Sunday, August 29, 2010

“I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil” (Psalm 119:162).

In Psalm 119 we find certain statements repeated again and again.  This repetition indicates the importance of those statements.  Verse 162 is one of many that express David’s great joy over God’s word and how highly he valued it.  I have mentioned this subject often because it is so important.  Let me quote a  few of Thomas Manton’s comments on this subject: “This joy, which is the mark of a sound believer, is delighting to know, believe, and obey God’s word.”  “Those who are most observant of God’s will, and careful to follow it, have the greatest contentment in their souls.”  Manton maintains that the encouragement and comfort that result from being employed in performing God’s commands, are a continual feast to the Christian.  Compared to this, all other pleasures are nothing.  It is a sweet thing know God’s word and be brought under the power of it.  The reason God’s word can do this, affirms Manton, is that “the godly find glad tidings in the word, suitable to their soul’s necessities.  Here is enough to content them.  The word of God affords such comforts, such matter of rejoicing, as cannot be paralleled.  Oh! what inestimable treasure do we find in the word of God!”  True Christians have tasted God’s love in the doctrines and promises of the gospel.  This sweetness gives the believer such assurance, that no arguments can stand against it.  

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