DAY 3.
The third stanza lies before us today vs.17 – 24 and a store of blessing are to be found in these verses to enlighten and bless us in the hours ahead of us.
It opens up with a cry of need 'deal bountifully with thy servant' we come to the footstool of the Living God in simplicity and humility recognising the privilege given to us to ascend up Gods holy hill.
'Deal bountifully' points to the limited knowledge that we have of the Lord whose supply is always super abundant, overwhelming and above all that we ask or even think.
He always deals graciously and in tender loving care with those will walk uprightly, it is not the supply that is the problem but our small receptacle.
If we remain in the state we are in we bring a cup or basin, if we change and draw closer we can bring a bath but our God wants us to plunge right into the fullness of the Spirit without limitations.
To understand 'bountifully' we look at our natural growth and then to our spiritual growth, a baby grows to be a child, grows to become a youth, grows to become an adult who grows into old age.
Spiritually we grow in the Spirit in the same way the tragedy is most of us are content to stay static believing that we have all there is for us.
When in old age there are issues still to learn that we could not take in other stages of life.
We should be learning all the time as the saints in the Old Testament did, it is a good study to see the lessons learned by Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Isaiah and Jeremiah in old age.
We tend to forget about age in the New Testament but Paul was not a teenager in the Acts of Apostles neither was Peter and John whose Revelation was as an older person.
These men learned the secret of bathing in the fullness of the Spirit as they obeyed Gods word and made the necessary adjustment as revealed in Gods word.
David was not a youth any more but he still longed to be taught by the Lord in the secret place as Psalm 119 reveals to us.
So to v 18 and the heart cry today of many a soul, 'open thou mine eyes to behold wondrous things in thy law' the truth is we need the Holy Spirit to bring light on to the sacred page all the time.
The old body grows weary as time goes by and our faculties tire leaving us with deficiencies both mentally and physically but spiritually we can be quickened every day.
This is the longing of the obedient child of God that the word will become alive in them as well as to them, so that in some measure their life will be come more Christ like.
The word 'open' literally means to 'reveal' or to uncover, take away the periphery and bring me to the heart of the word.
Remove any overhanging locks to make bare the naked truth to my heart, soul and mind
so that I can receive those words spoken in secret to your disciples.
It is true to say that there are truths in the bible that are only known by the diligent disciple because they spend time alone with the Lord to allow Him to reveal them.
Those secrets are called 'wondrous things' here, the extraordinary works of God become a living reality to the observant soul, our heavenly Father is still working miracles today.
Realising these truths experimentally will bring forth rejoicing and praise in the heart of the believer and will exalt the name of our God as a result.
'The question is asked 'is there anything to hard for the Lord' Genesis 18 v 14 and though Sara laughed as the vast majority of Christians do at such as suggestion but 21 v 5 Isaac is born.
There are many times when such enormous challenges are laid at our door but we lose out because we do not really believe that God will do it for us.
Scripture has many a simple child of God coming to the Lord expecting a little thing will happen to them when our God has wonderful things to perform through them.
Today He is looking for servants who will believe in the impossible because He is going to perform the impossible through them for His glory.
Now that brings us to v 19 and the light begins to dawn on us that our God can do wondrous works today and is doing them elsewhere.
We look at ourselves and become 'strangers' the word means 'pilgrim' or 'sojourner' that is one who is passing through without taking up residence in that country.
The thought brings us to look at the way we are living, are we so wrapped up with earthly things that we are losing out on the spiritual blessings that God longs to pour out on His children?
We can be church minded living according to the rule book of the fellowship or we can be living according to the word of God as David desired to.
He may have been a terrific king of Israel and Judah but he recognised that he was only a servant of the Living God and longed for a closer relationship with Him.
He had the weight of the nations problems on his shoulders but he had learned to put those pressures where they belonged at the Ling Gods feet.
He had all the material things he wanted but above all of these he longed for the Holy Spirit to open the word of God to him daily.
David knew his weaknesses and strengths but he also knew the hunger and thirst after righteousness and that was not confined to certain people who fulfilled their tasks in the Tabernacle and area surrounding it.
No David saw the greatest need was spiritual and wanted to be the man that God intended him to become whatever the cost and he comes here to present himself for spiritual duty as the servant of the Living God..
David was a single minded man who learned from his mistakes, he knew failure through his flippancy towards God and in turning his eyes of God to wander on to people.
Now he wants to be more diligent and observant and dedicates time to be alone with God and if those times are interrupted it broke his heart v 20.
In the Psalm David is willing for God to remove those obstacles in his life that cause
breaks in relationship v 22 and we can identify with the two words today.
'Reproach' and 'contempt' two words that are major problems to the soul desiring to get closer to the Lord and become a diligent disciple.
'Reproach' the root is pointing the finger at others when we are responsible for our own actions and activities, we blame others for our own faults.
I wonder if there are issues in life where we blame other people for the wrongs that we have committed the disciple of Christ stands being corrected by the Lord and to the changes that are made as a result.
'Contempt' on the other hand points to the open mockery of Gods word through unbelief, do we realise that all unbelief is mockery to Gods word look up Romans 3 v 3 and Hebrews 3 v 12.
David came to the point where he despised such unbelief as he drew on the promises of Gods word and this soon brought his own unbelief to the surface to be dealt with openly.
The 'testimonies' of God are revealed so as to strengthen our faith in Him, they are given to draw us closer to Him and they are seen in the scriptures as testimonies for us to apply.
Not just to memorise or even to glamorise through talking about them but they are here for us to meditate on so as to live by them.
We should be searching out the promises so that we live by them and so our lives will become a closer replica of the scriptures as we pass through this short earthly scene.
Life on earth is very short even if we grow to be a hundred years old, this is a changing scene that is preparing us for eternity where perfection is the rule to live by.
We spend little time thinking about eternity but come the time when we do these spiritual truths will become of paramount importance to us.
The word of God will become more precious than anything else we possess, the promises will become more valuable than gold or silver and the quiet hour alone with God will come indispensable.
So make up your mind today to become a disciple of the Living God and begin to apply the scriptures to your life and to see the wondrous things contained in Gods word that you never knew were there.
