Psalm 119:33 Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes; and I shall keep it to the end.… In multiplied forms the difficulty of reconciling God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, God's help and man's energy, is presented to us in Scripture. But the difficulty is always intellectual only. It is one that the heart solves with perfect ease. It knows well how the inspiration of unseen ones does ennoble and strengthen our human activity; and its apprehension of God makes him to be nearer and dearer than any unseen friend of human fellowship. Ask the mind to explain how we can be "working out our own salvation" and God can be "working in us," and it is baffled into silence. Ask the heart if this twofold-ness of the religious life is ever actually realized, and it will say, "It is true, I know it to be true in the experience of my life." He who said, "I live, yet not I, Christ liveth in me," was at the very heart of the deepest truth. The psalmist, in his own way, arrives at the same conviction. Let the Lord teach him his will, and he will set all effort upon keeping it. Let God give understanding, and obedience shall be maintained. "I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me" I. MAN MUST CHERISH RIGHT PURPOSES. God puts no force on any man; he overrides no man; he does nothing for any man that the man can and ought to do for himself. Unless we resolve to live the godly life; unless we set ourselves upon seeking first God's kingdom and righteousness, nothing can be done for us. God never comes with help until he is wanted. II. MAN MUST WANT DIVINE HELP IN CARRYING THEM OUT. This sense of need is often a later experience, into which a man comes only on the failure of his self-effort in carrying out his resolves and purposes. But it must come before godly living can take on its higher and more hopeful forms. The earnest man comes at last to say, "O Lord, I am oppressed; undertake thou for me." III. MAN OBTAINS DIVINE HELP WHEN IT IS MADE EVIDENT THAT HE WANTS IT. It would be wasted on him before; it is fully effective on him then. It is true that God "helps those who help themselves," but the point to dwell on is, that he who tries to help himself in Divine things is the man who most feels his need of God's help. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: HE. Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end.WEB: Teach me, Yahweh, the way of your statutes. I will keep them to the end. |
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