This message is from Dr. Sproul’s 8-part teaching series Angels and Demons. Learn more: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/angels-and-demons
“Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:7-8 ESV)
I have virtually no discipline when it comes to eating healthy and taking care of my body. For all of my life, I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and not gain any weight. Partly because I had such a high metabolism and was young, and partly because I played golf—which meant I was walking at least 3-4 miles a day on the course on top of working out.
That began to change when I quit the college golf team. I slowly began to gain a little weight, primarily in the gut. Then I got married; then I had kids; then, well, here we are. Though I’m not overweight, I have what one would call a “dad bod.” Each day, I look in the mirror and wish I would have better eating habits and also wished I would work out. I even bought my wife and me a pair of dumbbells and we’ve barely used them.
And even though our physical training is very important, how much more should we “train” spiritually so our mind and heart will be in the place God wants them to be?
Perhaps running a few miles comes natural to you, but opening up Scripture and reading a chapter takes everything you have. Maybe it’s easy for you to lift weights for 30 minutes, but it takes an act of Congress for you to take 10 minutes of alone time to pray. It’s great to be physically healthy, but far greater to be spiritually healthy.
So, the question remains: How do we train spiritually? If being godliness is “of value in every way,” then what’s the correct—or biblical—way to get there? Scripture is full of athletic analogies and likens the Christian life to a race (1 Cor. 9:24; Heb. 12:1, 11-13; 2 Tim. 4:7), so what’s the best way to train for our race?
In order to truly train spiritually, we must be in God’s Word consistently. And not just read the “verse of the day,” but dive headfirst into Scripture. And not just studying it to receive knowledge, but let it study us.
Jerry Bridges wrote in his book The Fruitful Life,
As we search the Scriptures, we must allow them to search us, to sit in judgment upon our character and conduct.
The most important part of studying Scripture is how it transforms us. We must study the Word to train, but it is unfruitful if we study for its own sake. We don’t study simply to know, but to be known.
So, make it a priority, day in and day out, to study God’s Word. Focus your time on a specific book at first, preferably a short one. This will train you well. You will come to know that book inside and out, and God will mold you more into the image of His Son in the process.
On days when I decide to eat a salad for lunch but have a Dr. Pepper and fast food later in the day, I can’t really review my day and say I trained my body well. Was it better than other days? Sure, but objectively it’s not great. The same is true if we merely read the Bible briefly and don’t give much thought to what we’re reading. That training will do us no good. Be vigorous, intentional, and committed—and ask God for help.
A prayerless Christian is a spiritually famished Christian. “Prayer is to the Christian what breath is to life,” the late RC Sproul once wrote, “yet no duty of the Christian is so neglected.”
Prayer is unfortunately widely undervalued in the Christian life. If we are to train spiritually, it is imperative we devote time to prayer. And just like with studying the Word, we don’t spend time in prayer for it’s own sake, but for ours. People frequently ask, “Does prayer change things?” Yes, in a way. Most importantly, it changes us.
We train physically to change our bodies. We want to be healthy instead of unhealthy. I want to be toned instead of rock a “dad bod.” Likewise, we train spiritually to be changed. The more we’re genuinely in prayer, the more God will make us more like Jesus.
It is when we neglect His Word and communicate to Him in prayer that we become spiritually weak and stagnant.
There’s not much better than rich, vibrant fellowship with other church members before and after service. It’s a great feeling to spend time with fellow believers, who think the same way you do and believe the same things you believe.
In this post-COVID age, churches around the globe are still dealing with members staying home to watch online somewhere else. Christians need to remember how vital fellowship is to their spiritual health.
Training spiritually won’t be complete or whole unless we spend time with fellow, like-minded saints. And, once again, we don’t do this because it’s just fun, but because we are edified from it. Each member in the local church is vastly important, because we all need everyone.
So, Christian, understand this: showing up to church is your spiritual training. It’s getting up at 5:30 a.m. for your workout. Some days it’s like walking uphill with ankle weights on, and other days it’s like coasting in a lazy river.
We must train because we want to become more like Jesus. That is our sanctification, to be made more like the Son. Reading the Bible, praying, fellowship—Christians should desire these things. We aren’t perfect, and the struggle will happen many times. But we must push forward by God’s grace.
The race of faith will finish one day, sooner than we think. We will be done, and glory will await us.
Source: How to Train Spiritually
7 The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
8 the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward. [1]
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Ps 19:7–11). (2016). Crossway Bibles.
19:7–9 The shift of subject between vv. 1–6 and vv. 7–14 seems abrupt. However, the common element in both cases is God’s revelation of himself and his purposes to mankind. In the first part of the psalm, it is God’s creation (general revelation), whereas in the second part, it is the words that God specifically communicated to his people (special revelation). On the Hebrew word torah as instruction, see note at 1:2. Perfect is a term that is often used in relation to sacrifices that are acceptable to God because they are “unblemished” (Lv 1:3, 10) and without defect, but it can also refer to the perfect work of God (Dt 32:4). Renewing one’s life means the restoration of strength or vitality (1Kg 17:22; Lm 1:11). Making the eyes light up seems like an unusual idiom, but it makes a connection between light and truth, or more specifically knowledge and understanding of the truth (119:105, 130; Pr 6:23). The fear of the Lord is the only subject in this list that involves human response to God’s instruction rather than a synonym for it. The concept involves obedience to God with an attitude of humility and reverence (see notes at 76:7; 103:17–18). Its inclusion further demonstrates the relationship between fearing the Lord and the knowledge and understanding of his truth (Pr 1:7; 9:10).
19:10–11 Gold and honey were valuable commodities in the ancient world, but God’s words are even more valuable (119:103, 127). The warning and reward are both positive benefits of knowing God’s instruction because they keep God’s servants from straying off the path of righteousness and provide them with blessings (119:35; Pr 4:18).[1]
19:7–9 The Word of God is characterized as being: (1) perfect, i.e., complete and without fault; (2) sure, i.e., not variable; (3) right, i.e., straight; (4) pure, i.e., without alloy; (5) clean, i.e., without impurities; and (6) true, i.e., utterly dependable. The law of the Lord produces two dramatic effects in men. First, the law “converts” or “restores” the soul. Second, the testimony of the Lord imparts wisdom. Also, cf. Ps. 119.[2]
19:7–11 The law, God’s special revelation, reflects the character of its author. Different names are used for the law, synonyms that point to the whole of God’s special revelation to humanity.[3]
| 19:7–9 The psalmist makes a series of statements using different Hebrew terms for the Law or Torah (as recorded in the first five books of the Bible). He describes the law (torah), testimony (eduth), precepts (piqqudim), commandment (mitswah), rules (mishpat), and fear (yir’ah) of Yahweh with positive attributes. The psalmist also describes the effect of the Law to revive, give wisdom, cause rejoicing, and enlighten. |
19:7 is perfect The Hebrew word used here, tamim, means to be “perfect” or “blameless”; it emphasizes personal integrity.
19:8 is pure The Hebrew word used here, bar, emphasizes moral purity.
19:9 are true This highlights the trustworthiness of God’s Law.
19:10 more desirable than Like wisdom, the Law is more valuable than gold (Prov 3:13–15) and sweeter than honey (Ezek 3:3).
19:11 your servant is warned The Law serves as a warning against evil (Ezek 3:17–21) and brings reward for those who keep it (compare note on Psa 19:7–9).[4]
19:7–11 The Perfect Torah. These verses describe some characteristics and effects of God’s revelation to Moses. The terms law, testimony, precepts, commandment, and rules all come from the Pentateuch and are ways of referring to the Mosaic covenant. The whole section builds up to the delight expressed in vv. 10–11.
19:7 On law, see note on 1:2. perfect. See note on 19:13. reviving the soul. That is, giving refreshment (see Prov. 25:13, “refreshes the soul”; Ps. 23:3 uses a similar expression). Sure, or trustworthy. simple. See Introduction to Proverbs: Character Types in Proverbs.
19:7 The close relation between God’s instruction through creation (vv. 1–6) and through his law (vv. 7–14) anticipates the role of Christ as mediator in creation and redemption (Col. 1:15–20).
19:8 pure. Unmixed with evil (cf. 24:4). enlightening the eyes. For the eyes to have light or to be bright is for the person to be alert and active (cf. 1 Sam. 14:27; Ezra 9:8; Ps. 13:3; 38:10; Prov. 29:13).
19:9 The fear of the Lord often means revering God, but here it is the revealed way by which one properly reveres God, i.e., the precepts of the covenant (similarly 34:11). true. A reliable transcript of God’s will.
19:10 The fundamental attitude here is one of delight: God’s instructions are more desirable than the best riches (cf. 119:127; Prov. 8:19) and more pleasurable than the finest tastes (cf. Prov. 24:13–14).
19:11 reward. The proper outcome, in this case assurance and character growth (see notes on vv. 12 and 13).[5]
19:7, 8 Each of 4 parallel lines contains a word (a synonym) for God’s Word; each describes what His Word is; and each pronounces what it effectually accomplishes.
19:7 law. This might better be translated, “His teaching,” “a direction,” or “instruction” (cf. Ps 1:2). testimony. This word for the Word derives from the root “to bear witness.” It, so to speak, bears testimony to its Divine Author.
19:8 precepts. This synonym looks upon God’s Word as orders, charges, statutes, etc. They are viewed as the Governor’s governings. commandment. This word is related to the verb “to command” or “order.” The Word is therefore also perceived as divine orders.
19:9 fear. This is not technically a word for the Word, but it does reflect the reality that Scripture is the manual for worship of God. judgments. This term looks upon God’s Word as conveying His judicial decisions.[6]
19:7–11 The law is the Torah, which means “instruction” or “direction.” This passage (vv. 7–9) presents six words for the Law of God—law, testimony, statutes, commandment, fear, and judgments; six evaluations of the law—perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, and true; and six results—converting the soul, making wise the simple, rejoicing the heart, enlightening the eyes, enduring forever, and righteous altogether. The value of the Scripture cannot be compared with any other desirable thing—even gold. It provides the key to wisdom, joy, and most importantly, eternal life.[7]
19:7–9 But creation is only one of God’s volumes of self-revelation. Verse 7 introduces us to Volume Two of God’s revelation—“the law of the Lord.” Both volumes glorify God and inspire the worship of thoughtful persons. Few commentators on the Psalms can resist quoting Kant’s famous dictum:
The starry sky above me and the moral law in me, are two things which fill the soul with ever increasing admiration and reverence.
But there is a difference between the two books of God. Creation reveals God as the Mighty One, the God of Power. But His Word reveals Him as the One who enters into covenant relationship with His people. God’s works reveal His knowledge and power but His Word reveals His love and grace. Scientific truth may stimulate our intellect but spiritual truth convicts our heart and conscience!
In his eulogy of God’s Word, David describes it not only as the law of the Lord but also as the testimony of the Lord, the statutes of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, and the judgments of the Lord. The psalmist attributes eight excellent qualities to the Word of God; it is perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, enduring, true, and righteous. Then he lists five of its wonderful ministries: it converts the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, and warns the servant of God.
19:10 The values of the Word cannot be computed in terms of gold. But it does have this one thing in common with gold: persons must dig for its treasures. Great wealth is hidden in the pages of God’s Book, and man’s best interests are served by searching for them.
It is the glory of God to conceal a matter,
But the glory of kings is to search out a matter (Prov. 25:2).
I can truly say that no prospector is ever more delighted with the discovery of gold than I am to find nuggets of spiritual treasure in the Bible! Much as I like honey, its taste is never as sweet to me as the taste of the good Word of God! No words can ever describe the enrichment and satisfaction I have found in my Bible.
This old book is my guide;
’Tis a friend by my side.
It will lighten and brighten my way.
And each promise I find
Soothes and gladdens my mind
As I read it and heed it each day.
—Edmund Pillifant
Incidentally, there is a beautiful touch in the expression “sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.” The purest honey is that which drips from the comb rather than being pressed out.
19:11 Morever, by them Your servant is warned. By the Scriptures the believer is taught to resist the devil, flee from temptation, hate sin and avoid the very appearance of evil. In obeying the precepts of the Word, the Christian finds true fulfillment in life. Spiritually, physically, and mentally he enjoys the good life! On top of all this, he accumulates reward to be bestowed at the Judgment Seat of Christ. “Godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Tim. 4:8).[8]
19:7. In verses 7–9 David described the efficacious nature of the Law of the Lord. Just as the sun is the dominant feature of God’s natural revelation (vv. 4c–6), so the Law was the dominant element in God’s specific revelation in the Old Testament.
The perfect Law of God (cf. “flawless” in 12:6; 18:30; Prov. 30:5) can change people. It revives the soul and the Law’s statutes can be trusted to make one wise.
19:8. The Law’s precepts give joy to the heart and its commands enlighten one’s eyes, that is, brighten his life and guide him. The statutes (v. 7), precepts, commands (v. 8), and ordinances (v. 9) are all specific instructions within the Law. Joy and guidance fill the soul of one who meditates on and follows God’s commands.
19:9. Fear is here a synonym for the Law, for its purpose was to put fear into human hearts (Deut. 4:10, kjv). The Law is pure.… sure, and righteous. It was designed to cause believers to obey God and lead righteous lives.
19:10–11. David next disclosed his personal reaction to God’s perfect Law. He found the statutes desirable and enjoyable. In extolling their value to him, he compared them to gold and honey—they are more precious than gold, the most valuable commodity in the ancient Near East, and sweeter than honey, the sweetest substance known in the ancient Near East. The Law was not a burden to believers who were trying to please God with their lives. For David, keeping God’s statutes, which warned him of the dangers of folly and sin, brought reward.[9]
7–10 The voice of the word: perfection. The Lord has not left us to the uncertainties of natural religion; he has spoken his word which has here six titles: law (7), ‘instruction’; statutes/‘testimony’, what the Lord bears witness to as valid; precepts (8), applicable to the small details of life; commands, intended for obedience; fear (9), worthy of reverence; ordinances, authoritative decisions.
It has nine qualities: perfect in every part and in its wholeness trustworthy (7), reliable; right (8), upright, of moral rectitude; radiant, ‘pure’, free from contaminant; pure (9), (see 12:6), of purity acceptable to God; enduring, changeless; sure … righteous, ‘true … right’, corresponding to the objective norms of truth; precious (10), ‘rightly desirable’, full of intrinsic value; sweeter, full of true enjoyment.
It has four results: reviving (7), (35:17; cf. Ru. 4:15; La. 1:16), restoring true life whether threatened by danger or diminished by sorrow; simple has the bad meaning of ‘gullible/credulous’ (Pr. 7:7; 14:15; 22:3), lacking guiding moral principles, and the good meaning of ‘teachable’ (116:6; 119:30; Pr. 1:4), giving joy (8), educating the emotions (heart); the eyes are the organs of desire, what is wanted out of life. The word of God instils true objectives, worthy values.[10]
The Revelation of God in His Word (19:7–11)
19:7–11. Following the testimony of creation, God’s character, works, and will for humanity are further specified by His Word, which is perfect. The first and foundational part of God’s Word is the law (see the comment on 1:3–4), here described by the various other biblical synonyms including testimony, precepts, commandment, and judgments (“ordinances,” as in Ex 21:1). Through this verbal/written revelation man is instructed in the fear (i.e., worship) of the Lord (cf. 111:10; 2Kg 17:28). Two key biblical concepts of worship and obedience (i.e., “keeping/obeying”), presented at the outset of the Torah, are reiterated here (see the comment on Gn 2:15; cf. also Ec 12:13). God’s words are a guide and a warning for how to live, and in keeping them there is great reward (cf. Ps 1).[11]
7 The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
8 The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
9 The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
11 Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.
