Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they are the rejoicing of my heart.
The Christian’s privilege, joy, and life
I. The Christian’s privilege. “Thy testimonies.” The blessings here offered are--forgiveness of sin; reconciliation with God, and communion with Him; peace of conscience; the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit through life.
II. The Christian’s joy is the evidence of his privilege: he lays claim to the spiritual blessings of which the Gospel testifies, because they are the very joy of his heart.
III. The Christian’s life (verse 112). When we speak of “claiming God’s testimonies’ as our “heritage,” it is evident that we look upon the Bible as a book of promises: when, as in the present case, we speak of “fulfilling God’s statutes,” then we regard the same book as a book of rules for the conduct of life. Now the servant of God regards it in both these points of view.
1. His diligence and care.
2. His perseverance. “Alway, even unto the end.” (J. S. Pratt.)
The Bible the book for all time
I. Shown by the past growth. In every century this Book has been assailed by critics of various kinds. The various forms of criticism have often helped men and have helped the Church to a better understanding of their own book. But the critics have gone while the books are here. May we not say of the Bible what was said about the Church to the King of France, when Henry
IV. threatened to persecute the French Protestants? “Sire, it is the part of the Church, on whose behalf I speak, to endure blows and not to give them; but let me remind your majesty that the Church is an anvil that has worn out a great many hammers.” May we not say of the Bible that it is an anvil that has worn out a great many hammers? and I venture to think it will wear out a great many more.
II. Shows by the future growth. There is nothing in the Bible provincial in tone, merely local in character, and restrictive in its application. There is a Divine system in the Book, just as there is in nature. If you wander through the woods when the wild flowers are out, it seems as if they were growing at random, in no order; yet botanists will tell you that there is among them a Divine order in the class and genera of these flowers that seem so wild. And when you look up to the sky on some starlight night it seems as if there were but points of light scattered at random over the face of the sky, and yet we know that there is such Divine order in the starry firmament that you can predict the times of planets and follow the course of nature with the utmost accuracy. And so there is in this Book a Divine system, but very different from our mechanical system, which men very soon outgrow. We know very well that, though men change and times alter, it will always be true that the pure in heart shall see God: it will always be true that self-sacrifice is a nobler thing than self-indulgence, whether a man lives under a republic or under a limited monarchy; it will always be true that integrity and uprightness are nobler than selfish meanness and trickery. The very qualities upon which this Book lays stress are fundamental to the noblest human nature, and cannot be affected by any change of time which the centuries may bring.
III. Shown by the unalterable fact. The main fact in this Book is one which time cannot alter; it is the great fact of the life and character of Him who is the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His Person.
IV. Shown by the unchanging need. The tragic quality of life, the burden of weary hearts, the trials of the way--all these continue. Manhood is ennobled by the old virtues, stained with the old sin and burdened with the old sorrows, and so long as that is true they will want some one on whom to loan the weary, burdened heart--some one who can say to them, “Son, daughter, be of good cheer; thy sins, which are many, are all forgiven.” (John Brown, D. D.)
The believer’s heritage of joy
I. Make a map of this estate.
1. A heritage of truth in the testimonies of God.
2. God’s covenant is our heritage.
3. The greatest testimony of God in all the world is Jesus Christ; and we are complete in Him, He is all and in all to us.
II. Take possession of the estate.
1. By a deliberate choice.
2. By faith--a personal grip.
3. By holy diligence.
III. Consider the holding.
1. It is a perpetual holding. It is not dependent upon any one life; it is dependent upon three lives, and those three lives are the life of the Father, the life of the Son, and the life of the Holy Ghost; and they are all eternal, and so shall the joy and the wealth of every believer be. We have taken this inheritance for ever.
2. Sometimes we possess certain things which are ours, completely ours, but then they are not ours for ever, because they fade; but our inheritance will never fade or pass away.
3. There is no way of taking this heritage except taking it for ever. That conversion which is not radical and thorough is of no use.
