Psalm 119:29
(This is an entry from a devotional commentary I am working on from Psalm 119 entitled God and His Word. The introduction can be found here, successive entries have covered the 22 sections of the Psalm, and following entries verse by verse.)
"Remove the false way from me,
And graciously grant me Your law.”
Something inferior must be removed and replaced with something superior. Father, You are about our maximum joy, and so You direct us away from that which will destroy and discourage to the invaluable riches of Your word (Proverbs 3:15, Proverbs 8:11). We see this expulsive power in Psalm 119:104, Psalm 119:128. Thomas Chalmers wrote of it in ‘The Expulsive Power of a New Affection’, . Having experienced the Lord (Psalm 34:8), nothing less will do. Yet, knowing this and even experiencing this, the sin in our hearts is often drawn elsewhere. So the Psalmist prays in desperation for God to take that away! He knows that transformation can be sought in God but not accomplished in self. The section began with the Psalmist cleaving to the dust and he needs help!
‘He desired to be right and upright, true and in the truth; but he feared that a measure of falsehood would cling to him unless the Lord took it away, and therefore he earnestly cried for its removal. False motives may at times sway us, and we may fall into mistaken notions of our own spiritual condition before God, which erroneous conceits may be kept up by a natural prejudice in our own favour, and so we may be confirmed in a delusion, and abide under error unless grace comes to the rescue. No true heart can rest in a false view of itself;… if the law be not in our hearts the lie will enter…The only way to expel the lie is to accept the truth…a belief of the doctrines of grace is a grand preservative from deadly error…In Psa 119:21 David cries out against pride, and here against lying - these are much the same thing. Is not pride the greatest of all lies?’[1]
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