Psalms 119:130

The entrance of Thy words giveth light: it giveth understanding unto the.

The power of the Word

I. The entrance of the word.

1. Generally “Thy Word,” as used in the text, includes the whole of Divine revelation from its fret announcement in Genesis of a Redeemer to the last vision of the Heavenly Sanctuary by the beloved John on the Isle of Patmos.

2. Specifically, the “entrance of Thy Word” is the gift of the Son of God (John 1:1).

II. The effect of the word.

1. The Word gives us light doctrinally.

(1) As to a satisfactory explanation of the world of nature and her laws.

(2) As to the power and dignity of man.

(3) As to the problem of evil.

(4) As to the method of redemption.

2. The Word gives light practically as to the duty of nations and individuals.

(1) By the ethical and judicial law which God’s Word reveals.

(2) By a better civilization which it ushers in under a new national spirit.

3. “The entrance of Thy Word” gives us light experimentally.

(1) Reveals our moral condition, “dead in trespasses and sin.”

(2) As to our personal salvation and regeneration. Here we get the full light of God’s promises.

(3) As to Christian duties to God and our fellow-men. (A. A. Johnson, D. D.)

The light of God’s Word

1. The light-giving quality of God’s Word. It is significant to find that the old saints found in the earlier revelation they received in the Old Testament precisely the same peerless power of holy illumination as we can testify to in the perfected message in Jesus Christ. There is nothing that more strikingly reveals the underlying unity and identity of the sacred Scriptures. The volume and momentum of the revelation have varied, but its essential power to quicken and enkindle the human soul has been steadfastly maintained from the first wonderful utterance of the Divine voice in its sacred pages.

11. This quality furnishes a high test of its divinity. “The opening of Thy Word giveth light” means not only that God’s Word gives light, but that this light divinely grows with the growing revelation or understanding of the Word. As the Word opens before the soul the Divine shines forth from it more clearly, and the glory of the present God becomes more wonderful. And the more we know of the Gospel of Christ, the more irresistibly Divine and beautiful will it prove itself to be.

III. The Word of God imparts this light by the divinest means. The Word translated “giveth light” is the same Word which is used concerning God in verse 135--“Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant.” As His face shines upon us, He makes our hearts shine back upon Him and upon the world. He does not illuminate our path mechanically, but sets His light within us livingly. He does not use us as passive reflectors of His brightness, but as burning and shining lights. (J. Thomas, M. A.)

Revelation and conversion

Trees are known by their fruit, and books by their effect upon the mind. It is not the elegance of its diction but the excellence of its influence by which a book is to be estimated.

I. The work of the Word of God in conversion. Not apart from the Spirit, but as it is used by the Spirit for divers ends, all needful to salvation.

1. To convince men of sin: they see what perfection is, that God demands it, and that they are far from it.

2. To drive men from false methods of seeking salvation, to bring them to self-despair, and to shut them up to God’s method of saving them.

3. To reveal the way of salvation, by grace, through Christ, by faith.

4. To enable the soul to embrace Christ as its all in all. By setting forth promises and invitations, which are opened up to the understanding and sealed to the heart, etc.

5. To bring the heart nearer and nearer to God. Emotions of love, desires for holiness, devotion, self-searching, love to men, humility, etc.

these are all excited, sustained, and perfected in the heart by the Word of God.

6. To restore the soul when it has wandered. Renewing tenderness, hope, love, joy, etc., by its gentle reminders.

7. To perfect the nature. The highest flights of holy enjoyment are not above or beyond the Word. Nothing is purer or more elevated than Holy Scripture. The Word also slays all sin, promotes every virtue, prepares for every duty, etc.

II. The excellence of this work done by the Word. The operations of grace by the Word are altogether good and not evil; and they are timed and balanced with infinite discretion. The Word of the Lord works marvellously, perfectly, and surely.

