Meditations in Psalm 119
TETH
65 You have dealt well with Your servant, O LORD, according to Your word. 66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge; for I have believed Your commandments. 67 Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I have kept Your word. 68 You are good, and do good; teach me Your statutes. 69 The proud have forged a lie against me; I will keep Your commandments with all my heart. 70 Their heart is without feeling, like fat; but I delight in Your law. 71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted, so that I might learn Your statutes. 72 The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver.
“You have dealt well with Your servant, O LORD, according to Your word.” Psalm 119:65
Indeed, God is good and has dealt well with us, just as He has promised in His Word.
He has provided us with all our earthly needs and continually cares for us and blesses us. But even more importantly, He loved us and gave His Son to suffer and die for us and pay in full the punishment for all our sins. He forgives us and accepts us as His own dear children for Jesus’ sake.
Therefore, we join with the psalmist in blessing and praising the Lord for His goodness to us: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits; who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases; who redeems your life from ruin; who crowns you with loving-kindness and tender mercies; who satisfies your mouth with good; your youth is renewed like the eagle’s….” (Psalm 103:2-5).
O LORD God, You have been good to me and dealt well with me according to the gracious promises of Your Word. You are good and Your mercy endures forever. Amen.
“Teach me good judgment and knowledge; for I have believed Your commandments.” Psalm 119:66
Though we sometimes fail to consider it, God’s commandments are good and right and reveal to us the will and plan of our Heavenly Father for us.
But you and I need good judgment and knowledge. We need our God to teach us from His Word that we might know His holy and perfect will and understand that God’s commandments were given us for our own good – to protect us from sin and evil and their consequences upon our lives.
We also pray that God would give to us good judgment, that we might discern what is good and right and what is wrong and follow after the good revealed to us in God’s Word.
We pray, too, that God would, through His Word, reveal to us our sinfulness. We all come short. None of us has kept God’s commandments perfectly in thoughts, desires, words and deeds. We are all guilty before the Lord.
But His Word also reveals to us our Savior. Through the study of the Scriptures, we are made “wise to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). Through the Word, God teaches and reveals to us that Jesus has fulfilled all righteousness for us, that He suffered the just punishment for the sins of the world when He was crucified for us and that He rose again in triumph. He teaches and reveals to us that, for Jesus’ sake, our sins are pardoned and forgiven and that God reaches out to us and accepts us as His own dear children.
O LORD, teach me from Your Word. Give me good judgment and understanding and reveal to me the salvation You have provided in the Son. Amen.
“Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I have kept Your word. You are good, and do good; teach me Your statutes. The proud have forged a lie against me; I will keep Your commandments with all my heart. Their heart is without feeling, like fat; but I delight in Your law. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, so that I might learn Your statutes.” Psalm 119:67-71
We usually think of affliction as a bad thing but, as the psalmist says, God intends it for our good. “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28).
When we are afflicted with trouble, hardship, sickness and even the threat of death, God uses these afflictions to draw us closer to Him. He gives us a wakeup call and draws us back into His Word that we might learn of Him and His ways and take comfort in His mercy and forgiveness for Jesus’ sake.
With the psalmist, we too can say, “Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now I have kept Your word … It is good for me that I have been afflicted, so that I might learn Your statutes.”
And, of course, it is the LORD who, working through His Word, teaches us His will and statutes. His Holy Spirit reveals to us the truths of God’s Law and our failures to keep it, and the Spirit reveals to us God’s mercy and forgiveness for the sake of Jesus and His sufferings and death in our stead.
Yes, the proud oppose God and His Word. They reject God’s commandments and His authority over us. “Their heart is without feeling, like fat” as they continue on their sinful way and reject the God who made and redeemed them.
But, by the grace and mercy of God, we have come to see the error of our ways and have returned to our God for mercy and pardon. As a fruit of our faith in Christ Jesus, our Savior, we delight in God’s law and seek to live for Him in accord with His Word.
O gracious God, it is good that You have afflicted us and drawn us into Your Word that we might know You and Your will and repent of our sinful ways, trusting that You forgive and accept us as Your own dear children for the sake of Jesus, whose blood was shed for our sins. Amen.
“The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver.” Psalm 119:72
We may not be rich in the goods of this world. In fact, we could even be poor in comparison to our neighbors. But, when we have the Word of God and have been given to know and understand its truth, we are rich.
As the psalmist says, “The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver.”
Having a wealth of silver and gold coins to spend on our heart’s desires might seem appealing, but all the goods of this world will pass away. True wealth is in knowing the LORD and His Word. It is seeing our sinfulness but knowing of God’s grace and mercy in Christ Jesus.
Those who have thousands of gold and silver in this world will leave it all behind when they die. Those who know Jesus will be received into the mansions of His Father’s house when they depart this life (cf. John 14:1ff.).
Having God’s Word and taking hold of its promises in faith is indeed better than possessing all the goods of this passing world. Our riches are in Him!
Make me rich, O God, in the wealth of Your grace and mercy toward me in Christ Jesus. Let my treasure be in the promises of Your Word. Amen.
Epitome of the Formula of Concord
V. Law and Gospel
STATUS CONTROVERSIAE
The Principal Question In This Controversy
1] Whether the preaching of the Holy Gospel is properly not only a preaching of grace, which announces the forgiveness of sins, but also a preaching of repentance and reproof, rebuking unbelief, which, they say, is rebuked not in the Law, but alone through the Gospel.
