The law from Your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver. Sermons
We are constantly dealing with the mission of affliction to the spiritual life. It may come with some freshness to follow the thought of the psalmist here, and see that the experience of affliction tells directly on the practical life of duty and relationship. It masters that growing self-willedness which leads the good man to try and take life into his own hands; and brings to him the humility and self-distrust which incline to keep well within the limits of God's Word. "If any of us remember a time in which we had no trouble, we also probably recollect that then grace was low, and temptation was strong." As an illustration in a larger sphere, Bishop Wordsworth's suggestion may be taken, "This was eminently true of the Hebrew nation. Before the Captivity, they had been torn by schisms - Israel against Judah, and Judah against Israel, and corrupted by idolatry; but they were purified from these evils by their afflictions." I. AFFLICTIONS PROVIDE TIMES OF MEDITATION. They are to the moral life what sabbaths are to the bodily life. They stop the rush; they affirm that there is something more important than self-interest; they compel quietness; they give opportunity for reviewing. When we can do nothing, we have a chance of thinking. Let life go on without changes or trials, and the sell must assume exaggerated importance. How can a man keep nobly dependent on God, who finds everything prosper under the hand of his energy? Affliction comes, makes him stop and think, and look back and up. II. AFFLICTIONS TONE TIMES OF MEDITATION. Distinguish between the tone of meditations in our holiday-times, and in our times of affliction. In the one case we have bodily health; in the other, bodily weakness. It is an element of importance that suffering and pain should give tone to meditation; but it is needful to bear in mind that affliction may make meditation exaggerated, one-sided, or unworthy. The meditation of such times needs Divine guiding and sanctifying. III. AFFLICTIONS PASS INTO NEW OPPORTUNITY. When a man comes back to life from a sick-bed, it is as if he began life afresh; with this difference - he had to grow into experience, now he has the opportunity to use experience. Habits are broken. He can make a new way, ordered and shaped by the new resolves based on the meditations of his affliction. - R.T. The law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver. I. BECAUSE IT GIVES US BETTER FOOD. It is well designated the "word of life," because by it the life of God is implanted in the human spirit and by it preserved. Christ is "our life," and the support of "our life"; and the Bible is full of Christ. II. BECAUSE IT GIVES US BETTER RAIMENT. It offers you the "robe of righteousness," and "the robe of joy"; — robes that adorn, protect, exalt, and endure. III. BECAUSE IT GIVES US BETTER FRIENDS. A true friend is the dearest treasure of earth. Money can give you friends; but they are seldom true. And even the richest friends that money can buy for you are not to be compared with the poorest friends the Bible can give, the true men of earth, the angels and archangels of heaven, "the spirits of just men made perfect," "the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity," and the praises thereof, these are the friends the Bible offers you. IV. BECAUSE IT GIVES US BETTER HOMES. Money can give you very fine houses. But it cannot give you "a building of God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens." The Bible can. () Homilist. I. IT SECURES A HIGHER CULTURE. It gives a freedom and a force to the intellect, a depth and a purity to the sympathies, a sensibility to the conscience, an invincibility to the purpose, a refinement to the tastes, a penetration to the eye, and a pinion to the imagination, that no other appliances on this earth can furnish. II. IT INVESTS WITH A HIGHER POWER. Wealth cannot impart magnanimity, fortitude, courage; but the Word of God does to the highest degree. It enables the soul to glory in tribulation, and to welcome death with rapture. III. IT OPENS UP HIGHER ENJOYMENTS. Wealth cannot give the enjoyment of an approving conscience, a loving spirit, an ever-brightening future, and the friendship of the everlasting Father. IV. IT CONNECTS WITH A HIGHER WORLD. The gold and silver of all the earth can form no connection between us and the celestial state, can procure us no admission into the heavenly world. "Naked came we into the world," etc. But the Word of God abides in us, goes with us as our light and our sanctuary. () 1. Its authority, It is a "law." As such it is a rule of conduct; solemnly obligatory; and supported by rewards and punishments. 2. Its divinity. The law of God's "mouth:" Not of human but of Divine origin. The revelation of God's mind to man (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21). It possesses striking evidences of divinity. (1)Its great and sublime doctrines.(2)Its antiquity and preservation.(3)Its renovating influence, sanctifying power, etc. (John 17:17).II. ITS INESTIMABLE WORTH. 1. In many things it resembles gold and silver.(1) On account of its preciousness. Gold and silver most precious of metals. Word of God intrinsically so (Psalm 138:2).(2) In gold and silver there is much value in small compass. So the Word of God. Of more worth than all the books in the universe. Every word precious, etc.