Providence and Perseverance

Psalm 119 and verse 100, set before us two very vital Biblical principles that we ought to appreciate and appropriate. Here is the verse: "I understand more than the ancients," says David, "because I kept they precepts." There are two very meaningful points there: the one which has to do with God's Providences towards us, the other which has to do with our perseverance in the things of our God.

“I understand more than the ancients,” says David, in the first place. And when the Lord's servant makes that statement, he is not boasting of anything that he has within himself. He is simply referring to a fact of history, or a fact of God's Providence towards him that has placed him further on, as you might say, in the ongoing revelation of God's eternal truth towards men and women.

David stood at that point of God's revelation, for example where the promise that God made to Abraham about his seed inheriting a land of blessing had now come to be fulfilled. He didn't have to speculate about what God had meant, in the first place, in that promise. He did not have to speculate about what God had meant, in the first place, in that promise. The children of Israel had spent their period of time in the "strange land" of Egypt that God had spoken about, and God had now brought them out of that land "flowing with milk and honey." All that was past; it was no longer in prospect, as it had been for some of those "ancients," and so, David can say, in that very definite sense, "I understand mor than the ancients." God's providence and purpose had set him at a later stage of His revealed words and ways and David was able, indeed, to "understand more than the ancients."

Now that Providential placing by God of His people is still in operation for us. Every bit as much as David, and more, we stand at that vantage point of God's purposes where we can say, "I understand more than the ancients." Not only more than those "ancients" who went before David, but more than David himself, and more than those "ancients" who were to come after him. There was nothing arrogant in such a thought under God; but there is a great blessing and great guidance where we come to realise this Providential fact of God in our lives.

The apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Galatians, makes some reference to the case, when he speaks about the difference in status and stature between the Church in the Old Testament scriptures of God and the Church in the New. In the Old, in fact, the Church occupied the status of a child. It was, indeed, "the heir of all things," but, as yet, it had not come fully into its inheritance. That "child" was "under tutors and governors, until the time appointed by the father," "But when the fulness of time was come, god sent forth his son ... that we might receive the adoption of sons." At the coming of Christ, the Church's status underwent a radical change; it "come of age." It moved out of its "rudimentary" things of its "non-age," and it took on the things of maturity and its full-grown stature, in Jesus Christ our Lord. No longer is it the child indiffering little in many ways from the servant, because "under tutors and governors," but now, it is the full-grown son; now that God's "fulness of time" has arrived."

It is like two photographs hanging side-by-side in a house: the one of the young man of the house as he now is, the other when he was three, or four, or five years old. They are not two different people in those photographs, but the one person at two very different points of existence. The Old Testament "photograph" of the Church is that of a "child;" the New is that of a "full-grown man." It doesn't mean that any Christian today is superior in faith, and love, and zeal, and encourage to many of those Old Testament saints of the past. Indeed, no; as John Calvin states it, with regards to those kinds of things, "we are the children, and they are the giants." But, as far as the fulness of the revelation of god is concerned, we are the "fathers," and they are the children. We "understand more than the ancients," if we belong to the people of God today. We stand at the place called Golgotha, and from that vantage point we "view the landscape o'er." We see in fact what the "ancients" were only able to see in, figure. It is not a mere "lamb" that we see in Abel's sacrifice; it is not a mere vessel that we see in Noah's ark; it is not a mere land that we see in the land of Canaan. It is that "inheritance incorruptible and undefiled," that is reserved for us through "Christ our passover" who has been sacrificed for us. That's what it means for us to have more understanding than the "ancients." God has providentially set us in the blaze of New Testament light, and in the light of that light we are able to say, "I understand mor than the ancients."

Such is the first principle bound-up in David's short statemen in his psalm, and it has very practical application for us as the people of God today. Too often we find Christians walking in the half-light of that which is "past" and failing to come into the clearness and the clarity of the "Sun of Righteousness" who has risen for us. We find it in some people's understanding of the very nature of the Church of Jesus Christ itself. We find it with regards to the mode of worship and the means of working within the Church. We find it with the distinctive kinds of buildings, and distinguished kinds of dress, which smack more of the Temple and Aaron than they do of the New Testament church and its minister. We find it in the interpretations of prophecies and in the implementation of practicalities in the Christian life. We find it with regards to the very identity of the people of God themselves as "the Israel of God," and God's "chosen generation," and "royal priesthood," and "holy nation," and "peculiar people." In so many ways the Church has failed to "walk in the light as Christ is in the light." Perhaps some people have unconsciously applied the maxim that the "old is better." That is so true in so many ways and it would well-become us in our day to seek out many of the "old paths" and walk in them. But, with regards to the Word of God it is not a question of what is Old, and what is New, but of what is "part" and what is "full."

And what we are duty-bound to do is to live, and think, and act, in the fulness of the revelation of God that God has given to us. We do have more understanding than the ancients; and God forbid that we should fail to appreciate and appropriate that fact of Providence in our lives. God has granted us such a place in His own scheme of things, and we are called to appreciate and appropriate that fact. As we do, then we will find that self-same light of the Word of God shining more and more unto a perfect day.

Note the second part of David's verse; "I understand more that the ancients," he says, "because I keep they precepts."

Now, that is the other principle contained in David's words; the one that has to do with our perseverance in the things of God. David had been "providentially" placed at that point in God's revelation and history where he might understand more than the ancients ever understood. But that understanding was not necessarily automatic. "I understand more than the ancients," he says, "because I keep they precepts." There was a certain principle of process at work, and it was that principle that the Saviour Himself enunciated time and time again, namely, that if we do the things that we know, then He will cause us to know more things for us to do!

You remember, "Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have." As He puts it in another place – "... with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you; and unto you that hear shall more be given." "If ye know these things," He tells the disciples in the upper room, "happy are ye if ye do them."

The fact that church of this New Testament era has been providentially placed in the fulness of the light of God's revelation in Christ isn't a fact without implication or application to our souls. We have been granted the light in order to walk in that light, and as we walk in that light, then we will come to enjoy the benefits and the blessings of that light more and more. "I understand more than the ancients," says David; blessed providential placing for him. But, "I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts;" blessed persevering that performed what he knew, in order to know more to perform.