Category Archives: Resolutions

Speaking of Scripture (Psa 119.172)

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My tongue shall speak of thy word:
For all thy commandments are righteousness (Psa 119.172).

When was the last time you had a conversation with anyone, a real exchange of ideas with thoughtful reflection, upon any particular passage of Scripture? I am not asking when you last heard someone else present a Scripture text with an interpretation, but when you and a friend sat for more than one minute and turned a text over and over to examine it this way and that, and to help each other come to a better understanding of it, with its application to life.
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Swearing Obedience (Psa 119.106)

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I have sworn, and I will perform it,
That I will keep thy righteous judgments (Psa 119.106).

Real, saving faith involves commitment to God, which arises from faith in his promises, is expressed in worship and adoration of him, and leads to obedience to his commands.1 Without such faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb 11.6). Without such fruits of faith, it is impossible to enjoy full assurance that we have eternal life (Heb 6.11; 1 John 2.3-5).

The psalmist’s holy example exudes profound commitment to God and therefore the reality of his faith. These words show that it is a good and righteous thing to swear obedience to God’s commandments. Notice their several leading thoughts.
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The Word Worth Remembering (Psa 119.93)

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I will never forget thy precepts:
For with them thou hast quickened me (Psa 119.93).

No small part of Christian piety consists of expressing holy resolutions to God with conscious dependence on his grace for the strength to keep them. As a young man freshly converted from mere nominal Christianity to a new and wonderful sense of God’s glory, Jonathan Edwards sat to draw up the first batch of his now famous 70 resolutions. These were his deeply felt spiritual aspirations founded upon the application of biblical principles to his life. Resolution lists were a common part of one’s devotional life in those days, but it is hard to imagine that many had as much God-given drive and discipline as Edwards in keeping them.
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A Resolution for the New Year and Beyond (Psa 119.44)

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So shall I keep thy law continually
For ever and ever (Psa 119.44).

The great-by-grace Jonathan Edwards believed in making and keeping resolutions. In 1722-23 before his twentieth birthday, he wrote his famous seventy, which include a promise of periodic self-examination in the light of these resolutions:

3. Resolved, If ever I shall fall and grow dull, so as to neglect to keep any part of these Resolutions, to repent of all I can remember, when I come to myself again.
37. Resolved, To inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent – what sin I have committed – and wherein I have denied myself; also, at the end of every week, month and year.

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