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222     THE CONVENTION TEACHER

principles for their civil, moral and spiritual growth.

The Bible is a library of religious literature in which the wisdom of God is revealed not only to the wise and prudent, but to those who are babes, whose minds, that is, are open, reverent and receptive, whose hearts feel the wonder of it even before their eyes read the words. It is not every man who understands that the Bible is not just a book, but a library. 

EXPOSITION

I. GOD'S WORD THE SOURCE OF WISDOM. (VV. 97-105.) (97) O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day. This is one of the strongest marks of a gracious and pious heart, cast in the mould of obedience. Such love the precepts of Christ. In His commandments they delight, and this delight is shown by their making them frequent subjects of their meditation. Here we find David's inexpressible love for the Word of God - O how love I thy law. He proclaims his affection for the Word of God with a holy zeal and frequency; he found that love for it in his heart, which, considering the corruption of his nature and the temptation of the world, he could not but wonder at, and at that grace which had wrought it in him. He not only loved God's promises, but loved His law, and delighted in it after the inner man. See the unexceptionable evidence of this. What we love, we love to think about; by this it appeared that David loved the Word of God. It was his meditation. He not only read the Book of the Law, he digested what he read in his thoughts, and was fitted into it as into a mould. He meditated upon it not only in the night when he was silent and solitary and had nothing to do, but in the day when he was full of business, with plenty of company. All of his days some good thoughts were interwoven with his common thoughts, so full was he of the Word of God.

(98) Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. Here is an account of David's learning, not that of the Egyptians, but of the Israelites indeed. The good method by which he got it, in his youth, he attended to business in the country as a shepherd. While yet in his youth he attended to business in the court and the camp. Which way, then, could he get any great stock of learning? He tells us how he came by it; he had it from God as the Source. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser. All true wisdom is from God. He had it by the Word of God, as the means, by His commandments and His testimonies. These are able to make us wise to salvation, and to furnish the man of God for every good work. These David took for his constant companions. they are ever with me - He confessed, they are ever in my mind, ever in my eye. A good man wherever he goes, carries his Bible along with him, if not in his hands, yet in his head and in his heart. The Word of God David took for the delightful subject of his thoughts; they were his meditation.

(99) I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation. As David had entered into the spiritual nature of the law of God, and saw into the exceeding breadth of the commandments, he soon became wiser than any of the priests or even prophets who instructed him. By this careful meditation upon God's Word he surpassed his teachers in his understanding. He gave much consideration to divine testimonies. By keeping the commandments, we secure God on our side and make Him our Friend, and therein are certainly wiser than those who make Him their enemy. By keeping the commandments we preserve to ourselves that peace and quiet of mind of which our enemies would rob us, and thus we are wiser than they for this world as well as for the other. David outstripped his teachers and had more understanding than all of them. He means either those who would have been his teachers, who blamed his conduct and undertook to prescribe to him. By keeping God's commandments he managed his affairs so that it appeared he had taken the right measures and they had taken the wrong. Or he may mean they who should have been his teachers, the priests and Levites, who sat in Moses' Chair, and whose lips ought to have kept knowledge, but who neglected the study of God's law and minded their own honor and revenues, and the formalities only of their religion. And so David who conversed much with the Scriptures became more intelligent than they. Or he may mean those who had been his teachers when he was young; that he built so well upon the foundation which they had laid, that with the help of his Bible, he became able to teach them. By meditation we preach to ourselves and so come to understand more than our teachers, for
 
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THE CONVENTION TEACHER      223

we come to understand our own hearts, which they cannot. 

(100) I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts. By his careful study of the words of this Holy Book he surpassed the ancients, for he understood more than they (the aged of his day), for he was young, like Elihu, and they were very old, but his keeping of God's precepts taught him more wisdom than the multitude of their years. The Word of God enabled him to understand things better than he could do by tradition and all the learning that was handed down from preceding years. "In short, the written Word is a surer guide to heaven than all the doctors and fathers, the teachers and ancients, of the Church." God revealed to David more of that hidden wisdom which was in His law than He had done to any of his predecessors. David spoke more fully about Christ than any who had gone before him, or, indeed, followed after him. His compositions are as has been said, "a sublime Gospel." 

(101) I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word. By avoiding all sin the spirit of wisdom still continued to rest upon David. He checked himself, and drew back, as soon as he was aware that he was entering into temptation. "Though it was a broad way, a green way, a pleasant way, it was an evil way, and a way that many walked into." I might keep thy word - His abstaining from sin was, (1) an evidence that he did conscientiously aim to keep God's Word and had made that his rule; (2) it was a means of his keeping God's Word in the exercise of religion. We cannot with any comfort or boldness attend on God's holy duties while we are under guilt. 

(102) I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me. Observe David's constancy in his religion. He had not departed from God's judgments; he had not chosen any other rule than the Word of God, nor had he wilfully deviated from that rule. A constant adherence to the ways of God in trying times will be a good evidence of our integrity. Notice the cause of his constancy. for thou hast taught me- They were divine instructions that he learned. He was satisfied that the doctrine was of God, and it was divine grace in his heart that enabled him to receive those instructions. All the saints are taught of God, for He it is that gives the understanding. Those only that are taught of God will continue to the end in the things that they have learned.

(103) How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. What deep communion must this man have had with his Maker! These expressions show a soul filled with God. Christians, how vastly superior are our privileges! and, alas, how vastly inferior in general are our consolations, our communion with God, and our heavenly mindedness! We see the wonderful pleasure and delight which David took in the Word of God; it was sweet to his taste. sweeter than honey. There is such a thing as a spiritual taste, an inward savour and relish of divine things. To this spiritual taste the Word of God is sweet, sweeter than any of the gratifications of sense, even those that are most delicious. David speaks as if he wanted words to express the satisfaction he took in the discoveries of the divine will and grace. No pleasure was comparable to it. 

(104) Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way. Spiritual knowledge increases while we tread in the path of obedience. Obedience is the grand means of growth and instruction. Obedience teaches with the talent of grace, and thus grace becomes multiplied. The profit and advantage David gained by the Word of God helped him to be a good head. Through thy precepts I get understanding - He was able to discern between truth and falsehood, good and evil, so as not to mistake either in the conduct of his own life, or in advising others. It helped him to a good heart. I hate every false way - Because he had understanding of the truth, he steadfastly resolved not to turn aside in the false way. The way of sin is the false way; it deceives and will ruin all who walk in it. It is the character of every good man that he hates the way of sin and has an antipathy and dread of it. Those who hate sin as sin will hate all sin, will hate every false way, because every false way leads to destruction. The more understanding we get by the Word of God, the more rooted will be our hatred of sin, the more ready we are in the Scriptures and the better furnished we are with answers to temptation. 

(105) Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. The Word of God is a lamp and a light, discovering to us that concerning God and ourselves