v. 129 Unless we see the beauty and goodness of the Lord’s commandments, we will not keep them. If we view them as restrictive, we are bound to break them, but the more we see them for what they really are, namely, the path to true freedom and joy, the more we will be inclined to keep them. They are given by a good God for the good of those who trust Him.

v. 130 Here seems to be a clear argument for expository preaching. It points to the simple reality that people need, more than anything else, to understand the Word of God. We understand our world only to the degree that we understand the Word. We need to know its overall message and the way in which the Bible would lead us to view the world. “The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple.” This is why it is every Christian’s duty to do whatever he or she must to know the Bible. For our ignorance of the Bible is the reason why we walk in such intellectual simplicity.

v. 131 We will only open our mouths and pant for that which gives life. Do we view the Word of God like this?

v. 136 “My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law.” Can you honestly say this? Our love for God and His Word is so weak. May the Lord capture our hearts once again and in turn, make us a people of joy and mourning.

v. 140 “Your promise is well tried, and your servant loves it.” Are the promises of God well-tried by us? Have they been tested in our lives? How precious they are to us is probably a clear indication of how much they have been tested. You know, it is possible to set up your life in such a way that you do not have to test the promises of God. In America, we all do this to some extent. No risks. No troubles. We might not even be able to hear a radical call from the Lord because we are so buy dotting our i’s and crossing our t’s. Yet in the end, this is no way to live. How exciting is it really, giving ourselves over to the great American gods of comfort and ease? Let’s venture it all on God and then see what happens! Let’s try the promises, so that God may show Himself a ever-present, well-proved help in times of trouble! O Lord, give us the grace to venture all on You!

v. 1 There is needed today and everyday leaders who will speak plainly to the people of God about their sins. For until we are confronted with our sin, we will see no need to repent and seek the Lord.

v. 2 There is a kind of seeking that is no seeking. It’s a pseudo-seeking. It’s a deceptive seeking that leads people to believe they are pursuing the Lord when they are doing nothing of the sort. For there is no abandon. There is no fire, no hunger, no thirst. Just (more or less) empty religious routine. We must realize that it is possible to pursue the Lord without really pursuing the Lord–and to be on guard from doing this thing ourselves.

v. 3 Clearly they were putting stock in their religious routine, and acted as if the Lord should respond merely to their external religious works. Yet the entire time, they walked in disobedience. They refused to humble themselves, but instead, kept living the way they desired to live. Their religious works were peripheral and empty actions.

v. 5 There is much more to fasting than the actual physical act of fasting. If we do not have a spiritual reason for our fast, and we are failing to walk in obedience, our fast is worth little to nothing in the eyes of the Lord.

v. 6-14 Notice that the Lord calls the people to obedience, but not just any obedience, but particularly to the care of those who cannot help themselves. Why? Because here especially we find the test of true religion. Here especially do we find the heart of God. The Lord is looking for poverty of spirit. An our poverty of spirit is revealed by how jealous we are for the weak and the lowly. Clearly, there are conditions to meet before the Lord will hear our cries. Making the cries themselves is not the only condition. For the Lord turns His ear away from the prayer of the unrighteous.

v. 9-12 The promises here are awesome. They point to the reality that if we are struggling in darkness, we are wise to start pouring ourselves out for the good of others and the glory of God. Joy is found in self-forgetfulness. Self-fulfillment is found in self-forgetfulness. An over-preocupation with ourselves and our own little ‘worlds’ is a deadly preoccupation. Of course, we cannot forget about ourselves entirely, but it won’t hurt to try! Just look at the promises the Lord makes to those who are jealous for the good of others. If we have eyes to see and a heart set on the Lord, serving others is where true joy is found.

v. 6-8 Notice the grounds for their being strong and courageous, namely, the presence of the Lord. The Lord never calls us to something without giving us reasons why we ought to believe. Under the New Covenant, the Lord our God is with us wherever we go. He will not leave us or forsake us. And if He is for us like this, who is against us? Man? The Lord is helper, I will not fear, what can man do to me?

v. 11-13 Notice that the primary means through which the people were supposed to pay attention to the Word of the Lord was simply by exposure to it. We are wise to place the Word of God before our minds eye in any way we possibly can. Here is a good reason for every Christian to own an iPod!

v. 16 This is a tough way to go out isn’t it? After all that Moses has done for this people, the Lord tells him plainly that they will forsake Him once they enter into the land.

v. 21 The Lord knew exactly what they were inclined to do, yet He led them into the land anyway. Did He make a mistake here? I think not. Every detail is His detail.

v. 27 Great leaders are used to keep great nations from great evil. May the Lord raise up many leaders today.

v. 97 That which we truly delight in, we will think upon–and we will do so consistently. This is a convicting verse–probably to everyone. And although the psalmist is not saying that he meditates on the Word of God every minute of every day, he is pointing us to a consistency and constancy of meditation that is more or less ‘all the day.’

