It is good to think about the attributes of God, even to take one of them and consider ways in which it is revealed In God’s Word. Here the psalmist thinks of the attribute of righteousness and observes that all God’s rules are also righteous (v. 137). Because that is the case, he knows that whatever the Lord requires in his Word will be righteous, and they will never express or suggest that he will be unfaithful to his Word (v. 138).
The outcome of his realisation is that the psalmist became very zealous in his obedience to God, and his determination to serve God was not diminished by the number who were against him (v. 139). He had known many experiences when God’s promises had been tested, but they had proved true, and he had discovered repeatedly that God is faithful. Therefore, he loved God’s promises (v. 140).
Neither was his commitment to God’s Word diminished by his own place in society or by the dismissive attitude of others (v. 141). Because he had meditated on God’s Word, those truths were in his mind, with the result that he did not forget what God required. He was like the man in Psalm 1 who avoided wrong paths because of his awareness of what God said in his Word.
The psalmist knew that God’s divine requirements would never be replaced by a superior system. They were not merely the best that had appeared, but which could be surpassed eventually. If that could happen, his Word would not be truth (v. 142). The psalmist’s testimony was that God’s requirements brought delight to his soul even when he was in difficult circumstances (v. 143).
The ongoing relevance of God’s Word caused the psalmist to pray that he would be given continual instruction in its requirements. He knew that he could still grow in grace, that he should still grow in grace, and that he would still grow in grace. But prayer for divine instruction is part of the process (v. 144).
No comments:
Post a Comment