As I worked on these verses this month, I focused on the
first one for I already knew the second one. We have taught Psalm 119:11 during
the years to our Sunday school classes, both for hearing and deaf children. It
has been neat explaining it to them and seeing them learn it. Hopefully, those
children (adults, now) still have it in their heart and other verses, also, by
obeying the meaning of that verse.
As, I studied the first verse and meditated on it, I couldn’t
help but think of the song, COME, THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING by Robert Robinson,
written in 1758. In the 4th verse, he says’
“O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.”
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.”
When I first heard this song, I was going through a tough
patch in my Christian life. I was disappointed with people who claimed to serve
God, but didn’t do as I thought we had been taught. I loved God, but felt like
I could have left the church. When we’d sing this song, each time, I sing this verse
as a heart-felt prayer. It still has a special place in my heart and soul,
because God did keep me from wandering.
We must completely depend on God, not on ourselves, to keep
us on the right way as we follow God’s Word, not to keep our salvation, for
that is secure. But, so we not only can live joyfully in the presence of God one
day in Heaven, but also here on earth … and to be a witness to other people.
If you are not familiar with this song, here it a link to
it. http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/c/o/comethou.htm
Notes from the Defender’s Bible by Dr. Henry M. Morris - http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=home&action=search&f_search_type=bible
PSALM 119:10
not wander.
With less self-confidence than before his cleansing through the Word the
young man realizes his deep dependence on the Lord, on prayer, and on the Word,
calling out for strength not to “wander” away from God’s written will.
PSALM 119:11
hid in mine heart.
How vitally important it is to memorize Scripture, hiding God’s Word in
both heart and mind, if we are to have daily victory over sin in our lives.
Here the “young man” uses the eighth and final word for the Scriptures in this
psalm, Hebrew again translated simply by “Word,” thus emphasizing not
just a concept or thought but the very words of God.
