The Way of Thy Statutes

June is the month when many graduations take place. We wish to congratulate all our graduates on their achievements. May the Lord graciously fulfill the many good wishes that are extended to you. Our wish for you is spelled out in the words of a psalm in which there is not a trace of history, yet it reveals a golden chain of divine leadings which no one can miss upon life’s pathway to eternity. The words of the text are applicable to young and old, graduates, professionals, fathers, mothers, teachers, and students alike. It is a prayer for direction upon the way. Notice first that the psalmist says, “Teach me.” These words come from the lips of an experienced child of God but show humble dependency and a deep impression of a true need. It is a prayer for instruction in the ways of the Lord. None of God’s children in this life rise above such a prayer. None can ever say here below, “Now I know enough,” or “Now I know it all.” Neither is this instruction self-taught, but it must be taught. Or, to say it with an old divine, “He who is his own pupil has a fool for his master.” It is a great blessing if we remain teachable even after receiving much outward instruction. Spiritually it is no different, and this is the reason the poet asks for instruction.

Strange, indeed, it may seem that David—who is the presumed author of Psalm 119—would ask for such a blessing. What could be the motive here? Surely, this: that it is one thing to be savingly placed upon the way but that it is quite another to be kept and to persevere upon that way. Neither can be missed. It is for this reason that the Lord gave His statutes. With statutes is meant the law of the Lord, the service of the Lord, the life of grace, the practice of godliness, the life that shows: “O how love I Thy law! it is my meditation all the day” (verse 97).

Dear reader, these statutes are not grievous. They are not burdensome. They are given for our protection. They are God-glorifying. They remind us of what is pleasing in God’s sight. The service of the Lord is not a service of slavish servitude, neither one of gloom and doom but one of being instructed in righteousness, being led in the green pastures of the Word by the Spirit through grace unto grace. How sad it is that man by nature neither sees this nor seeks it, and after grace is glorified in the beginning, it is so necessary to be guided continually. It is not without reason that David prays and confesses at the end of Psalm 119: “I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Thy servant; for I do not forget Thy commandments.”

Let us be humbled that many of our children receive sound instruction in the statutes of the Lord. This task, however, first begins at home, then in church, and should be confirmed by what is taught in school. Our denominational schools need our undivided support. They are a gift of the Lord for which a former generation gave (up) so much. David knew that he had many faults, sins, and shortcomings. So do our schools and teachers. Thus, all the more reason to beg for knowledge of the statutes of the Lord and the grace to keep them unto the end. What is meant by “the end?” The end shows that the matter is right in his heart. It points to an upright desire. Many may begin in the statutes of the Lord but do so with half a heart, so to speak. It is a matter of reason, contemplation, or merely an historical faith. To keep it to the end means fully, and through Him who said, “Yea, Thy Law is within My heart.” That is Christ. It was His delight to do His Father’s will, and He not only kept the Law to the end but also bore the punishment of the transgression of that Law unto the end even though never any transgression against that Law of the Lord entered into His mind. Paul wrote, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

Consider further that the text also speaks of the way of Thy statutes. That means the manner of, the way in which the fear of the Lord is experienced, that is—as stated before—a God-glorifying way. That may be a way against the flesh wherein the Lord does not always fulfill our wishes but will always fulfill His promises. That may be a way under a cross, a path of affliction, a way wherein the Lord’s footsteps are not known, but this is the way in which He upholds, strengthens, and keeps to the end. Therefore, Paul could say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.”

In closing, these words “to the end” make me think of what is sometimes written on the label of a medicine… Sometimes you can read there “good till the end of…” and then follows an expiration date. Dear graduates, the way of the Lord’s statutes is good till the end, but there follows no expiration date. It is the everlasting way. “And lead me, if in sin I stray, to choose the everlasting way” (Psalter 383:5).

Thomas Manton wrote, “Oh, beg it of God, for these three reasons:

1. The way of God’s statutes is worthy to be found by all;

2. It is hard to be found and kept by any;

3. It is so dangerous to miss it that this should quicken us to be earnest with God.”

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