Psalm 119, Verse 108

How often I would use my lips to grumble and complain, Adonai. So many years I used my mouth as an instrument for every other reason—angry words, bitterness, complaining and a host of other things—and seldom as an instrument through which You would be glorified. Yet You have told us what pleases You, Master. You said, "He who offers a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving honors Me; and to him who orders his way rightly [who follows the way that I show him], I shall show the salvation of God." You also instructed us in another place to continually offer the sacrifice of praise to Thee, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to Thy name. Much too often, we can quote these verses but like James said it is easier to control a ship or bridle a horse than our tongue. I ask that deep in each of us, Your children, we would have a well filled with the life of the Messiah so that when we use our mouth, sweet water will flow forth; for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

Lately, I have found myself drawn to Psalm 119. Charles Spurgeon beautifully describes it thus:

There is no title to this Psalm, neither is any author's name mentioned. It is not just long only; but equally excels in breadth of thought, depth of meaning, and height of fervour. It is like the celestial city which lieth four square, and the height and the breadth of it are equal. Many superficial readers have imagined that it harps upon one string, and abounds in pious repetitions and redundancies; but this arises from the shallowness of the reader's own mind: those who have studied this divine hymn, and carefully noted each line of it, are amazed at the variety and profundity of the thought.

It contains no idle word; the grapes of this cluster are almost to bursting full with the new wine of the kingdom. The more you look into this mirror of a gracious heart the more you will see in it. Placid on the surface as the sea of glass before the eternal throne, it yet contains within its depths an ocean of fire, and those who devoutly gaze into it shall not only see the brightness, but feel the glow of the sacred flame. It is loaded with holy sense, and is as weighty as it is bulky.

The Psalm is alphabetical. Eight stanzas commence with one letter, and then another eight with the next letter, and so the whole Psalm proceeds by octonaries quite through the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, from Aleph to Tau.

I thought I should post a verse each day in the hope that we all, including myself, may get an opportunity to reflect on them.