Psalm 119.121-128 (5)

Pray Psalm 119.127.
Therefore I love Your commandments
More than gold, yes, than fine gold!

Sing Psalm 119.128.
(Leominster: My Heart Doth Overflow)
The wicked scorn Your Word; let us be strong and bold
to act for You our sovereign Lord, and love You more than gold.
How precious is Your Word, no treasure on the earth
compares to it or to You, Lord, of holy, matchless worth.

Read Psalm 119.121-128; meditate on verse 127.

Preparation
1. What did the psalmist love?

2. How much did he love it?

Meditation
In one colossal moment of “gut-check,” Jesus asked Peter, “Do you love me more than these?” (Jn. 21.15). These? What these? These other guys? These fish?

Any and all of it. Everything. All the “these things” Peter might have imagined, including his own skin. He had already shown that he didn’t love Jesus more than his own convenience, wellbeing, safety, or reputation. It was all “these things” Jesus was calling Peter to set aside and focus his love supremely on Him.

How much do we love the commandments of God? More than “these things”? More than wealth and things and leisure and discomfort and the status quo and all “these things”? The psalmist emphatically declared twice in one sentence that he could not be bought off from loving God’s Word by even the wealth of nations.

So how did that love show itself? Reading, studying, meditating, devoting his heart to obey, celebrate, and teach the Law of God. Standing firm in the face of affliction. Clinging to God’s Word even when all the world regarded it as void (v. 126). This is the commitment to which God calls us with respect to His Word. Mere casual or occasional reading, or merely being content to hear sermons or read devotional guides won’t enable you to overcome the temptation to make an idol of any or all “these things”.

Pray verse 127 again out loud. Then go forth into your Personal Mission Field and show the Lord you mean it.

Treasures Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
“I love you.” “Well, I love you more!” Thus, the battle of the heart emojis started to fly on our text messages, and the words “zillions of hearts” and “to the moon and back” and “to infinity” were used. This was a joyous back and forth between me and our granddaughter Reagan. Something for me to ponder in my heart and cherish. More than gold.

The psalmist felt the same way about God’s commandments and all of God’s word. “I love Your commandments more than the finest gold” (Ps. 119.127). To infinity, and to the moon and back.

Job, amid all his suffering, said, “I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” (Job 23.12). More than treasured gold.

In the same way we value precious relationships with others, we must value God’s Word. If we regard the Word of God as essential to our life and work, and treasure it more than the finest gold, then we will see the fruit in our lives that God desires for us to bear.

David wrote cogently about the values and benefits of God’s word:
“The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
the statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, yea than much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover by them Your servant is warned, and
in keeping them there is great reward” (Ps. 19.7-11). Zillions.

When we love these precious words and let them sink down deep into our souls, we will find that the Triune God is more valuable to us than any of these other things that pertain to our lives. Yes, we will love them, but as an outpouring of our love for God. Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6.33). “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Lk. 12.34).

Jesus poses the same question to us that He asked Peter: “Do you love Me more than these other things?”
And when we answer in the affirmative because our hearts belong to Him and Him alone, He has some instructive and inclusive words for us: “Follow Me and tend and feed My sheep in your Personal Mission Field.”

I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands.
I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hands.
Than to be the king of a vast domain
And be held in sin’s dread sway.
I’d rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.
(Miller/Shea,1922)

For reflection
1. How do you determine whether you love God and His Word more than “these things”?

2. What can keep you from loving God and His Word above all else?

3. Whom will you encourage today to focus on Jesus and grow in love for Him and His Word?

The more outrageously the wicked vaunt themselves, let our veneration for and our love of the divine law proportionally increase. John Calvin (1509-1564), Commentary on Psalm 119.127

Pray Psalm 119.128.
Pray for each of your activities individually, that God will show you by His Word how you ought to do them for His Kingdom and glory.

Sing Psalm 119.128.
(Leominster: My Heart Doth Overflow)
Speak, Lord, and let us hear, the precepts of Your Word,
and know Your Presence ever near - our good and sovereign Lord!
Your ways are right and true; I hate each lying way;
Your precepts let me ever do and never from them stray.

T. M. and Susie Moore

You can listen to a summary of last week’s Scriptorium study by going to our website, www.ailbe.org, and clicking the Scriptorium tab for last Sunday. You can download any or all the studies in this series on Psalm 119 by clicking here.

What is the Law of God and how should we learn and obey it? Two books can help. The Law of God arranges the statutes and precepts of God’s Law under their appropriate number of the Ten Commandments. This book is an excellent tool for meditating on God’s Law and thinking about its application in our time. The Ground for Christian Ethics, on the other hand, explains why the Law matters and how we are to use it. You can order free copies of each of these here and here.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For sources of all quotations, see the weekly PDF of this study. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (Williston: Waxed Tablet Publications, 2006), available by clicking here.