It would be a very low conception of his omniscience if we imagined that anything passed away from his knowledge. “Remember” That prayer is spoken after the manner of men, for God cannot forget. ![]() David prays, “Remember the word unto thy servant.” Come, Holy Spirit, and bless our meditation! It is a three-fold plea, as I think - it is thy word, I am thy servant, and thou hast caused me to hope in it. The first is, the prayer- “Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope” and, secondly, the plea of the prayer. There are only two things that I can attempt to speak about at this time: I cannot bring forth from so rich a casket all its treasures. May God give us grace to be in such a state of heart that we may enter into the prayer of the text! Wherein it bears grateful testimony, may we be able to join in that testimony! Wherein it praises God, may we also extol him with all our hearts! In this single text there is the same mixing up of sweet perfumes as there is in the whole psalm. ![]() My text is a prayer, but there is testimony in it, and there is a measure of praise in it too. It is best to have all these divinely-sweet ingredients intermixed, and wrought into a sacred unity, as you have them in this thrice-hallowed psalm. You would not like to have one-third, of the psalm composed of prayer- marked up to the sixtieth verse, for instance and then another part made up exclusively of praise and yet a third portion of unmixed testimony. It is an incense made up of many spices, but they are wonderfully compounded and worked together, so as to form one perfect sweetness. ![]() In one verse the Psalmist bears witness, in a second verse he praises, in a third verse he prays. I admire in this psalm very greatly the singular amalgam that we have of testimony, of prayer, and of praise. How manifold are the words and thoughts of God! In his Word, just as in creation, the wonders of his skill are manifold indeed. Yet, from the many turns it gives to the same thought, it helps you to see the variety of Scripture. From its keeping to one subject it helps us to adore the unity of Scripture for it is but one. This wonderful psalm, from its great length, helps us to wonder at the immensity of Scripture. You are still sighing to know more of that which it is your bliss to know. The Book grows upon you: as you dire into its depths, you have a growing perception of the infinity which remains unexplored. All human books grow stale after a time: but with the Word of God the desire to know increases, and the more you know of it the less you think you know. Very speedily a man eats too much honey: even children at length are cloyed with sweets. You enjoy them very much at the first acquaintance, and you think you could hear them a hundred times over but you could not you soon find them wearisome. The best compositions of men are soon exhausted they are cisterns, and not springing fountains. Neither could such a handling have been given to the subject by any mind less than divine inspiration alone can account for the fulness and freshness of this psalm. I do not believe that any other subject but a heavenly one would have allowed of such a psalm being written upon it for the things of this world are soon spun out. What you see is the same, and yet never the same: it is the same truth, but it is always placed in a new light, put in a new connection, or in some way or other invested with freshness. You shift the glass a very little, and another shape, equally delicate and beautiful, is before your eyes. ![]() In the kaleidoscope you look once, and there is a strangely beautiful form. Its variety is that of a kaleidoscope: from a few objects a boundless variation is produced. I have weighed each word, and looked at each syllable with lengthened meditation and I bear witness that this sacred song has no tautology in it, but is charmingly varied from beginning to end. Some have said that in it there is an absence of variety but that is merely the observation of those who have not studied it. It deals all along with the same subject and it consists, as you observe, of a vast number of verses, some of which are very similar to others and yet throughout the one hundred and seventy-six stanzas the same thought is not repeated: there is always a shade of difference even when the colour of the thought appears to be the same. Its expressions are many as the waves, but its testimony is one as the sea. THE one hundred and nineteenth psalm is a very wonderful composition. “Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.”- Psalm cxix.
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