Psalm 119:165 Great peace have they which love your law: and nothing shall offend them. They are not staggered or perplexed by anything which they meet with, either in Scripture or nature. "When God's Law is loved, instead of being struggled against, the conscience is at peace, and the inward eye is clear; a man sees his duty, and does it, free from those stumbling-blocks which are ever occasion of falling to others." Marginal reading is," They shall have no stumbling-block." Compare our Lord's denunciation of those who "offend" - "put a stumbling-block in the way of" - "one of his little ones." The point is that those who steady themselves by holding firm to God's Word have a sure support in every time of temptation or danger. There are two ways in which the knowledge and use of God's Word steadies us. It braces us up. It gives us something sure to lean upon. I. GOD'S WORD STEADIES BY BRACING US UP. This may be illustrated by the careers of two youths, who leave their country homes for business city life, and the peril of city snares and town traps." The one is braced up with good principles, and is able to resist temptation, and to throw off morally infecting disease. The principles of the other hang all lax and loose about him; and he has no ready resisting force when the enemy "comes in like a flood." Just what familiarity with God's Word. does is brace up our principles, brace up our moral nature, hold. us together; nourish the vitality in every part of us, so that we are kept in health and energy. Mind braced up with knowledge; heart braced up with right feeling; will braced up with motive. "Let your loins be girded about" II. GOD'S WORD STEADIES BY GIVING US SOMETHING SURE TO LEAN UPON. Illustrate by the ship-captain who can always fortify his own judgment by appealing to his chart. It is of the utmost importance that we should preserve our sense of the authority of God's Word, as an absolute and final appeal; a trusty staff on which we may lean. This form of the steadying power of God's Word was effectively illustrated in the time of our Lord's temptation. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.WEB: Those who love your law have great peace. Nothing causes them to stumble. |
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