I opened my blog to post some commentary thoughts on Psalm 119:54, but after reading C H Spurgeon’s morning thoughts, decided to post it also.
Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening Thoughts, the following is for the morning of November 8:
“As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord.” — Col_2:6
The life of faith is represented as receiving-an act which implies the very opposite of anything like merit. It is simply the acceptance of a gift. As the earth drinks in the rain, as the sea receives the streams, as night accepts light from the stars, so we, giving nothing, partake freely of the grace of God.
The saints are not, by nature, wells, or streams, they are but cisterns into which the living water flows; they are empty vessels into which God pours his salvation. The idea of receiving implies a sense of realization, making the matter a reality.
One cannot very well receive a shadow; we receive that which is substantial: so is it in the life of faith, Christ becomes real to us.
While we are without faith, Jesus is a mere name to us-a person who lived a long while ago, so long ago that his life is only a history to us now! By an act of faith Jesus becomes a real person in the consciousness of our heart.
But receiving also means grasping or getting possession of. The thing which I receive becomes my own: I appropriate to myself that which is given. When I receive Jesus, he becomes my Saviour, so mine that neither life nor death shall be able to rob me of him.
All this is to receive Christ-to take him as God’s free gift; to realize him in my heart, and to appropriate him as mine.
Salvation may be described as the blind receiving sight, the deaf receiving hearing, the dead receiving life; but we have not only received these blessings, we have received CHRIST JESUS himself.
It is true that he gave us life from the dead. He gave us pardon of sin; he gave us imputed righteousness. These are all precious things, but we are not content with them; we have received Christ himself. The Son of God has been poured into us, and we have received him, and appropriated him. What a heartful Jesus must be, for heaven itself cannot contain him!
Psalm 119:54-56
While reading through Psalm 119, I was moved to look at a commentary on verse 54 – Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
I have been going to the Joseph Benson commentary first, when I open E-sword on my phone since I recently discovered it. He commented on verses 54-56 below:
Verses 54-56 KJV:
Psa 119:54 Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
Psa 119:55 I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law.
Psa 119:56 This I had, because I kept thy precepts.
54: Thy statutes have been my songs — The matter of my songs, my delight and recreation; in the house of my pilgrimage — In this present world, wherein I am a pilgrim, as all my fathers were.
55: I have remembered thy name — Thy holy nature and attributes; thy blessed word and thy wonderful works; in the night — When darkness causeth fear to others, I took pleasure in remembering thee; and when others gave themselves up to sleeps my thoughts and affections were working toward thee; and have kept thy law –This was the fruit of my serious remembrance of thee.
56: This I had — This comfortable and profitable remembrance of thy name and statutes; because I kept thy precepts — Which if I had wilfully and wickedly broken, the remembrance of these would have been a cause of grief and terror to me, as now it is a source of peace and comfort.