In the three following verses we have a brief but instructive hexapla containing six descriptive titles of the word, six characteristic qualities mentioned, and six divine effects declared. Names, nature, and effect are well set forth.
7. “The law of the Lord is perfect;” by which he means not merely the law of Moses but the doctrine of God, the whole run and rule of sacred Writ. The doctrine revealed by God he declares to be perfect, and yet David had but a very small part of the Scriptures, and if a fragment, and that the darkest and most historical portion, be perfect, what must the entire volume be? How more than perfect is the book which contains the clearest possible display of divine love, and gives us an open vision of redeeming grace. The gospel is a complete scheme or law of gracious salvation, presenting to the needy sinner everything that his terrible necessities can possibly demand. There are no redundancies and no omissions in the Word of God, and in the plan of grace; why then do men try to paint this lily and gild this refined gold? The gospel is perfect in all its parts, and perfect as a whole: it is a crime to add to it, treason to alter it, and felony to take from it.
“Converting the soul.”—Making the man to be returned or restored to the place from which sin had cast him. The practical effect of the Word of God is to turn the man to himself, to his God, and to holiness; and the turn or conversion is not outward alone, “the soul” is moved and renewed. The great means of the conversion of sinners is the Word of God, and the more closely we keep to it in our ministry the more likely are we to be successful. It is God’s Word rather than man’s comment on God’s Word which is made mighty with souls. When the law drives and the gospel draws, the action is different but the end is one, for by God’s Spirit the soul is made to yield, and cries, “Turn me, and I shall be turned.” Try men’s depraved nature with philosophy and reasoning, and it laughs your efforts to scorn, but the Word of God soon works a transformation.
“The testimony of the Lord is sure.” God bears his testimony against sin, and on behalf of righteousness; he testifies of our fall and of our restoration; this testimony is plain, decided, and infallible, and is to be accepted as sure. God’s witness in his Word is so sure that we may draw solid comfort from it both for time and eternity, and so sure that no attacks made upon it, however fierce or subtle, can ever weaken its force. What a blessing that in a world of uncertainties we have something sure to rest upon! We hasten from the quicksands of human speculations to the terra firma of Divine Revelation.
“Making wise the simple.” Humble, candid, teachable minds receive the word, and are made wise unto salvation. Things hidden from the wise and prudent are revealed unto babes. The persuadable grow wise, but the cavillers continue fools. As a law or plan the Word of God converts, and then as a testimony it instructs; it is not enough for us to be converts, we must continue to be disciples; and if we have felt the power of truth, we must go on to prove its certainty by experience. The perfection of the gospel converts, but its sureness edifies; if we would be edified it becomes us not to stagger at the promise through unbelief, for a doubted gospel cannot make us wise, but truth of which we are assured will be our establishment.
8. “The statutes of the Lord are right.” His precepts and decrees are founded in righteousness, and are such as are right or fitted to the right reason of man. As a physician gives the right medicine, and a counsellor the right advice, so does the Book of God. “Rejoicing the heart.” Mark the progress; he who was converted was next made wise and is now made happy; that truth which makes the heart right then gives joy to the right heart. Free grace brings heart-joy. Earthborn mirth dwells on the lip, and flushes the bodily powers; but heavenly delights satisfy the inner nature, and fill the mental faculties to the brim. There is no cordial of comfort like that which is poured from the bottle of Scripture.
“Retire and read thy Bible to be gay.”
“The commandment of the Lord is pure.” No mixture of error defiles it, no stain of sin pollutes it; it is the unadulterated milk, the undiluted wine. “Enlightening the eyes,” purging away by its own purity the earthly grossness which mars the intellectual discernment: whether the eye be dim with sorrow or with sin, the Scripture is a skilful oculist, and makes the eye clear and bright. Look at the sun and it puts out your eyes, look at the more than sunlight of Revelation and it enlightens them; the purity of snow causes snow-blindness to the Alpine traveller, but the purity of God’s truth has the contrary effect, and cures the natural blindness of the soul. It is well again to observe the gradation; the convert became a disciple and next a rejoicing soul, he now obtains a discerning eye, and as a spiritual man discerneth all things, though he himself is discerned of no man.
9. “The fear of the Lord is clean.” The doctrine of truth is here described by its spiritual effect, viz., inward piety, or the fear of the Lord; this is clean in itself, and cleanses out the love of sin, sanctifying the heart in which It reigns. Mr. Godly-fear is never satisfied till every street, lane, and alley, yea, and every house and every corner of the town of Mansoul is clean rid of the Diabolonians who lurk therein. “Enduring for ever.” Filth brings decay, but cleanness is the great foe of corruption. The grace of God in the heart being a pure principle is also an abiding and incorruptible principle, which may be crushed for a time, but cannot be utterly destroyed. Both in the Word and in the heart, when the Lord writes, he says with Pilate, “What I have written, I have written;” he will make no erasures himself, much less suffer others to do so. The revealed will of God is never changed; even Jesus came not to destroy but to fulfil, and even the ceremonial law was only changed as to its shadow, the substance intended by it is eternal. When the governments of nations are shaken with revolution, and ancient constitutions are being repealed, it is comforting to know that the throne of God is unshaken, and his law unaltered.
“The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether;”—jointly and severally the words of the Lord are true; that which is good in detail is excellent in the mass; no exception may be taken to a single clause separately, or to the book as a whole. God’s judgments, all of them together, or each of them apart, are manifestly just, and need no laborious excuses to justify them. The judicial decisions of Jehovah, as revealed in the law, or illustrated in the history of his providence, are truth itself, and commend themselves to every truthful mind; not only is their power invincible, but their justice is unimpeachable.
10. “More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold.” Bible truth is enriching to the soul in the highest degree; the metaphor is one which gathers force as it is brought out;—gold—fine gold—much fine gold; it is good, better, best, and therefore it is not only to be desired with a miser’s avidity, but with more than that. As spiritual treasure is more noble than mere material wealth, so should it be desired and sought after with greater eagerness. Men speak of solid gold, but what is so solid as solid truth? For love of gold pleasure is forsworn, ease renounced, and life endangered; shall we not be ready to do as much for love of truth? “Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.” Trapp says, “Old people are all for profit, the young for pleasure; here’s gold for the one, yea, the finest gold in great quantity; here’s honey for the other, yea, live honey dropping from the comb.” The pleasures arising from a right understanding of the divine testimonies are of the most delightful order; earthly enjoyments are utterly contemptible, if compared with them. The sweetest joys, yea, the sweetest of the sweetest falls to his portion who has God’s truth to be his heritage.
11. “Moreover by them is thy servant warned.” We are warned by the Word both of our duty, our danger, and our remedy. On the sea of life there would be many more wrecks, if it were not for the divine storm-signals which give to the watchful a timely warning. The Bible should be our Mentor, our Monitor, our Memento Mori, our Remembrancer, and the Keeper of our Conscience. Alas, that so few men will take the warning so graciously given; none but servants of God will do so, for they alone regard their Master’s will. Servants of God not only find his service delightful in itself, but they receive good recompense; “In keeping of them there is great reward.” There is a wage, and a great one; though we earn no wages of debt, we win great wages of grace. Saints may be losers for a time, but they shall be glorious gainers in the long run, and even now a quiet conscience is in itself no slender reward for obedience. He who wears the herb called heart’s-ease in his bosom is truly blessed. However, the main reward is yet to come, and the word here used hints as much, for it signifies the heel, as if the reward would come to us at the end of life when the work was done;—not while the labour was in the hand, but when it was gone and we could see the heel of it. Oh, the glory yet to be revealed! It is enough to make a man faint for joy at the prospect of it. Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Then shall we know the value of the Scriptures when we swim in that sea of unutterable delight to which their streams will bear us, if we commit ourselves to them.[12]
Ver. 7. The law of the Lord is perfect.—The best book:—
I would not have you forget the true and proper mission of the Bible,—to reveal saving truth. But it is well to remember that, even as a classic, no book equals the Word of God. The Bible has exercised a remarkable influence in the department of literature. “The English tongue would lose its grandest monument if the works which the Bible has inspired were blotted from it.” Religious books, of course, get everything from the Bible; but writers with no distinctly religious object are enormously beholden to its inspiration. There is not a notable book—a book of transcendent genius or power—which has not culled from the Word of God either thought or illustration or telling phrase. We need not, even in an age of advanced education and culture, be ashamed of the Bible. Its study will confer as much credit on our intellect as on our piety. We are not such Bible readers as were our fathers. This is one evil of the multiplication of books. In this generation we are better educated, we know more than our fathers. But have we the same robust and vigorous intellects? It seems to me that there is a deterioration in this respect along with our neglect of Bible study. There are three things which should make the Bible popular among young people—
1. Its fervid style. There is not a dull passage, if we except a few chronologies and such like, from Genesis to Revelation.
2. Its exuberance of illustration. It is a book of pictures.
3. Its practical wisdom. If you live seventy years you will not have gathered all the practical wisdom you may learn now from studying the Bible. Do not forget that you may find in the Bible eternal life. (A. F. Forrest.)
The Bible a book for all nations:—
Of what is not the Bible the foundation and the inspiration? To what interest of human life does it not give its great benediction? The system of doctrine and duty which the Bible contains is a fixed final system, not a progressive one, and one introductory to a higher, and the Bible will never become obsolete, and will never be supplemented by any other revelation. This proposition has been most flatly contradicted. It is argued that the Bible has accomplished a very good purpose in the world, but it cannot long satisfy the world’s need, because it does not keep pace with the world’s progress. By and by we shall need a broader basis on which to construct the religion of the future. A time, it is said, must come when the theological will be too narrow in its range for the demands of the race, and too dogmatic in its tone for the more liberal, general, comprehensive religion of the future. We are invited to mark the universality of this beautiful law of progressive development in nature, in literature, in the fine and in the useful arts, in human laws and institutions. But those who reason thus overlook the distinction between the apparent and the real progress of man. The true progress of man is the progress of man’s self, apart from all organisation. Those who eulogise modern progress confine their attention to what man does to promote his convenience and comfort. How absurd it is to mark the progress of a man by that which a man manipulates and moulds and makes subservient to his use! The Bible is the book for the soul, and God put into it exactly those truths that He knew were calculated to regenerate the soul. Unless the soul needs to be made over, and given new facilities, you do not want a new Bible, or any annex to the old one. There is another great distinction to keep in mind. While the Bible is fixed and will never be supplemented, the principles contained in it are admissible of universal and of endless application, and for that reason the Bible will never need to be supplemented. It is with the Bible as it is with nature. No new laws have been given to nature from the beginning. And yet how constantly are men discovering laws that for long ages were hidden from human eyes: and men of science will tell you that there are now many latent forces in nature awaiting the genius of the occasion when they shall be discovered and applied to the use of man. What the world wants is not a new Bible, or new principles, or new truths, but the recognition of the old, and the legitimate application of the old to the purposes for which they were intended. So when new forms of old errors arise, we do not want a new Bible to find new truths with which to antagonise these old errors. The fact is, there are no new forms of scepticism. We do not need any other Bible, or a supplement to the old, because the Bible is a book that has a friendly voice and a helping hand to every race. Here is a book equally adapted to the Oriental and the Occidental mind; adapted alike to the Mongolian and the Circassian mind; adapted to all the different divisions into which society is divided. The Bible is sufficient for the world’s need, because it goes down to the very foundation of man’s mental and moral structure, and takes hold of that which is sinful in his soul’s life. As long as sin and sorrow are in the world, so long will this book take hold of that which is deepest, and truest, and profoundest in the soul’s immortal life. And the Bible gives us a perfect ideal in the character of our blessed Saviour. Moreover, we do not need a new Bible, because we do not want any new motives to the practice of the greatest virtue. (Moses T. Hoge, D.D.)
The perfect law:—
“The law of the Lord” is the Bible phrase for describing the duty which God requires of man. This law embraces all those principles by which our inward life of disposition and desire and our outward life of word and action ought to be guided. It is an expression of the Divine will respecting human conduct. But perhaps the most correct view of the Moral Law is that contained in a sentence which has often been used in the pulpits of Scotland, “the Law is a transcript of the character of God.” Justice and truth and love are the very elements, so to speak, of His own moral being; they have an inherent rightness, and so, while it is true that they are right because He wills them, a deeper truth is that He wills them because they are right. In other words, while the authority of the law rests upon the Divine will, the law itself has its basis in the Divine nature. The law of the Lord is woven into the very nature of the universe. It is graven in indelible lines on the conscience of man. But we must turn to the Holy Scriptures for the fullest exhibition of the Moral Law. The Bible, however, is not a hand-book of morals after the common style. We do not find in it a systematic exposition of law for national or individual life; and even those parts of it which, to some extent, have this appearance, come far short of being a full expression of the perfect law. The Mosaic economy, for example, looked at in the light of the higher attainments and the wider wants of Gospel times, is admittedly an imperfect economy on its moral as well as on its ceremonial side. No one would dream of introducing into modern law its enactments respecting (to take a case) usury or divorce. In the same way the moral lessons taught by those histories of nations and individuals of which the Bible is largely composed are often doubtful. All this impresses us with the necessity of some guiding principle to enable us to gather from the rich variety of Holy Scripture the law of God—His will for our guidance. Where, then, shall we go for this guiding and testing principle? We answer without hesitation—to Jesus Christ Himself. The chief corner-stone of the Church is also the chief corner-stone of Christian morality. He came “to show us the Father,” and so in Him, in His own character and conduct and teaching, we have the clearest and most authoritative revelation of the Father’s law. We cannot over-estimate the value of having the law of God exhibited in a life as opposed to any statement of it in words. In the life of our blessed Lord, as recorded in Holy Scripture and interpreted to His followers by the Holy Spirit and by the providence of God, we have the final standard of moral theory and practice. He is the incarnate Law. Having defined what the law of the Lord is, we pass on to see wherein its perfection lies, and for one thing, it exhibits the quality of harmony. Every lover of art knows that the chief excellence of a painting lies in the consistency of its various parts and their subordination to the main design. A similar principle applies to music. What is true of beauty presented to the eye or ear holds good of truth and righteousness, the beauty which the mind only can perceive. The ultimate test of any new doctrine lies in its harmony with those Scripture-sustained convictions which we have already formed. The law of the Lord has this crowning element of perfection—it is a harmonious unity whose parts never jar or clash. Of course, we are quite familiar with the objection that one precept of Holy Scripture sometimes comes into antagonism with other precepts. The obedience which a child owes to God, for example, can only be rendered sometimes by disobedience to a parent whom God has commanded the child to obey. We revert to our definition of the law, and reply that this objection confounds the law which is perfect and eternal with particular commandments which are from the nature of the case inadequate and temporary expressions of the law. The commandment may be inadequate, for it is only the verbal form in which the spiritual principle is clothed, and the letter can never exhaust or completely unfold the spirit. The commandment, moreover, may be only the temporary form of the eternal law. The Decalogue is indispensable on earth, but how many of the relations which it is intended to regulate will have ceased to exist, or be radically changed, in heaven! Thus the particular precepts of the law may be temporary, but the law of the Lord which is perfect abides in all its force wherever intelligent beings are. (D. M‘Kinnon, M.A.)