1. It removes despair without quenching repentance.

2. Gives pardon, but does not create presumption.

3. Gives rest, but excites the soul to progress.

4. Breathes security, but engenders watchfulness.

5. Bestows strength and holiness, but begets no boasting.

6. Gives harmony to duties, emotions, hopes, and enjoyments.

7. Brings the man to live for God, before God, and with God; and yet makes him none the less fitted for the daily duties of life.

III. The consequent excellence of the Word.

1. We need not add to it if we would secure conversion in any special case, or on the largest scale.

2. We need not keep back any doctrine for fear of damping the flame of a true revival.

3. We need not extraordinary gifts with which to preach it: the Word will do its own work.

4. We have but to follow the Word to be converted. It fits a man’s needs as a key fits a lock.

5. We have but to keep to it to become truly wise: wise as the aged, wise as necessity requires, wise as the age, wise as eternity demands, wise with the wisdom of Christ.

(1) Cling to the Scripture.

(2) Study the whole revelation of God.

(3) Use it as your chief instrument in all holy service. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The light of truth

I. The words of God are a light. No effect can rise higher than its cause, and nothing can impart what it does not possess; that which gives light on its entrance into the human heart, must be light, or at least have the property of communicating light. The sun in the firmament diffuses its beams, but has no power of giving sight: a man who is born blind, or who has lost the faculty of seeing, is strictly in darkness, notwithstanding the existence of day. In like manner, the holy Scriptures are a light from Heaven; they spread the most essential knowledge, and are adapted to produce the most beneficial effects; but multitudes are not savingly benefited by them: their minds are still dark, and their hearts remain impenitent and unholy.

II. Something hinders the admission of this light into the heart.

1. Principally it is sin; the love of sin: these are opposed to every dictate of heavenly truth, and counteract its salutary effects.

2. The influence of the world.

3. Unbelief.

4. Prejudice.

III. These hindrances may be removed. By whom and in what way is this change produced? “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts.” The Spirit applies the truth with almighty energy. By His agency the Word becomes effectual in them that believe, so that every obstacle is removed, every barrier subdued.

IV. When obstacles are removed, and the word of truth enters, the most beneficial effects are produced.

1. The right knowledge of ourselves.

2. The true knowledge of God.

3. The knowledge of Jesus Christ.

4. The way of salvation by the Cross of Christ is learnt.

5. It discovers to us the snares and dangers of the wilderness through which we pass; it informs us of the enemies we have to encounter, and the numerous evils to which we are exposed.

6. Its entrance in the heart helps us to form a just estimate of earthly things: it detects the emptiness and vanity of the present world, and all its concerns, and makes us acquainted with what is infinitely better--heavenly and eternal good. (T. Kidd.)

Value of God’s Word

I. A great blessing.

1. Light is the chief means of knowledge.

2. Another effect of light is cheerfulness (Ecclesiastes 11:7).

3. Light is productive of healthy growth.

II. The means of its communication. What is the psalmist’s idea? Is it the glory of the daybreak--the “opening” of the earth, and air, and sky by the beams of the rising sun? Or the “opening” as of the seed-sprout, or the bud that unfolds its mysterious and beauteous pleats to the light of day? “The opening of Thy words,” i.e. the hearing them and getting at their secret meaning, the blessed messages of love, of pardon, peace. Where are these “words” of God? All around us in His works and ways! (J. E. Flower, M. A.)

God’s truth clear and simple

The powerlessness of philosophy consists in the fact that it is profound and obscure; the strength of Christianity that it is profound and clear. One of the most illustrious German thinkers said on his death-bed, “I carry one regret with me to the grave, that of having been understood by but one man in the world; and he has only half understood me.” A system like that was not destined to live, and Hegelianism is already dead. But Jesus Christ made every truth to shine, and herein consisted His greatness.

The Scriptures for the common people

A priest observing to William Tyndale, “We are better without God’s law than the Pope’s,” “I defy the Pope and all his laws,” Tyndale replied; and added, “If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause the boy which driveth the plough to know more of Scripture than you do.” (Quarterly Review.)