LIFE ON THE ALTAR

Taken from the book, Psalms: The Pilgrims Ascent, by A. B. Saint

Walking in the Light of Truth, God’s Word

“With my whole heart have I sought Thee:
O let me not wander from Your commandments.”

Psalm 119: 10

By far Psalm 119 is the longest of all the Psalms. It boasts a plentiful supply of 176 verses. One of the stories which often accompanies this particular Psalm is that of the Watercolourist John Ruskin. When only a young boy, his God-fearing mother taught him to read and memorize certain lengthy passages of Scripture. The whole of Psalm 119 was one of the Bible portions she set him. For a young lad, the time it took him to memorize these vast swathes of Scripture was costly, particularly the Psalm we are looking at today. Years later in adulthood he spoke about these times and professed in particular that although learning all 176 verses of Psalm 119 hadn’t been easy, yet, he then could say that this particular Psalm had become the most precious to him in its “overflowing and glorious passion of love for the Law of God.”

The Commandments of the Lord were important to our Psalmist. He was a man of God, and he loved the Word of God. Every Scripture truth which he knew at that time was exceedingly profitable to him; he had evidently experienced refreshment in soul, a cheering of the heart and a sanctifying of the life, when he meditated upon it. Daily he walked in the light of it. Later in the Psalm we see how in times of need the Word of God quickened his heart, spoke into his life, took away any weariness and gave him a spring in his step. He never thought to alter it, to add to it or to take away from it. He would have remembered years earlier how even Moses gave strict instructions which were to never interfere with or never to tamper with any of its precepts. 

This following after God, this love of His Word was for the Psalmist a heart issue; God was real to this man. His was no mere intellectual faith, this hankering after God’s Holy Word was no trivial pursuit, this was no insignificant philosophical ramble, but rather his seeking after God and His Word was from the heart. He said, “With my whole heart have I sought Thee.” Now, that is the way forward friends for all of us.

When I was a child of eight, I was given as a gift that remarkable book known as The Pilgrim’s Progress. At one time this book written by John Bunyan was the 2^nd best seller after the Holy Bible. In fact, in my copy, the full title is given as ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress in Pictures from John Bunyan’s Immortal Story of Man’s Journey from this World to That Which Is to Come.’ Quite a title! It was written whilst Bunyan was in Bedford Jail, imprisoned through no fault of his own, excepting perhaps his fervent desire to preach the Gospel to the lost. 

You see, John Bunyan was a Baptist Minister, but in the time in which he lived he was known as a non-conformist preacher, meaning that he did not belong to the Anglican Church which was the State church of that time, and therefore could not receive an official licence to preach. His fervour in preaching the Gospel caused him to lose his freedom and for somewhere around twelve whole years he was detained in Bedford Jail, and alongside his writings, in order to scrape together a living for his family at home, he spent his time making laces for shoes. 

Bunyan was a lover of prayer and was also, like our Psalmist, a lover of the Word of God; both facts are clearly seen in all his writings. In speaking of things both new and old written in the Holy Book, he said: “Give me a hearing: take me to the bible and let me find in thy heart no favour if thou find me to swerve from the standard.” He was also heard to say: “A little from God is better than a great deal from men, things that we receive at God’s Hand come to us as things from the minting house, and old truths are always new to us if they come with the smell of heaven upon them.” His illustrated story of The Pilgrim’s Progress is clearly supported by Scripture. Bunyan sought the Truth of God’s Word and kept to it right to the end of his life. That is the secret isn’t it, to follow and stay in the Truth. We must stay in the Truth of God’s Holy Word.  

As you will remember, various characters figure in the book and illustrations from life abound. Within its pages there are the sincere and the insincere, those who are seekers after God and those who are not. If at this moment my memory serves me right, there is even a man in the book who carries with him a muck rake, an implement which Bunyan, in his lifetime obviously would have seen being used in the streets and lanes of his parish. The face and demeanour of the man with the rake was always, without exception, towards the ground, apparently never having any compunction to make any changes for the better in his life. 

Later it becomes evident that there was never any seeking on his part for greater things, not because he had low self-esteem, but because he simply had no interest in that which was spiritual and in that which he could not see. He never longed for that which was eternal but rather felt completely at home in the muck and the mire of the things of this life. Even though he was once offered a celestial crown from the Lord Himself he took absolutely no interest, judging that everything outside of the world he knew was but a fable. The longer he lived the more darkened his mind had become to eternal things. Sound like anybody you know or have witnessed to recently? Friends, we have to keep on praying for the lost that they may be found.

