"Deal bountifully with Your servant, that I may live and keep Your word. Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law" (vs17-18)
First, my eyes must be opened, so that I may see (vs17-18). He says, "Open my eyes, that i may see wondrous things in Your law". Hagar's eyes were opened, so she saw the fountain of water (Gen 21:19), the blind have their eyes opened to see God's glory, and always, we're DEPENDENT for everything. It isn't enough to have the bible or good preaching.The Spirit reveals what is written, and He alone opens the understanding, so that we can enjoy privileges earned by Christ and given by God. 1 Cor 2:10-12, says, “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? even so no one knows the things of god except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God”.
This gospel has pleasures. Let this drive you to say, "Open, so that I may see". Knowing riches are somewhere gives you encouragement to laboriously pull them out. Eternal life, peace, joy, and victory are in God's word assuredly, so get them! Pray, like Blind Bartimaeus, that you may see. “So Jesus answered and said to him, ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ The blind man said to Him, ‘Teacher, that I may receive my sight’” (Mark 10:51). Rely upon grace in Christ, which is God's willingness to show His beauty to the blind, even all who come to Him for sight.
Secondly, this new heart longs for God always (vs19-20). He says, “My soul breaks with longing for Your judgments at all times”. We aren’t deceitful and corrupt, but like Christ,our new heart does good only.
Take it by FAITH! You don't always feel longings for Him, and you wander into sin, but the new man in you loves holiness always, even as the flesh ALWAYS loves sin. Romans 7:21-22 says, “I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man”. I'm holy when sinning, and I'm sinful when holy, but these constants are observed and taken by faith. I don’t deny the one because the other is present, but I receive God’s word - both my continual sin in the flesh and my constant holiness in the new nature Christ worked in me.
I'm no part time lover, someone two-faced whose love is seasonal, only present when things go wrong or hot when people are looking. No, genuine love for Christ is here, constancy, and sincerity. It is not with eye-service as hypocrites, but our love is from the heart,enduring to the end (Matt 24:13)! This is the reality of faith. Constant holiness is God’s gift to everyone He saves, whether we feel it, see it, or not.
Finally, I don't merely love the word of God preached, but I also practice it (vs21-24)! He says, “Princes also sit and speak against me, but Your servant meditates on Your statutes. Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors”. The gospel isn't some music to hear, smile at, and then forget, but it’s the blueprint of my life, the map that I follow, the teacher I obey, and the counselor that I listen to. We read, “Your ears shall her a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it’, whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left”, so that God’s Spirit, the Counselor, is inside. We do more than spend time in the word; it guides us internally to do external acts of love and graciousness. The gospel’s what we LIVE by, and this alone is faith; it is NOT saying, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled” to the needy, but it is giving your brother what’s needed (James 2:15-17).
We're blessed to be doers and not hearers only (James 1:22)! Bless God, if this is you, and trust Christ to give this to you, if it is not! Trust Him to keep your religion sincere, and trust that He’ll give sincerity - real salvation - to others. This is impossible with men, but it is given by God through the preaching of truth. Declare what God demands and that He give real salvation. He changes us to imitate and walk like Christ.
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