A SONG…Bill Fitzhenry's Thoughts For Today…

Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Psalm 119:54-56 NASB

Your statutes are my songs
In the house of my pilgrimage.
⁵⁵ O Lord, I remember Your name in the night,
And keep Your law.
⁵⁶ This has become mine,
That I observe Your precepts.

Christian assurance is both Biblical and for many of us confessional.  A Puritan wrote a book about this entitled Heaven On Earth, a fit description of this blessing.

Assurance, for me, comes only with a confident faith in Christ Jesus as a fit, willing, loving Savior.  Nothing other than Jesus enters as a cause or reason for assurance.  Good works are not the cause of assurance but bad works can cause the loss of it.

The Psalmist in these verses is clear in his direction for a life of assurance and the blessing it brings with it.  In VS 54, he states that the law of God brings joy.  “Your statutes are my songs”.  Further they are the cause of his praise in all places of his travel.  The sojourner was the visitor or traveler.

When the Psalmist mentions his songs surely we can understand no less than assurance and joy in daily service for God.  It is God who Elihu in Job 35:10 can say, “gives songs in the night.” 

The emotion there is involved with “statutes” or the law of God.  The one who is ignorant of or ignores God’s law cannot expect either joy or confidence in God’s presence.

Obedience is the Psalmist’s commitment.  The knowledge of God and his presence with the writer in the quietness of the night is his subject of study.  The “name of God” is the complete revelation of all his glory.  This name is inseparable from obedience.  It should not be strange to the believer that the Law of God and the name of God are bound together in this way.  His name is His presence with us and wherever His presence is, is Holy Ground.

Obedience to God’s word is the theme of the whole Psalm and in VS 56 this obedience is attributed to grace.  To keep the law is a blessing.  The Psalmist “kept the precepts,” because God’s “blessing” was extended to him.

Obedience is never a given for the believer.  It is a battle, a war, a race, and requires strength.  But it is that for which the saved ones are created to do.  (Eph. 2:10) Paul never fails to remind the believer of this.  In Phil. 2:12-13 our work and God’s provision are equally commended.

Please read Titus 2:11-12.