Psalms 119:17

Psalms 119:17, “Psa 119:17 GIMEL. Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.”

Psalms 119 is a Psalms focusing on the Law. Remember this is the Old Testament. The Old Testament emphasizes law the New Testament Emphasizes grace. So to properly explain and interpret the Old Testament we need the New Testament.

This is a very interesting verse because it explains why God blesses us and why God does all the good things that He does for us. Now there are two reasons given why God deals bountifully with us: 1. To Live, 2. To keep His Word.

These two points go together. Because as a Christian what is the purpose of being alive? The purpose is to serve Jesus, to keep his word. Notice the word keep. The word keep is verb that implies action. It has the idea of effort being involved in what you are doing. It takes an effort to keep the Word of God, an effort to be faithful to the truth without ever compromises on it.

There are many ways to compromise on the Word of God. Anytime you sin and do not do what is right you are compromising on God’s Word, Compromising in your mind, compromising with your testimony. Anytime you believe or accept or don’t take a stand and speak out against false teaching you are compromising on the Word of God.

For example we live in a society today in which a lot of moral and spiritual things have been made into political issues. One great example would be the issue of sexual morality especially in regards to transgender issues.

Now the Bible says That God made them male and female. Sometimes there are people born with birth defects but that is very rare and even with a birth defect and deformity you are still either male or female. Dressing a child up in clothing of the opposite sex and giving them drug hormone therapy does not change there sex as much as people want to believe it does.

Now because the issue of transgender has been made such a political issue what the dishonest people of the world do to try and silence the truth and the preaching of the truth is that they will well it’s a political issue and so preachers shouldn’t be involve d in politics. It may be a political issue but its still an issue of morality. Truth and morality and religion will always become political issues. Keep the Word, don’t compromise on the truth just because something is a political issue. Don’t compromise on the truth because of politics. A lot of people do.

Keep the Word Psalms 119:17 says. Keep the Word. Now there are many other ways and pressures that will come upon you from the world to try and get you to not keep the Word.

Another one of the big pressures in today’s age has to do with the kind of arguments the liberals make. For example if you speak out against transgender you will be accused of being prejudice or even sexist or racist. If you speak out against transgender you will be accused of being divisive and condescending. But really its not just the transgender issue its really any issue. When you speak the truth when you stand on the truth and when you live the truth, when you keep the word you will be accused of being racist, of being prejiduce, of being divisive, they will eve interpret your right to freedom of speech and your right to your opinion as an attack on their freedom of speech. All these things are dishonest tactics to slander you and to get you to compromise on the truth.

No matter what a person says about you, no matter how much they attack you, or rail against you, or get angry at you, or verbally assault you and use the power of their speech to oppose you even if they attempt to murder you with their words, even if people get physically violent and physical violence against you don’t compromise on the truth, as it says in Psalms 119:17, “Keep the Word.”

God is always faithful. Man is not. One of the great challenges of life as a Christian will be to remain faithful to the Lord and to the ministry that He has called you to do. Now one of the best ways that you will help yourself to keep the Word and to not compromise on the truth, to not compromise on the gospel, to not compromise on morality, to compromise on anything is simply by adhering to the principles in the Bible of separation.

2 Corinthians 6:17 says, “2Co 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.” The word touch means do not attach yourself too.

Another great passage in the Bible on the principle of separation is found in Psalms 1. Psalms 1:1-3 says, “Psa 1:1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. Psa 1:2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Psa 1:3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.”

The Bible makes a great statement when it says in Amos 3:3, “Amo 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”

Please don’t ever make the mistake of thinking that the people of the world, lost people, are ever your friends. You can love them you can treat them tenderly and kindly but they will never truly be your friends unless they turn to Christ for forgiveness of their sins. They will always try to influence you and pressure you to be like them, to accept their lifestyle, to agree with and to stop speaking out against their teachings and their philosophies.

Keep the word Psalms 119:17 says. Don’t comprise on the truth for the sake of friendships, or popularity or politics, don’t even compromise on the truth even for sake of getting other people to stop attacking persecuting and hating you. Don’t be a compromiser. God doesn’t like that. It is not love to compromise on the truth. Most people compromise on the truth in one way or another because one or all of the various pressures that the world puts on them. There are very few who don’t. Be one of the few. It will please God and He will use you greatly for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Psalms 119:17, “Psa 119:17 GIMEL. Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.”

Now we that we have considered why God deals bountifully with us, that we may live and keep His Word, lets look at the bountiful and what it truly means to be dealt with bountifully by God.

The Word bountiful means to treat a person with benefits. It has the idea of to ripen like fruit ripening. Because the word bountiful has the idea of ripen and yield it makes me think of fruit, the fruit of the Spirit.

One of the great blessings we have as Christians is that we have received the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. And with the Holy Spirit comes the fruits of the Spirit.

