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
Many professing Christians are like this rebellious daughter, “standing up on the inside.” They confess Christ, but truth be told, only grudgingly and with shame. They come to church on and off, but only because they would be more afraid of going to hell if they were to forsake the meetings completely. They may even maintain the habit of checking off the next day’s Bible reading, but there has been no spiritual communion with the Lord. We might elaborate upon the defects in all their supposedly Christian conduct, but these examples suffice.
The fundamental problem with all this is that these people, typical church members in many cases, have no love to God, nor to his Word for his sake. Whatever love they may profess, they are truly loveless on the inside. They are also faithless on the inside, while maintaining a thin Christian veneer of respectability. They are rebellious on the inside, even though they scurry about their basic duties when they remember that the Master’s eye is upon them, and that he inflicts pain on the disobedient.
This superficial, servile obedience is mere wickedness with a mask which Judgment Day will tear off publicly to the humiliation and condemnation of all who have been foolish enough to wear it until then, who have never been honest with themselves or with others about their carnal, unchanged hearts.
According to the familiar pattern of Psalm 119, David testifies to the Lord in prayer. First he affirms his true obedience to God’s Word. Then he speaks of his abounding love to the same.
THE NATURE OF TRUE OBEDIENCE
The “soul” may refer in Scripture to the whole person, as in Genesis 2.7, where it comprehends Adam’s whole being, and part is put for the whole in a figure of speech. “Man became a living being” (NKJV).
While not denying that his testimony here conveys an obedience that encompassed his whole being, including his bodily actions, the phrasing seems to stress that his obedience was especially sincere and internal. Otherwise he could have said, simply, “I have done thy commandments,” as in the previous verse (v. 166). Thomas Manton notes here
the spirituality of his obedience, “My soul hath kept thy testimonies” . . . not with outward observance only, but with inward and hearty respect. “My soul,” that is, myself; a part for the whole, and the better part, “with my soul,” and so it shows his sincerity. It is a usual expression among the Hebrews, when they would express their vehement affection to anything, to say they do it with their souls; as in Psa 103.1, “Bless the Lord, Ο my soul,” and Luke 1.45, “My soul doth magnify the Lord” (in loc.).
To “keep testimonies” is to observe and perform them,2 that is, “laws given with a divine warrant,”3 which Hebrew word occurs thirteen times in this psalm. Of course Holy Scripture is always in view by Psalm 119’s impressive array of nouns for the sacred text, one of which is featured in nearly every verse.
Thomas Watson helpfully lists several traits of true obedience to God and his Word. It must be free and cheerful, devout and fervent, extensive, reaching to all God’s commands, sincere, aiming at the glory of God, in and through Christ, and constant.4 Such is the obedience in view here.
THE ACCOMPANIMENT OF ABOUNDING LOVE
“I love them [thy testimonies] exceedingly.” This is not only genuine love, but a holy torrent of love, gushing like Niagara Falls. “Obedience is not an onerous task for the psalmist; he follows God’s law because he wants to.”5 He finds Scripture so excellent because it converts the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, and because it endures forever as true and righteous altogether. It warns God’s servants about potential catastrophes and leads them into the way of great reward. Therefore it is more desirable than gold, and sweeter than honey (Psa 19.7-11).
True obedience and abounding love are related in both directions. It is more obvious to see how one who truly loves God’s Word is bound to keep it from the heart. Love implies knowledge, and one cannot obey unknown commandments. Love also suggests approval, a tacit consent of the judgment that what is required is good and right, the very best course of action. Love goes further and connotes delight, so that acting as wisely prescribed is a genuine pleasure to the obedient one. Now where anyone has such a great love to God’s directives in Scripture (being intellectually convinced and emotionally aroused), the will is bound to comply, and the result is true obedience, both inward and outward.
Yet there seems to be a Scriptural contradiction to this notion in Romans 7.22-23,
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Yet the man who wrote this was none other than the apostle Paul, probably the greatest evangelist and pastor and preacher and missionary in the history of the Christian church. In a few other places he wrote, with no less candor,
And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men (Acts 24.16).
For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me (1 Cor 4.4 ESV).
Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us (Phil 3.17 ESV).
You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers (1 Thess 2.10).
So how could this one who “delights in the law of God after the inward man” say that he has been brought “into captivity to the law of sin?”
The more holy a person is, and the more his heart is truly sanctified, it is reasonable to suppose he shall have the more quick sense and painful feeling of what sin may remain in him; and that he shall utter his complaint of it in the more strong expressions, and with the greater bitterness of heart. A person nasty and drabbish [muddy?], who hath been commonly employed in the dunghill, can be nasty all over, without any uneasiness; whereas it gives a person of more delicate breeding and manners much shame and uneasiness to observe a small spot of filth upon himself.6
It was because of Paul’s love for God’s Word that he became so holy and so sensitive to the least remnants of sin in his soul, even before it broke out into sinful actions.
Furthermore, it is also true if less obvious that the one who keeps God’s Word from the heart grows to love it more and more. This is not hard to understand if we pause to think about it.
Scripture, as the verbal expression of God’s wisdom, is the surest way to the highest blessedness, both for this life and the life to come. This is not the “health and wealth gospel” that crassly promises great faith will result in financial and worldly success, but such a heresy prospers partly because there is an element of truth in it—namely, that God blesses his children and curses his enemies, even in this life. Very often the Bible calls its hearers to embrace wisdom, that is, habitual application of God’s commandments to real life, from the benefits that can be expected (Psa 84.11; 112.1-3; Prov 4.7-9; 13.22; 21.20). Similarly, many warnings about miseries, even associated with this present life, are given to transgressors of God’s moral law (Prov 5.8-13; 13.15).
So believers discover to our delight that when we have done God’s will, it tends to our greatest ultimate good, besides, as a rule, bettering our general welfare in the here and now. Even the persecuted know choice blessings in this life denied to wealthy scoffers, like a loving household (Prov 15.16), a good reputation (Prov 22.1), and a generous spiritual family (Mark 10.29-30).
Thus Christians are warned against conformity to this world and exhorted to be transformed by the renewing of our minds that we may prove by experience that the will of God is good, acceptable, and perfect (Rom 12.2).7
So keep God’s Word from the heart in order that you may love it more with all its attendant blessings, and excel in love to it in order that you may keep it more consistently. This we can do through Christ (Phil 4.13). Amen.
Notes:
1 See John Macarthur’s good advice on this topic in in Successful Christian Parenting, chs. 4, 6.
2 BDB #1036.3.
3 TWOT $#1576.e.
4 The Ten Commandments, pp. 2-4.
5 Reformation Study Bible, in loc.
6 A Treatise on Sanctification, James Fraser of Alness, p. 266.
7 “And do not follow the customs of the present age, but be transformed by the entire renewal of your minds, so that you may learn by experience what God’s will is—that will which is good and beautiful and perfect” (WNT).