The Means of Perseverance

Introduction:  When I was in seminary, one of the neat things I truly learned was an obscure name for our Father God:  El Shaddai, which means “the most high God.”  Mankind has always and ever been seeking the sovereign Creator on the high places of their local geography.  Whether those high places are the hills of Palestine or the mountain crags of the Andes or even the artificial ziggurats of the mid-eastern flood plains, they have been always popular.  Thus, in the context of the Palestinian worship practices of seeking to worship deities on the high places, the Name of the only Holy God of Creation is reflected in El Shaddai as one who is higher still than the pagan imaginations of the common crowd.

In another sense, Martin Luther described the earthy man as one who contemplated his navel, or belly.  This symbolized any ordinary pagan being who couldn’t look up and beyond himself and his immediate needs to save his own miserable misfortunate self-focused life.  C.S. Lewis at the end of his Narnia tales has a group of angry dwarves so wrapped up in themselves that they cannot look beyond their miserable hovel to see the realities of heaven all around them.

As we turn to the second half of this section of psalm 119, we would do well to amend the title of the whole from that which I gave the first four verses.  That portion I titled “The Promise of His Word”, and in our consideration of verses thirty-two through thirty-six we should understood that the biblical concept and doctrine of perseverance is bound up throughout the whole of these eight verses.

With the exception of verse forty in this section, all of the action verbs in English, indicate what God is doing instead of what we sometimes think we can do for ourselves.  Verse thirty-six shows the psalmist’s dependence upon the good grace of our Sovereign Father.  “Turn my heart to Your testimonies”, he prays earnestly.  In that verse the psalmist is asking that the Most High God of all the earth will cause him to seek the God of all grace

Development:   In the first verse for meditation today, he begins in the same way:

“Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things,

cause me to live in Your way.

But, here the psalmist must admit that the world is much with us in every time and place.  Charles Bridges observes “Satan has so infused his poison into all the objects around us, that all furnish fuel for temptation: and the heart – naturally inclined to evil, and hankering after vanity – is stolen away in a moment.”  Bridges of course uses the old language of vanities to describe the worthless things, as we understand them today.  Yesterday, while picking up some milk in town, I stopped into a flea market newly established in our area.  So confident were the owners of the items that what they had wasn’t worth stealing – that three out of four booths commended any purchaser to take the items to another booth for purchase.  As I walked through the empty aisles, I was properly amazed at how many items were similar to something I had once owned and since cast off for a pittance of what had once been paid for them.  There were even a couple of items similar to what I have and I was amazed at how cheaply they are truly valued!

Of course we must remember that all the worldly things we have known and owned are but mere trash when compared to the spiritual treasures of heaven.  But, well does the psalmist understand the attraction of worldly vanities when he begs God to cause him to live in His way.  Do you sense the helpless condition of David the sinner in those words?   ”Cause me to live in Your way”, David begs.  “It is not enough”, Bridges admonishes us, to be "preserved from temptations".  We must seek the quickening of the Spirit for “more life, energy, delight and devotedness” in the ways of God.

I have lived long enough to notice a sad devolution in the spiritual habits and interests over three generations.  We are not the same people who inhabited this fair land a short century ago.  My grandparent’s lives were closer in material convenience to that of Julius Caesar than to that of our own.  On one side of the family at least, their spiritual lives were also closer to those of the Reformation generation than our own.  The most striking difference in my memory was the amount of time devoted to devotions and prayer.  They realized more truly than most today the necessity of requesting the Lord’s causing them to live in His way.

It is indeed a blessed thing when the Lord does answer that petition.  In all our strivings towards holiness and seeking daily the face of God, the precious attainments of His purpose that He allows are indeed wonderful beyond conception because they confirm His interest in our present estate.  Well does David write in verse thirty-eight, which is the theme of this section:

Confirm Your promise to Your servant,

that Your servant may revere You.

Charles Bridges observes:  “The promises of the Old Testament are generally connected with the fear of God, as in the New Testament they are linked with faith.  But in truth, so identified are these two principles in their operation, that the faith, by which we apprehend the forgiveness of God, and the privileges of his kingdom, issues in a godly, reverential ... fear.”

