Declared All Thy Judgments (Psalm 119:13)

Ken

“With my lips have I declared all the judgments [Hebrew, mishpât, act of deciding a legal case] of Thy mouth” (Psalm 119:13 KJV). No wonder our NT conception of the pharisees and their preoccupation with the Law — it was because the nature of the Law is legal. They merely had forgotten the real nature of the Law was to “love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (Deuteronomy 6:5) and to “love thy neighbour as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18). We need to beware of their same pitfall, since even the Apostolic Ephesian Church was already reprimanded for having “left thy first love” (Revelation 2:4). Cases decided in the Courts of Heaven will play out “in Earth, as it is in Heaven” (Matthew 6:10). That is the crucial point. The verdicts of the Courts of Heaven are binding on us below. And, to our amazement, Jesus has covenanted, “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (18:18). As if we would be given status in the Courts of Heaven to present cases, which the Judge of All the Earth would consider binding upon all concerned. If an earthly, unjust judge would pass judgment for a widow crying out against her adversary in a human court, “Shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them?” (Luke 18:7). God’s judgments then are more than His complaints against humanity, but they represent our right to petition Him for redress for the injustices not simply of humanity against humanity, but of our Adversary’s unjust holding of the people of this world in spiritual ignorance and the Church in our ignorance of what the Messiah Jesus has come to accomplish. “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me; because the LORD hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD” (Isaiah 61:1-2). Father, cause us to walk in understanding of Your Law, that we would not stumble, where teachers more intelligent than ourselves have fallen, when they beheld with their eyes Your Son. Have mercy upon Israel, and have mercy upon us. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.