“I Hope In Your Word” (Ps 119:113-121)

“I hate the divided mind, but I love Your law.  You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word” (vs113-114)

Our hope is in the word of God, and not ourselves, or any other thing.  He says, “I hope in Your word”.  We don’t hope in will power, but in the word of God and His promises to us.  We don’t hope in sin, the poor reward that it gives, but we hope in God’s word, taking His truth as real, His power as our own, and what He says as the rule of our lives. We are not people who read the word of God, and say, “I hope it isn’t true”, but we LIVE by the word, hoping in the reward that He promises.

Don’t put your hope in man’s word or human ideas.  Put your hope in the bible, the word of God, and the salvation He promises in Christ.  Hope in Him to save you, keep you, and bring you to heaven’s bliss.  Hope in His word when troubled, frightened, or in need because of your sin.  Hope in Him, because He promises hope to all that believe the gospel, promising that our hope, because of His love, will not be put to shame (Rom 5:5-11).

Secondly, we don’t want to be ashamed (Ps 119:115-116). We don’t want to live for the bible, and then in the end, perish.  He says, “Depart from me, you evildoers, For I will keep the commandments of my God!  Uphold me according to Your word, that I may live; and do not let me be ashamed of my hope.” We don’t want to trust Him to help us and have no help.  But, believing His gospel, we want Him to fulfill our hope.  It isn’t enough to have hope, as if feeling safe is the same as safety, as if wishful thinking makes something a reality.  No, we want our hope realized, so that we get what we’re seeking.

Earlier, the Psalmist said, “I hate the double-minded, but I love Your law.” He declares that he rejects the life of prayer, and then running off, as if God won’t answer.

You may hope in Christ safely because He won’t fail you.  He is the One who not only keeps promises, but He gives more than we can ask or think. All that we must do is hope in Him, look to Him, and count upon Him, and He will save.

Finally, because God punishes the wicked, we love His gospel and trust in Him (vs117-120).  He says, “You reject all those who stray from Your statutes, For their deceit is falsehood.  You put away all the wicked of the earth like dross; therefore I love Your testimonies.  My flesh trembles for fear of You, and I am afraid of Your judgments”.  It is no idle threat that wrath approaches, and believing this, we, like Noah, build the ark, taking steps necessary for salvation.  Of him we read, “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith” (Heb 11:7).  We aren’t serving God for nothing: we’re ESCAPING hell and headed to heaven, forever.  The word of God is non-optional, so we put our whole self into obedience.  I’m no nice guy who loves God “just because”. I’m a sinner who FEARS wrath, so I come to Christ the Savior, and being SAVED so freely, I love God.  And, we don’t lose godly fear. The Psalmist continued, “My flesh trembles for fear of You, and I am afraid of Your judgments” (vs120).

The fear of God MAKES me and you flee from sin and stop what we’re doing. We’d go into the fire if it didn’t burn.  But, loving Him is the fruit of this fear, so He uses it, to make us follow the word, against our natural self, and against all of the wiles of Satan.

Preach God’s WRATH, so sinners may know His love by experience.

Gleanings in the Vintage CIV (William Huntington)

(Concerning Fear and Love)

Church-street, Paddington.

YOURS came safe to hand. You fear of failing of the grace of God; this fear often springs from a knowledge of one's own heart, and the desperate deceitfulness of it; from pious suspicion, and godly, jealousy, and well becomes the young ––, as it is a spur to his prayers and inquiries. It excites a desire of being searched and tried, and led in the way everlasting. It is planted there to keep thee from stopping short, from settling on the old legal bottom, and from resting in thy former attainments: It will make thee forget those things which are behind, and keep thee pressing after those things which are before. Be thou in this fear all the day long, that thou mayest not depart from him.

A hypocrite is a stage-player; the part that he always acts is that of a saint of God, as the devil does that of an elect angel. He is one that begs at the door of mercy, but never hungered after the bread of life, nor the righteousness of Christ, having never felt the sting of death, nor the curse of a broken law. He covets the name of a saint, but in heart hates the grace that is in him. He mocks God in words, and men in appearance--it is all to be seen of men. His mouth goes one way, and his heart another; with the former he draws near to God, with the latter he is far from him. His outward appearance is righteous before men, his inward, extortion and excess; his religion is all in the crowd, none in the closet. He cannot believe, because he seeks honour from men, and not the honour that cometh from God only, John v. 44. He groans much under a sermon, but is never sick nor sorry; he often turns up his eyes to God, but has not one thought or affection with him. He is swift to speak, and slow to hear; often in raptures, but never in contrition; quick-sighted in the faults of others, but blind to all his own; sees a mote in a rival, and overlooks a beam in self. Ire loves to be flattered, but hates to be searched; talks much of relieving the poor, but steals half that is in the poor's bag; cannot endure waste in the ointment, but sells innocent blood for half the value. He strains at a Gnat, but swallows a camel; he treasures up wrath in religion, and cries not when God binds him for his dissimulation.

To love the Lord above every object, is doubtless the criterion of a saint; but as the carnal mind is enmity, and as the law stirs that enmity up, it is not expected to be found in an awakened soul, when the anger of God appears against it, and servile fear is predominant; which fear always has the wrath of God for its object, as filial fear has the goodness of God for the object of it. Moreover, all the time we doubt whether God loves us or no, our love will be clogged, it will be smoking flax; but it will not flame till a sense of God's love to us draws it forth. We may love a creature that does not love us, for nature loves nature, and corrupt affections love corruption, "With my flesh I love the law of sin;" but we cannot love God till he loves, or discovers a love to us moreover, "Where little is forgiven, the same loveth little." Again, love works according to the proportion of faith; if faith be weak, love will be languid; if strong, love will be warm, for faith works by love, Gal. v. 6.

There must be a love to him, where there is a restlessness for him, a dissatisfaction with every thing short of him, and an earnest desire for him, and the heart making diligent search after him "O thou whom my soul loveth, tell me where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon," Cant. i. 7. But that which swallows up all our love, is a love-visit from Christ, when we visits us with his free and full salvation; and faith in full exercise receives it, with a sense of God's love to us, shed abroad in our hearts-then, "Whom having not seen ye love; in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory," I Pet. i. 8.

W. H