Drinking the Living Water

We move from the Psalmist seeing his sin in the first half of 119:25 to the sovereignty of God. I love what he does. He starts by looking at who he is, “my soul clings to the dust,” but then he turns his attention to who God is and bases his requests on the two…he comes knowing who he is, but he comes knowing who God is. That’s the secret for all of us. He knows he is dust so what does he do? He turns to a sovereign God. We see his need, he asks God, “Give me life according to your word.”

God formed Adam from dust, but He breathed life into him. God spoke this world into existence…there is no life apart from God. There is no life apart from His Word. Everything else is just a shadow of the reality. God brings us to life in our mother’s womb, but He also brings us to Spiritual life from the midst of our Spiritual death.

I love what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:49, “Just as we bore the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of Heaven.” That is only if we are brought to life by God. Has He brought you to life? Ask Him to give you, life according to His Word…which means we will repent of our sin and trust in Him! You see, we are all clinging to death, but we need to be clinging to God and that isn’t possible unless He brings us New Life, gives us a New Nature, and Saves us. Like a man cleaves to his wife, so we must cleave to God through new life.

Then we see the relationship in verse 26, “When I told of my ways, you answered me.” The phrase, “when I told,” is the same as we find in verse 13, “I declare,” but there he is declaring to man and here he is declaring to God. He is laying it out before Him. He isn’t foolishly trying to hide from our all-knowing and all-present God like Adam and Eve did in the bushes…he is laying it out, and here is the beauty of it, “God answered him.” When you come before God with new life and in relationship, He hears you and answers you and works with you. But that doesn’t start until God sovereignly moves to bring you to life.

Then we see his heart—“teach me your statutes. Make me understand the way of your wondrous works,” “strengthen me according to your Word,” “graciously teach me your law.” Do you see this…he wants to know all of God’s Word, he isn’t content with just a little, but he also knows he can’t know unless God makes him know, he can’t understand unless God opens his mind, his eyes, and his ears.

Notice in verse 27 the “wondrous works” are mentioned again, in verst 18 he said, “Open my eyes, that I might behold wondrous things out of your law.” There are things within the Word that are more precious than silver, more costly than gold, and more beautiful than diamonds…we must dig with the Holy Spirit’s help and discover those things.

Don’t be the person who says, “I’ll never be able to understand that…”. Who knows, God may choose to show that truth to you and help all of us. Dig into His Word but do it with total dependence upon His Spirit.

I love the advice I read a while back, for every look at yourself take 10 looks to Christ. Don’t ignore your sin, but don’t dwell there either…turn to our Sovereign God and drink from His well. Years ago, I was on a Safari and the hotel was on a hill looking down on a watering hole. In the midst of the dry and dusty plains of Kenya there was a source of life and refreshment.

Have you found the springs of living water in Jesus?