(3) For their purity. Every word of God is pure. The standard of purity (Proverbs 30:5).(4) For their splendour. So the Word of God is luminous, resplendent.(5) For their solidity and weight. Word of God is solid, weighty; nothing trivial or light.(6) For their unconsumable essence. Fire does not destroy, etc. It purifies, and removes only the dross.(7):For their usefulness. 2. But it is better than gold and silver.(1) Better in itself. Heavenly and spiritual in its nature.(2) Better in its object and design. Destined for the soul.(3) Better in its effects. Spiritual and eternal advantages.(4) Better in point of essentiality.(5) Better in point of certainty. Word of God sure. Thieves cannot rob us.(6) Better in point of durability. The Word of God as incorruptible as the great Original from whence it proceeded.APPLICATION — 1. Bless God for His precious Word. Next to Jesus and the Holy Spirit His greatest gift to man. 2. Prize and revere it. Set your hearts upon it. 3. Seek to be greatly enriched with it. Covet much of it, etc. Lay it up. Dig for it. 4. Use it. Apply it to your diversity of condition. It is profitable for all seasons and circumstances. 5. What shall be the end of those who neglect the Gospel of Christ? () This is not an utterance in depreciation of gold and silver; precisely the reverse. It sets a high value upon them; and when sentimental pietists declare that they despise money and esteem gold as good for nothing, very many sensible people set it down as so much empty rant and nonsense. Gold is eminently useful in building a house and fitting it up with beauty and splendour, in providing food and raiment, and enabling a man to travel and secure all sorts of legitimate temporal enjoyments; but it makes him no wiser, no purer, no holier — it does not necessarily develop these qualities, or increase his faith, or fortify him against moral and spiritual evil, or expand his love to God and man; it often does the very reverse; while the outcome of God's law is always, useful and good. Gold and silver are undeniably serviceable in many other directions which it were wrong and sinful fret to recognize. The progressive amelioration of the condition of our race by which this age is characterized beyond all others is instrumentally due in a large measure to the wise and generous use made of earthly treasures, in promoting religious and scientific education, and, above all, in scattering broadcast over the whole world the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So far as money is used for such purposes as these its utility and value can scarcely be overestimated. Yet we must place it in the category of "the things which are temporal." But in seeking to form a just estimate of the value of the Word, let us view it —I. IN RELATION TO INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT. The great purifying currents of thought that have elevated our race have been formed and directed by the Bible. This alone should be decisive. Without attempting to sketch the history of its brilliant achievements, it may be said in a word that the nations which do not possess or follow the Book move upon a far lower plane intellectually, morally, and spiritually than those which have it. Paganism, in its highest forms, has been an utter failure. Pagan lands have been, and are now, non-progressive and impure, the abodes of mental stagnation, festering vice and horrid cruelties, while Bible lands are fruitful in all manner of useful discoveries. They lead the van of the world's mental and material progress. They revolutionize the commerce of nations. Their railways and steamships unite the ends of the earth and place its products and luxuries within the reach of all. II. IN RELATION TO MORAL CULTURE. It is not necessary to disparage ethical systems of heathen philosophers and others as if they contained no truth. Some of them contained a great deal. But looking over them from the days of Aristotle and Socrates to the time of the latest pagan writer, it may be said of them all that they lacked the great fundamental principle which is the backbone of Christian ethics, namely, an infallible standard by which to judge of right and wrong. This was their radical defect, and what renders worthless or positively injurious many systems of modern times. Men look in vain for the standard of right in self-interest, in utility, in feelings of benevolence, in pleasurable emotions, or in the dicta of unenlightened conscience — these are all shifting and uncertain, and, therefore, unfit to serve this purpose. But the Bible reveals an immutable and infallible standard. By general principles and specific precepts, by a comprehensive summary in the Ten Commandments, by the checkered and wonder-laden history of the chosen people, by the writings of inspired prophets and apostles, and by the incomparable lessons of the Lord Jesus Christ and by His spotless life as the incarnate God, the whole duty of man is enforced. Thus broadly and comprehensively viewed in relation to the moral government and culture of the world, who can doubt that God's Word is "better than thousands of gold and silver"? III. AS AN INSTRUMENT OF SALVATION TO MAN. We may safely say that as a means of grace it surpasses all others. ()
People Heth, Nun, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Better, Gold, Law, Mouth, Pieces, Precious, Silver, ThousandsOutline 1. This psalm contains various prayers, praises, and professions of obedience.