IV. Enjoy the possession. First, David had taken God’s testimonies to be his possession, for they had made him glad; and, secondly, that was the reason why he took them to be his possession, because they made him glad. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The gate to the heritage
I. An inheritance suggests the past. The heir, as he looks at the bundles of deeds and certificates, as he inspects the various tenements, and walks abroad over the acres of pasture and forest, or examines the vast mining or manufacturing establishments, sees in these the results of a long and laborious past. In like manner the testimonies of God point us back of themselves. A mountain, with its crags, and peaks, and forests, may be a picturesque object to the eye, or a good standpoint for an outlook; but it will have a far deeper interest for us if we know with what throes the strata piled themselves up, what powers of the air cut the peaks into those fantastic shapes, if we can read the stories of earthquake, and fire, and deluge, and iceberg written upon those rocks. So, it is not enough that we receive and enjoy the testimonies of God. We do not truly inherit them if we fail to study them. Their value to us lies largely in their history. If we sit down with the apostle’s words, “all things are yours,” and begin to examine our heritage, we shall be led irresistibly back to the past. For instance, what a heritage of years we shall find wrapped up in that sentence; years that have yielded their rich result to the present. How slowly God has suffered our heritage of experience, and tradition, and example to accumulate: how prodigal He has been of time. And, in the growth of these long, weary centuries, what a rich variety of testimonies God has accumulated. How many laws of conduct, for instance, have taken shape in the various situations in which the men of the Bible history have been placed; how many shining examples of distinct virtues--patience in Job, faith in Abraham, etc. And, once more, it is always an affecting thought to an affectionate son, that his father’s estate was accumulated with toil, and self-denial, and suffering. It comes almost with the power of a reproach to his sensitive heart, that he is to inherit in comfort and tranquillity that which recalls so much struggle, and pain, and anxious thought. And this fact attaches in a peculiar sense to God’s heritage of testimony. Beyond any other book, the Bible has evolved itself out of sorrow. That is the reason why it responds to the instincts of the race as no other book does or can. The heritage of God’s testimony in the Word is a veritable battle-ground, its greenest and most fruitful fields moistened with blood, and covering the relics of the slain.
II. But let us look now at this heritage as it stands related to the future. From the associations and memories of the past, the heir turns to study what capacity for development there is in the estate; to examine the investments and to see how they promise. He may be disappointed; he may find that a good part of the estate has become unproductive, and can never be made to yield what it did in his father’s time, or he may find that it contains sources of wealth of which his father never dreamed. The psalmist, in thus inspecting the heritage of God’s testimonies, is evidently well satisfied with the prospect, though he takes the longest possible outlook: “Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever.” And we may safely share his satisfaction. The man who chooses the Word of God as his moral inheritance may do so in full confidence that it will amply meet the demands of his whole future, and of the whole future of his race. No one can read the Bible long without seeing that it is prophetic; not only in the sense of occasionally predicting the future, but in that its facts imply other facts H follow; present sockets, into which future facts are to fit. Its utterances are folded in upon themselves like a flower. You see certain petals already exposed to the light; but you see within the circle of these something more which is to unfold in its season. This heritage of the Word grows richer with time. The preacher who thinks he has exhausted a text will find another sermon in it when he goes to it again. The man who goes through his Bible for the fiftieth time finds it richest in fresh treasures. (M. R. Vincent, D. D.)
Hereditary religion
I. The claim asserted by David--God’s testimonies he asserts to be his own heritage. Speaking as a Jew, he declares with feelings of thanksgiving and triumph that he from his birth has had a rightful possession of God’s revelations. Whilst other nations have been left in darkness, some never visited with the light of truth at all, others at best having to become proselytes, they, the Israelites, knew God from their mother’s womb. Now, in examining into the cause of David’s thankfulness, we are brought across the broad subject of ancestral religion. How far and on what grounds is it a matter of gratitude to God that we in this kingdom have not had to hear, late in life for the first time, the proclamation of the Name of the Lord, but have been born and bred in the midst and under the influence of Christian institutions? If we had not received it as a heritage we might never have enjoyed it at all. Which of us is certain that if he had met Christ face to face in the valleys of Judah we should not have despised Him?
II. David claims God’s testimonies as his inheritance, not for the brief period of this mortal life, but for ever; as though implying that they would hereafter form the source of his joy and triumph. The Divine Word and testimonies are to remain for an inheritance of delight to the saints. What is this? Why, it is that the knowledge and contemplation of God and His attributes shall form the eternal occupation and pleasure of the blessed in heaven. For ever! aye, when our present tastes and feelings shall have long passed away, and we stand upon the shores of another land whose features we cannot surmise, and hear other sounds whose echo imagination cannot catch; when He that sitteth on the throne shall have made all things new, still, if among the saved, shall we throw ourselves upon the old revelations of God, and cleave to them as the noblest of the things prepared for those that love Him, and so find the words of David, words of earth, still true when earth is no more: “Thy testimonies have I claimed as mine heritage for ever.” (Bp. Woodford.)
The Divine Word’ -
I. As an inheritance.
1. It is the most enjoyable.
2. It is the most extensive.
3. It is the most enduring.
II. As an inheritance only personally attained. Earthly inheritances often come to men irrespective of effort or choice. But he who would enjoy this inheritance must choose it and win it by his own struggles under God. (Homilist.)