A tribute to the law of God:—
The law is characterised by six names and nine epithets and by nine effects. The names are law, testimony, statutes, commandments, fear, judgments. To it are applied nine epithets, namely, perfect, sure, right, pure, holy, true, righteous, desirable, sweet. To it are ascribed nine effects, namely, it converts the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, endures forever, enriches like gold, satisfies like honey, warns against sin, rewards the obedient. The central thought or conception about which all gathers is that of law. There is a profound philosophy in this passage. It presents Jehovah as Lord, i.e. “Law-ward,” or guardian of law. We are to conceive of God’s law as—
1. A perfect rule of duty, having a basis of common law beneath all its statutory provisions, an eternal basis of essential right and wrong. “Thou shalt” and “thou shalt not,” based upon eternal principles, not upon an arbitrary will. We are to think of this fabric of law as—
2. Supported like a grand arch, upon two great pillars: reward and penalty. The whole passage is therefore a challenge to our adoring homage and obedience.
1. The law is a perfect product of infinite wisdom and love, (Rom. 7:12, 14) “holy, just, good, spiritual.”
2. It is enforced by Divine sanctions of reward and penalty, and these are each equally necessary to sustain the law and government of God. The testimonies and the judgment are equally perfect. The love that rewards and the wrath that punishes are equally beautiful and perfect. The transcendent thought of the whole passage is that obedience is a privilege.
1. Law is the voice of love, not simply of authority, therefore only love can truly fulfil.
2. Obedience is self-rewarding and disobedience self-avenging. The general thought of this whole passage is, obedience the highest privilege.
1. The law is the expression of Divine perfection; hence leads to perfection.
2. Of the highest love; hence must be interpreted by love and fulfilled by love.
3. Of the highest bliss—key to blessing; hence the door to promises.
4. “Our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ.” Cannot justify, but only conduct to the obedient One who can justify. (Homiletic Monthly.)
The perfect law of God:—
By the law we may understand the entire written Word.
I. The character of the law. Perfect, that is, complete and entire. See the testimony—
1. Of Moses (Deut. 6:6–8).
2. David, throughout the Psalms, as here in our text.
3. Jesus, the Son of God.
4. Paul (1 Tim. 3:14, 16).
5. Peter.
II. Its effects. “Converting the soul.” Note what conversion is, the great spiritual change in a man’s heart.
III. Practical lessons.
1. That it is not enough to have a mere intellectual acquaintance with the Word of God.
2. The vast criminality of those who would withhold the Word of God from men.
3. How dangerous and wicked to turn from it to the lying fables of deluded or designing men. (J. Allport.)
The light of nature:—
It was not in the material heavens, which with all their grandeur the Psalmist had been contemplating, that he found the lesson of perfection. He turned from them to the law of the Lord, and there he found it. With all that the contemplation of nature is able to do, it cannot regenerate the spirit. Neither poetry nor philosophy can help man in the great exigencies of life. None of them can do any good to a dying man. The damps of the sepulchre put out their light. Nor is this to be wondered at. The works of nature were not made to last; hence how can they teach lessons for immortality? They may serve man in many ways here, and aid his piety too, if he be a converted man. But they will never convert him. Man needs the Bible to convert him to God and to fit him to die. This truth has to be insisted on in our day which speaks so much of “the light of nature,” and which subjects the Bible to its pretended discoveries. But we maintain that it is insufficient, and for proof we appeal—
I. To fact—history. Glance—
1. At the heathen world—the people are in gross darkness.
2. At antiquity—they knew nothing of immortality, or the holiness of God. They never had any natural religion; what they had was all unnatural, monstrous. Reason failed them. They knew nothing certainly, though they made many conjectures; what little light they had came from tradition and through the Jews.
II. The scriptures themselves. These teach that the heavens declare the glory of God, but they do not say that man was ever converted thereby.
III. The inconclusiveness of the arguments employed by the disciples of nature. They say, nature teaches the existence of one God. But until the Bible has taught you this you cannot know it. What we see would rather teach that there are two deities, a good and a bad one. And, in fact, without the Bible men never did believe in the unity of God. And so of the Divine attributes. His unchangeableness and goodness, His spirituality and His will, the sanctions of His law and the immortality of the soul. The real utility of all the light of nature on the subject of religion consists in this: that it demonstrates its own insufficiency for teaching us a single important truth, and thus turns us over to the Word of God; and having done so, shines as a constant witness, and everywhere, to impress the lessons of Bible-teaching upon us. It strikes the infidel dumb, and aids the devotions of the Christian, living or dying. But alone it teaches nothing. God never said it could. And its reasonings, proudly called in the schools “science” and “philosophy,” vanish into smoke when we touch them. You will never read God’s world rightly till His Word teaches you how. After it has taught you you may gather proofs of religion from nature which you could not gather before. The lesson is in nature; but nature is a sealed book to a sinner. It may silence a sceptic, it cannot satisfy a soul. She has no Christ to tell of, no atonement, no pardon, no firm foothold on immortal work. She cannot make men wise or good or happy, or inspire with blessed hope. (T. S. Spencer, D.D.)
Converting the soul.—The restoration of the soul:—
I. What is here meant by conversion? In margin it is rendered “restoring.” This restoring the soul is from its fall in Adam to its salvation in Christ.
1. From the darkness of ignorance to the light of Divine knowledge. Ignorance is general where the means of knowledge are not realised. The light of Divine knowledge, employing and enriching the understanding, is essential to the restoration of the soul.
2. From the oppressive weight of contracted guilt to a state of conscious acceptance with God (Rom. 5:1).
3. From inward depravity, derived from our first parents, to a conformity to the moral image of God. The removal of guilt from the conscience, and the being “sanctified wholly,” are distinct attainments in the Christian life.
4. From a state of misery to the possession of real happiness. How can men but be miserable in sin!
II. The means by which this restoration is effected. By the perfect law of the Lord. For law read doctrine. This doctrine is—
1. Divine in its origin.
2. Pure in the means of its communication.
3. Harmonious, and well adapted to the condition of man in all its parts.
4. Energetic in its operations. Improvement,—ministers must understand the doctrine of the Lord before they can make it known to others. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)
The Word of God converting the soul:—
The text might be read, “The doctrine of the Lord is perfect restoring the soul.”
I. The soul of man in its natural state requires to be converted or restored. See how abundant is the Scripture testimony to this truth. Even the best men have confessed their need. David says of himself, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,” &c. There has been but one bright exception amongst men, and that is “the Man Christ Jesus.” He alone “knew no sin.” It is the exception which proves the rule.
II. But many take exception to this by denying the fact of the perversion of the human soul. “As for God, His way is perfect,” as may be clearly seen from those of His works which sin has not depraved. But as for man, Scripture and experience alike attest that he has “corrupted his way.”
III. By denying that man’s recovery is possible. But wherefore? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Cannot He who at first made man upright remodel him after His own image?
IV. By denying the adequacy of the means of recovery. It is said the Word of God is not an adequate instrument. But experience has proved the contrary. For the word, or doctrine, of the Lord is perfect, complete. It will never fail of the desired issue in those who come to the study of it in a right spirit. (Thomas Dale, M.A.)
The excellency of Holy Scripture:—
There are two methods which God has taken for instructing mankind. He has taught them by the glories of creation and by the words of Holy Scripture. But man as a sinner has no ear to hear the voice of God in His works. It is only by the revealed works of Scripture that he can find the way of pardon and holiness.
I. The excellent properties of the Word of God. As a law it is perfect. Nothing can be added to it, nothing taken from it. It contains all our duty and all our consolation; all that is necessary to make us happy and holy. The writings of the heathen philosophers contain a few mutilated principles and some fine sentiments, but they are not directed to any great end, nor are they complete in themselves. As a testimony the Word of God is sure. Considered as the solemn witness and attestation of God to all those truths which concern man’s everlasting salvation, it is sure. It comes with a force and authority to the conscience. It follows that the statutes of the Lord are right. The equity and holiness of them equal their completeness and certainty. They are in all respects true and just and excellent. There is nothing harsh, nothing defiling, nothing erroneous, nothing arbitrary in them. They have not only authority, but goodness on their side. It is a further property of the Word of God that, as a commandment, it is pure. The Bible is a clear and perspicuous rule of duty. Its pure light has no need of proofs, reasonings, evidences, or study. When considered as producing the fear of the Lord it is eternal. The obligations of revealed truth are perpetual.
II. The surprising effects which the Word of God produces.
1. It converts the soul. This is the first thing the fallen creature needs. Scripture begins, where man’s necessities begin, with the heart. It unfolds the depravity of our nature. It exhibits the astonishing scheme of redemption in the death of the incarnate Saviour.
2. After conversion follows joy.
3. The sincere student will advance in knowledge.
4. It induces a holy, reverential fear of God. Impress the high and affectionate regard which we should pay to Holy Scripture. (Daniel Wilson, M.A.)
Revelation and conversion:—
Trees are known by their fruit, and books by their effect upon the mind. By the “law of the Lord” David means the whole revelation of God, so far as it had been given in his day. It is equally true of all revelation since. We may judge by its effects upon our own selves.
I. The work of the Word of God in conversion. Not apart from the Spirit, but as it is used by the Spirit, it—
1. Convinces men of sin: they see what perfection is, that God demands it and that they are far from it.
2. Drives them from false methods of salvation to bring them to self-despair, and to shut them up to God’s method of saving them.
3. Reveals the way of salvation through Christ by faith.
4. Enables the soul to embrace Christ as its all in all, by setting forth promises and invitations which are opened up to the understanding and sealed to the heart.
5. Brings the heart nearer and nearer to God, by awakening love, desire for holiness, &c.
6. Restores the soul when it has wandered, bringing back the tenderness, hope, love, joy, &c., which it had lost.
7. Perfects the nature. The highest flights of holy enjoyment are not above or beyond the Word.
II. The excellence of this work. Its operations are altogether good, timed and balanced with infinite discretion.
1. It removes despair without quenching repentance.
2. Gives pardon, but does not create presumption.
3. Gives rest, but excites the soul to progress.
4. Breathes security, but engenders watchfulness.
5. Bestows strength and holiness, but begets no boasting.
6. Gives harmony to duties, emotions, hopes, and enjoyments.
7. Brings the man to live for God and with God, and yet makes him none the less fitted for the daily duties of life.
III. The consequent excellence of the Word.
1. We need not add to it to secure conversion in any case.
2. We need not keep back any doctrine for fear of damping the flame of a true revival.
3. We need not extraordinary gifts to preach it, the Word will do its own work.
4. We have but to follow it to be converted, and to keep to it to become truly wise. It fits man’s needs as the key the lock. Cling to it, study it, use it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Ver. 8. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.—Joy in God’s statutes:—
Not content with celebrating the eternal fitness and rectitude of the Divine statutes, the Psalmist recommends them by an argument of a less abstract nature, more closely adapted to our feelings and interests, by adding that in consequence of their inherent rectitude they tend to rejoice the heart. The word “statutes” includes the whole system of Divine precepts contained in the Scriptures. Such is the goodness and condescension of God, that with our duty He has strictly connected not only our happiness in general, but even our present pleasure. Two things are necessary in order to produce true and rational joy in the human mind, namely, objects suited to its faculties, and faculties in proper disposition to receive impressions from them. In each of these views the Holy Scriptures, as they contain the Divine laws, are calculated to produce this happy temper. What has here been asserted of all the discoveries and demands of God’s revealed will is particularly applicable to its perceptive part, which has a tendency to rejoice the heart of the sincerely pious, in theory, in practice, and on reflection. What further evinces the excellence of the Divine statutes is, that the joy they inspire is pure and unmixed. The religious joy which arises immediately from reflection on a virtuous practice increases the sublime pleasure which springs up in the mind of a good man when he contemplates his relation to his God and Saviour. (P. C. Sowden.)
The Bible right.—
Old books go out of date. Whatever they were about, men no longer care for them. Books are human; they have a time to be born, they grow in strength, they have a middle-life of usefulness, then comes old age, they totter and they die. Many of the national libraries are merely the cemeteries of dead books. Some were virtuous, and accomplished a glorious mission. Some went into the ashes through inquisitorial fires. Not so with one old book. It started in the world’s infancy. It grew under theocracy and monarchy. It withstood the storms of fire. It grew under the prophet’s mantle and under the fisherman’s coat of the apostles. In Rome, and Ephesus, and Jerusalem, and Patmos tyranny issued edicts against it, and infidelity put out the tongue, and the papacy from its monasteries, and Mohammedanism from its mosques, hurled their anathemas; but the old Bible lived. It came across the British Channel and was greeted by Wycliff and James
I. It came across the Atlantic and struck Plymouth Rock, until, like that of Horeb, it gushed with blessedness. Churches and asylums have gathered all along its way, ringing their bells, and stretching out their hands of blessing. But it will not have accomplished its mission until it has climbed the icy mountains of Greenland, until it has gone over the granite cliffs of China, until it has thrown its glow amid the Australian mines, until it has scattered its gems among the diamond districts of Brazil, and all thrones shall be gathered into one throne, and all crowns by the fires of revolution shall be melted into one crown, and this Book shall at the very gate of heaven have waved in the ransomed empires—not until then will that glorious Bible have accomplished its mission. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The Bible right:—
I. The Bible is right in its authentication. I say, if the Bible had been an imposition; if it had not been written by the men who said they wrote it; if it had been a mere collection of falsehoods, it would have been scouted by everybody. If that book has come down through the centuries without a scar, it is because there is nothing in it disturbable. When men began their opposition to it there were two or three thousand copies; now there are two hundred millions, so far as I can calculate. Would that have been so had it been an imposture? Further, suppose there was a great pestilence, and hundreds of thousands of men were dying of that pestilence, and some one should find a medicine that in one day cured ten thousand people, would not all men say that was a good medicine? But just so it has been with the Bible. It has cured men of the worst leprosy, the leprosy of sin. Modern discoveries in Petra, Nineveh, Palestine have all gone to prove its truth.