2. Aleph.
9. Beth
17. Gimel
25. Daleth
33. He
41. Waw
49. Zayin
57. Heth
65. Teth
73. Yodh
81. Kaph
89. Lamedh
97. Mem
105. Nun
113. Samekh
121. Ayin
129. Pe
137. Tsadhe
145. Qoph
153. Resh
161. Sin and Shin
169. Taw
Dictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 119:72 4303 metals
4306 minerals
4333 gold
4363 silver
5167 mouth
5591 treasure
8297 love, for God
8813 riches, spiritual Library Notes on the First Century:
Page 1. Line 1. An empty book is like an infant's soul.' Here Traherne may possibly have had in his mind a passage in Bishop Earle's "Microcosmography." In delineating the character of a child, Earle says: "His soul is yet a white paper unscribbled with observations of the world, wherewith at length it becomes a blurred note-book," Page 14. Line 25. The entrance of his words. This sentence is from Psalm cxix. 130. Page 15. Last line of Med. 21. "Insatiableness." This word in Traherne's time was often …
Thomas Traherne—Centuries of MeditationsLife Hid and not Hid
'Thy word have I hid in my heart.'--PSALM cxix. 11. 'I have not hid Thy righteousness in my heart.'--PSALM xl. 10. Then there are two kinds of hiding--one right and one wrong: one essential to the life of the Christian, one inconsistent with it. He is a shallow Christian who has no secret depths in his religion. He is a cowardly or a lazy one, at all events an unworthy one, who does not exhibit, to the utmost of his power, his religion. It is bad to have all the goods in the shop window; it is just …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture A Cleansed Way
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word.'--PSALM cxix. 9. There are many questions about the future with which it is natural for you young people to occupy yourselves; but I am afraid that the most of you ask more anxiously 'How shall I make my way?' than 'How shall I cleanse it?' It is needful carefully to ponder the questions: 'How shall I get on in the world--be happy, fortunate?' and the like, and I suppose that that is the consideration …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture 'Time for Thee to Work'
'It is time for Thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void Thy Law. 127. Therefore I love Thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold. 128. Therefore I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.' --PSALM cxix. 126-128. If much that we hear be true, a society to circulate Bibles is a most irrational and wasteful expenditure of energy and money. We cannot ignore the extent and severity of the opposition to the very idea of revelation, even if we would; …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture A Stranger in the Earth
'I am a stranger in the earth: hide not Thy commandments from me.... 64. The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy: teach me Thy statutes.' --PSALM cxix. 19, 64. There is something very remarkable in the variety-in-monotony of this, the longest of the psalms. Though it be the longest it is in one sense the simplest, inasmuch as there is but one thought in it, beaten out into all manner of forms and based upon all various considerations. It reminds one of the great violinist who out of one string managed …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture May the Fourth a Healthy Palate
"How sweet are Thy words unto my taste." --PSALM cxix. 97-104. Some people like one thing, and some another. Some people appreciate the bitter olive; others feel it to be nauseous. Some delight in the sweetest grapes; others feel the sweetness to be sickly. It is all a matter of palate. Some people love the Word of the Lord; to others the reading of it is a dreary task. To some the Bible is like a vineyard; to others it is like a dry and tasteless meal. One takes the word of the Master, and it …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year Inward Witness to the Truth of the Gospel.