Affirmative Theses
Pure Doctrine of God’s Word
2] 1. We believe, teach, and confess that the distinction between the Law and the Gospel is to be maintained in the Church with great diligence as an especially brilliant light, by which, according to the admonition of St. Paul, the Word of God is rightly divided.
3] 2. We believe, teach, and confess that the Law is properly a divine doctrine, which teaches what is right and pleasing to God, and reproves everything that is sin and contrary to God’s will.
4] 3. For this reason, then, everything that reproves sin is, and belongs to, the preaching of the Law.
5] 4. But the Gospel is properly such a doctrine as teaches what man who has not observed the Law, and therefore is condemned by it, is to believe, namely, that Christ has expiated and made satisfaction for all sins, and has obtained and acquired for him, without any merit of his [no merit of the sinner intervening], forgiveness of sins, righteousness that avails before God, and eternal life.
6] 5. But since the term Gospel is not used in one and the same sense in the Holy Scriptures, on account of which this dissension originally arose, we believe, teach, and confess that if by the term Gospel is understood the entire doctrine of Christ which He proposed in His ministry, as also did His apostles (in which sense it is employed, Mark 1:15; Acts 20:21), it is correctly said and written that the Gospel is a preaching of repentance and of the forgiveness of sins.
7] 6. But if the Law and the Gospel, likewise also Moses himself [as] a teacher of the Law and Christ as a preacher of the Gospel are contrasted with one another, we believe, teach, and confess that the Gospel is not a preaching of repentance or reproof, but properly nothing else than a preaching of consolation, and a joyful message which does not reprove or terrify, but comforts consciences against the terrors of the Law, points alone to the merit of Christ, and raises them up again by the lovely preaching of the grace and favor of God, obtained through Christ’s merit.
8] 7. As to the revelation of sin, because the veil of Moses hangs before the eyes of all men as long as they hear the bare preaching of the Law, and nothing concerning Christ, and therefore do not learn from the Law to perceive their sins aright, but either become presumptuous hypocrites [who swell with the opinion of their own righteousness] as the Pharisees, or despair like Judas, Christ takes the Law into His hands, and explains it spiritually, Matt. 5:21ff ; Rom. 7:14. And thus the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all sinners [ Rom. 1:18 ], how great it is; by this means they are directed [sent back] to the Law, and then first learn from it to know aright their sins-a knowledge which Moses never could have forced out of them.
9] Accordingly, although the preaching of the suffering and death of Christ, the Son of God, is an earnest and terrible proclamation and declaration of God’s wrath, whereby men are first led into the Law aright, after the veil of Moses has been removed from them, so that they first know aright how great things God in His Law requires of us, none of which we can observe, and therefore are to seek all our righteousness in Christ:
10] 8. Yet as long as all this (namely, Christ’s suffering and death) proclaims God’s wrath and terrifies man, it is still not properly the preaching of the Gospel, but the preaching of Moses and the Law, and therefore a foreign work of Christ, by which He arrives at His proper office, that is, to preach grace, console, and quicken, which is properly the preaching of the Gospel.
Negative Theses
Contrary Doctrine which is Rejected
11] Accordingly we reject and regard as incorrect and injurious the dogma that the Gospel is properly a preaching of repentance or reproof, and not alone a preaching of grace; for thereby the Gospel is again converted into a doctrine of the Law, the merit of Christ and Holy Scripture are obscured, Christians robbed of true consolation, and the door is opened again to [the errors and superstitions of] the Papacy.
Bible Study in Preparation for Sunday
Scripture Readings for Sunday are: Psalm 119:65-72; Ephesians 5:15-21; and Matthew 16:21-28. Please read them in their context as you prepare for worship on Sunday.
The Adult Bible Class is studying St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, at chapter 4, verse 1ff. Sunday’s focus will be on the practice of church fellowship with application to Lutheran church bodies and congregations.
Remember to Pray
Remember to pray for our church and for all our members, that none be lost to Christ’s kingdom but that all continue in repentance and be strengthened and built up in the true and saving faith in Christ Jesus through the hearing and study of His Word. We pray for God’s healing and strengthening of our congregation, as well as for God’s help with our church’s financial needs. We continue to pray for all who have been sick or who are suffering among us – for Sam Rusch, who was hospitalized; for Bonnie Hawes, who will be undergoing tests and is anticipating heart surgery; for Jessica Evans, who has returned to live with her sister in California; for those who have been absent from us, for our extended families and for believers who are alone and have no congregation. Continue to pray for Lutheran congregations in the Philippines and Japan, for Christians in Nigeria, Haiti and Chile, and for believers around the world who are persecuted or suffering for their faith in Christ Jesus.
Events and Announcements
On-line video of worship services can be found at: http://goodshepherdrogers.org/blog/worship-service-video.
Information for bulletins or newsletters may be sent to Pastor Moll by calling him at 479-233-0081 or by e-mail at goodshepherdrogers@yahoo.com.
Psalm 1
1 Blessed is the man who has not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, and has not stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the seat of the scornful. 2 But his delight is only in the law of the LORD; and in His law he meditates day and night. 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivulets of water that brings forth its fruit in its seasons, and its leaf shall not wither, and all which he does shall be blessed. 4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff which the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous; but the way of the ungodly shall perish.