II. The Bible is right in style. I know there are a great many people who think it is merely a collection of genealogical tables and dry facts. That is because they do not know how to read the Book. You take up the most interesting novel that was ever written, and if you commence at the four hundredth page to-day, and to-morrow at the three hundredth, and the next day at the first page, how much sense or interest would you gather from it? Yet that is the very process to which the Bible is subjected every day. An angel from heaven reading the Bible in that way could not understand it. The Bible, like all other palaces, has a door by which to enter and a door by which to go out. Genesis is the door to go in, and Revelation the door to go out. These Epistles of Paul the Apostle are merely letters written, folded up, and sent by postmen to the different Churches. Do you read other letters the way you read Paul’s letters? Suppose you get a business letter, and you know that in it there are important financial propositions, do you read the last page first and then one line of the third page, and another of the second, and another of the first? Besides that, people read the Bible when they cannot do anything else. It is a dark day and they do not feel well, and they do not go to business, and after lounging about awhile they pick up the Bible—their mind refuses to enjoy the truth. Or they come home weary from the store or shop, and they feel, if they do not say, it is a dull book. While the Bible is to be read on stormy days, and while your head aches, it is also to be read in the sunshine and when your nerves, like harp-strings, thrum the song of health. While your vision is clear, walk in this paradise of truth; and while your mental appetite is good, pluck these clusters of grace. Note its conciseness. Every word is packed full of truth. Nine-tenths of all the good literature of this age is merely the Bible diluted. See also its variety; not contradiction or collision, but variety. Just as in the song, you have the basso and alto, and soprano and tenor—they are not in collision with each other, but come in to make up the harmony—so it is in this book, there are different parts of this great song of redemption. The prophet comes and takes one part, and the patriarch another, and the evangelist another, and the apostles another, and yet they all come into the grand harmony—the song of “Moses and the Lamb.” God prepared it for all zones—arctic and tropics, as well as the temperate zone. The Arabian would read it on his dromedary, and the Laplander seated on the swift sledge, and the herdsman of Holland, guarding the cattle in the grass, and the Swiss girl, reclining amid Alpine crags. Thus suited to all is it, and hence I cannot help saying, The statutes of the Lord are right.
III. And the Bible is right in its doctrines. Man, a sinner; Christ, a Saviour—the two doctrines. All the mountains of the Bible bow down to Calvary.
IV. And in its effects. I do not care where you put the Bible, it just suits the place. Whether in the hands of a man seeking salvation, or one discouraged, or one in trouble, or one bereaved—it is the grand catholicon for them all. Father and mother, take down that long-neglected Bible. Where is it now? Is it in the trunk, or on the upper shelf, or is it in the room in the house where you seldom go save when you have company, and then not to read the Bible? In the name of the God who will judge the quick and the dead, and by the interests of your immortal soul and the souls of your children, I charge you to-day to take up that old Bible, open it, read for your own life, and read for the life of your children. How can you go out on the dark mountains of death, and take your children along with you, when you have such a glorious lamp to guide you? Put that Bible on every rail-train, until all the dark places of our land are illuminated by it. Put it on every ship that crosses the sea, until the dark homes of heathenism get the light. While I speak, there comes to us the horrid yell of heathen worship, and in the face of this day’s sun gushed the blood of human sacrifice. Give them the Bible. Tell them, “God so loved the world that He gave,” &c. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The Word of God rejoicing the heart:—
I. The statutes of God are the first principles of religious duty, or the means of grace. They are rules of life and action relating, first, to our communion with God, our religious service; and then, to our intercourse with one another. And they are “right” in many different senses—counteracting the tendency of man’s sinful heart, supplying a stimulant to duty; right, too, in their operation and in their consequences, both as to this world and the next. What they engage to do they accomplish. Infidelity can make no such boast.
II. They rejoice the heart.
1. What is rejoicing, the joy of the heart? We should base it upon natural affection, mutual harmony and confidence, rendering and receiving to and from all what is due. It operates in the home, and amongst our neighbours, and throughout society. Such are a happy people.
2. And the statutes of the Lord do effect this; hence God’s statutes have been our songs in the house of our pilgrimage. (Thomas Dale, M.A.)
The Bible always right:—
If my compass always points to the north I know how to use it; but if it veers to other points of the compass, and I am to judge out of my own mind whether it is right or not, I may as well be without the thing as with it. If my Bible is right always, it will lead me right; and as I believe it is, so I shall follow it and find the truth.
A wrong and a right standard:—
It is stated that when the United States Government’s dock at Brooklyn was finished, on inspecting it, it was found to be two feet too short to take in the vessels which needed repairs. This involved a reconstruction of the work at great expense. How it occurred was a mystery, but it appeared on investigation that the contractor, in making his measurements, used a tape-line which was a fraction of an inch too short. Either it had shrunk, or it was imperfectly made at first; in some way the tape was too short, and so the dock was too short also. The importance of a correct standard can hardly be exaggerated. Whether it be a standard of weights, measures, values, or moral qualities, a slight variation from that which is right and true produces disastrous results.
The Bible right, the reader may be wrong:—
As a mirage is mistaken for a reality, because of the effect of the sun’s rays upon the organs of vision; so with those that are detecting flaws in the Bible. It is because the eye is diseased, and sees double where the object is single. The fault is in the eye, not in the Bible.
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.—The spiritual nature and enlightening efficacy of the moral law:—
The purity of the law, if there were no other evidence, is sufficient to establish the fact, that it is the commandment of the Lord. We wish to set before you the moral law in its essential and Divine purity. During the patriarchal ages there was no written document bearing the sanction of a Divine moral law. Tradition, so long as man is either fallible or fallacious, cannot possibly, for any length of time, form a channel for truth. By and by it pleased God to inscribe with His own finger upon tablets of stone the substance of those floating intimations which He had made from time to time to His servants of old. The law was ordained for something beyond the mere curbing of transgressions; its further object was to detect, expose, and condemn the transgressing principle; in other words, by the purity which it developed and enforced to enlighten man’s eyes upon the character of God, the extent of his own moral ruin, and the absolute necessity of the restoration of the moral principle. The human soul never was suffered to lose an intuitive sense of the simple fact that there is a God; but having assented to this simple fact, the human mind, by its own light, made no further progress towards the discovery of the Divine character. We attribute this failure to moral rather than physical causes. The intellect was not so much in fault as the heart. Man’s favourite sins were thought by him not only to experience the Divine toleration, but even to form no insignificant elements in the Divine character, so that he had nothing to do but to turn over the records of the pagan theology, whensoever he wished to place some act of crime under the protection and the patronage of the god of lust, or fraud, or violence. It was in order to afford some remedy for this dreadful evil—in order to vindicate His own character as well as to elevate that of His creatures, that God published His moral law. The tenor of the law proclaimed at once the high strain of moral perfection belonging by right of nature to the God with whom we have to do. But does man like these ordinances? Do these definitions of duty suit his feclings? If he confess the truth he will confess that he hates such instruction. Many, however, even with the law of God in their hands, are never brought to this confession. They have not been led to see the mighty moral difference between the mind that originated and the minds that received the law. This comes of carelessness and prejudice. Upon the careless generalising of human with Divine systems of law the whole mistake hinges about Christian morals. But human laws only touch actions. Divine laws touch morals, that is, touch motive and action in conjunction. Therefore I am a transgressor of Divine laws if motive as well as action do not tender homage and obedience. Bring human perfection, of whatever nature, side by side with the perfection of the moral law, and of the first the end appears at once. The law shows us our moral ruin, our spiritual death. But “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” (T. E. Hankinson, M.A.)
Ver. 9. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever.—The Word of God enduring for ever:—
We are to consider the abiding and habitual effect of the Word of God upon believing hearts. And this effect is expressed in this phrase, “the fear of the Lord.” Note what is said of it.
I. It is clean—its purity. It is so, because it is the only true and sound basis of a due social regard to man, and the only valid bond of union, whether domestic, private, or public. Every believer ought to bear witness to the cleansing, purifying power of the fear of the Lord.
II. Its perpetuity—“enduring for ever.” This tells of the effect of the principle rather than of the principle itself, though this latter is not to be omitted. But in its effects it is consistent, unswerving, abiding, all-powerful. It enters into the man, and goes with him wherever he goes. He cannot and would not shake it off. And its effects are eternal, they can never pass away. And all may possess it, through Christ. It shall be for your peace here and happiness hereafter. (Thomas Dale, M.A.)
The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.—The Word of God altogether true and righteous:—
I. Consider these judgments as matters of fact. Take—
1. The expulsion of our first parents from Eden. None can understand why God created man capable of falling, and foreknowing that he would fall. But this does not say that God made him on purpose that he should fall. This would be to assume that we know all God’s purpose in creating man, which we do not. We cannot reconcile the supremacy of God and the free agency of man. It is of no use to attempt to be “wise above what is written,” but our duty is to take man as he is—capable of understanding and obeying God’s command, which Adam unquestionably was. There was in him no moral difficulty as in us, since the imagination of his heart was not, as ours, “evil continually.” We must deplore the instability of the man, but we cannot on that account take exception to the judgments of the Lord. And the transmission to offspring of the properties of the parent—this law had been ordained before this fatal event, and what right have we to think that He who made all things “very good” should remodel or reverse His laws in consequence of that event? Hence, although “in Adam all die,” was it unrighteous in God to act in accordance with His own previously established law? Adam himself caused, of his own choice, that it should work ill to him and his. But are we to blame God for that?
2. The judgment upon Cain. Surely this was far less than he deserved. And the gate of mercy and of grace was not closed upon him.
3. The deluge, the overthrow of Jerusalem, and many others. In reference to each of these we might prove it to be “altogether righteous.” For by righteous we understand perfect consistency with previous revelations given by God—with the laws enacted and bearing on each case, and with the penalties threatened by God and consciously incurred by man. And when men object to these judgments they do not attempt to justify the conduct of the sinner, but only to condemn the law under which, and the Judge by whom, he was condemned. They affirm that God is without compassion for human frailty, and without consideration for human folly.
II. As matters of faith—they are altogether true. Necessarily, many of the judgments of God are matters of faith. For the interpositions of God, though sometimes seen in the crisis and agony of nations, are, in the case of individuals, scarcely, if at all, discernible.
III. In their bearing upon ourselves. As we cannot impeach God’s righteousness in His judgments in the past, can we, in what we expect in the future, doubt His truth? Meantime “the victory that overcometh the world is this, even our faith.” (Ibid.)
Ver. 10. More to be desired are they than gold.—The Holy Scriptures:—
I. The excellence of the Holy Scriptures. None are ignorant of the value of money. Money gives access to every other possession. Point out the vanity of riches. They cannot benefit the possessor beyond this life. They are unsatisfying in their nature. The attainment of them is only within the reach of a few in every community. And they bring temptations to sin. Then, is not the Word of God more to be desired than gold?
II. The way to know the value of Scripture, and to taste its sweetness. Many are but formal readers. To read aright, you must be renewed in the spirit of your minds. There must be a Divine illumination. Pray more for the Spirit’s influence. If we would understand the value of the Scriptures, we shall find it useful to reflect upon their designs and our circumstances. And we must read them with patient perseverance. (Carus Wilson.)
The Bible valued above all else:—
On yon stormy shore, where, amid the wreck the night had wrought, and the waves, still thundering as they sullenly retire, had left on the beach, lies the naked form of a drowned sailor boy. He had stripped for one last, brave fight for life, and wears nought but a handkerchief bound round his cold breast. Insensible to pity, and unawed by the presence of death, those who sought the wreck, as vultures swoop down on their prey, rushed on the body, and tore away the handkerchief—tore it open, certain that it held within its folds gold, his little fortune, something very valuable for a man in such an hour to say, I’ll sink or swim with it. They were right. But it was not gold. It was the poor lad’s Bible—also a parting gift, and the more precious that it was a mother’s.
The priceless worth of the Bible:—
A Christian soldier told us of a comrade who called the Bible “his Klondyke,” and, as samples of what he called “good lumps of gold,” gave us Psa. 91:15. “I will answer him. I will be with him … I will deliver him … satisfy him, and show him My salvation.” Let us put in for a claim in this Klondyke, and dig for its hid treasures.
The excellence of the Scriptures:—
I. The important discoveries which the Scriptures contain. They make known to us the glory of the invisible God, as a pure and perfect Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. An explicit revelation of His will to man, and of the manner in which He requires to be worshipped and served. Here is discovered to us our once innocent and exalted, but now guilty and fallen, state. Here is made known to us the way of salvation, by which we may be restored to the favour, the image, and the enjoyment of God.
II. The effects which they produce upon the condition of mankind. Even in respect of outward civilisation much advantage has arisen to the world from the introduction of the Scriptures. Even where they are not attended with saving efficacy they are often seen to produce a considerable influence upon the external manners, and sometimes too upon the inward dispositions of men. But the transcendent excellence of the Scriptures is peculiarly manifested in their efficacy, when accompanied with the influence of Divine grace. The Scriptures are the means of spiritual illumination, of conversion and regeneration, of sanctification and a meetness for eternal life.
III. The admirable adaption of the Scriptures to the various circumstances of men. Here is something suited to every rank and every age. The Scriptures set forth a perfect rule of duty, with which no system of heathen morality is once to be compared, and they exhibit incitements and encouragements, as well as examples of holiness, which are nowhere else to be found. Their excellency is especially seen in their tendency and efficacy to afford consolation in time of trouble and in the prospect of death. Lessons—
1. Admire the distinguishing goodness of God toward us.
2. Diligently use God’s gift.
3. Recognise the obligation to circulate the Scriptures among our fellow-men. (D. Dickson.)
Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.—The Bible sweeter than honey:—
Among the insects which subsist on the sweet sap of flowers there are two very different classes. One is remarkable for its imposing plumage, which shows in the sunbeams like the dust of gems; and as you watch its jaunty gyrations over the fields, and its minuet dance from flower to flower, you cannot help admiring its graceful activity. In the same field there is another worker, whose brown vest and straightforward flight may not have arrested your eye. His fluttering neighbour darts down here and there, and sips elegantly wherever he can find a drop of ready nectar; but this dingy plodder makes a point of alighting everywhere, and wherever he alights he either finds honey or makes it. What is the end? The one died last October along with the flower; the other is warm in his hive to-night, amidst the fragrant stores which he gathered beneath the bright beams of summer. Honey is the sweetest of all substances, and the ancients, who were unacquainted with sugar, attached even more importance to it than we do. “A land flowing with milk and honey” presented the very strongest attractions to the Oriental taste. The idea conveyed by the text is this: that the truth of God, as revealed to us in the Bible, affords more real pleasure to the soul than that which epicures consider the most desirable luxury does to the palate. In that remarkable book, The Eclipse of Faith, there is a chapter entitled “The Blank Bible,” in which the author describes a dream, wherein he fancied that on taking up his Greek Testament one morning, to read his accustomed chapter, the old familiar volume seemed to be a total blank. Supposing that some book like it had, by accident, got into its place, he did not stop to hunt it up, but took down a large copy of the Bible, and this, to his amazement, proved also to be a blank from beginning to end. While musing on this unaccountable phenomenon, his servant came in and said that thieves must have been in the house during the night, since her Bible had been carried off, and another volume of the same size, but containing but blank paper, had been left in its place. The dreamer then went forth into the street, and heard a similar report from all whom he met. It was curious to observe the different effects of this calamity on the various characters whom he encountered. An interest, almost universal, was now felt for a book which had hitherto been sadly undervalued. Some to whom their Bible had been a “blank” book for twenty years, and who would never have known whether it was full or empty but for the lamentations of their neighbours, were among the loudest in their expressions of sorrow. In marked contrast with these was the sincere regret of an aged woman, long kept a prisoner in her narrow chamber by sickness, and to whom the Bible had been, as to so many thousands more, her faithful companion in solitude. I found her gazing intently on the blank Bible (says our author), which had been so recently bright to her with the lustre of immortal hopes. She burst into tears as she saw me. “And has your faith left you too, my gentle friend?” said I. “No,” she answered; “and I trust it never will. He who has taken away the Bible has not taken away my memory, and I now recall all that is most precious in that book which has so long been my meditation. I think I can say that I loved it more than any possession on earth.” Even the warnings of the Bible are wholesome for us, for by them we are made to know our own evil. Merle d’Aubigné, during a visit to England, related an incident which happened in 1855, in connection with the circulation of the Bible among soldiers. A colporteur reached Toulon just as the French troops were embarking for the Crimea. He offered a Testament to a soldier, who asked what book it was. “The Word of God,” was the answer. “Let me have it, then,” said the man; and when he had received it he added most irreverently, “it will do very well to light my pipe.” The colporteur felt sorry that a book which might have been of service to somebody had been thus thrown away; but there was no help for it, and he went his way. About a year later he happened to be in the interior of France, and took lodging at an inn, where he found the family in great distress, from the recent death of a son. The poor mother explained that the young man had been wounded in the Crimean War, and had only been able to reach home to die. “I have much consolation,” she added; “he was so peaceful and happy, and he brought comfort to his father and to me.” “How was this?” asked the colporteur. “Oh,” she said, “he found all his comfort in one little book, which he had always with him.” So saying, she showed him a soiled copy of the New Testament (the very one which he himself had given to the reckless young soldier), and read on the inside of the cover, “Received at Toulon (with the date), despised, neglected, read, believed, and found salvation.” “Sweeter than honey” are these Divine oracles of God, and “in keeping of them there is great reward.” (Anon.)