"I have more understanding than my teachers, for Thy testimonies are my study; I am wiser than the aged, because I keep Thy commandments."--Psalm cxix. 99, 100. In these words the Psalmist declares, that in consequence of having obeyed God's commandments he had obtained more wisdom and understanding than those who had first enlightened his ignorance, and were once more enlightened than he. As if he said, "When I was a child, I was instructed in religious knowledge by kind and pious friends, who …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII A Bottle in the Smoke
First, God's people have their trials--they get put in the smoke; secondly, God's people feel their trials--they "become like a bottle in the smoke;" thirdly, God's people do not forget God's statutes in their trials--"I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes." I. GOD'S PEOPLE HAVE THEIR TRIALS. This is an old truth, as old as the everlasting hills, because trials were in the covenant, and certainly the covenant is as old as the eternal mountains. It was never designed …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856 The Dryness of Preachers, and the Various Evils which Arise from their Failing to Teach Heart-Prayer --Exhortation to Pastors to Lead People Towards this Form Of
If all those who are working for the conquest of souls sought to win them by the heart, leading them first of all to prayer and to the inner life, they would see many and lasting conversions. But so long as they only address themselves to the outside, and instead of drawing people to Christ by occupying their hearts with Him, they only give them a thousand precepts for outward observances, they will see but little fruit, and that will not be lasting. When once the heart is won, other defects are …
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents Of Deeper Matters, and God's Hidden Judgments which are not to be Inquired Into
"My Son, beware thou dispute not of high matters and of the hidden judgments of God; why this man is thus left, and that man is taken into so great favour; why also this man is so greatly afflicted, and that so highly exalted. These things pass all man's power of judging, neither may any reasoning or disputation have power to search out the divine judgments. When therefore the enemy suggesteth these things to thee, or when any curious people ask such questions, answer with that word of the Prophet, …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ Seven-Fold Joy
"Seven times a day do I praise Thee because of Thy righteous judgments."--Ps. cxix. 164. Mechthild of Hellfde, 1277. tr., Emma Frances Bevan, 1899 I bring unto Thy grace a seven-fold praise, Thy wondrous love I bless-- I praise, remembering my sinful days, My worthlessness. I praise that I am waiting, Lord, for Thee, When, all my wanderings past, Thyself wilt bear me, and wilt welcome me To home at last. I praise Thee that for Thee I long and pine, For Thee I ever yearn; I praise Thee that such …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series) And in Jeremiah He Thus Declares his Death and Descent into Hell...
And in Jeremiah He thus declares His death and descent into hell, saying: And the Lord the Holy One of Israel, remembered his dead, which aforetime fell asleep in the dust of the earth; and he went down unto them, to bring the tidings of his salvation, to deliver them. [255] In this place He also renders the cause of His death: for His descent into hell was the salvation of them that had passed away. And, again, concerning His cross Isaiah says thus: I have stretched out my hands all the day long …
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching The Christian Described
HAPPINESS OF THE CHRISTIAN O HOW happy is he who is not only a visible, but also an invisible saint! He shall not be blotted out the book of God's eternal grace and mercy. DIGNITY OF THE CHRISTIAN There are a generation of men in the world, that count themselves men of the largest capacities, when yet the greatest of their desires lift themselves no higher than to things below. If they can with their net of craft and policy encompass a bulky lump of earth, Oh, what a treasure have they engrossed …
John Bunyan—The Riches of Bunyan Excursus on the Choir Offices of the Early Church.