Ephesians 5:9, “Eph 5:9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)”

Ephesians 5:22-23 says, “Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

Fruit is something that you eat and it nourishes you. A Christian is a tree. When tree a bears fruit others can eat that fruit and it nourishes them. Your fruit that you bear through the Spirit is what will influence and affect other people to bring them to Christ and to help those that are in Christ to be edified. Your Spiritual fruit comes from the Spirit of God. It doesn’t come from yourself or our own efforts. Therefore the fruit you have in the Spirit is a gift from God it is God dealing bountifully with you.

The question is how do we measure if God has dealt bountifully with us or not? Now I have heard a lot of preachers say wow the Lord has really blessed us because were building a new church building, or our congregation as grown by 200 or 1000 people.

Or a Christian might say the Lord has really blessed me and dealt bountifully with me because I can pay my bills or I moved into a nicer home, or I got a job. But are these the things that really determine if God has dealt bountifully with us or not? How many people come into your chat room online, or how many friends you have and how popular you are, or how good your health is, These are all physical things.

Now God does bless us with physical things and there is nothing wrong with that but consider these verses.

1 Timothy 6:6-8 says, “1Ti 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 1Ti 6:7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 1Ti 6:8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.”

God hasn’t given unconditional promises in His Word that we will have good health that we will have a job, that we will have friends and be popular and that we will have a nice home or have the American dream. God has never promises these things. God says having food and raiment let us be content. There’s no promise you will have a car or a good car, there’s not even a promise that you will have a home to live in. What are the basic necessities that you need to live? Food and raiment and that’s it. If you get anything more than that it certainly is God dealing bountifully with you but I think the emphasis when we examine our lives to determine if God has dealt bountifully with us or not should not be material things but should be the fruits of the Spirit.

Ephesians 5:22-23 says, “Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Gal 5:23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

If you find that you have a great deal of love in your heart for God and for other people, if you find that your mind and heart is filled with peace and joy in the gospel, if you have longsuffering for the way people mistreat you and for enduring through the trails of life, if you have great gentleness in the way you treat and minister to other people and if you have meekness, humility you don’t think of yourself as better than other people and you treat other people as though you are better than them, if you have these things in great abundance and all the other fruits of the Spirit then you can say God has dealt bountifully with you.

Remember the word bountiful means to yield and to ripen. How much spiritual fruit is ripening in your life and being yielded unto other people to nourish them up in the gospel and in the truth in love?

Psalms 119:18 says, “Psa 119:18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”

To open means to reveal to shew, to explain to uncover. It’s not talking about the physical eyes but the spiritual eyes, ones ability to see and understand the truth. We are totally dependant upon the grace of God to help us to see the truth and to understand the truth. It’s not because of our great intellect or our great mind’s and ability to think and to reason, it’s not because of our educational back ground but its because of the love and grace of God. We are dependant upon God to open our eyes.

Now a Christian does have tools that God has given to us to help us to see the truth, we have the Spirit of God, we have the Word of God, We also have a newness of life so we should have the ability to discern what is true and what is not.

Psalms 119:18 says, “Psa 119:18 Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”

But the key word in Psalms 119:18 is the words wondrous things. These two words are actually one word in the Hebrew. It is a very interesting world which can mean several things. It can mean to separate, it mean miracles. I think the translation wondrous things is an accurate translation. The things of God are wondrous and miraculous things. If you study the word of God carefully and faithfully there are many, many Bible gems to glean out of the Bible which will be a great blessing and encouragement to your soul.

Let’s look at some examples of wondrous things in the Word of God. I think the first and greatest and what should be the most obvious example of a wondrous thing is the gospel itself. Is it not a wondrous thing that God Himself would come and suffer and die on the cross for your sins and freely give unto all who repent and trust in Him salvation and eternal life? The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most wondrous of all things in the Word of God.

So there one great example of something wondrous in God’s Word. Lets look at another example. The example of prayer.

Revelation 5:8 says, “Rev_5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.”

In this verse the prayers of saints, saints being another word for a Christian or a believer, prayers are described as golden vials of perfume. This shows how much our prayers mean to God. How special they are, how much God values them, how much it pleases God that we pray to Him, how much God enjoys our prayers and loves to answer our prayers and keeps our prayers in His mind and in His thoughts. This is a wondrous thing to behold.

Understanding this can help’s faith in God and encourage that Christian to pray faithfully and zealously even if that christian has to wait years to see answers to their prayers.

Now the truth is these are just two examples. There are thousands of wonderful bible gems in God’s Word. The more faithfully you study God’s Word the more you will behold wondrous things out of His law. Looking into God’s Word is like looking into outer space. It just goes on and on forever and the things to behold are so glorious and beautiful and awe inspiring. And no matter how much you search and no matter how much you learn there is always something new and encouraging and uplifting and edifying.

So in conclusion remember measure how much God has blessed you by how much fruit in the Spirit you produce and remember keep the word don’t compromise and God will bless you. Now if you do not know Jesus Christ as your savior then you can turn to Him today and ask Him to forgive you of your sins and Jesus will forgive you and save you and give you spiritual life and you will be dealt bountifully with and will bear fruit in the Spirit. Amen.

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