When was the last time that your prayers were answered?  Didn’t that, shouldn’t that experience cause you to pause a moment and stand in awe before the Creator God who deigned to bless you?  In fact, whenever any thought word or deed can be demonstrated as from the highest holy God, we should give Him our highest emotion of reverence!  I can remember once standing before a Brigadier General for some reason I cannot remember.  He fully sensed my awe and fear and helped me to relax as he heard my testimony.  On another occasion, President Bush Senior shouted a question to a friend standing next to me as his train trundled slowly by the rural crossing where a dozen people had gathered to salute and wave in support of his campaign.

How much more ought we to honor the Lord our God in reverence and awe whenever we understand that He has confirmed us in His relationship to us?  Now notice how I worded that confirmation clause.  All too often when our children join the Church we consider that their confirmation of the baptism vows we have taken on their behalf when they were but babes in our arms.

Confirmation, we must really understand comes from the other direction.  And what joy we should have when our little ones at any age are confirmed in the faith through the grace and mercy of our Most High God!

The next verse confirms the perseverance of our God and Savior even more fully.

Turn away the disgrace which I dread

For Your ordinancess are good.

Now, this verse is difficult for us to grasp.  To comprehend this verse, we should first ask what is the disgrace in question?  Let me attempt to explain it in this example.  An older lady once made light of her own mother’s continued insistence that she, like her mother should always wear her very best clothes whenever she traveled.  After all, the older mother insisted, you never know when you might have an accident and be taken to the hospital and be found in ragged, worn out underwear.

Humorous, yes – but it is similar to one variety of saints who would worry about the Lord appearing suddenly to find them still in unforgiven sins.  Now remember, we are not in agreement theologically with any who believe that every sin must be confessed and forgiven.  Some years ago I received a letter from a former student who sought my forgiveness for her cheating on some paper or test five years before.  As I read the letter I got the impression that her “church” had her believing that every single known sin had to be forgiven before she could have her salvation secure.

I wrote her back and assured her that I would forgive her, but I also asked her what kind of gospel it was that demanded such a full accounting on her part.  I tried to impress upon her that while the disgrace of sin is made evident by the scriptures, that knowledge is good in its effect of creating fear and humility before the awesome throne of God because then the Lord can take us on to the next step in His perseverance of our souls as we read it in the next verse, verse forty.

Behold, I long for Your precepts;

through Your righteousness, give me life.”

How I love Thy Law, is the theme of this entire psalm.  And why is it that we love the ordinances, regulations and precepts of the Law?  Because the Law of God leads us home through the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.  Do you see the comprehension of the psalmist in verse forty?  Charles Bridges again sheds some useful light on the context of this psalm portion:  “The Christian can give a good reason for his delight even in the most difficult and painful precepts.  The moments of deepest repentance are his times of sweetest 'refreshing from the presence of the Lord.  ‘”

“Further up and further in”, is the invitation of C.S. Lewis at the ending of The Tales of Narnia.  Sweet indeed is the pilgrim progress as we grow in grace and knowledge.  I would believe that if you took a survey of Christians, you would find the most contented and saintly being those who take God more seriously and those who have studied and prayed more regularly.  Even the most secular surveyors must admit that the more religious people live longer and happier lives.  Jung, the psychologist – noted that very few sincere religious people ever turned up for counseling.

Conclusion:   Richard Brooks writes:  “the reviving effects of God’s Word [is] to quicken our needy souls.  Once again, it is practical results that are in view as the goal of this preservation or renewal: the fear of God, and God’s righteousness.”

Charles Bridges ends this section with this awesome thought:  “And what an expectation is this to pretend to!  To think what the infinitely and eternally blessed God is – and what ‘man is at his best estate’; then to conceive of man – the worm of the dust – the child of sin and wrath – transformed into the likeness of God – how weighty is the sound of this hope!”

Is this a hope that is yours today?  Years ago, I was asked to preach my grandmother’s funeral.  At that time, the chosen text was a real stretch for a young pastor. The verse (Psalm 17:15) was her life verse, which she chose when she was eight years old when a dear neighbor passed away.

“As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness;

I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness.”

Do we understand the miraculous attainment in that verse?  An attainment that is beyond our wildest dreams, an attainment that must be bound up in Christ and Him crucified for us, with His righteousness imputed to us and the persevering love of the Trinity holding and keeping us in and through the light of His word.  What a wonderful life-giving work is the work of our God!

Because of His work, we can have a blessed hope and pray well the last phrase of this psalm section: ”through Your righteousness, give me life”  And that life is secure because of His promise that we are His and He is ours not only now, but for all eternity.  Amen.