And this is surely the kind of life we should all live, for it is this kind of life–one that is saturated with the Word of God–that the Lord promises to bless. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in due season and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1). Imagine prospering in every single thing that you do! Yet this promise is for every believer in Jesus, if we will but meet the condition to meditate on the Word of God day and night–that is, saturate our lives with Bible meditation.

You know, we don’t need to know and apply a lot of different things to be great to the glory of God. We just need to know and apply a few, central things that serve to adequately inform all the peripheral things. Meditating on the Word of God day and night is one of those central things. This means simply that we ought to revolve our lives around this practice, to find a way to continually and consistently meditate upon the Word of the Lord. For there is truly the life of blessing.

v. 99-100 He says that he is wiser than his teachers because he meditates on the Word of God and then applies what he learns. Nothing fancy right? Well, the path to true greatness is definitely nothing fancy. It simply take diligence and discipline. We need, in the end, to know the Word of God and apply it to the glory of God. If we do so, we might well exceed many in understanding and wisdom–even though we be ordinary and unschooled men.

v. 101 There is involved in obedience an active pursuit of the right and good and a conscious holding back from the wrong and good (and not-so-good).

v. 103 O Lord, give me such a taste!

v. 104 A true understanding always leads to a true hatred for all that opposes such understanding. If we love someone, we will naturally abhor anything that is designed for their hurt. How much we love God is revealed by how much we hate sin.

v. 105 Notice that the Lord does not light up our path too far ahead. Little by little He guides us. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

v. 106 Resolve is good and needed. Personal resolutions are good. But they must be consistently reviewed. The goals and resolutions must continually be kept before us in order for us to live them as we ought.

v. 112 One of the most effective ways we can incline our hearts to the testimonies of the Lord is simply by meditation. Simply setting the Word of God before us is a means through which our hearts will be inclined to keep it. This is why privately waiting upon the Lord through the Word and prayer is so vital to the strengthening and maintaining of our faith.

v. 115 We have to be wiling to separate ourselves from the disobedient in order to walk in obedience. Not always mind you. We ought to have relationships with unbelievers. To fail to do so is probably disobedience of another sort. However, separation is also a reality. When and where is a matter of discernment and conscience. But in the end, we can learn from the psalmist and say that if certain relationships are keeping us from obeying the Word of God (if they are dragging us down), it is probably time to depart.

v. 116 This is the cry of a weak and lowly man, but also a man who is hoping in the Word of the Lord. And the two sides go together. The arrogant will not hope in the Word of the Lord, but in his own strength of devices. The humble hope in the Lord and look to Him for the help they cannot give themselves or look for from others. Then we petition the Lord to reveal His glory and strengthen our faith as we look unto Him.

v. 120 A healthy fear is needed among the saints. After all, it is God we are dealing with!

v. 2-12 Here are the characteristics of the kingdom–or of those who make up the kingdom. Each is accompanied by a promise. We are wise to plead for the grace to make these increasingly become a reality to us.

v. 13 My understanding is that salt was used in ancient Palestine for (among other things of course) making the soil richer in order to bring greater growth. Essentially, it was used as a fertilizer. This, I believe, is a wonderful picture of what we are called to be. We are to go out into all the earth and live our lives in such a way that greater and more productive growth can occur. Indeed, the earth is restored to what it should be so that the fruit that should come does come. And notice that this fertilizer is placed on the soil before the growth comes. So also we are to impact our world at the ‘root’ level. The transformation of thought-forms seem to me to especially be applicable here. For when we change thoughts, we change individual lives and consequently, individual cultures and societies to the glory of God.

Take note: we are called to be much more than the kind of salt that makes our meat taste better. And though it is true that we are called to ‘preserve’ the world from driving itself back into utter chaos, we do more than preserve! We fertilize. We change things ‘at the root’ so that great growth can occur, so that everyone can flourish. Our high calling as Christians is much more than preserving the world from going to hell. It is restoring the world to all that God created it to be. It is unearthing all its potential to the glory of our Creator and Savior. O Lord, gives us such a vision. And give us the grace to live the kind of lives that bring that sort of radical change!

v. 16 So there is a way to work that God receives the glory. 1 Peter 4:11

v. 19 Live it and teach it. A path to true greatness.

v. 20 Here is the standard doing its work to produce in us a recognition of our utter inability to keep the law. We need a righteousness not our own then–the righteousness of the One who uttered these words!

v. 29-30 Are we this jealous for holiness?

v. 31-32 These words seem clear enough. Are we willing to deal with them? Really deal with them?

v. 46-47 “For if you love those who love you, hat reward do you have? do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?”

v. 48 Here is the standard that ought to drive us to our knees in pursuit of One who actually kept the standard, the Lord Jesus Christ.

v.. 1-13 Those who hope in idols are given over to them. This is the Lord’s judgment, He simply gives us over to what we desire–with all the implications of it.

v. 15 “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’”

