Category Archives: Sanctification

On Sanctification (Psa 119.112)

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I have inclined mine heart to perform thy statutes
Alway, even unto the end (Psa 119.112).

In some respects Christian theology is much simpler than people realize, and our failure to grasp it is due more to our prejudice against truth than our limited intelligence. This universal prejudice is the result of our original apostasy from God in Adam, and far too much of his corrupt nature remains even in the best of us. To our shame we confess that even the most mature Christian’s sight of clear truth has only been partly restored, along with his affections for God; how much worse off then are we as spiritual newborns or adolescents!
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Kissing the Rod (Psa 119.71)

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It is good for me that I have been afflicted;
That I might learn thy statutes (Psa 119.71).

“All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” is the attention-grabbing title of a book by Robert Fulghum from the eighties. What did he have in mind? Simple duties like this: share everything, play fair, don’t hit people, put things back where you found them, clean up your own mess, don’t take things that aren’t yours, say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody, etc. He wrote,

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm.1

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My Chastened Soul

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Before I was afflicted I went astray:
But now have I kept thy word (Psa 119.67).

Before God, the church, and the world, this is the psalmists’ testimony of his growth in grace and a painful means by which it came. He measured his spirituality by the rule of Scripture. “I had departed from Scripture and now I have returned to keep it.” You are no closer to God than you are to His Word—not only in a knowledge of it, but also in the love of it—and all those who love His commandments consistently put them into practice. The more love to His law, the more consistency in obedience to it.
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Singular Piety

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The bands of the wicked have robbed me:
But I have not forgotten thy law (Psa 119.61).

It would be easy to live as a real Christian if nearly everyone else were doing it, but standing practically alone in our commitment to God and His Word—that is an acid test of our faith.

The exact sense of the Hebrew text is difficult to ascertain, even for godly scholars, but the general drift of this verse is plain enough. It is rendered variously because they are grappling with how these specific Hebrew words should be taken here, each having somewhat different meanings depending on the context.
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My Responsibility for Righteousness

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I thought on my ways,
And turned my feet unto thy testimonies (Psa 119.59).

Two great traps keep multitudes from heaven: arrogantly thinking they are good people living a good life, and admitting they are sinners while they continue to do nothing about it. The self-righteous will be shocked to hear their doom on Judgment Day when they thought to have some positive reward; the spiritually-lazy may be shocked by their condemnation because they had wrongly believed Jesus forgives the sins of impenitents, that is, those who simply continue as they were without getting a new heart and practicing new obedience. Many of the sluggards are deluded into thinking that a momentary decision to accept Jesus is enough all by itself for deliverance from the wrath of God. It is not.
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Sanctification Through Meditation

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I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night,
And have kept thy law (Psa 119.55).

The only real Christians are radical Christians—that is, those whose faith has been and still is truly internalized, and whose good works are then but the expression of their renewed hearts. Job seems to have affirmed his spiritual sincerity by saying, “the root of the matter is found in me” (Job 19.28).

In almost every plant it is at the root that disease begins. If ever you see even a plant in a flowerpot unhealthy, depend upon it there is something wrong at the root. It is over-watered or under-watered, or from some other cause the root has become diseased, and what is called ‘root-action’ is suspended or unhealthy. So it is in religion: if there is anything wrong with a man, it is almost sure to be something wrong at the root.
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Whole Person Faith (Psa. 119.48)

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My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved;
And I will meditate in thy statutes (Psa. 119.48).

Real faith, the saving kind, engages the whole person. This is the only kind of religion God requires and approves. “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment” (Mark 12.30). This fourfold elaboration of our being as humans is not meant to be a kind of spiritual dissection into our constituent parts, but rather it is an idiomatic way, especially in the ancient Hebrew manner of expressing things, of describing true religion. The repetition of nouns—heart, soul, mind, and strength—dramatically intensifies the basic meaning. This commandment confronts us with the fact that with God, it is all or nothing. You either love Him supremely or not at all in His estimation. Genuine Christian faith in anyone is like tea steeped in a cup of just-boiled water.
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Compelling Grace

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Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; For therein do I delight (Psa 119:35).

Immediately I would credit A. W. Pink for the striking title of our meditation1, which brings our attention to the fact that

Even true saints need compelling grace.

AN EVIDENCE OF SAINTHOOD

Let us consider the second line first, “For therein do I delight,” that is, not just “thy commandments,” but “the path of thy commandments,” that godly pattern of life which they recommend.
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Oh, to Lie No More!

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Remove from me the way of lying: And grant me thy law graciously (Psa 119.29).

Everyone lies, or so it seems. Surely we all suffer strong temptations to lie, and sometimes we cave. However, just as with all other sins, there are two kinds of people in this. Some are slaves to lying and never really repent. Both deliberately and without thinking much about it, they use lies in their daily lives because they believe it is easier and will bring them more happiness. They are at peace with deceit, even defending it as right and necessary under certain circumstances. The other kind of people are oriented toward truth. They hate lying even while struggling against this sin in their own lives. One of the main weapons in their arsenal against lying is prayer. By the way, the first group is lost (Rev 21.8) and only real Christians are in the second.
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