I will never forget Your precepts; for with them You have quickened me.

Posted : 4 Jun, 2013 05:07 AM

Psalm 119:93 I will never forget Your precepts; for with them You have quickened me.









An admirable resolution! the blessed fruit of the quickening

power of the word in his deep affliction. He had before

acknowledged this supernatural efficacy-"Your word has

quickened me." Now he more distinctly mentions it, as the

instrumental only-not the efficient-cause-With them You have

quickened me. Had the power been in the word, the same

effect would have immediately and invariably followed. Nor

should we have been constrained to lament the limited extent

of its influence. How many, Christian, shared with you in the

outward privileges; but perhaps unto none was the life-giving

blessing given, save unto yourself-the most unlikely-the most

unworthy of all! Thus does "God work in us both to will and to

do"-not according to any prescribed law, but "of His good

pleasure." The grace therefore is not from, but through, the

means. Almighty God is the source of the life. The word is the

instrument-yet so "quick," so melting, so attractive, that we

might ask, out of what rock was that heart hewn, that is proof

against its power? Yet while the precepts work nothing without

the agents they are the ordinary course, by which the Lord

quickens whom He will.

And do not we find them still lively channels of refreshment?

Surely, then, we will hold to our purpose of not forgetting the

precepts. The leaves of the word of God are the leaves of the

tree of life, as well as of the tree of knowledge. They not only enlighten the path, but they supply life for daily work and

progress. "The words that I speak unto you"-said Jesus-"they

are spirit, and they are life:" so that the times when we have

been most diligent in our meditation and obedience to the

precepts, have been uniformly the seasons of our most holy

consolation.

Men of the world, however, with accurate recollections of all

matters, connected with their temporal advantage, are

remarkably slow in retaining the truths of God. They plead

their short memories, although conscious that this infirmity

does not extend to their important secular engagements. But

what wonder that they forget the precepts, when they have

never been quickened with them-never received any benefit

from them? The word of God is not precious to them: they

acknowledge no obligation to it: they have no acquaintance

with it. It has no place in their affections, and therefore but

little abode in their remembrance.

But this resolution is the language of sincerity, not of

perfection. The child of God is humbled in the conscious

forgetfulness of the Lord's precepts. And this consciousness

keeps his eye fixed upon Jesus for pardon and acceptance:

while every fresh sense of acceptance strengthens his more

habitual remembrance.

Then, as for his natural inability to preserve an accurate

recollection of Divine things-let him not estimate the benefit of

the word by the results in the memory, so much as by the

impression upon the heart. The word may have darted

through the mind, as a flash of lightning, that strikes and is

gone; and yet the heart may have been melted, and the

passing flash may have shed a heavenly ray upon a dubious

path. If the heart retains the quickening power, the precepts

are not forgotten, even though the memory should have failed

to preserve them. But whatever word of conviction, direction, or encouragement,

may have come to us, affix this seal to it-I will never forget

Your precepts. It may be of signal use in some hour of

temptation. The same Spirit that breathed before upon it may

breathe again; if not with the same present sensible power,

yet with a seasonable and refreshing recollection of past

support.

by

Charles Bridges

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