Psalm 119
167 My soul hath observed thy testimonies; And I love them exceedingly.168 I have observed thy precepts and thy testimonies; For all my ways are before thee.169 Let my cry come near before thee, O Jehovah: Give me understanding according to thy word.170 Let my supplication come before thee: Deliver me according to thy word.171 Let my lips utter praise; For thou teachest me thy statutes.172 Let my tongue sing of thy word; For all thy commandments are righteousness.173 Let thy hand be ready to help me; For I have chosen thy precepts.174 I have longed for thy salvation, O Jehovah; And thy law is my delight.175 Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee; And let thine ordinances help me.176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; Seek thy servant; For I do not forget thy commandments.
This psalm of David the prophet was most likely produced in his later life after many hard-learned experiences. There were times when he was a winner and times when he was a failure. It is not a prophetic psalm in the sense that it foretells mysteries but it is a teaching psalm in that it reveals him as one giving advice based on his own questions of why things happen the way they do.
Imagine David as a boy sitting by himself and contemplating the laws of God while he kept his eye on his sheep so that he knew where they were and what they were doing. His inquiring mind might ask God the whys and hows about many things, about things that his mother or his father or his brothers or sisters or his Levite teacher could only answer with “I do not know?” And yet there must be answers to all his questions and indeed to every other question that could be asked, for since God made all things He also must know all the answers.
The most unforgettable incident in David’s life was when he asked another question, “Why is there no one to stand up for God when this Goliath blasphemes Him?” And it is most likely that afterward he still looked for the answer to that question why, for certainly there were others more capable than he was of doing what had to be done in God’s Name. Nor would it be difficult for us to recount many other occasions when he failed to find reasons for how people treated him or even for the way he himself treated others. That is until he went to God for answers and found them.
For as a boy David knew much of the written records and laws of Moses by memory and later as a king he had scribes to read it to him and he must have had a copy of the law to read himself. So he knew and practiced Moses’ instruction to Joshua to meditate in this law day and night.
Now years later we hear the old man David with many questions answered and many waiting for answers in the words of this psalm reminding us in almost every verse that God knows and wants us to know too, that He is the Creator of the law of cause and effect and all the other natural laws just as much as the ten commandments. Is it not interesting that the boy who asked so many why questions, the same person as the man who asked the same whys and now the same old man who had learned the answers to so many of the riddles of life is telling us that the answers are all laws? Why laws?
When we go back to the beginning we learn that the whole of creation including all the rules of nature was perfect. Gravity is the one universal law of that creation that we use most often to illustrate a law of nature, and it is one of them, but it is only one of many invariable dependables. Where would we be if there were no law of gravity, or none of the other laws of the universe? However where do we find the long list of these laws along with the list of what happens if we happen to break them? There is no complete list, although the ten commandments are a few of them that are very special, but nevertheless as David says, the law of the Lord is perfect and we can be quite sure that he means all of them, and yes, even the ones that he has not yet encountered.
Paul said that Jesus is the upholder of all things and we first think of things that do not change like minutes in a day and the beauty of nature, but Jesus also upholds the overall law of cause and effect. Of course when we believe that Jesus is also the God of miracles then the Upholder of all can just as easily change the length of a day as He did for Joshua, but that miracle does not mean that the law of day and night has changed. David would have us accept that the laws of cause and effect are as perfect as their creator and are for our good even though they bring bad things to us. David knew this had happened to him many times, and it is just as sure to happen to us if we step over the line.
But what if we do not see the line or do not know where the line is, will that save us from the consequences of disregarding it? As in a court of law where we are reminded that ignorance of the law is no excuse nor does it excuse us from the penalty. Of course we can be forgiven but that will never change the permanence of the law of positive blessing for obedience and negative sanction for transgression. Ignorance of the laws of nature that the God of nature established will not deliver us from the result of transgression, and we will reap failure. In summary the psalm wants us all to look at what God has already told us in His word, and more than look to study and study and study it in relation to every experience to know why.
Notice also the very last verse of the psalm where David knows that with all the things he has learned and all his years of experience and all his afflictions he still needs to go to what God has already said for the next time and the time after that because there is more, always more to be learned from the Word. To replace the God of wisdom with worldly wisdom is not wise.
So the question to us is are we like David thinking back over our failures and successes and relating them to the laws of God to find the promised outcome of things that His rules of cause and effect have already determined?. We must do this so that we can avoid the negative sanctions for ourselves and our for our organizations. We must search and know the laws of God so that we know how to teach others to not fail over and over again. And because Jesus upholds all things including His determination of cause and effect we can be assured that this relates to every spiritual law, every natural law, and the all the laws of leadership, especially the laws of leadership at this time.
169 Let my cry come near before thee, O Lord: Give me understanding according to thy word.