The Golden Alphabet Part Three

Extract

The Golden Alphabet — Part Three — Psalm 119:49-80
C. H. Spurgeon

Exposition of verses 49 to 56, Zain

49. Remember the word unto thy servant, upon, which thou hast caused me to hope.
50. This is my comfort in my affliction for thy word hath quickened me.
51. The proud have had me greatly in derision: yet have I not declined from thy law.
52. I remembered thy judgments of old, O LORD ; and have comforted myself.
53. Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy law.
54. Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
55. I have remembered thy name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept thy law.
56. This I had, because I kept thy precepts.

This octrain deals with the comfort of the word. It begins by seeking the main consolation, namely, the Lord’s fulfilment of his promise, and then it shows how the word sustains us under affliction, and makes us so impervious to ridicule that we are moved by the harsh conduct of the wicked rather to horror of their sin than to any submission to their temptations. We are then shown how the Scripture furnishes songs for pilgrims, and memories for night- watchers; and the portion concludes, by the general statement that the whole of this happiness and comfort arises out of keeping the statutes of the Lord.

49. “Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.”
“Remember the word unto thy servant.” He asks for no new promise, but to have the old word fulfilled He is grateful that he has received so good a word he embraces it with all his heart, and now entreats the Lord to deal with him according to it. He does not say, “Remember my service to thee,” but “thy word to me.” The words …