Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1779
“Quicken me after Your loving kindness; so shall I keep the testimony of Your mouth.” Psalm 119:88.
When David wrote this part of the Psalm, he was evidently beset by many enemies who sought to destroy him. And it is exceedingly important to note what part of himself he guarded with the most care. Which part of his nature did he regard as the most vital? Where did he hold the shield that he might be screened from the darts of the foe? We observe that his prayer is very little about his body or his temporal interests. Like other men, he desired to be preserved in life and kept in prosperity, but his main prayer is not about these matters. Evidently his chief thought is concerning his soul, his character, his adherence to God’s Word, his steadfastness in the faith.
Observe the current of his supplication—“Quicken me after Your loving kindness; so shall I keep the testimony of your mouth.” He is not so anxious to keep his health, or to keep his house, or to keep his crown, or even to keep his life, as he is that he may keep the testimony of God’s mouth! O Brothers and Sisters, everything is right when the heart is right! And everything is wrong when the soul is wrong. We are prospering even when we lose our wealth if we grow in Grace—but we are in the direst adversity—even if we are growing rich, if we become spiritually poor. Starve your soul and you will be wretched amid the dainties of a king’s table. But let your soul be satisfied as with marrow and fatness— and a dinner of herbs will be better to you than a stalled ox. The first thing, the main thing, the chief thing, is that the heart be kept true towards God and His Word!
Concerning this David prays. I would call to your notice, this morning, first, his intense desire, which is that he may keep the testimony of God’s mouth. Secondly, his consequent prayer arising out of that desire. “Quicken me after Your loving kindness; so shall I keep the testimony of your mouth.” When we have spoken upon those two points we shall then endeavor to use the whole text by way of showing his holy example—a lesson to all believing people in all ages to strive after quickened spiritual life that they may keep the testimony of God’s mouth.
I. First, in these words of David, we have HlS INTENSE DESIRE that he might keep the testimony of God’s mouth. This desire was founded in a high esteem of God’s Word. He viewed the Divine Revelation as coming directly from Jehovah’s own mouth. To some men, this holy Book is no more inspired than the plays of Shakespeare or the poems of Milton. We have, in the Old Testament, they say, the sacred writings of the Jews which deserve to be treated with great respect, but that is all. David thought not so and, thank God, we join with David in his opinion! David speaks of God’s Word, though he had but a small portion of it compared with what we have, as “the testimony of God’s mouth.” To me there is no explanation of those Words except that which involves verbal and Infallible Inspiration.
The testimony of God’s mouth must be given in words—God’s heart has thoughts, but God’s mouth has words— and Words from the Omniscient and true God must be Infallible. This view invests Holy Scripture with an awe and a glory which create in us the deepest reverence and brings us to the most earnest attention. When we look upon every Word of this precious Book as coming fresh from God’s mouth, we liken it to those other Words by which He called the universe out of nothing and created light where there had only been darkness. To the ear that is rightly tuned by God’s Spirit there is a voice and a music as of infinite wisdom and love about every syllable of Scripture. The breath of life is in the testimony from the mouth of the living God!
In truth, the Lord may have spoken His Word, actually, by the mouth of Moses, but spiritually His own mouth has uttered it. The Inspired sentence may come down to us from the pen of David, Isaiah, or any other of the Prophets may have been the visible medium of its transmission—but the Word itself has come distinctly and directly, with absolute truth and unmingled purity—from the mouth of the Most High! The coin of Inspiration comes from the mint of Infallibility! The Truth is the teaching of the God of Truth! As such, we render to it our ears, our hearts and our obedient lives. What God has said we dare not question. The man of God wraps his face in his mantle and bows before the Divine Majesty, humbly saying, “Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.” Those who have this reverence for God’s Word will long to
cling to it. They will be afraid of misinterpreting it and they will not venture to add any of their own words to it, lest they be called into judgment for such presumption!
The ears of the devout man seem to hear the thunder of that sentence, “If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” God grant that we may accept the Bible not as the writings of man, but as the Word of the living God! A few evenings ago we were led to think of those who tremble at God’s Word—may we be numbered among them, for to such will God look and, with such will He dwell. Let us unite with the Psalmist in saying, “Your testimonies are wonderful: therefore does my soul keep them.”