I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies:
For all my ways are before thee (Psa 119.168).

The doctrine of God’s omniscience is a fundamental element of our orthodox Christian faith with the most practical implications for our godly Christian conduct. In the simplest way, David confesses his faith and shows its outworking in his life. This illustrates the truth that doctrine matters.

Speaking to the Lord, David says, “All my ways are before thee.” Here he uses anthropomorphic language, speaking of God as if he were a man. The original language has a literal sense like this, “All my ways are in your plain view, right in front of you.” Of course a human being has eyes in the front of his head, not the back, so that to say something is right in front of us amounts to saying we behold it and therefore have knowledge of it. If we say of someone, “She has eyes in the back of her head,” we mean that she has an uncanny awareness of what is happening around her even when she is not looking.
Continue reading →

My soul hath kept thy testimonies;
And I love them exceedingly (Psa 119.167).

A defiant little four year old girl was only barely subdued by her father who ordered her to sit, threatening a spanking if she didn’t. “I may be sitting down on the outside,” she said, “but I am standing up on the inside!” Now that was not true obedience at all, though attended with outward conformity to the letter of the law. A wise parent would most likely spank her anyway for this plain violation of the Fifth Commandment, and tenderly urge her to contrition and repentance from her grievous sin.¹
Continue reading →

LORD, I have hoped for thy salvation,
And done thy commandments (Psa 119.166).

This is excellent summary of the godly life provides us rich matter for meditation.

First, we should rid ourselves of any notion that the godly life is a pinnacle reserved for the most mature Christians. Yes, some real Christians are far more godly than others, but they all live godly lives as a whole, and have turned definitively from their ungodly lives before conversion. Paul used the phrase, “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus,” as an apt label for true believers who are subject to persecution for that very reason, and contrasted these godly ones with “evil men and seducers” who “shall wax worse and worse” (2 Tim 3.12-13). Scripture always regards “the ungodly” as unbelievers under God’s wrath and doomed to perish except they repent (e.g., 2 Chron 19.2; Job 16.11; Psa 1.1, 4-6; 1 Tim 1.9; 1 Pet 4.18; 2 Pet 2.5), and “the godly” as those who are justified (2 Pet 2.9). The popular “life on the highest plane”¹ theology is unscriptural and positively discouraging to sincere believers who remain painfully aware of their remaining sin, because this imaginary pinnacle always proves so elusive in their experience, and they are honest enough to admit it.
Continue reading →