Of late, along with verse 10 of this particular Psalm, the words Deception and Apostasy have seemed to be uppermost in my mind. Apostates are not those like the man with the muck rake, but are those who from all outward appearance were seekers after God and once took on the name, Christian. Even though the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is growing daily, nevertheless it would seem that today there is also an unfolding picture of a great ‘falling away’ within the Church by some who now testify to the fact that they are no longer followers of the Lord Jesus. They have sadly renounced their faith in Christ and, like Demas, have gone back into the world.  Although saddened by this, we should not be surprised by this, for the Scriptures clearly point out that in the end times this will take place, and all the more the nearer the time of the Return of the Lord. We are now living in what I have heard some call, ‘The era of the deconstruction of the Faith.’ 

For a moment let us look at the word apostasy and its meaning. The dictionary calls it the abandonment of belief, a defection, a treachery, a disloyalty, a desertion; it even goes as far as to call it a rebellion. Strong words indeed. It would seem that for some there has been a great falling away from the original Truths contained in Holy Writ, and there has been a probing into things of which there is no need and an unnecessary scrutinizing of those ancients scriptures which have been handed down through the generations. What had originally been laid down by saints of old is being reappraised, modified, re-evaluated and the fundamental tenets of Scripture are being altered, thankfully not by everyone, but definitely by some. 

It seems that today in some quarters, the virgin birth and the deity of Christ is brought into question, and the resurrection challenged. There are those who now question as to whether God was indeed the Creator of this world. Some preach a mis-aligned Gospel declaring that it is impossible to know the Assurance of Salvation whilst still in the body and we must all wait until if and when we get there. There is a gospel out there which promulgates a message of cheap grace, which in a way tells its congregants that they can live as they like, for the Grace of God will cover it all and they will still be saved at the end. What of the gospel which declares that all roads lead to Heaven for one person’s god they say is much the same as another’s? Whoever first coined the phrase ‘keep it simple’ would do well to look into the state of the so-called Church of today. 

We have to be incredibly careful I think, the more we go on, that we keep on believing the Truth of God’s Word. We have to stay in the Truth. We read how that the Lord Jesus in John’s Gospel chapter 14 and verse 6 said: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” The Word of God clearly warns us to be careful of deception which can infiltrate the Church with its insidious teaching. If we hear something which is obviously very wrong we should be able to spot this a mile off, but at times it can be preached so graciously, or under such seeming conviction that we must look again at the Word of God to see if it is true. There will always be those out there who will seek to tickle the ears or teach a new thing, so we must always be on our guard. We must refuse to listen to those who are teaching something contrary to God’s Holy Word. 

The Psalmist said: “With my whole heart have I sought Thee: O let me not wander from Your Commandments.” In my search to understand the true meaning of the word ‘deceive’ in the Greek New Testament, it cites more than one word, but by far the most common is the word planao. Some of the meanings of this word are: To ‘go astray,’ or to ‘err in deviating from the correct path,’ or to ‘lead into error,’ to ‘fall away from the truth,’ or to ‘wander off course.’ 

Planao is also the Greek root of the English word planet, literally ‘a wandering body.’  I read that in Greek mythology planets were actually called wanderers because of their seeming wandering orbits around the sun. I also read that should we look at an astronomical chart we would come to the same conclusion. Spiritually it is a picture of people who have been led into falsehood, into deception by false teachers and thus are being ensnared by that grisly enemy called error. Unless we are grounded in the Scriptures it is so easy to make a turn in the wrong direction, so easy to veer off course or wander from the right path. At the forefront of our minds, we must ever come to terms with the fact that turning away from the Truth carries terrible consequences with it. 

At times, the bible likens us to sheep, for by nature we are prone to wander. Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 6 says: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.” Generally, whenever I remember how like sheep we humans are, I think of the renowned painter Holman Hunt and in particular his painting called ‘Strayed Sheep.’ I am not an art critic and I do not have any of his pictures hanging on the walls of my home, but since viewing them, I do have one or two of his paintings lodged in my heart. 

Of course, he has long since gone, but I recall that this London born artist found himself in one season near Hastings on the south coast, where he climbed up to the top of the rocky cliff above Covehurst Bay and in the months which lay ahead he settled down to paint what was before him. It is a delightful picture of sun, sea, and sheep. I am hoping however that he painted his sheep from memory rather than real life because all of the sheep are situated in a most dangerous position; yet don’t seem to know it. They are all on the edge of the cliff and one little sheep has foolishly wandered over the top and is seated in a precarious position on a little ledge. No shepherd is seen in the painting and the sheep appear to be all on their own. No wonder our Psalmist asks the Lord to keep him from wandering or straying from those truths which come from God Himself, either through ignorance or willful disobedience.  

Prayer: Lord, in these days in which we live, when Your Word is so often being challenged or deliberately set to one side and in these times when so many are being drawn away from Your Truths, we ask today, as did the Psalmist, that we will ever seek You with the whole of our hearts and never have the desire to wander away from Your Commandments.”  Amen.

Taken from the book, Psalms: The Pilgrims Ascent, by A. B. Saint