Psalm 119v97 Oh how I love your law!
Our text for this evening is...
Psalm 119:97 Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.
This is a good text for the first Lord’s Day of this year. I pray that the Lord will use this
sermon to inspire a deeper love for and commitment to Holy Scripture in 2014.
The word ‘law’ has both a narrow and broader meaning. In its narrow sense it refers to the
moral will of God as summarized in the Ten Commandments:James 2:10-11 Whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable
for all of it. 11 For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not murder." If you
do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
The person who truly knows the Lord will have an increasing love for God’s law in the sense
of his commandments. The world despises the law of God and regards it as bondage. The
genuine Christian loves it and regards it as freedom. The apostle Paul could say…
Romans 7:22 I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
He lamented his inability to live in perfect conformity to that law he describes as ‘holy,
righteous and good’ (verse 12).
But in the broader sense ‘law’ refers to Scripture as a whole. It refers to God’s inscripturated
revelation. Jesus quoted the words of Psalm 69v4 as the words of ‘their law’ John 15:25.
Paul said…
Galatians 4:21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?
Paul then refers them to Genesis 16 & 21 and the story of Ishmael and Isaac. The word ‘law’
in Hebrew means ‘instruction’ and in this sense the whole of Scripture is instruction from
the Lord.
This evening I want to take ‘law’ in its broadest sense as referring to the Scriptures in their
entirety. The psalmist is affirming his love for the written word of God- what we call ‘the
Bible.’ This sermon is very necessary because many people in the professing church of Jesus
are losing their love for the Bible. Relating to God via a book is regarded as dull and boring.
After all, God is still speaking through his holiness the Pope and through prophets in the
Charismatic church. Why bother with the Bible when we can have live, real time revelation
directly from heaven?
I believe with all my heart the great Reformation slogan ‘sola Scriptura’- Scripture alone.
God is still speaking but he is speaking in and through his written word. According to Paul,
the breathed out Scriptures are sufficient for our spiritual growth and development (2
Timothy 3:16-17). God has said all that he intends to say to fallen humanity. Jesus Christ is
his final word. God has affixed the most spine tingling, hair raising curse to warn those who
might be tempted to add anything to his now completed word (Revelation 22:18-19).
Once we move away from ‘sola Scriptura’, we become so vulnerable to the wiles of Satan
who is ever seeking to lead us astray from the truth as it is in Jesus.
The psalmist had a deep and abiding love for Scripture- even though at that point in
redemptive history, the Scripture was far from complete. What he would have given to
possess John’s gospel or Paul’s letter to the Romans! How blessed and privileged we are to
live this side of the cross!
We notice that the psalmist is expressing his love for the word directly to God. He is
speaking to the Lord.
Psalm 119:97 Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.
When was the last time I said to God in prayer, ‘Father, I love your word so much. Thank you
for it’? Like many other things, we can take our Bibles so much for granted. The word ‘Oh’
must not be overlooked in our text. It indicates a deep and fervent love for God’s word. The
psalmist doesn’t simply say, ‘I love your law’ but ‘Oh how I love your law.’
Love for the word of God in incredibly important in these days. I couldn’t help but think of
some very solemn words written by Paul:2 Thessalonians 2:9-11 The coming of the lawless one (the Antichrist) is by the activity of
Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, 10 and with all wicked deception for those
who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11 Therefore
God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false.
There is a sobering punishment for those who refuse to love the truth revealed in Holy
Scripture. God (via Satan his unwilling lackey) sends them a strong delusion. They end up
believing lies to their own destruction. Paul is very specific. He doesn’t say they refused to
believe the truth; they refused to love the truth. Satan believes the truth but certainly
doesn’t love it. This is why so many in our day are embracing all kinds of serious errors and
heresies when once they appeared to theologically orthodox. How easily they are led astray
from the truth as it is in Jesus! It is possible to believe the truth but not love it. It is possible
to have a head knowledge of the gospel but no delight in the gospel. I then become fair
game for the latest heretical fad.
Let us ask the all important question, ‘What does it mean to love God’s word?’
1. To love God’s word is to believe it.
1 Corinthians 13:7 Love… believes all things.
When Rachel speaks to me, I believe she is telling the truth. I’ve known her long enough to
know that she would not knowingly deceive me. I express my love for her by believing her.
She would have every right to question my love if I always question her words.
Are we happy to be known as ‘Bible believing Christians’ who belong to a ‘Bible believing
church’? Because we love God and because we love his word, we believe that word. It is a
serious thing to call God a liar:1 John 5:10 Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not
believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.
Unbelief is a serious sin. It assaults the very veracity of God.
2. To love God’s word is to esteem it.
This means that we hold the Bible in high regard; that we revere and stand in awe of it. How
can I claim to love my wife if I don’t respect her?
Proverbs 13:13 Whoever despises the word brings destruction on himself, but he who
reveres the commandment will be rewarded.
Isaiah 66:2 This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and
trembles at my word.
Beware of treating Holy Scripture with frivolity. Paul calls the Bible ‘ the sacred writings’ 2
Timothy 3:15. God’s word is sacred and holy and must be treated as such.
3. To love God’s word is to defend it.
I am aware of Spurgeon’s famous words in reference to the Bible that we would not defend
a lion but let it loose. However, the apostles often defended the truth of God’s word in the
face of heresy. Almost every apostolic letter defends the truth.
Jude 1:3 Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
The Bible is always under attack. Will we stand by and do nothing? If my wife and children
are attacked in the street, I demonstrate my love for them by defending them- even at the
hazard of my life. Luther was willing to put his life on the line for the truth of God’s word in
the face of Papal persecution.
4. To love God’s word is to enjoy it.
Psalm 119:97 Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.
The one follows the other. What you love, you tend to think about.
Psalm 119:103 How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
I prefer chocolate to honey. I love chocolate for its sweetness. It tastes good. Do we have a
taste, an inner relish for the word of God? I also love bread and milk. God’s word is
compared to bread and milk. Loss of appetite is a sign of ill health. And so it is in the spiritual
realm.
God wants us to enjoy the Bible; to find great delight and pleasure in his words. Reading the
Bible is undoubtedly our duty but it must be our delight also. God’s word is our spiritual
food with which we feed ourselves. All of us enjoy our food!
5. To love God’s word is to obey it.
It is to have our lives molded and shaped by Holy Scripture. The Lord shows steadfast love to
those who love him and keep his commandments (Exodus 20:6). Jesus said…
John 14:21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.
Who loves her majesty the Queen most- the servants who follow her instructions or those
who disregard them? The Bible is the sceptre by which King Jesus reigns in his Church. If we
love him and love his word, we will want to bring our thoughts, attitudes, words and actions
into complete harmony with that word.
Can we take the words of Psalm 119v97 upon our own lips this evening?
Before we close I want us briefly to note the contrast between verse 97 and verse 104. This
section of the Psalm begins with love and ends with hate. Hatred has a place in the spiritual
life. This is not malicious ill will but a holy opposition to all that is false and defiled. God
himself possesses the latter but not the former.
The more we love God’s word, the more we will hate every false way. We will hate
everything that contradicts and undermines the word we love. The Christian church is
becoming increasingly flabby when it comes to truth and righteousness. Tolerance is the
great watchword. Very few church leaders are prepared to say that Islam is a false way and
that homosexuality is a false way. In one sense, the Bible is very intolerant. There is one God
and one mediator. There is one name given by which we must be saved. Jesus himself said…
Matthew 7:13-14 Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that
leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the
way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
As our love for God’s word increases, so our hatred of every false way will deepen. It cannot
be otherwise.