Ver. 11. By them is Thy servant warned.—Scripture warnings:—
We are not to confuse the imperfections of religious professors with the unchangeable sovereignty of the Divine laws.
I. Call attention to some of them thus connected with our own history, and the warnings they give.
1. Those which relate to the heart of man. We are told its deceitful character.
2. Examples in human character. They, as well as the words of Scripture, warn us against sin.
3. Those that come from the truth of eternity and of judgment to come.
II. The reward of obedience.
1. It is present in the conscience; and
2. Prospective, in heaven.
3. And it is great in comparison with our deserts.
4. And in obedience itself there is great reward. (W. D. Horwood.)
Bible warnings:—
At Tramore, near Waterford, a place where the Atlantic breakers dash with sublime fury against the rocks, there are on the headlands three towers, and on the middle one stands what is called “The Metal Man.” This is a figure made of metal, and painted to resemble a sailor. With his finger he points to some very dangerous rocks that are to be shunned. There are rocks in life’s troublesome sea that are ready to shipwreck the bodies and souls of the young.
In keeping of them there is great reward.—The reward of keeping God’s commandments:—
In this Psalm David speaks of the two great books by which God administers instruction. The volume of nature. The volume of inspiration. Having enlarged on the excellent properties and glorious effects of the Divine Word, he illustrates its value by a comparison with the things of this world, by the results of his experience, and the infinite advantage connected with the observance of it. David possessed, in the Scriptures then extant, an abstract of all those glorious truths revealed to ourselves, and an abstract of sufficient clearness to guide him to God, to peace, to holiness, to heaven. The possession of the Scriptures, however, is not sufficient to bring the soul to God. These statutes must be kept as well as possessed, for it is in keeping them that there is great reward. The book not only supplies ideas, it also raises the character of the humble student. The Scripture is a book of privileges. There is not a Christian but is entitled to all the clustering promises which grow on this tree of life. Practice is necessary to complete our duty to the Scriptures. All religion hinges upon this point. The Psalmist says, “In keeping of them there is great reward.” Reward is that which is earned by an equivalent, or that which is a suitable recompense for the action performed. But the reward of observing the Word of God is not merely a consequence, neither is it earned by what can be claimed as an equivalent. They are rewards of grace, both in this life and in the future life. (T. Kennion, M.A.)
The advantages of religion to particular persons:—
I. Religion conduceth to the happiness of this life.
1. As to the mind; to be pious and religious brings a double advantage to the mind of man. It tends to the improvement of our understandings. It raises and enlarges the minds of men, and makes them more capable of true knowledge. It improves the understandings of men by subduing their lusts and moderating their passions. Intemperance, sensuality, and fleshly lusts debase men’s minds. Religion purifies and refines our spirits. Freedom from irregular passions doth not only signify that a man is wise, but really contributes to the making of him such. Religion also tends to the ease and pleasure, the peace and tranquillity, of our minds. This is the natural fruit of a religious and virtuous course of life. Religion contributes to our peace, by allaying those passions which are apt to ruffle and discompose our spirits; and by freeing us from the anxieties of guilt and the fears of Divine wrath and displeasure.
2. Religion also tends to the happiness of the outward man. The blessings of this kind respect our health, or estate, or reputation, or relations.
II. Religion conduceth to the eternal happiness and salvation of men in the other world. The consideration of future happiness is our most powerful motive. How religion conduces to happiness in the new life is seen from—
1. The promises of God; and
2. From the nature of the thing. It is a necessary disposition and preparation of us for that future life. When all is done there is no man can serve his own interest better than by serving God. (J. Tillotson, D.D.)
On the pleasures of religion:—
“What is the chief good?” was the great inquiry of the ancient schools; and the different answers to this question formed the principal distinctions amongst the various sects of philosophy. Happiness is the end of all the pursuits of men; it is the object of all their sighs. Yet are they almost always disappointed in the means which are taken to obtain it. They follow the dictates of their passions. And it is not till after they have sought it in vain through every form of false pleasure that they come at length to find it, where alone reason and religion have concurred to place it, in obedience to God and a life of virtue. Here the anxious mind finds a calm and settled peace which it had not known, and which it could not know amid the agitations of the world. I purpose, in this discourse, to confine my view to the internal comforts that flow from religion. It offers the highest satisfactions to the mind; it yields the purest pleasures to the heart; it introduces serenity and peace into the breast; and finally, it affords a source of happiness which is always within our power, which is secure from the vicissitudes of life, and which shall be eternal. (S. S. Smith, D.D.)
The advantages of a religious life:—
Compare this text with the saying of Paul, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable.” Where, then, is the present reward of keeping God’s commandments? There might be a reward hereafter; how could there be one now? What are we to say to this apparent contradiction? St. Paul was supposing a case; we must ascertain what his supposition was not, and what it was. Take a man whose whole soul was in his religion, who upheld himself in every trial by the consolations of the blessed hope. He has staked everything on the truth, and having surmounted a thousand obstacles and made his way through a thousand foes, and offered his body on the altar of the living God, he is pressing on with rejoicing and elevated spirit. Tell him that there is no resurrection, and no hope in Christ for an after-state of being, and what then? That man would be most miserable if he took into his heart your message. You may say that in shutting out the future we still leave the present; but the present is the foretaste of the future. In cutting off the streams you destroy the fountain. If such a man were told that after fighting through life he would be vanquished in death, what would be left him of gladness? Who, then, shall rival the Christian in misery if, after setting out in the expectation of a blessed immortality, he discovers that only in this life is there hope in Christ? Our object has been to show that there is nothing in the quoted words of St. Paul which militates against the fact alleged in our text, and in other parts of Scripture, that, in respect of present happiness—happiness during this life—the godly have the advantage over the ungodly. (Henry Melvill, B.D.)
Immediate reward of obedience:—
You will observe the Psalmist does not say after, but in the keeping of the commandments there is great reward. That reward is the pleasure which lies in God’s service now, not in the payment which is judicially made for it afterwards; just as the eye is regaled in the instant by sights of beauty, or the ear by the melody which falls upon it.
I. What are the ingredients of the present reward?
1. There is the happiness that flows direct from the sense of doing or having done what is right. The testimony of a good conscience. There is a felt and present solace in the taste of that hidden manna which it administers.
2. The affections of the heart which prompt to obedience. For love, whether it be towards God or towards men, is blessed. In its play and exercise there is instantaneous joy; there is delight in the original conceptions of benevolence, and delight also in its outgoings, whilst malignity, envy, and anger do but rankle the bosom. And we can confidently appeal, even to ungodly men, for the truth that in the grovelling pursuits, whether of sense or avarice, they never experienced so true a delight as in those moments when their spirit was touched into sympathy with other spirits than their own. And not only of love, but of all the other virtues, the same can be said. They one and all of them yield an immediate satisfaction to the wearer. The moralities of the human character are what make up the happiness and harmony of the soul. They are the very streams of that well which, struck out in the bosom of regenerated man, spring up there into life everlasting.
II. The advantage of the reward being in, and not after, the keeping of the commandments. Suppose it had been after, and quite distinct from that enjoyment of which we have spoken, and which lies directly and essentially in the obedience itself. This can easily be imagined—a heaven of gratification to the senses as a reward for holiness. Virtue then would be so much work for so much wages; heaven would not be looked for as a place of holiness, but as the price that is given for it. The candidates of immortality would be so many labourers for hire. And it would be no evidence at all of the love which you have for a work, that you have a love for its wages. It makes all the difference whether or no we love our work. Sordidness and sacredness are not wider apart. This is so in common and ordinary work. How much more when it is the service of God that is in question!
III. How the Gospel of Jesus Christ affects this question.
1. It releases you altogether from the law as a covenant. It tells you that you are not to work for heaven, because that heaven is secured to you in another way. Eternal life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We could never pay for it, and therefore God gives it to us. And how blessed this is even for our characters as the subject of God’s will. The old economy of “do this and live” makes up the very spirit of bondage, and of low mercenary bargaining. With the fears of legality, the sordidness of legality is sure to make entrance again into the heart. Hence the only access to a sinner’s heart for the love of holiness in itself is by making him the free offer of heaven as an unconditional gift, and at the same time making him understand that it is, in truth, holiness and nothing else which forms the very essence of heaven’s blessedness. These are the things which constitute the difference between the real and the formal Christian. The inferior creatures may be dealt with by terror or by joy as well as he; his very obedience may proceed from the earthliness of his disposition. Much of the Christian may be put on; but the question is, if you delight in the law of God after the inner man, or whether you obey it because of consequences? Whether you are allured to holiness by the beauty of its graces, or by the bribery of its gains? Surely there is nothing noble in him who labours for the reward that comes after keeping the commandments, and thinks not of the “great reward” that comes “in keeping the commandments.” (T. Chalmers, D.D.)[13]
In verse 7, we have an abrupt change of subject from God’s creation to God’s law. However, both creation and law are God’s self-disclosure to humanity. The law gives us a more specific understanding of it.
The poet doesn’t just speak about the law; he praises it, describing its excellent qualities and benefits. Verses 7–9 present six bicola. Each uses a different term for the law (law, statutes, precepts, commands, fear and decrees of the Lord) and then praises it by describing it as perfect, trustworthy, right, radiant, pure and firm. The second colon of these six bicola tantalizes and attracts the reader to the law because of its benefits. It transforms the lives of those who read it. They are refreshed from their hard labour (v. 7b). The simple become wise, able to live with skill in the world (v. 7d). The law can turn a sad person into a joyful one (v. 8a), and it offers illumination to those who would otherwise be blind (v. 8d). The fear of the Lord (v. 9a) is the one phrase that is not a familiar term for law. But it is well known from the instruction of wisdom literature, which is related to law, since both law and wisdom impart God’s will for how his people should live. Here we do not hear a benefit for the people, but rather that it will endure forever. The same may be said of the final bicolon of the last parallel line, which does not give a benefit but a further characterization of the law as righteous.
Verse 10 praises God’s law by saying it is more precious than the most precious gold and sweeter than the sweetest honey. After all, God’s law warns those who heed it against doing things that offend God and also harm the person who breaks it. The law can literally bring great reward: it is followed by the blessings and the curses (see Deut. 27–28 after the law in chs. 4–26 as an example). The covenant law promises blessings, such as victory in warfare, happy families, material prosperity, health, and so on, to those who follow it.[14]
7–10. As in Psalm 119, where still more synonyms are used, these six facets of revelation are not sharply distinguished, yet each has a certain character of its own. Here we shall study them by means of the nouns, adjectives and verbs in turn.
a. The nouns. Law (tôrâ) is the comprehensive term for God’s revealed will. Testimony (‘ēdût) is its aspect as truth attested by God himself (cf. 1 John 5:9); it is also a term for his covenant-declaration (cf. Exod. 25:16 with, e.g., Deut. 9:9). Precepts and commandment indicate the precision and authority with which God addresses us, while fear, or reverence, emphasizes the human response fostered by his word. Ordinances, or judgments (mišpāṭîm), are the judicial decisions he has recorded about various human situations (cf. on 18:22).
Together, these terms show the practical purpose of revelation, to bring God’s will to bear on the hearer and evoke intelligent reverence, well-founded trust, detailed obedience.
b. The adjectives. For perfect, see on 18:30, and cf. the description of God’s will in Romans 12:2. Sure, by its passive form, can mean not only what is firm but what is confirmed: cf. ‘verified’ in Genesis 42:20. Right means morally right, or straight. On pure and clean, David’s own comment is in Psalm 12:6, seen in contrast to 12:1–4. True is lit. ‘truth’, in the sense of dependability. In all, these epithets move in a different world from the compromise, insincerity and half-truths of human intercourse.
c. The verbs. The first four, reviving, making wise, etc., (7, 8) enlarge on what Scripture does for men; the remaining two (since righteous [9] translates a verb here) on what it is in itself. On reviving, see on 23:3. In the phrase (they are) righteous altogether, the adverb means, rather, ‘together’, i.e. all alike: cf. neb, jb, ‘righteous every one’. Matthew Henry comments, ‘they are all of a piece’.[15]
Vers. 7–11.—The transition from the glories of the material universe to the “law of the Lord” is abrupt and startling. Some go so far as to say that there is no connection at all between the first and second parts of the psalm. But it is the law and order that pervades the material universe which constitutes its main glory; and the analogy between God’s physical laws and his moral laws is evident, and generally admitted (see the great work of Bishop Butler, part i.).
Ver. 7.—The Law of the Lord is perfect. Whatsoever proceeds from God is perfect in its kind; his “Law” especially—the rule of life to his rational creatures. That salvation is not by the Law is not the fault of the Law, but of man, who cannot keep it. “The Law” itself “is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Rom. 7:12). Converting (rather, as in the margin, restoring) the soul. The word employed, mĕshibah, is used of restoring from disorder and decay (Ps. 80:19), from sorrow and affliction (Ruth 4:15), from death (1 Kings 17:21, 22). The Law, by instructing men, restores them from moral blindness to the light which is theirs by nature (Rom. 1:19), and, as a further consequence, in many cases, restores them from sin to righteousness. The testimony of the Lord is sure. ’Eduth—the word translated “testimony”—is employed especially of the Decalogue (Exod. 25:16, 21, 22, 26; Numb. 9:15; 17:4; 17:10, etc.); but may be regarded as one of the many synonyms under which the whole Law may be spoken of (see Ps. 119:2, 14, 22, 24, 88, etc.). The Law is “sure”—i.e. fixed, firm, stable—in comparison with the fleeting, shifting, unstable judgments of human reason. Making wise the simple; i.e. enlightening their moral judgment.
