WAW. Let Your mercies come also to me, O LORD – Your salvation according to Your word. So shall I have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in Your word. And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I have hoped in Your ordinances. So shall I keep Your law continually, forever and ever. And I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts. I will speak of Your testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. And I will delight myself in Your commandments, which I love. My hands also I will lift up to Your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on Your statutes.

What a joy to be able to call upon the Lord, that He would shower us with His mercies, the greatest of which is His salvation. No other god is like our God. He has given “...all spiritual blessings...” through His Son, Jesus Christ. He has planned from before the foundation of the world to save us from sin, to supply us with the hope of heaven, to give us the way of truth that we might walk therein.

Looking unto these things, and preparing us as His people, He has given us His word. When men bring reproaches against us, we can be fully equipped to answer them. Recall the words of the apostle Peter, “...sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.” (1 Peter 3:15-16). Paul encouraged Titus to have “...sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.” (Titus 2:8).

God’s supplies all the preparation which we need to answer those who will speak against us (2 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). Thus, we should be diligent students of it, readying ourselves to defend the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

Among the other wonderful benefits which of the Scripture bring to the child of God is the hope which is buoyed up therein. God’s word is the catalyst for and the perpetual promise of our hope of heaven. Paul, writing to the Colossians refers to the “...hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel...” (1:5, also see 23). Of the Old Testament writings, Paul declares to the Romans, these “...were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” (15:4). The Psalmist, in another place wrote, “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in His word I do hope.“ (130:5) In the particular Psalm which we presently are studying through, six more times the writer mentions his hope, and in each case, it is connected with the word of God (119:49, 81, 114, 116, 147, 166). Friend, may our hope be grounded in the pages of Scripture, according to God’s promises.

Having acknowledged this hope, the writer pleads, “...take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth...” How glorious to have the confidence and comfort that God will in no manner impede us from the path of salvation. Some portray God as seeking to catch us up somehow, somewhere. It could not be further from the truth. In fact, Peter wrote, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9). So secure is our salvation in Christ, Paul was compelled to write, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ...I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, not things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35, 38-39). God will not be the cause of our removal from His presence. Truly, only one can remove us from God’s presence and salvation – we, ourselves.

Hear the Psalmists determination to walk in God’s way: “So shall I keep Your law continually, forever and ever.” There is no time when it is okay to set the Lord’s will aside for our own. To stress his devotion, the writer uses three separate Hebrew words, back to back, attesting to the fact that he will never turn from the Lord’s command. “Continually” (Heb. tamiyd), derived from a root meaning ‘to stretch’. “Forever” (Heb. owlam), meaning ‘long duration’, used at times to refer to time past. And finally, “ever” (Heb. de), meaning ‘perpetuity’, used at times to refer to future time. Understand very clearly, he is declaring that he will stretch the time of his faithfulness to God’s word, from time past to time future, that his careful observance and love for the statutes of God has, and will endure always.

Due to his faithfulness, the Psalmist can say, “I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts.” The word “liberty” comes from the Hebrew rachab, meaning large, broad, proud, wide. When we are unsure of the way, the path seems so difficult, we falter, we slip, we fall. Knowing the Lord’s will, it is possible for us to walk as though on a broad path, though it be the strait way. It is a matter of confidence, not in ourselves, but in God’s word. When we know the way of truth, and love the way of truth, it is not a huge chore to walk the way of truth (1 John 5:3).

This confidence will then enable us to speak God’s words before all, even before kings, without shame. I cannot read verse 46 without thinking of the apostle Paul. To Agrippa, he spoke, “...having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both to small and great...” Paul had the opportunity to speak the gospel before Felix (Acts 24), Festus (Acts 25), Agrippa (Acts 26), and eventually among the people of Caesar’s household (Philippians 4:22). He was not ashamed to do so, but gladly and boldly proclaimed salvation in Jesus, the Christ.

Friend, may we grasp this same spirit of service which the Psalmist declared and the apostle Paul exemplified. Let us speak without shame of our Lord before both great and small, for if we do, He will speak of us before His Father without shame (Matthew 10:32-33).

This portion of our text closes out with a declaration of the writer’s love for the word of God. He “...will delight...” in it. His hand he “...will lift up to Your commandments...” His mind, it shall “...meditate on Your statutes.” God’s word needs to be so important to us, so necessary to daily life that it is upon our thoughts minute by minute, that our hands always seek to put into action the deeds which the Lord compels us to do through His commandments. We need to be His servants, wholly submitting to His will, not because we MUST, but because we DELIGHT in what He has commanded of us.

Oh, that we would make these words of the Psalmist our own!!

Click here for this week's Answering The Atheist
How long did the flood last? Genesis 7:17 says forty days, but Genesis 7:24 and 8:3 reveal that it was one hundred and fifty days. Is there a contradiction?