Nothing is more marked in the lives of the early followers of Christ than the abiding sense which they had of the Divine Presence. Prayer was not to them an occasional exercise but an unceasing practice. If then the Psalmist sang in the old dispensation "Seven times a day do I praise thee" (Ps. cxix. 164), we may be quite certain that the Christians would never fall behind the Jewish example. We know that among the Jews there were the "Hours of Prayer," and nothing would be, à priori, more …
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils The Daily Walk with Others (I. ).
When the watcher in the dark Turns his lenses to the skies, Suddenly the starry spark Grows a world upon his eyes: Be my life a lens, that I So my Lord may magnify We come from the secrecies of the young Clergyman's life, from his walk alone with God in prayer and over His Word, to the subject of his common daily intercourse. Let us think together of some of the duties, opportunities, risks, and safeguards of the ordinary day's experience. A WALK WITH GOD ALL DAY. A word presents itself to be …
Handley C. G. Moule—To My Younger Brethren The Talking Book
In order that we may be persuaded so to do, Solomon gives us three telling reasons. He says that God's law, by which I understand the whole run of Scripture, and, especially the gospel of Jesus Christ, will be a guide to us:--"When thou goest, it shall lead thee." It will be a guardian to us: "When thou sleepest"--when thou art defenceless and off thy guard--"it shall keep thee." And it shall also be a dear companion to us: "When thou awakest, it shall talk with thee." Any one of these three arguments …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871 How to Read the Bible
I. That is the subject of our present discourse, or, at least the first point of it, that IN ORDER TO THE TRUE READING OF THE SCRIPTURES THERE MUST BE AN UNDERSTANDING OF THEM. I scarcely need to preface these remarks by saying that we must read the Scriptures. You know how necessary it is that we should be fed upon the truth of Holy Scripture. Need I suggest the question as to whether you do read your Bibles or not? I am afraid that this is a magazine reading age a newspaper reading age a periodical …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 25: 1879 The Obedience of Faith
"Is there a heart that will not bend To thy divine control? Descend, O sovereign love, descend, And melt that stubborn soul! " Surely, though we have had to mourn our disobedience with many tears and sighs, we now find joy in yielding ourselves as servants of the Lord: our deepest desire is to do the Lord's will in all things. Oh, for obedience! It has been supposed by many ill-instructed people that the doctrine of justification by faith is opposed to the teaching of good works, or obedience. There …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891 Faith
HABAKKUK, ii. 4. "The just shall live by faith." This is those texts of which there are so many in the Bible, which, though they were spoken originally to one particular man, yet are meant for every man. These words were spoken to Habakkuk, a Jewish prophet, to check him for his impatience under God's hand; but they are just as true for every man that ever was and ever will be as they were for him. They are world-wide and world-old; they are the law by which all goodness, and strength, and safety, …
Charles Kingsley—Twenty-Five Village Sermons What the Truth Saith Inwardly Without Noise of Words
Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.(1) I am Thy servant; O give me understanding that I may know Thy testimonies. Incline my heart unto the words of Thy mouth.(2) Let thy speech distil as the dew. The children of Israel spake in old time to Moses, Speak thou unto us and we will hear, but let not the Lord speak unto us lest we die.(3) Not thus, O Lord, not thus do I pray, but rather with Samuel the prophet, I beseech Thee humbly and earnestly, Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth. Let not Moses …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ That the Body and Blood of Christ and the Holy Scriptures are Most Necessary to a Faithful Soul
The Voice of the Disciple O most sweet Lord Jesus, how great is the blessedness of the devout soul that feedeth with Thee in Thy banquet, where there is set before it no other food than Thyself its only Beloved, more to be desired than all the desires of the heart? And to me it would verily be sweet to pour forth my tears in Thy presence from the very bottom of my heart, and with the pious Magdalene to water Thy feet with my tears. But where is this devotion? Where the abundant flowing of holy …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ Links Psalm 119:72 NIV
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