Psalms 119:97-104 - Homilies By S. Conway

O how love I thy Law!

Then follows a series of reasons why.

I. IT FURNISHES HIM WITH HAPPY THOUGHT ALL THE DAY LONG . ( Psalms 119:97 .) It is good to cultivate the habit of turning our thoughts to the things of God as they are told of in his Word. The habit is not natural to us, but God, by his Spirit, will help us to cultivate it. And how full of help and blessedness it is, none but those who have acquired it can declare; but such have declared this, as the psalmist here, again and again.

II. WITH PRACTICAL WISDOM , SO THAT HE CAN ORDER HIS WAY ARIGHT . This is what is meant here by "wisdom" and "understanding." By means of it he can:

1. Outwit his enemies ( Psalms 119:98 ), no matter how crafty their policy.

2. Become wiser than his teachers . They may be full of sound doctrine, but the soul that is partaker of God's grace is wiser than they.

3. Understands more than the men of olden time . "Understanding gotten by the precepts of the Word is better than that gotten by long experience.

III. HOLDS HIM BACK FROM SIN . ( Psalms 119:101 .) He has come to love righteousness and hate iniquity; but he knows that if he is to keep in this mind he must refrain, etc. He that will go into sin grieves and banishes from his soul the Spirit of God. Many people desire to be holy, but they desire ever so many other things along with it—this, for example, that occasionally they may allow themselves in some evil way. And so they never attain to holiness; such double-hearted ones never can. God must teach us this ( Psalms 119:102 ).

IV. BECOMES HIS DELIGHT . ( Psalms 119:103 .) This is the meaning of the metaphor of this verse. The soul has its relish as well as the palate. And it is a blessed thing when the soul has a real relish for the things of God. Christ said, "I delight to do thy will, O my God." So was it foretold of him ( Psalms 40:1-17 .). And he himself said, "My meat and my drink is to do the will of him that sent me." The religion of fear, of conscience, of sense, of duty, of hope, of reward, is feeble—must be so—but the religion that delights in God is strong for all things.

V. GIVES HOLY HATRED OF ALL SIN . ( Psalms 119:104 .) He whom God has taught so to understand will thus hate all sin. Blessed hatred is this.—S.C.