failing, they are sore, I don’t see anything yet. I’m waiting to see the work of God, I’m waiting to see the deliverance of God and I’m waiting to see God’s salvation in this matter and my eyes fail for waiting.
and for the word of thy righteousness. Deal with thy servant according unto thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes. I am thy servant; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies (119:123-125).
So the prayer of David, he talks about it’s weariness in waiting to see the salvation of God. He’s asking now of the mercy of God be revealed for he is God’s servant and he wants understanding.
it is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law (119:126).
How true this is in the day in which we live as I look at the situation in our nation and as I see of how they made void the law of God through existentialism, situation ethics and the vain philosophies man. I see how the ACLU has set itself to sort of get anything that would tend to lead people toward a belief or an understanding of God they sought to remove it from the public domain.
The PAW, People for the American Way, it would be better CAW, Communists AT Work. PAW are determined, they have a manifesto and they are determined to root the thought and the idea of God out of the consciousness of America, that’s what they consider the “American Way”. Totally free from any thought or consciousness of God or sense of responsibility to God or sense of God at all so that people can do whatever they want without pains of conscience thinking well that not right. They don’t want anybody to be troubled with a conscience because God may not be pleased with that. They have openly avowed their intentions of ridding our nation from the thought and the idea of God. You are their enemy because you believe in God and they are going to do their best to destroy your belief in God.
Norman Lear who is one of the prime members of this PAW group, uses his skills and abilities in television to create television programming that ridicules and makes fun of anybody who stands up for righteousness or who has a belief in God. They really are using that industry as a tool to try to destroy the belief in God. It is a deliberate willful designed attempt to rid our nation of a consciousness of God.
When you see their power, when you see their organizational structure, when you see the money that they have behind them you realize that what Jesus said was correct when he said, “The children of this generation are wiser than the children of light”. Their strategy in taking over the public educational system, their strategy in taking over the media, taking over the newspapers, taking over the television and all of the media so that they are then able to pump this godless stuff on our nation. You have to look at it and say, “Man these guys are sharp. These guys are wise”. Look at the way they developed this conspiracy. Those men who signed that humanistic manifesto, look how they positioned themselves in government, in the media and in the educational system. Gradually brought in evolution and put out creationism, the whole idea is to get rid of God, get rid of God and to get rid of God. They have been tremendously effective.
The psalmist said Lord it is time for you to work. We can’t do it; it’s beyond us.
it is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law (119:126).
They’ve made it meaningless in our society.
Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold (119:127).
Lord I value, I treasure your word. I treasure your commandments. These people have made void your law but I treasure it Lord, I treasure it more than pure gold.
Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; (119:128).
I judge that what God has said on every issue is right. Now you know having studied this book for so many years, I’ve been in the ministry now for forty-one years, I’m convinced more than ever that what God has said is right. I haven’t found him wrong in one issue yet.
Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way (119:128).
I love your word Lord, I love your commandments but I hate every false way.
God give me a love for the word, give me a love for You and give me a hatred Lord for evil, for sin, for unrighteousness.
Edited & Highlighted from “The Word For Today” Transcription, Pastor Chuck Smith, Tape #7208
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