Ver. 8.—The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; rather, the precepts of the Lord are right. Another of the many synonyms under which the Law may be spoken of (see Dr. Kay’s preface to the hundred and nineteenth psalm). God’s precepts “rejoice the heart” of the godly. They are not felt as stern commands, but as gracious intimations of what God desires man to do for his own good. The commandment of the Lord is pure; i.e. spotless, clean, without fault (comp. ver. 7, “The Law of the Lord is perfect”). Enlightening the eyes; i.e. giving light to the intellect.
Ver. 9.—The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever. Hengstenberg explains “the fear of the Lord” in this place as “the instruction afforded by God for fearing him.” And certainly, unless we adopt some such explanation, we shall find it difficult to account for the intrusion of the clause into its present position. The Law, the testimony, the statutes (or precepts), the commandment (vers. 7, 8), and the judgments (ver. 9), are external to man, objective; the fear of the Lord, as commonly understood, is internal, subjective, a “settled habit of his soul.” It is not a thing of the same kind with the other five nominatives, and appears out of place among them. Hence it seems best, with Professor Alexander, to adopt Hengstenberg’s explanation. The Law, viewed as teaching the fear of God, is undoubtedly “clean”—i.e. pure, perfect—and “endures for ever,” or is of perpetual obligation. The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. In “judgments” we have another of the recognized synonyms for the entire Law (Ps. 119:7, 13, 43, 52, 62), which is from first to last “exceeding righteous and true” (Ps. 119:138, Prayerbook Version).
Ver. 10.—More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold. (For the difference between “gold” (זהב) and “fine gold” (פז), see the ‘Homiletic Commentary on Job,’ p. 458.) God’s Law is a far greater good to man, and therefore far more to be desired, than any amount of riches; much more must it be preferable to honey and the honeycomb.
Ver. 11.—Moreover by them is thy servant warned. This verse is a sort of connecting link between the second and the third parts of the psalm. Through its subject-matter, which is still the Law of the Lord, it belongs to the second part; but metrically, and by the introduction of the person of the psalmist (“thy servant”), it belongs to the third. David feels that to him it is the crowning excellency of the Law, that it teaches, instructs, or “warns” him. And in keeping of them there is great reward. Not only the reward promised in Exod. 15:26, or “the recompense of the reward” laid up for men in heaven, but a present reward “in the act of keeping them” (Kay). Obedience, like virtue, is its own reward.[16]
7–11. Here the sacred writer makes a beautiful transition from the works of nature to contemplate the works of grace. Having celebrated the praises of Jehovah in his outward courts, he now enters the inner temple to adore him. And if the former preached Christ, still in much higher strains doth the latter. I would have the Reader remark with me, how much the sacred penman dwells upon the glorious and incommunicable name of Jehovah. No less than six times in three verses is that high and lofty name mentioned. And, in like manner, he maketh use of six different terms to denote Christ and his sacred word by. For, I take it for granted, the Reader is apprized that Jesus is all along referred to by what is here said. He is indeed the substance of the law, and the testimony, and the statutes. He converts the soul. He rejoiceth the heart. He is the Alpha and Omega of all God’s gracious dealings with men. And, therefore, is more precious than gold, yea, than the golden wedge of Ophir. He causeth them, as he saith himself, that love him to possess substance, yea durable riches and righteousness, Proverbs 8:18–21.[17]
:7 The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes … making wise the simple. The “law” (torah) is a general term for God’s self-revelation. It comes from a verb (yrh) that means “to point out” or “teach,” thus giving us “instruction,” a meaning the Prophets and Wisdom literature often give to the term (e.g., Ezek. 7:26; Prov. 13:14). This law is “perfect” (temimah, “whole” or “complete”; see comments on Ps. 15:2), “refreshing the soul” (Ps. 23:3 uses the same Hebrew terms). The Greek idea of “soul” is not intended here, but in Hebrew parlance, “soul” (nepesh) was the self or the essence of the person. The word translated “statutes” is really a singular noun (‘edut), bearing the meaning of attested truth. In Exodus 25:16 it refers to the “testimony” (NIV: “tablets of the covenant law”) placed in the ark. The Lord’s statutes make the uninstructed (“the simple”) wise.
19:8 The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands … light to the eyes. The word “precepts” (piqqudim) carries the meaning of “regulations” (see, e.g., Ps. 103:18). These precepts are morally right and bring joy to the heart. The Lord’s “commands” (sg. “commandment,” mitswah) illuminate one’s understanding (“eyes”) just as the sun illuminates the world.
19:9 The fear of the Lord is pure … The decrees of the Lord are firm … righteous. Now David turns to the human response to God’s law and describes it as “pure,” with the same word that is used of something ceremonially “clean” (e.g., Lev. 10:10), used in a moral sense rather than ceremonial. Thus the fear of the Lord renders one acceptable to God. While the noun “decrees” (mishpatim) can mean judicial decisions, here it may be quite general, seeing that it concludes the six statements, which would correspond to the general nature of Torah in 19:7. The word “firm” (’emet) means “true” and signifies the reliability of the divine ordinances, which are both “true” and “righteous” (see Deut. 4:8). That is, they measure up to the standard of truth and righteousness.
19:10 more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey. The worth of the Torah is communicated through universal metaphors: “more precious than gold” and “sweeter than honey.” The Hebrew word for “precious” corresponds to the expression “pleasing to the eye” in Genesis (3:6; NIV: “desirable”). Gold was the most desirable real commodity of the ancient world. The second term for gold, “pure gold” (paz), is likely refined gold. Each phrase takes the thought further toward refinement, not just gold, but “much pure gold,” not just honey, but “honey from the honeycomb.” There is some discussion about what kind of honey is in mind here, whether it was the product of bees or a fruit nectar. However, the story of Saul’s son Jonathan eating honey attests to bees’ honey in the time and place of this psalm (1 Sam. 14:27; Judg. 14). Moreover, the problem seems to have been solved by the discovery of beehives at Tel Rehov in the Jordan Valley that date from the tenth to ninth centuries BC.[18]
The last clause in verse 6 serves as a bridge between the first and second parts of the psalm. Just as the sunshine reveals everything, so does God’s Word search our hearts. It is ‘sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart’ (Heb 4:12).
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous (vv. 7–9).
There are several noteworthy things about these verses. First, instead of the word ‘God’ (Hebrew ʾêl) used when speaking of creation, the psalmist now uses the covenantal name Lord (Hebrew yhwh) when speaking of the Scripture. Secondly, he uses six parallel expressions to describe the Scriptures (‘law’, ‘statutes’, ‘precepts’, ‘commands’, ‘fear’, and ‘ordinances’). While each name adds something more to the description, yet together they form a multifaceted picture of God’s Word. Thirdly, we have a balancing list of six attributes (‘perfect’, ‘trustworthy’, ‘right’, ‘radiant’, ‘pure’, and ‘sure’). Fourthly, accompanying each title is a descriptive phrase telling what the Scripture does (‘reviving the soul’, ‘making wise the simple’, ‘giving joy to the heart’, ‘giving light to the eyes’, ‘enduring forever’, ‘altogether righteous’).
The description starts in verse 7 with the revelation of the Lord being referred to as his perfect law. That is, it was divine instruction that brought refreshment in weakness or despair. The Hebrew word used here, tôrâh, comes from a verb ‘to teach’ or ‘instruct’ (yârâh). To call it ‘perfect’ is to say that it is an expression of the pure will of God. Likewise the Lord’s statutes are trustworthy, and they bring wisdom to those who lack it, the ‘simple’. The psalmist is not indicating a special class of people, for he would certainly include all in the description of ‘simple’ (cf. our Lord’s words in Matthew 11:25). The Hebrew word translated ‘simple’ (petî) has a good sense in the Psalms where it indicates those who lack wisdom but who can gain it by receiving knowledge. In contrast, when used in Proverbs it marks out the ‘gullible’, who, unless they repent, will be reckoned alongside the fools and mockers.
In verse 8 the psalmist moves on to speak of the righteous precepts that are a source of joy and satisfaction. The verb ‘to rejoice’ (sâmach) is frequently used in the Psalter, with the source of joy being found in God’s presence, or else in things emanating from him like his precepts, as here. From another angle they are sincere commands that bring light to the eyes. Spiritual illumination comes through God’s own revelation of himself. When David speaks of the fear of the Lord in verse 9 he is not concerned with the inward experience of a believer. As it is in parallel with other terms relating to Scripture it must mean the ‘law’, which had as one of its purposes to bring men to fear the Lord (cf. Deut. 4:10; 17:19). The word ‘fear’ is used elsewhere in this objective sense (Ps. 34:11; Prov. 1:29). Moreover, this ‘fear’ stands in perpetuity as the abiding manifestation of God. The final concluding statement in verse 9 sums up the character of the law—it is true becomes it comes from God who is true. It is altogether righteous since it comes from the righteous God himself.
They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb (v. 10). This section concludes with the assurance of how precious and sweet is God’s Word. It is far more valuable than purified gold; it is far sweeter than honey. For those in the ancient world who did not have an abundance of sugar, there was nothing sweeter than honey. Similar expressions about God’s law are found in Psalm 119 (gold, 119:72, 127; honey, 119:103).[19]
7–10 The tone and theme of the psalm modulate at v. 7. The focus shifts to the torah of the Lord. Whereas the name for God in v. 1 is God (ʾēl), the name beginning in v. 7 is the Lord (YHWH). Each of the first six lines of the second section of the psalm begins with a synonym for the law of the Lord. These synonyms—torah, decrees, precepts, commandment, fear, and ordinances—are a reference to the word of God available to Israel in the statutes and laws of the Pentateuch. Torah is understood here not strictly as law in the legal sense, but as instruction for right living. These six synonyms establish the primary continuity between this section of the psalm and the rest of the psalm: a continuity based on the theme of word or speech. This section teaches that while creation may utter a voiceless praise of God’s glory, the Lord has given to human beings a concrete word that humans can access by studying the Scriptures of Israel.
The poetry also changes dramatically beginning in v. 7, becoming extremely regular—one might dare to say it becomes formulaic. The first six cola of this section share a symmetrical structure, with only minor variations:
Noun + YHWH + adjective + participle + noun
Although the sudden change in the mood and style of poetry in v. 7 has given many readers pause, there are strong threads of continuity connecting the first section of the poem (vv. 1–6) and the second section (vv. 7–10). As mentioned above, the strongest thread is the theme of words or speech. A second unifying feature is a set of words and phrases that correspond to concepts in vv. 4–7. The first section of the poem spoke of the circuit of the sun; v. 7 echoes this by asserting that the torah of the Lord is perfect. (The Hebrew root tmm has the basic sense of “all-encompassing”; thus the word provides a resonance with the image of the sun’s circuit.) The first section of the poem ended with the image of all creation suffering thirst beneath the sun’s glaring heat in v. 6; v. 7 echoes this by claiming that the instruction of the Lord refreshes the soul. The word translated as “refresh” (šûḇ) here in the hiphil stem means to restore. But šûḇ is also the normal word for “repent”; thus v. 7 continues the series of double entendres that play with the “natural” and “moral” senses of various words. The poetic sense of this double entendre is that the word of God as found in the torah both metaphorically refreshes the thirst brought about by the scorching judgment of God and also restores one’s relationship with God by providing for a means of repentance (see below). There are other connections with the first part of the psalm. The sun rejoices as it circles the earth (v. 5); the precepts of the Lord cause the heart to rejoice (v. 8; note that the Hebrew words for rejoice are not the same in these two instances). The sun by definition shines in the heavens and is an immortal part of God’s creation; the commandment of the Lord enlightens (v. 8), and the fear of the Lord endures forever (v. 9). The last of these six cola—the ordinances of the Lord are truth, they are righteous altogether—breaks the pattern of adjective + participle + noun. By breaking the pattern, it provides a fitting poetic climax to these verses. The final claim that they are righteous altogether accords with the image of the sun as an image of judgment. In the face of judgment, God’s word provides a refuge of perfect righteousness for humanity.
The second section of the psalm closes with a summary verse (v. 10) that echoes the creation theme of vv. 1–6 by affirming that the word of the Lord is more to be desired than anything in creation. This verse also plays off the image of the sun because both gold and honey share the golden hue of the sun.[20]
Commentary
7–11 The revelation of God’s law is clearer than the revelation in nature. Nature “declares,” “proclaims,” “pours forth,” and “displays” the revelation of God’s majesty, wisdom, and power. But the revelation of the law is greater. It is greater because it is given by the covenantal God, whose name is Yahweh (“Lord,” vv. 7, 8, 9), whereas nature reveals the glory of the Creator-God (El, v. 1; see Reflections, p. 250, Yahweh Is El). It is also greater because of the comprehensive nature of the revelation. This is brought out by the choice of the synonyms for God’s revelation—“law,” “statutes” (v. 7); “precepts,” “commands” (v. 8); and “fear,” “ordinances” (v. 9; see Reflections, p. 220, The Word of God). The synonyms are not to be studied in abstraction but give a comprehensive emphasis that all of the words of the Lord are beneficial. Although the benefits of natural revelation are with us on a daily basis (day, night, heat [vv. 2, 6]), how much greater are the comprehensive benefits of God’s revelation in the law! The list of four benefits (vv. 7–8) is given to encourage the godly to embrace the law of God as an expression of his wisdom. The rewards (v. 11) of responsiveness to the revelation of God are compared to gold (v. 10; cf. Pr 3:13–18; 8:19) and to honey (cf. Pr 16:24).
The benefits are set forth propositionally (vv. 7–9). First, God’s word “revives” (cf. v. 7). Its restorative quality gives healing to the whole person by assuring forgiveness and cleansing and by giving life to the godly. It unleashes the promises of God by his gracious redemptive acts (80:3, 7, 19). Second, God’s word is the source of “wisdom” to all who are ready to receive it (v. 7; cf. 119:130; Pr 21:11). Both the inexperienced (“the simple,” v. 7; cf. Pr 1:4) and the wise develop as they begin with “the fear of the Lord” (v. 9; cf. Dt 4:10; Pr 1:7) and embrace the will of God in all aspects of life (cf. Pr 1:2–6). Third, God’s word gives “joy” (v. 8a). The heartfelt joy is equivalent to inner peace and tranquillity as one loves God with all one’s heart, i.e., with one’s innermost being. Fourth, God’s word gives “light to the eyes” (v. 8b). The internal joy radiates through the eyes. It expresses the joy of being alive and of receiving God’s blessings (cf. 13:3). Thus Yahweh has made the sun for light in creation and has given his word for light in redemption.
The reason the revelation of God in his word is superior to natural revelation lies in its clarity and openness to all. God’s written revelation manifests a perfect internal harmony between God and his word. God’s word reflects God’s integrity, uprightness, and fidelity (cf. 18:25—NIV, “blameless”). It is “trustworthy” (v. 7b) in the sense that his statutes are true in principle and are verifiable in the situations of life (cf. 93:5; 111:7). It is “right” in the sense of straightforward and just. God’s word is not perverse or crooked but encourages the godly to be upright. The Bible is an “open” book; there is no hypocrisy in it. It is “radiant,” i.e., “pure,” and its purity effects the clean and upright way of those who are “pure” (cf. 18:26). It is “pure” or “flawless” (v. 9), being “refined” like silver (cf. 12:6). It is “enduring forever” (v. 9), as it does not change with the times and the incessant variations in fashion. God’s word is always “in.” It is “sure” (v. 9, “faithful,” “true”; cf. 119:151, 160), as it reflects the fidelity and loyalty of God (cf. Rev 16:7; 19:2). It is “righteous,” as it reflects God’s righteousness. It is sweet like the finest honey (v. 10). These metaphors refer to the great value of God’s word in terms of its effects on those who observe them. It causes integrity, loyalty, uprightness, purity, and growth in righteousness (vv. 7–9).