This is simply amazing…simply amazing. The One who is hight and lifted up, inhabiting eternity (eternity!), the One who we can rightfully call Holy, this One, thought He dwells so far above and beyond us, promises to draw near to the one who is of a contrite and lowly spirit. Surely many things are involved in this ‘spirit’, but repentance is worth highlighting. For throughout this chapter, Isaiah is calling the people to repentance. Also, the Lord is clearly in the business of reviving the lowly and contrite heart. If we are truly humble, we will be repentant. Not to some point that we become a ‘downer’ but to the point where we see things for how they really are and respond accordingly. We fall so far short of the Lord’s standard. We have no hope but Jesus Christ. So we look to Him, we are humbled before Him, and lo and behold, the Lord of hosts draws near!

v. 21 “’There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.’” Though they seek it in a thousand different places, they cannot find it, for they do not seek it in God.

v. 19 “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cure. Therefore choose life…”

How simple, yet how impossible! For unless we are given a heart to believe–a new heart, a circumcised heart–although we might agree that obedience is the way to go, we will not truly believe it. And we surely will not have the power to obey. Virtually the whole of life under the old covenant makes this very plain.

v. 74 “Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in your word.” Here we see a central way we can encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ–hope in the Word of God. So often we think we need to go out of our way to encourage our brothers and sisters. And to a certain degree this is true. Often we can become self-consumed. However, for the most part, the best thing we can do for our brothers and sisters is to walk with God ourselves. Particularly when struggle and difficulty comes, when those who share our faith see our faith remain strong, they are naturally encouraged. In order to strengthen the joy of the saints, we are wise to be steadfast in our pursuit of joy in God. If you want to encourage me, the greatest thing you can do is have a heart that is hungry for and happy in the Lord.

v. 75 Do we also know this? Particularly the second part, “in faithfulness you have afflicted me.” First, note that the psalmist trusts that his affliction has come from the Lord. And second, that the Lord has brought this affliction in faithfulness to His child. He loves us. He is working for our good. He is faithful to His covenant commitment to work for our good. O do we believe it!? We must if we are ever to remain strong in the face of difficulty and affliction. Lord, grant us the grace to trust in You!

v. 79 “Let those who fear you turn to me, that they may know your testimonies.” If these words were uttered today, many would think they are arrogant–or to be more precise, that the person who uttered them was arrogant. But this does not have to be the case. Pseudo-humility does not have to prevail. If we know the commandments of God, we ought to know that we know the commandments right? If a man is wise, he ought to know that he is wise. After all, he is wise! A pseudo-humility that is always saying negative things about oneself and deflecting compliments might look more like humility, but it is nothing of the sort. It is simply pride in disguise.

v. 81-88 The psalmist remains steadfast in the face of persecution. He does so by continually looking to the word and placing his trust in it. He keeps the Word of God before him in order to endure. Too often we think to ourselves that we are unable to endure, simply because we don’t feel like it. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The work of endurance is a work to hope in the Lord and His Word. And this work is fought primarily or especially by keeping the Word of God before you.

v. 96 I’m not exactly sure what the psalmist means by this statement, but I have always been encouraged by his words, because I believe they point to the freedom that is found in obedience. The human tendency is to think of the commandments of God as restrictive when the opposite is exactly the case. For it is only in obedience to God that we can find true freedom.

v. 1-2 Surely the Lord is asking all of us this question right now. Why? Why? Why are so quick to pursue satisfaction in that which cannot satisfy? O Lord, have mercy on us!

v. 6-7 The pursuit of the Lord clearly involves repentance.

v. 8-9 Am I willing to humble myself under such a reality? In every moment of life, I would do well to remember the truth that God’s ways are higher and much wiser and superior to mine. In this is great rest.

v. 1-14 Clearly the Lord promises blessing on every single aspect of their lives in order to highlight His greatness and glory among all the earth (v. 10). This is always the order. The Lord first blesses His people (not necessarily with material goods, although that is surely one major aspect of it, as history shows–when the gospel is restored and cherished, material blessing comes, because the fruit of gospel living normally produces values and principles that lead to greater prosperity). Anyhow, the Lord first blesses His people, so that they may in turn be His means through which He blesses the world.

v. 15-68 How can one adequately summarize all that is within these words? First, take notice of the length of these warnings. These threats (or promises) of judgment upon the unbelieving and disobedient (and the two go hand in hand) are over 3xs longer than the promises of blessing. Second, notice that the promises of judgment are, in essence, the same as the promises of blessing in that as the promises of blessing encompassed all of life, so the promises of judgment encompassed all of life. Also, as the promised blessings were far beyond what is imaginable, so the promised judgments are far beyond what is imaginable. Third, take note that the Lord is the one acting in judgment in all these verses. He is not far off, but near, even saying that he will take delight in bringing ruin upon His people (v. 63). Fourth, realize that all these judgments point to the greatness of our sin and the necessity and horror of hell. Sin is so bad that we all deserve these judgments to come upon us. Yet the Lord is patient with us and has a certain ‘breaking point’ of sorts. Hell is horrible because in is horribly offensive to the greatness of our God. And though the judgments described in this chapter are horrifying (particularly b/c they came true), they are nothing in comparison with the place called hell. For all these judgments are merely a foretaste of all in the same way that all the Lord’s blessings are merely a foretaste of Heaven.