Those only who have hoped in the Lord's salvation can express this joyful delight in His precepts.

Posted : 19 Sep, 2013 02:18 AM

Psalm 119:167 My soul has kept Your testimonies; and I love them exceedingly.



168 I have kept Your precepts and Your

testimonies: for all my ways are before You.





Those only who have hoped in the Lord's salvation can

express this joyful delight in His precepts. The Christian does

not acknowledge the popular separation of duty and privilege,

according as it may be constraint or indulgence to his

inclination. Every part of his walk identifies these terms of

distinction. If it is his duty, it is no less his privilege, to love the precepts. Nothing holds him to them-nothing enables him

thoroughly to keep them, but love. All resolutions, vows,

covenants, would be as ineffectual to bind him, as the green

withs to fasten the giant. David had not done the

commandments from constraint; but his soul kept them; yes,

he loved them exceedingly. Indeed, the bias of the new nature

to keep the precepts is as prevalent, as that of the old nature

to break them. Once the believer would have wished the law

of God blotted out of the universe, or at least exchanged for a

more indulgent dispensation. But now that it is written in his

heart, even its restraint is delightful to him; and as he gains a

closer intimacy with it, and a clearer discernment of its

spirituality, he loves it exceedingly. Not one, indeed, of the

precepts or testimonies does he keep as he ought, and as he

desires; but there is not one of them that he does not delight

in, and most anxiously desire to fulfill. Thus every feature of

the Divine image is inwrought in the soul, beautiful in its place

and proportion; and all other graces grow in connection with

love to the testimonies.

Nor let our consciousness of daily failures restrain this strong

expression of confidence. The most humble believer need not

hesitate to adopt it 'as an evidence of grace, not as a claim of

merit.' This frequent repetition marks the godly jealousy of the

man of God, mindful of his own self-deceitfulness and

manifold infirmities, and "giving" careful "diligence to make his

calling and election sure." David knew himself to be a poor

sinner; but he was conscious of spirituality of obedience,

exceeding love to the word, and an habitual walk under the

eye of his God-the evidences of a heart (often mentioned in

the Old Testament) "perfect with Him." 'Christ alone kept the

old law, and He enables us to observe the new.'

The active love to the word should be cultivated on the

principle of our public walk before God. We must not study the

Scripture merely for our present gratification, or to furnish materials for our Christian communion. We ought rather, from

every step in the history of Christ, as well as from the more

finished course of instruction in the Epistles, to be gathering

some help to "set the Lord always before us"-realizing the

interest that He takes in us, and His presence with us as our

Father, Governor, Teacher, Comforter, Friend.

Now, let us ask-Do our souls thus keep the Lord's testimonies

habitually, perseveringly? Does conscience testify that, with

all our defects and sinful mixture, they are uppermost in our

minds; that our love rises above the worldly rules of

expediency, prudence, or the example of those around us (the

too common measurement of scanty obedience)-as if it could

never burn with sufficient fervor in His service, "who loved us,

and gave Himself for us?" Why, then, should we shrink from

this acknowledgment of "simplicity and godly sincerity?" If we

are ready to own, that "without Christ we can do nothing;" that

His Spirit "has wrought all our works in us;" that "by the grace

of God we are what we are;" that our hope of acceptance is

grounded only upon the finished work on the cross-why

should we refuse to confess the grace of God in us? Yet we

must not forget, that allowed unfaithfulness, neglect of secret

prayer, impurity of motive, or any "iniquity regarded in the

heart"-though they will not loosen the ground of our hope-will

obscure the comfort of our Christian confidence. How

beautiful is that princely spirit, which will not serve the Lord "of

that which costs us nothing;" that not only longs for holiness

as the way to heaven, but loves heaven the better for the holy

way that leads to it, and for the perfect holiness that reigns

there eternally!

But never let us lose sight of the recollection, that all our ways

are before God! that every act, every thought, every desire,

every word, is registered by conscience as His viceregent,

and laid up in His book of remembrance! Well would it be for

us, if we walked less before men, and more before God; if in secret, in business, at home and abroad, we heard the

solemn voice-"I am the Almighty God: walk before Me, and be

perfect." We may be unreproveable in the sight of men, while

it is a mere artificial walk, grounded upon base external

principles-a "walking after the flesh"-not before God. Even the

engagements of active duty may be the subtle snare of the

great enemy to divert us from intense personal religion, and to

spoil the hidden walk of communion with God, by

concentrating the mind upon a more public, and, apparently, a

more useful walk. Thus too often the vital principle of religion

sinks into a stated formal habit. "Walking with God" is the

secret spring of the Christian. "Walking before God" is the

manifestation and the exercise of the hidden principle. For in

all things, private as well as public, the most trivial as well as

the most weighty, to have our eye fixed in dutiful reverence

upon the Omniscient, Omnipresent eye of Jehovah-what

solemnity would it give to our whole behavior! what influence

would it have upon our public professions, our general

conversation, our secret duties! We should be energetic in

"serving our own generation by the will of God;" and yet, while

walking before men, should be truly "walking before God"-all

our ways before Him, "done" in His sight, "as to Him," and

accepted in His favor.

When, therefore, I am about to venture upon any line of

conduct, let me consider the watchful eye, that pierces into

the deepest recesses of my thoughts, and brings, as it were,

to daylight, my principles, my motives, and my ends. Above

all, let me ever recollect, that he, before whom are all my

ways, is He who hung upon the cross for my sins. Let me then

walk, as if He were standing before me in all the endearing

obligations of His love. Oh, do not I owe Him sacrifice for

sacrifice, heart for heart, life for life? Then surely I cannot be

dead, insensible, sluggish in keeping His precepts. I cannot

forbear to show this practical proof of my love to Him. Let not,

then, the fear of legality make me neglect this privilege of "keeping the commandments" of my beloved Master and

Lord. Let me live under the solemn recollection-"You, God,

see me;" and in the joyful assurance-"You, God, love me;"

and His ways will be to me holiness, happiness, heaven.



by

Charles Bridges

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