The efficacy of God’s revelation is set forth by the synonyms for law, the characteristics of the word, and the beneficial effects on the godly. The word of God in itself, in its revelatory qualities and its transforming effects in the godly, is, therefore, of greater value than the most valuable objects of man’s striving: money (= “gold”; cf. 119:72) and fine food (v. 10; cf. 119:103). It keeps the wise on the narrow path by forewarning them of possible pitfalls (v. 11a) and by guiding them on to the rewards of godliness—life, God-given joy, wisdom, and contentment (vv. 7–9; cf. Pr 22:4; 1 Ti 4:8; 6:6). The repetitious use of “your servant” (vv. 11, 13; cf. superscription, Ps 18) bears out the willingness of the psalmist in doing God’s will. The word “servant” (ʿebed) applies to one who either by appointment, office, or choice commits himself or herself to the execution of someone else’s will—in this context, the covenantal Lord.[21]
[1] Warstler, K. R. (2017). Psalms. In E. A. Blum & T. Wax (Eds.), CSB Study Bible: Notes (p. 833). Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Criswell, W. A., Patterson, P., Clendenen, E. R., Akin, D. L., Chamberlin, M., Patterson, D. K., & Pogue, J., eds. (1991). Believer’s Study Bible (electronic ed., Ps 19:7–9). Thomas Nelson.
[3] Sproul, R. C., ed. (2005). The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (p. 753). Ligonier Ministries.
[4] Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Ps 19:7–11). Lexham Press.
[5] Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 961). Crossway Bibles.
[6] MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Ps 19:7–9). Thomas Nelson Publishers.
[7] Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible commentary (p. 661). T. Nelson Publishers.
[8] MacDonald, W. (1995). Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments (A. Farstad, Ed.; pp. 572–573). Thomas Nelson.
[9] Ross, A. P. (1985). Psalms. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 808). Victor Books.
[10] Motyer, J. A. (1994). The Psalms. In D. A. Carson, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham (Eds.), New Bible commentary: 21st century edition (4th ed., p. 498). Inter-Varsity Press.
[11] Rydelnik, M. A., & Vanlaningham, M., eds. (2014). Psalms. In The moody bible commentary (pp. 776–777). Moody Publishers.
[12] Spurgeon, C. H. (n.d.). The treasury of David: Psalms 1-26 (Vol. 1, pp. 272–274). Marshall Brothers.
[13] Exell, J. S. (1909). The Biblical Illustrator: The Psalms (Vol. 1, pp. 343–355). Fleming H. Revell Company; Francis Griffiths.
[14] Longman, T., III. (2014). Psalms: An Introduction and Commentary (D. G. Firth, Ed.; Vols. 15–16, pp. 119–120). Inter-Varsity Press.
[15] Kidner, D. (1973). Psalms 1–72: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 15, p. 117). InterVarsity Press.
[16] Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. (1909). Psalms (Vol. 1, pp. 129–130). Funk & Wagnalls Company.
[17] Hawker, R. (2013). Poor Man’s Old Testament Commentary: Job–Psalms (Vol. 4, p. 220). Logos Bible Software.
[18] Bullock, C. H. (2015). Psalms 1–72 (M. L. Strauss & J. H. Walton, Eds.; Vol. 1, pp. 136–138). Baker Books.
[19] Harman, A. (2011). Psalms: A Mentor Commentary (Vols. 1–2, pp. 203–205). Mentor.
[20] Jacobson, R. A., & Tanner, B. (2014). Book One of the Psalter: Psalms 1–41. In E. J. Young, R. K. Harrison, & R. L. Hubbard Jr. (Eds.), The Book of Psalms (pp. 209–210). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
[21] VanGemeren, W. A. (2008). Psalms. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Psalms (Revised Edition) (Vol. 5, pp. 216–218). Zondervan.
You are streaming Countryside Bible Church’s Evening Worship Service for July 16, 2023. The stream will begin at 6:00 pm Central Time. Tom Pennington Countryside Bible Church Southlake, TX countrysidebible.org
Source: Evening Worship Service | 6:00pm
I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. (Proverbs 8:17)
Wisdom loves her lovers and seeks her seekers. He is already wise who seeks to be wise, and he has almost found wisdom who diligently seeks her. What is true of wisdom in general is specially true of wisdom embodied in our Lord Jesus. Him we are to love and to seek, and in return we shall enjoy His love and find Himself.
Our business is to seek Jesus early in life. Happy are the young whose morning is spent with Jesus! It is never too soon to seek the Lord Jesus. Early seekers make certain finders. We should seek Him early by diligence. Thriving tradesmen are early risers, and thriving saints seek Jesus eagerly. Those who find Jesus to their enrichment give their hearts to seeking Him. We must seek Him first, and thus earliest. Above all things Jesus. Jesus first and nothing else even as a bad second.
The blessing is that He will be found. He reveals Himself more and more clearly to our search…. Happy men who seek One who, when He is found, remains with them forever, a treasure growingly precious to their hearts and understandings.
Lord Jesus, I have found Thee; be found of me to an unutterable degree of joyous satisfaction.
This past week I’ve had to pray with people battling heavy odds against cancer, children’s health issues, relationship problems, addictions, emotional distress, a burnt down house and many other issues. They all felt overwhelmed and that the odds were stacked against them. Are you too struggling against overwhelming odds today?
In 2 Chronicles 20, a coalition of armies had come against Judah. This strong army (verse 2-4) brought a sense of terror upon the people. King Jehoshaphat realizing the seriousness of the challenge before him, cried in desperation, “We have no power to face this vast army… We do not know what to do…” (verse 12). Maybe you too are saying ‘I don’t know what to do’?
However, God brought about an amazing victory for Judah. We can therefore learn how to find victory against overwhelming odds by looking at 4 responses shown by King Jehoshaphat.
Prayer is the greatest weapon God’s children have over every challenge. A famous quote by Alfred Lord Tennyson says, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.” So, when facing overwhelming odds and when you may not even feel like praying, there is only one thing to do. Keep on praying!
Jehoshaphat inquired of the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout the land. The people responded in unison as the King cried out to God (verse 3-5). He was depending completely on God’s strength!! (verse 6-12).
God sometimes permits staggering odds to come against us to drive us to our knees in prayer.
Verse 14 – 15 tells us that the Prophet Jahaziel, under the anointing of God’s Spirit, began to prophesy over the situation. He said, “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. … stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you”.
Similarly, God has a specific promise for every challenge we face; especially when overwhelming odds are against us. It can come through a scripture, a song, a sermon, a prayer, wise counsel or a prophecy. Once we receive such a specific word from God, we should hold on to it and not give up till the victory is final (refer verse 20).
The Prophet Jahaziel said, “You will not have to fight this battle… Stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you,…”. He further emphasized “the battle is not yours, but God’s” (verse 15 –17)). Therefore, realize that the Lord is always fighting on your behalf.
So often I hear powerful testimonies of people who have experienced God’s delivering power in challenging situations.
When the army went out for battle the following morning, Jehoshaphat “appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise Him for the splendor of His holiness (verse 21).” These singers were focusing on a well- known worship refrain about God’s enduring love. They sang, “Give thanks to the Lord, for His love endures forever (verse 21).”
In response, the Lord brought disarray to the enemy’s camp. Their armies began to annihilate each other and an amazing victory unfolded (verse 22-23)!! As you stand against overwhelming odds, meditate on God’s unfailing love which endures forever. He will come through for you, often in unexpected ways!
God will surely give us victory against the overwhelming odds that are against us today.
By Palitha Jayasooriya
Used by Permission
• Struggles, Despair Articles
• Forgiveness – Yourself / Others
A camp meeting?
A church service?
A long flight and a kind seat mate?
Were you anywhere west of Asia?
If so, you have the providential hand of God in directing the steps of the first missionaries to be grateful to.
The first person to hear the Gospel west of Asia was Lydia, the first convert to Christianity in Europe.
Lydia was actually from Asia.
Even more ironically, the people who shared the gospel with her were missionaries who planned to go into Asia, but the Lord led them to Europe instead.
Sometimes closed doors don’t make sense.
Often the wide open ones don’t either.
For these missionaries, both the closed and open doors left them wondering.
But they obeyed.
And they met a group of women in Europe whose hearts were already prepared to receive the truth.
Lydia was among them and came to Christ.
Next, her household believed.
A slave girl was delivered from demon possession.
Then, a jailer was transformed.
His household believed.
And a church began in Philippi.
From there, the Gospel continued to spread West.
Now, it has gone all the way around the world.
God directs our “steps “. . . and our “stops,” someone once said.
If you heard the Gospel somewhere West of Asia, you have those “steps” and “stops” of God to be grateful to.
We can never determine all the why’s of God’s leading.
But we know this . . . His own, silent answer to our why’s have a greater meaning than we could ever comprehend. A deeper and more loving meaning than we could ever determine for ourselves.
Steps and Stops of life are God’s prerogative.
Obedience and trust are ours.
by Bethany Hayes
Used by Permission
Going Deeper with God
Making a Difference
The post STEPS and STOPS can be found online at Daily Devotionals by Thoughts about God.
Putin’s regime ‘is over,’ says analyst, and ‘something new is starting in Russia’
something new is starting in Russia. Maybe, by the way, worse, although it’s difficult to imagine something worse, especially if you are Ukrainian. But I do not think we can presume anymore that Putin is in full control of the country and that he is really the master of his fate. … this elevates Prigozhin to the level of Putin. And this, of course, also hits Putin very hard.
Trump slams Biden activating 3,000 US reserve troops; warns of WW3 and more
“Joe Biden can’t even walk up the steps of Air Force One without tripping. The last thing this incompetent administration should be doing is pushing us further toward World War Three,”
Biden has proclaimed that he will continue sending American treasure and weaponry to fuel endless war in Ukraine for ‘as long as it takes.’
AI puts 27% of jobs at risk
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is forecasting that 27% of jobs in nations with wealthy and emerging economies are at risk of automation due to technology advancements, such as artificial intelligence.
Over 130 Degrees!? Death Valley May Hit Hottest Temperature Ever Recorded On Earth
According to preliminary data from the World Meteorological Association, the beginning of July marked the world’s hottest week on record. In particular, California’s Death Valley could mark the hottest temperature ever recorded on earth with Scientific American warning that heat could surpass 130-degrees this weekend.
Are You Willing To Starve For The Greater Good?
Central planners are pulling double shifts. Contriving plans and proposals to control what you consume, how you travel and cook, where your money is spent, and much, much more. You know who we’re talking about. The Davos WEF crowd. The UN, IMF, World Bank, and central bankers. Washington lobbyists, NGOs, public/private partnerships, technical advisory committees, nonprofits, and everything in between.
The Fact-Check Racket Finally Unravels
For a while we believed it but certain revelations changed that. We came to realize that the posts labeled false were typically contrary to regime narratives. Then the Twitter files and other FOIAs generated proof of what many suspected all along. These entities were funded either directly or indirectly by government or by other dark-money sources as quid pro quos for other relationships they had cultivated with interested parties.
Globalists Suggest “Finance Shock” And Climate Controls To Launch Their Great Reset
At the end of June government leaders and think-tank power brokers from around the world met at the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact in Paris. Participants include United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank President Ajay Banga. Central banks and international banks are now suddenly more concerned with carbon taxation and global warming than they seem to be concerned with stagflation and economic collapse. Likely because this was the goal all along and economic collapse is part of the plan.
America’s Religious Landscape in the midst of a Continuing Exodus, Devotion of True Believers Remains High
A new survey by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) contains both warning and comfort for the nation’s faithful. On the one hand, religion is plummeting fast on the priority lists of most Americans, but on the other, most of those remaining in the Christian church, 59%, have attended their houses of worship for more than 10 years. And of those regular church attendees 82% say they are optimistic about the future of their congregation, and 89% say they are proud to be associated with their church.
She’s 47, anorexic and wants help dying. Canada will soon allow it.
An expansion of the criteria for medically assisted death that comes into force in March 2024 will allow Canadians like Pauli, whose sole underlying condition is mental illness, to choose medically assisted death.
Court hears another case that wants to censor 10 Commandments
“The Supreme Court already settled this debate. Displays that are part of the history and tradition of America, like the Ten Commandments, are presumed to be constitutional,” said Lea Patterson, counsel at First Liberty. “Displaying the Ten Commandments—a symbol of law and moral conduct with both religious and secular significance—is a longstanding national tradition as a matter of law. The court should summarily reject these anti-religion activist organizations’ unfounded lawsuits”
Rockets in Judea & Samaria are the beginning of the Zionist entity’s end
“The rockets are the beginning of the end of the [Zionist] entity,” adding that the launch of rockets will not cease, and relying on security coordination will not provide security to Israel and will not bring about a limitation of the military powers of the Palestinian resistance organizations.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr: COVID-19 was ‘ethnically targeted’ to avoid Ashkenazi Jews
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed that the COVID-19 virus was “ethnically targeted” to attack certain races while avoiding others, including Ashkenazi Jews. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately,” Kennedy said at the event Thursday in New York City. “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people.
Netanyahu hospitalized overnight after collapsing in his home
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will remain in hospital overnight at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, after he collapsed in his home on Saturday following a bout of dehydration a day earlier. Netanyahu will stay for medical observation at the recommendation of his doctors, a statement from his office said.
Tim Scott: America needs ‘biblically sound leadership’ to combat a ‘culture of grievance’
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scot, R-S.C., said Friday that the United States needs “biblically sound leadership” as he tries to make his case to Christian conservatives in Iowa why they should back him for the GOP nomination.
‘Reduce Population’: Kamala Harris Verbal Slip-Up Corrected By White House
Vice President Kamala Harris mistakenly (?) suggested that one of the goals of investing in clean energy is population reduction. “When President [Joe] Biden and I took office, we set an ambitious goal … to cut our greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and to reach net-zero emissions by 2050,” Harris told an audience at Coppin State University in Baltimore on Friday.
Strong and shallow M6.3 earthquake hits near the coast of Chiapas, Mexico
A strong and shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.3 hit near the coast of Chiapas, Mexico at 09:29 UTC on July 14, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 35 km (21.7 miles). EMSC is reporting the same magnitude and depth.
Rabbit Fire in Southern California causes dozens of evacuations, burns over 7,000 acres in hours
A series of wildfires southeast of Los Angeles have forced hundreds of evacuations while firefighters battle through 100-degree heat to try to control the flames…The largest of the three blazes is known as the Rabbit Fire, which CAL FIRE said exploded in size to more than 7,000 acres within 24 hours.
