Psalm 119:165

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

Great peace have they  
There is a quietness, a stillness, a calmness and settled assurance that comes upon every believer in Christ, for he is our peace (Eph. 2:14). This is a peace that passes all understanding (Phil. 4:7). No one has that peace except those who put their trust in Jesus, the Messiah of God. This peace is not simply the absence of aggression or war, but this peace is a calmness that entertains the patience (endurance) that accompanies our walk with Christ.

which love thy law
Every believer must have a love for the law of God, the word of God. Those who do not spend time in reading the Bible and knowing it are left to their own feeble opinions and men's philosophies. Men cannot bring peace through opinions; only God's law can bring this wonderful peace of which the psalmist speaks here. Not only are we to read the word, but we are also to love the word, and the more we read it the more we will love it.

nothing shall offend them
If we put our confidence in the word of God instead of man's ideas, there is nothing, whether it be man's attitude, his persecutions against God and believers, his changing of the word of God, his false gospel, his false Jesus, his false spirit, that can make any believer fall or stumble, which definition is found in this word offend. We cannot stumble (be offended) through false teachers no matter how influential they are, if we continue to trust the word of God for our strength and our rule of obedience to Christ. Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,  39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Psalm 119:164

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

Seven times The seven times a day does not mean literally seven times but rather many times or consistent times, regular worship and praise to God, who has given benefit to all believers and honored Himself with our creation, our recreation in salvation, and our security in Christ.

Praise is beneficial and honorable and comely for believers. We have a wont to pray and to honor and praise our God for benefits for the day, not looking back upon days gone nor looking forward to days coming, but rather praise God today for today's benefits and provisions both promised and provided by God.

We praise Him for who He is, and we praise Him for what he does. He judges both our enemies and ourselves, which manifests his perfect righteousness. We love and praise Him for that.

Thy righteous judgments
God's judgment upon the wicked is sure and perfect. We are neither to neglect nor shun the righteous judgments of God, and we should never forget that judgment comes upon the righteous as well as the wicked. God is always right in His judgments.

Psalm 119:7 I will praise thee with uprightness of heart, when I shall have learned thy righteous judgments.

Psalm 119:163

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

The psalmist both hates and abhors lying. Lying is deceit; it is making a thing seem to be true but is based upon no truth at all. The difference between "hate" and "abhor" is mainly in the degree of its effect. To hate lying may be enough, but to abhor it seems to indicate that a purposeful decision has been made in one's mind to always meet lying with the attitude that it is fraud. I am sure every believer should decide early in life to both hate and abhor lying, because lying is an action that all of us do, and God is not pleased with it.

Once a believer has decided to hate and abhor lying, it is imperative that he replace that hate with something that he loves; otherwise his hate for lying may turn again to love for lying depending upon the situation. But, if a believer replaces love or acceptance of lying with another love, his hate for lying may become more consistent and perhaps even permanent.

So, the psalmist replaced his love or acceptance for lying with the love of  God's law. Today we accept the sixty-six books of God's word as God's law. We should, then, fall in love with God's word and spend much time in it. The word of God will change our lives in many ways, but one of the main ways is to turn our love for sin to a love of God and His word and to give us confidence in the truth of God's word, denying and repelling the philosophy of the world, which is the opposite, many time, of the truth of God.

Psalm 119:162

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

Did you ever actually think of the word of God as a spoil? In our day the word spoil has lost much of the meaning it once had. We think of spoil as something that is to be thrown away or something worthless. In the Bible the word spoil refers to that which the victorious wins from the people over whom he has had victory. The soldiers in the victorious army would take the goods of the defeated people, which may include food, flocks, cattle, luxuries, and many precious gems, silver, and gold.

The value of  the Bible is much greater than that of the spoil of a victorious army. When we spend time in the word of God, we find many precious words of wisdom, advice for living, correcting words, comforting words, and instructions on the polity of the local church and many other spoils, or goods that are of good benefit to us.

Proverbs 30:5 says, Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Each word of the Bible in its proper context has a divine meaning for each of us. We should search the Bible as we would search for hidden treasure or as "gold in them thar hills."

Matt 13:45-46  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: 46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

We should be willing to sell all of our earthly goods, especially earthly philosophy, earthly wisdom, and science falsely so called in order to obtain the great riches of the word of God. The Bible itself demands it, and we should be willing to do it.

May God bless us as we search his treasure of truth!

Psalm 119:161

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

Princes, national leaders, have persecuted David and that without cause. He had not accosted any of them, nor had he been aggressive against any of them. They had no cause to persecute David and Israel except for the sake of pure terror.

These could also be princes of Israel, men who had desired David's office and privileges and had gone to great length to possess them, such as Absalom (1 Samuel 29).

Some of our adversaries are foreign to our own nation and desire to either have or destroy the freedoms and pleasures that we have as a country or to destroy our freedom of worship and also destroy the truth of the word of God to replace it with their own evil designs.

Some of our adversaries are among our own people, professors of our religion, but who desire to overthrow the truth or the faith of some (2 Timothy 2:18).

David's heart is not in awe of persecution. He expects it and discerns it. It is to be expected in our world. Our Lord said that in the world we shall have tribulation (John 16:33).

But David's heart is in awe of the word of God, for only God's word can bring stability and joy to a troubled heart. Remember what the Lord said in the last portion of John 16:33 -- "I have overcome the world."

Despite the fact that David had no earthly and human fear concerning his earthy foes (the word awe means to fear), he did have awe for God's word. The meaning of awe is also that of true reverence and respect. So should we today have an awesome reverence for God's word, which is the sword of the Spirit, and it is our only weapon against our persecutors.

Psalm 119:160

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

Thy word is true from the beginning:  Every word of God that has ever been expired from God and inspired through man is true. Here is implied strongly the verbal inspiration of the Bible, for every word from the beginning of the world (words spoken to Adam and recorded) all the way to the completion of the word of God in the book of Revelation is true.

The verbal inspiration of the Bible has been a long-discussed and debated issue, but most of us as Baptists still believe in this positive and perfect inspiration of every word of God.

and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.  Not only are these words true from the beginning, but these words will also continue to be true throughout the existence of this present world and the world to come.  The word endureth is a supplied word, so we could just as well put the word is in it place. In other words, every one of God's judgments (His word), exists forever, not simply for the duration of time. These words are, then, eternal words.

Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. (Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33).

Psalm 119:159

Dr. Ronnie Wolfe

Consider. Usually we judge ourselves as to how we love God's word, submit to its teaching, and faithfully follow its commands; but here the psalmist is asking God to consider his love of God's precepts.  Many times, when we judge ourselves, our judgment is not true, for we will many times make excuses for our lack of faithfulness or set for ourselves goals that are so much nearer to our earthly standards rather than the high standards of God and His word. The Hebrew word translated consider carries with it the idea of inspection. I am sure we do not need to ask the Lord to inspect our love for his word, but it is admirable that the psalmist here desires it to be sure his life is meeting God's expectation of believers in Christ.

Our love of God's word echos our love for God Himself. If we love God, we will love His word, and we will desire to do his commandments. John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Quicken.  This word means "to make alive" or "to remain alive." The psalmist here is asking God to keep him alive, to continually quicken him, keeping his spiritual life acceptable unto God. Psalm 19:14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.

It takes the lovingkindness of God to retain our lives in his love, to keep us in his kingdom, to never let us fall away from his grace and his security. This Hebrew word KESED can also be translated faithfulness.  Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)