How did David live in the statutes of God?

Posted : 13 Apr, 2013 11:47 AM

Psalm 119:55 I have remembered Your name, O Lord, in the night, and have kept Your law.





How did this man of God live in the statutes of God! In the day

they were his pilgrim song-in the night his happy meditation.

And, truly, if we can ever spend the waking moments of the

night with God, "the darkness is no darkness with us, but the

night shines as the day." Many a tried believer has found this

cordial for the restlessness of a wakeful night more restorative

to the quiet and health of his earthly frame, than the most

sovereign specifics of the medical world. "So He gives His

beloved sleep." And if in any night of affliction we feel the

hand of the Lord grievous to us, do we not find in the

remembrance of the Lord a never-failing support? What does

our darkness arise from, but from our forgetfulness of God,

blotting out for a while the lively impressions of His tender

care, His unchanging faithfulness, and His mysterious

methods of working His gracious will? And to bring up as it

were from the grave, the remembrance of God's name, as

manifested in His promises, and in the dispensation of His

love; this is indeed the "light that is sown for the righteous,"

and which "springs up out of darkness." It is to eye the character of the Lord as All-wise to appoint, Almighty to

secure, All-compassionate to sympathize and support. It is to

recollect Him as a "father pitying his children;" as a "friend

who loves at all times," and who "sticks closer than a brother."

And even in those seasons of depression, when

unwatchfulness or indulgence of sin have brought the

darkness of night upon the soul, though the remembrance of

the name of the Lord may be grievous, yet it opens the way to

consolation. It tells us, that there is a way made for our return;

that "the Lord waits, that He may be gracious;" and that in the

first step of our return to our Father, we shall find Him full of

mercy to his backsliding children. Thus, though "weeping may

endure for a night, joy comes in the morning."

Study the Lord's revelation of His own name; and what more

full perception can we conceive of its support in the darkest

midnight of tribulations? "And the Lord descended in the

cloud, and stood with him (Moses), and proclaimed the name

of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and

proclaimed- The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,

long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping

mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin,

and that will by no means clear the guilty." Can we wonder

that such a name as this should be exhibited as a ground of

trust? "The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous

runs into it and is safe." "Those who know Your name will put

their trust in You." Even our suffering Lord appears to have

derived support from the remembrance of the name of the

Lord in the night of desertion-"O my God, I cry in the daytime,

and You do not hear; and in the night-season, and am not

silent. But You are holy, O You who inhabits the praises of

Israel!" And from the experience of this source of consolation,

we find the tempted Savior directing His tempted people to the

same support-"Who is among you who fears the Lord, who

obeys the voice of His servant, who walks in darkness, and has no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay

upon his God."

The main principles of the Gospel are involved in this

remembrance of the Lord's name. Memory is the storehouse,

in which the substance of our knowledge is treasured up.

Recollections without faith are shadowy notions. But we have

confidence that our God in Himself-and as engaged to us-is

all that the Bible declares Him to be. How vast then are our

obligations to His dear Son-the only medium, by which His

name could be known or remembered-"who has" so "declared

Him!" And here is the spring of practical religion. We shall

keep His law when we remember His name. A sense of our

obligations will impel us forward in diligence, heavenly mindedness, and self-devotedness in our appointed sphere.

Obedience will partake far more of the character of privilege

than of duty, when an enlightened knowledge of God is the

principle of action.



by

Charles Bridges

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