Canadian wildfire smoke slowly invades US again, impacts air quality for nearly 50 million Americans
On Sunday, the majority of the wildfire smoke will move into the Ohio Valley, according to the FOX Forecast Center. This will impact major cities, such as Indianapolis, Indiana; Louisville, Kentucky; and Cleveland, Ohio.
Irish Farmers Outraged as Government Moves to Cull 200,000 Healthy Cows to Meet Climate Goals
Farmers in Ireland are expressing outrage over the globalist Irish government’s decision to cull 200,000 of the nation’s healthy cows to meet the green agenda’s climate goals.
GA CHiP – Georgia Child Identification Program
A Gift From the Freemasons of Georgia Georgia Masons provide the GACHIP program FREE of charge as a public service and as our gift to the citizens of our state.
Archbishop Viganò launches organisation to help victims of Bergoglian Purges
At the beginning of July, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò announced a civil association to assist Catholic clergy who are being persecuted by the Vatican under Pope Francis. Pope Francis’ birth name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio. This purging of the Catholic church is being called the Bergoglian Purges.
Covid Related News: Covid was a mass mind control operation
Covid was a mass mind control operation, Dr. Reiner Fuellmich explains in an interview with Stew Peters. In a separate interview, Professor Martin Neil describes the massive corruption of society to promote covid and its “vaccine” and how this is nothing new, it has been going on for 150 years.
CBDC “Is A Massive Threat To American Liberty” – DeSantis Vows To Kill FedCoin “On Day One” Of His Presidency
“…on day one, we will nix central bank digital currency. Done. Dead. Not happening in this country…”
Climategate is the worst scientific scandal of our generation
The term Climategate was coined in 2009 to describe the scandal revealed by the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit (“CRU”). The senders and recipients of the emails constituted a cast list of the IPCC’s scientific elite. They were a small group of scientists who had for years been more influential in driving the worldwide alarm over global warming than any others, not least through the role they played at the heart of the UN’s IPCC.
IMF Hints At Allowing Countries To Use Chinese Yuan For Debt Repayment
…confirmed this week that Argentina had paid off part of its debts – equivalent to $1.1 billion of the $2.7 billion that matured last month – with the IMF in Chinese currency.
A brief history of secret US military experiments leading to epidemics
Last year a Twitter user posted a thread about the history of the US military conducting biowarfare experiments in heavily populated areas of the US. The experiments involved tests introducing “innocuous organisms” into ventilating systems, subway systems, and water supply systems. Aerosol test attacks were also made both from ships lying offshore and from aeroplanes flying over the United States.
Berkeley Law Dean Caught Telling Class He’d Lie In Deposition About ‘Diversity Hiring’, Now Says He Was Joking
“My comment about being deposed was a light-hearted comment to my students about my expectation that it was a private conversation in the classroom. I, of course, would always tell the truth in a deposition and I am sure my students knew that,”
Netanyahu Rushed to Hospital After Losing Consciousness
Netanyahu says he’s feeling ‘very good’ after hospitalized with apparent dehydration
Netanyahu Discharged From Hospital, Fitted With Heart Monitoring Device
Top Progressive Democrat: Israel Is Racist State, Two-state Solution Doesn’t Feel Possible
Israeli Reservists Threaten Mass Resignations if Judicial Plan Proceeds
Unarmed Palestinian detained in West Bank settlement, sparking infiltration alert
Israeli man seriously injured, 2 daughters lightly hurt in West Bank terror shooting
Israeli tourist struck and killed by car in Tbilisi
Activist backs off Sweden Torah burning: Trying to draw attention to Quran desecration
Lebanese lawmaker leads group across Israeli border; IDF fires warning shots
Report: Biden Already Has ‘Unwritten’ Nuclear Deal with Iran
European Parliament calls for peace in Manipur; India accuses EU of having ‘colonial mindset’
Kim Jong-un’s Sister: Biden Admin Has Turned Nuclear War into ‘Miserable Reality’
Russia Investigating Whether North Korean Test Missile Crashed in Its Waters
Moscow says attacks on Russian nuclear facilities could spill over to Europe
Russian Forces ‘Scrambling’ To Keep Crimea Control: Kyiv Envoy
Report: NATO Almost Reconsidered Ukraine Invite After Zelensky Outburst
Mike Pence Defends Support for Ukraine Despite Declining Conditions in America
Russian Warship Docks a Stone’s Throw from US Mainland Shores in Havana
The Secret Service Declined to Interview Over 500 ‘Suspects’ in Cocaine Investigation
Trump Blames Christie for FBI Director Chris Wray’s Appointment
Trump Launches 2nd Petition to Quash Fulton County Election Interference Probe
Vivek Ramaswamy says January 6 was the result of censorship across the country
DOJ Spied On Devin Nunes Staff During Russia Hoax, Subpoenas Show
Big Tech Companies Form ‘Woke’ Partnership to Weaponize AI
Musk tells Twitter users xAI will aim to solve mysteries of the universe
Woman Hit by a Meteorite While Having a Coffee With a Friend
7.2 magnitude earthquake hits the Alaska Peninsula
5.7 magnitude earthquake hits near Sand Point, Alaska
5.1 magnitude earthquake hits near Severo-Kuril’sk, Russia
Popocateptl volcano in Mexico erupts to 23,000ft
Sabancaya volcano in Peru erupts to 22,000ft
Sangay volcano in Ecuador erupts to 20,000ft
Shishaldin volcano in the Aleutian Islands erupts to 16,000ft
Fuego volcano in Guatemala erupts to 15,000ft
Semeru volcano in Indonesia erupts to 14,000ft
Still a Category 2 hurricane, Calvin continues moving west toward Hawaii and the Big Island
Subtropical Storm Don weakens slightly as it meanders over Atlantic Ocean
Hong Kong raises typhoon warning signal to No 3 as Tropical Storm Talim nears
China Evacuates 40,000 People Amid Severe Flooding
More than 20 dead and thousands evacuate homes in South Korea due to heavy rain
South Korea flood: Rescuers battle to reach cars in submerged Cheongju tunnel
Biden approves Vermont disaster declaration ahead of more flooding rainfall
Heat, flooding and smoke: The U.S. is in the midst of a summer of extremes
Record heatwaves sweep the world from US to Japan via Europe
Europe sizzles under stubborn heat wave that’s only going to get worse
Italy issues ‘extreme’ health warning for 16 cities as heat wave grips Europe
Wildfires in Spain’s La Palma island forces evacuations as heatwave grips Europe
A new outbreak of Canadian wildfires is sending a plume of unhealthy smoke into the US yet again
Nobel Winner in Science Dr. John Clauser: There Is No Climate Crisis Threatening the Planet
Scientists genetically modify trees to produce more sustainable wood
Ted Cruz, Joe Manchin secure gas stove protection bill in must-pass govt funding package
Fire at La. Dow Chemical plant triggers explosions, shelter-in-place order
‘John of God,’ Oprah’s ‘Faith Healer,’ Faces A 370 Year Prison Sentence
At least 4 killed in mass shooting in small Georgia city outside of Atlanta, spokeswoman says
California Approves Math Curriculum Promoting ‘Social Justice’ Over Standard Skills
U.S. Virgin Islands seeks $190 million from JPMorgan in Jeffrey Epstein suit
Thousands join Budapest Pride in protest at state’s anti-LGBT moves
Maine Governor Signs Bill Allowing Teenagers to Obtain Cross-Sex Hormones Without Parental Consent
Kentucky’s ban on gender-transition care takes effect as federal judge lifts injunction
It’s trans adults, too: GOP candidates now back trans medical restrictions for all ages
21 International Experts Dispute Prevailing US Gender Transition Methods
Medical Leaders: U.S. ‘Transgender’ Medicine Is Politicized and Reckless
Biotech Lab Working to Create Lab-Grown Human Eggs
‘Absolutely Horrific’: US Doctors’ Group Comes Out Against CCP’s Forced Organ Harvesting
She’s 47, anorexic and wants help dying. Canada will soon allow it
Mexican Cops Find Fentanyl Pills Headed to U.S. Hidden in Protein Powder
‘Millions May Be at Risk’: Houston Hit with ‘Alarming’ Syphilis Outbreak
Pharmaceutical firm tied to 2024 candidate Ramaswamy tangled in lawsuits on COVID vax technology
Florida County GOP Declares COVID-19 and mRNA COVID Vaccine a ‘Bioweapon’
#TruthsThatTransform #DJKM #godsdesign
If you find the presidential debate format a rather meaningless exercise, you will be astonished at what one-on-one interviews by a skilled interrogator can accomplish.
Source: Tucker Carlson Helps Cull the Republican Presidential Field
On today’s Watchman Newscast, host Erick Stakelbeck is joined by Hoover Institution Senior Fellow and renowned historian Victor Davis Hanson, who breaks down The Great Reset and the goal of global elites to erase national sovereignty and borders. What is the background of this sinister movement and what does it mean for your future?
Source: Victor Davis Hanson on Great Reset Plan to ERASE National Sovereignty & Borders
The President of Russia noted that all attempts by the enemy to break through the Russian defenses imply the use of strategic reserves
But now is shocked that Biden is exactly who he’s always been.
Washington itself considers any use of the weaponry illegal, the Russian president has said
If Ukraine uses US-supplied cluster munitions on the battlefield, Moscow reserves the right to retaliate in kind, Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned.
Speaking to journalist Pavel Zarubin, Putin offered his take on the decision by the administration of US President Joe Biden to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions – which are banned in more than 100 countries due to the risk they pose to civilians.
“The US administration itself gave an assessment of these munitions through the mouths of its employees some time ago… calling the use [of these munitions] a crime. This is how I think it should be regarded,” he said, according to an extract of the interview released on Sunday.
The Russian president was apparently referring to a statement made by former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki in late February 2022, days after the start of the Ukraine conflict, in which she said that the use of the controversial munitions could be regarded as a war crime.
The Russian leader suggested that the US approved the move due to a shortage of ammunition, noting that Ukraine’s shell consumption far exceeds the current stockpiles of the West.
“Russia has a sufficient stock of various types of cluster munitions… So far, we have not used them. We have not needed to, despite the well-known [munitions] deficit for a certain period of time,” Putin said.
But of course, if [Ukraine] uses them [cluster munitions] against us, we reserve the right to reciprocal measures.
DETAILS TO FOLLOW
Source: US delivery of cluster munitions to Ukraine is a crime – Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview published Sunday that Russia has a “sufficient stockpile” of cluster munitions, warning that Russia “reserves the right to take reciprocal action” if Ukraine uses the controversial weapons
Source: Putin says Russia has ‘sufficient stockpile’ of cluster bombs as Ukraine gets its own supply from US
The cable news network reportedly cut the remaining employees from Tucker Carlson’s show.
Moore tweeted a screenshot of the email sent to Carlson’s remaining team members still at Fox News.
“Tucker Carlson’s remaining team at Fox News (nine employees) will be frog marched out of the building tonight at 9:00pm. HR will be waiting outside the control room when they finish tonight’s show to escort the remaining producers outside,” Moore said Friday.
“One former Carlson producer called it ‘Degrading!’ Here’s the email that was sent to them,” he added.
Authored by Catherine Yang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
Hunter Biden’s lawyers have issued a cease and desist to Donald Trump’s legal team, demanding he not post about Mr. Biden anymore for fear of “physical and violent action” on the part of Mr. Trump’s followers against Mr. Biden or his family.
“I am a little surprised to have to send this because it would seem that Mr. Trump is currently facing enough legal problems that he would not want to create any more liability for saying and doing things that could result in harm and injury, and because it appears you have enough to do in defending your client in various arenas now and yet to come than to have to deal with one more legal issue and case,” wrote attorney Abbe David Lowell, who represents Mr. Biden. The letter, sent Thursday, was first obtained by ABC News.
Mr. Lowell wrote that Mr. Trump’s followers are “easy-to-trigger” and citing Jan. 6, 2021, events and their “tragic, even fatal, consequences” as a reason why something that would normally be a figure of speech cannot be considered so in Mr. Trump’s case.
“We have seen that what might pass as such a phrase when uttered by rationale people is heard by too many in this country as some terrible injustice for which they must take physical and violent action,” Mr. Lowell wrote.
He compared Mr. Biden’s situation with that of Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was attacked in his home last October. Federal officials alleged the attacker, David DePape, was a Canadian citizen who was in the country illegally after overstaying his visa and said he wanted to kidnap the Speaker.
“Mr. Biden was also on that attacker’s hit list,” Mr. Lowell wrote. “This is not a false alarm.”
He did not link the attacker to Mr. Trump’s social media activity, but referenced another case where Taylor Taranto was arrested in the vicinity of former President Barack Obama’s residence after reposting a post of Mr. Trump’s, which contained what he claimed was Mr. Obama’s address.
“We are just one such social media message away from another incident, and you should make clear to Mr. Trump—if you have not done so already—that Mr. Trump’s words have caused harm in the past and threaten to do so again if he does not stop,” Mr. Lowell said.
“Mr. Trump has invoked my client’s name on his social media accounts to harass and incite his followers on a near daily basis since Mr. Trump himself was indicted (e.g., mentioning my client more than 20 times in posts in July alone),” he wrote.
Mr. Lowell cited multiple times when Mr. Trump posted about or reposted and commented on news events that involved the Biden family.
On June 22, two days after Mr. Biden pleaded guilty to federal crimes, the House Ways and Means Committee unveiled the testimonies of two whistleblowers from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) who had been part of the investigation into Mr. Biden’s taxes.
The investigators had validated text messages Mr. Biden sent to a Chinese business partner demanding payment and threatening to use his father’s power and influence in retaliation.
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” the younger Biden wrote, according to Shapley’s testimony.
“Now means tonight,” Biden said, warning that if anyone other than Zhao, “Zhang, or the chairman” tried to reach out about the matter, “I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.
On June 24, Mr. Trump took to Truth Social to post: “When Hunter Biden harshly threatened the Chinese businessman, he and his father, Joe, were together in Joe’s house (even the ownership of the house, and rent paid, are questionable and now forgotten about by the Fake News Media!) where classified documents having to do with CHINA were stored . . . They took in millions of dollars from China – How much information was given. BIG STUFF! Joe is totally corrupt!!!”
Two days later Mr. Trump reposted “
Mr. Lowell wrote that Mr. Trump multiple times misled followers and was “writing to demand a stop to this.”
“You know, if Mr. Trump does not, that Mr. Biden has neither committed nor been accused of the charges that your client is claiming (e.g., mishandling or even having access to classified information) and that the Biden family was not at the White House (let alone in the vestibule) in the period when the cocaine was found,” he wrote. “And, let’s be clear: it was Mr. Trump, not Mr. Biden, who allegedly illegally shared classified documents with others and it is Mr. Trump who is accused of paying hush money (e.g., a bribe) to prevent publicity about his personal actions.”
Source: “Dangerous Rhetoric”: Hunter Biden Lawyers Tell Trump Cease And Desist Social Media Attacks
President Vladimir Putin said Russia had a “sufficient stockpile” of cluster bombs and reserved the right to use them if such munitions, the use of which he said he regarded as a crime, were deployed against Russian forces in Ukraine.
Source: Putin Vows ‘Reciprocal Action’ If Ukraine Uses US-Supplied Cluster Bombs
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