Blessed Are Those Who Keep His Statutes and Seek the Lord Wholeheartedly (Psalm 119:1-8)

 

Blessed Are Those Who Keep His Statutes and Seek the Lord Wholeheartedly (Psalm 119:1-8)

Happy New Year! No one desires to miss out on blessings. However, not everyone is truly blessed. Who, then, is genuinely blessed? The Lord Almighty declares: "Blessed are those who seek Him with all their heart." In this world, many deceptions and lies abound. The unseen enemy, Satan, seeks to deceive believers, causing them to stumble and be devoured. As such, those who are in Christ are pilgrims on this earth, engaged in spiritual warfare. We always need protection and help from the forces of evil and darkness.

Despite our best intentions, we inevitably fall into sin and evil. But God, in His mercy and compassion, saves us from our sins through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore, our help comes only from the Lord God. Blessed are those who keep his statues and seek the Lord with all their heart, for He delivers us from all dangers. Amen!

The Blessed

Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep His statutes and seek Him with all their heart (Psalm 119:1-2).

Who are the truly blessed? First, they are those whose actions are blameless, who live according to the law of the Lord. They are also those who keep His statutes and seek Him wholeheartedly. In Christ, we have been cleansed by His blood. Washed by His sacrifice, we now stand boldly before the throne of God’s grace. The fact that our ways are blameless is entirely due to God’s grace.

We were unrighteous and evil, deserving judgment rather than grace. Yet, by God’s grace, we received salvation by believing in and accepting Jesus, who came to earth as a child. No one can perfectly keep the law of God (Romans 3:10). The only one who can keep it flawlessly is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus is sinless, always abiding in God, doing nothing on His own but only what the Father does. Thus, Jesus is the righteous Judge who has the authority to condemn and judge the world.

However, Jesus came to this earth, incarnated in human flesh, to redeem us—those who could not keep the law of God and were destined for condemnation. Jesus bore the punishment for our sins, was lifted high on the cross, and shed His blood for us. His suffering and death on the cross were, in fact, our death—the death of our sinful nature, which could not keep God’s law. Our old self was crucified with Christ, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we have put on the new self in Christ.

23 "To be made new in the attitude of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:23-24).

Our transformation into a new self in Christ is evidence of God’s complete grace. Because of this grace, we can now seek and pursue the Lord God with all our hearts from now into eternity. No one can serve two masters. This means we cannot seek the things of this world while also seeking God. Seeking God wholeheartedly requires rejecting and forsaking worldly desires. Pursuing the things of this world is evidence of not fully trusting God. However, those who seek God wholeheartedly will never be put to shame.

They do no wrong but follow His ways (Psalm 119:3).

Now, those who have put on the new self in Christ truly refrain from wrongdoing and walk in obedience to the Lord’s ways. This is because all our sins have been forgiven by Christ’s blood, and we are justified, with no condemnation remaining (Romans 8:1). This is not due to our merit but solely because of God’s unchanging love, to which we respond in faith. As we do so, our merciful and gracious God cleanses us daily through the power of Christ’s atoning blood.

But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin (1 John 1:7).

The Lord Commands Us to Keep His Precepts

4 You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed. 5 Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees! 6 Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands. (Psalm 119:4-6)

Keeping the Lord’s precepts and decrees is a command from the Holy God. It is not optional but essential. Failing to keep God’s commandments results in the absence of life, bringing trouble, distress, condemnation, and death (Romans 2:9). All creation, made by God, faithfully follows His command. Yet humanity, fallen into sin, neither knows God nor glorifies or thanks Him. Instead, people have become futile in their thinking and foolish in their hearts, turning to idols (Romans 1:21).

2 “Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the Lord has spoken: ‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. 3 The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’” (Isaiah 1:2-3)

Why, then, did God give the law? Through Moses, God gave His people commandments and decrees engraved on stone tablets. This was to teach them that they could not keep God’s holy commandments by their own strength, willpower, or resolve. The law of God acts as a mirror, revealing sin within us and making it evident as sin.

19 “Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” (Romans 3:19-20)

How, then, can we keep God’s law? God has revealed a righteousness apart from the law, to which the Law and the Prophets testify (Romans 3:21). Hidden within the law is the secret of how we can obey it: through the merit of Jesus Christ’s blood, we can stand boldly before God.

By God’s grace, those who keep His commandments in Christ will not be put to shame but will stand in glory, honor, power, and authority. However, those who disregard and disobey God’s commandments cannot stand before Him and will inevitably fall away.

“If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:38)

God has written His commandments on the tablets of our hearts. He has also given us the power and authority to fully obey His commands. This power and authority come through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, whom God promised to send. Now, we live not by our own strength or ability but by the power and authority of the Lord God, given to us through the Holy Spirit. God not only requires us to fully keep His commandments but also provides the strength and ability to do so. Amen!

I Will Thank the Lord with an Upright Heart

7 “I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. 8 I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me.” (Psalm 119:7-8)

Learning and understanding the Lord’s righteous commands and statutes is a cause for thanksgiving and praise. Walking in the path of the Lord’s righteousness leads to life. This world, however, is filled with deceit and delusion. It is corrupt, impure, and rebellious. Like the days of Noah and Sodom and Gomorrah, this world faces condemnation and judgment because humanity’s thoughts and intentions from youth are evil and unrighteous in God’s sight (Genesis 6:5).

All humanity was destined for condemnation, judgment, and destruction in Adam. But God, in His great mercy, sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world so that no one would perish but have the opportunity for salvation. Through His Son, God has provided the way of salvation that leads to His kingdom. To those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, God has poured out the power and authority, through His blood, to keep His holy commands.

This ability is not of ourselves but entirely by God’s grace. Therefore, our response is thanksgiving and praise. The psalmist confesses, “I will thank the Lord with an upright heart.” This means not attributing the ability to keep God’s commands to our own merit but acknowledging that it is only through God’s ongoing grace.

Thus, the psalmist prays, “I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me.” Amen! God first chose and called Israel, not because they were outwardly qualified but as an example of His great plan, wisdom, and instruction. Israel had the patriarchs of faith, witnessed the miracles and signs in Egypt, ate manna from heaven, and drank water gushed out from the rock. Yet they did not fully seek and follow the Lord their God. Instead, they grumbled, rebelled, and bowed to detestable idols.

Likewise, we did not receive God’s redemptive grace in Christ because of our qualifications. Therefore, we must offer thanksgiving and praise to the Lord with an upright heart for the grace we have received. God, who is holy and sees with eyes like blazing fire, examines our hearts, thoughts, and plans. He knows all things. God does not accept those who fail to keep His statutes but cleanses us through Christ’s blood, empowering us to walk in His ways.

Our prayer for 2025 is to hold firmly to the grace God has given us, to keep His statutes, and to continually abide in His grace. Amen!

January 5, 2025
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Scripture quotations are from New International Version (NIV).