Psalm 119:80 says, “Let my heart be sound in thy statutes.” We need to have a sound heart in the word of God. Such a heart is healthy, having no spiritual sickness related to God’s word. With respect to the word of God, we should not be sick in our heart. We need to be healed of all spiritual disease so that our heart may be pure, sound, and healthy toward the word of God.
In 119:36 the Lord’s seeker prayed, “Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.” Then in verse 112 he declares, “I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes always, even unto the end.” We need a heart inclined to the word of God. Because our heart often has the tendency to depart from God’s word, we need to pray that our heart would be called back to God’s word and be inclined to it. The psalmist prayed in this way and could also testify that he himself inclined his heart toward the Lord’s statutes. On the one hand, we need to pray that the Lord will incline our heart to the word; on the other hand, we need to exercise our spirit to bring our heart back to the word and to cause it to incline unto it. We need both a sound heart and a heart inclined to the word of God.
The Old Testament seekers of God also sought God’s word (119:45, 94), longed for it (vv. 20, 40, 131), hoped in it with prayer (vv. 43, 74, 114, 147), and trusted in it (v. 42). According to our experience, these matters go along with having a sound heart in the Word and inclining our heart unto the Word. If our heart is sound in the Word and is inclined to the Word of God, we shall seek the Word. Many people read the Bible and get nothing from it because their heart is not right. A certain scholar admired the Chinese version of the Bible and sometimes quoted from it. Nevertheless, he did not receive help from reading the Word, and he died an unsaved man. Even Christians may study the Bible and teach it without being helped by the Word themselves. The reason for this lack is that they have a problem in their heart. Their heart either is not sound or is not truly inclined to the Word of God. But if our heart is right, we shall not only seek the Word; we shall also long for it, hope in it, and trust in it.
Because Psalm 119 is filled with aspiration, inspiration, enlightenment, and nourishment, it helps us to realize the “day” side of the law, and it teaches us how to enjoy the law of God as His living word. The writer of this psalm was neither a theologian nor a Bible teacher; he was one who wrote to express his experience and enjoyment of the law of God. As we read Psalm 119, we see that what we have pointed out in the foregoing messages concerning the “day” aspect of the law is right.
The mountain where the law was given is called both Mount Horeb and Mount Sinai. Mount Horeb has a special reference to the “day” aspect of giving the law, whereas Mount Sinai has a particular application to the “night” aspect. Furthermore, when the law was given, there were two classes of people. Moses and his helpers were of one class, the ones on the mountain experiencing God’s presence. But those at the foot of the mountain were of another class, the ones trembling in darkness at the giving of the law. To Moses and those with him, the mountain was the Mount of God, but to the remainder of the people, it was Mount Sinai. In these messages we are not at the foot of the mountain; we are on the top of the mountain receiving the Lord’s infusion. In their experience, the psalmists and all the other Old Testament seekers of God were on the mountain and received a divine transfusion. Because they were infused with God, the psalmists used marvelous, wonderful, and even exciting expressions to speak of their experience of God and of their enjoyment of His word.
Psalm 1 indicates that the law, when taken in a proper way as God’s word, can minister life to us. Those who delight in the law of the Lord and who muse on it day and night are like trees planted by the rivers of water (vv. 2-3). As we shall point out in the next message, the Hebrew word translated meditate means to muse upon. This Hebrew word implies worship and prayer. If we contact the law of God by musing upon God’s word in worship and prayer, in our experience the law will become a river of water, and we shall be trees planted by the water. This is the indication in Psalm 1 that the law can supply us and water us.
As we have pointed out, in 2 Corinthians 3:6 Paul says that the letter kills. Whether the law kills us or supplies us with life depends on how we deal with it. If we regard the law as the living word of God through which we contact the Lord and abide with Him, the law will become a channel for the supply of life. The source of life is the Lord Himself. The law in itself is not such a source, but it is a channel through which the divine life and substance are conveyed to us for supply and nourishment. What a blessing it is to receive the law in this way!
In the Bible, those who lovingly sought God were not the only ones who handled the law of God. The Pharisees, scribes, and Judaizers also handled the law. In the four Gospels we see a portrait of those who were zealous for the law and for the traditional exposition of the law. To them, the law was not a channel of life; it was dead letters which brought them into death. By contrast, the aged Simeon and Anna were nourished and watered by the law. It is hard to say where Gamaliel fits in. A famous teacher of the law, he may have been neither in the “day” nor in the “night.” Perhaps he was in the “evening.” Simeon and Anna are representatives of the “day” people; the Pharisees and Judaizers, of the “night” people; and Gamaliel, of those in the “evening.”
In our approach to the Bible today, we may be either in the “day” or in the “night.” By the Lord’s mercy, we can testify that concerning the Bible we in the Lord’s recovery are in the “day.” As we read the Word of God, we experience sunrise, not sunset. But when many read the Bible, they are in the “night.” As Paul said of the Jews, there is a veil upon their heart in the reading of the Scriptures (2 Cor. 3:14). They are veiled by their tradition and by their natural concepts. In their experience the Bible thus becomes a book of dead letters. Like the ancient Pharisees, scribes, and Judaizers, they handle the Word without directly contacting the Lord. Instead of exercising their spirit, they rely on their natural understanding. Furthermore, they are often zealous to maintain their religious tradition. But whenever we come to the Word, we need to contact the Lord. As we come to the Lord in the Word, we need to hunger and thirst for Him and seek to enjoy Him. This seeking after the Lord is well expressed in the lines of a hymn:
I come to Thee, dear Lord,
My heart doth thirst for Thee;
Of Thee I’d eat, of Thee I’d drink,
Enjoy Thee thoroughly.
Just to behold Thy face,
For this my heart doth cry;
I deeply long to drink of Thee
My thirst to satisfy.
Hymns,#812
In our reading and pray-reading of the Word, we should seek the Lord’s glorious, radiant face. Then in our experience the Word of God will be a source of life supply and nourishment, and we shall be in the “day,” not in the “night.”