These ten blessings will lead us to the highest blessing of all—the enjoyment of God Himself as our portion. In 119:57 the psalmist declares, “Thou art my portion, O Jehovah” (Heb.). When we have God as our portion, we have not only light, life, water, and all the benefits these bring us, but we have the very God Himself. Some may think that the Old Testament saints did not enjoy God as their portion. But the writer of Psalm 119 says definitely that the Lord was his portion. Because the psalmist kept God’s word, God could be his portion. It is a very great matter to have God as our portion.
God can be our portion because He is real and not a superstition. If God had not been a reality to him, the psalmist could not have testified that the Lord was his portion. Everything superstitious is vain, unreal, and not at all substantial. How could something vain and unreal be our portion? It would be impossible. When the psalmist declared that God was his portion, he was enjoying and touching something very real.
In order for God to be our portion, He must also be very practical, present, enjoyable, and available. How could something become our portion if it were not near and available? And how could something be our portion if it were not enjoyable and practical? For many Jews, Moslems, and even Christians, God is far away. To them, God is not practical, present, enjoyable, and available. In their experience, they do not have Him as their portion.
I can testify from personal experience that my God truly has become my portion. I have never seen Him with my eyes or touched Him with my hands, but in my inner being I enjoy Him all day long. Some may claim that this is merely a psychological phenomenon. However, psychological phenomena usually do not last very long; yet the enjoyment of God as our portion is long-lasting. God is ever the same; He does not change. This One who is real, practical, present, enjoyable, and available is my portion. I am sure that you also have had some experience of God as your portion. Even though your experience may be limited, you cannot deny that to you God is real, practical, present, enjoyable, and available. He truly is our portion.
We all face problems in life. From years of experience I have found that there is just one antidote to our problems. This antidote is all-inclusive and very effective—it is God Himself. He alone is the answer to our problems and the cure for all our troubles. If we do not allow God to come into our situation, life will be nothing more than an empty dream. Without God, all our dreams first become problems, then troubles, and ultimately turn into death. But if we take the Lord and apply Him to our situation, things will be different. We shall be able to testify that our portion is not this matter or that thing. Our portion is not a good marriage, a high position, a large bank account, or a piece of real estate. Our portion is the Lord Himself. Because He is living, real, and practical, we can taste Him and enjoy Him.
We enjoy God as our portion through the Word and by the Spirit. We may compare the Word and the Spirit to an antenna and a ground wire which are the means for divine “electricity” to be conveyed to us. When we come to the Word with the Spirit, we receive God. Yes, we enjoy light, life, and watering. However, it is actually God Himself who is light, life, and living water to us in our experience. He is even our restoration, deliverance, strength, comfort, nourishment, upholding, and safeguard. By contacting the Word in a proper way, we receive the Lord Himself. We do not receive light, life, or water as things apart from Him. No, the light, life, and living water we enjoy are actually God Himself. God is also our salvation, food, drink, comfort, and protection. Every aspect of the first ten blessings we receive through the living Word is God Himself.
The declaration in Psalm 119 that the Lord is our portion is extremely crucial. We can receive light because God is our portion. We can have life and living water also because He is our portion. All the different blessings come to us through the Word because the Lord is our portion. As long as we have Him, we have everything. I repeat, the blessings we receive through the living Word are not things apart from God Himself. They are different attributes or virtues of the living God as our portion. In all kinds of situations, we may have deliverance and salvation because God is our portion. All the blessings we receive from the living Word of God bring us to the Lord Himself. The testimony of the psalmist was that the Lord was his portion because he kept His word. By keeping God’s word, he participated in God Himself and enjoyed Him. When we keep the Lord’s words, we also enjoy Him as our portion.
Only of the Bible can it be said that the author of the book is the portion of those who read it. Many Chinese have studied the writings of Confucius, but Confucius has not become their portion. Likewise, students do not experience the authors of their textbooks as their portion. But there is one book—the Word of God—whose Author eventually becomes our portion. The more we come to the Bible in the right way, the more the Author of this book, God Himself, becomes our portion.