“Christian Progress”

Psalm 119:33-35

 Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes,

and I shall keep it to the end.

 Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law;

Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

Make me walk in the path of Your commandments,

For I delight in it.

            The way of Christian progress is always divinely revealed.  We are taught by the LORD, not by human speculation, scientific probing, or even ethical development.  God must make these statutes known.

            The prime condition so missing in the many cults today is an understanding of the way.  No man can make progress in business, unless he knows his business; in scholarship, unless he is acquainted with his books; in politics, unless he is conversant with the affairs of State.  So it follows that Christians can make no progress without understanding God’s law.

            With God as the teacher of the way, all the dangers, duties, difficulties, blessings, losses, and rewards are fully revealed.  Spiritual enlightenment will follow.

            I shall observe it with my whole heart it says.  Unless I give earnest heed to the securing of a given object, I let it slip.  How many times have we let opportunities for real advancement of the cause of Christ pass us by.  No nation in history conquered by another power was so blessed as Japan after World War II.  General MacArthur not only remade their society, he pled for Americans to send missionaries to lead them to Christ.  Our Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions sent several families to Japan, but on the whole there was no rush for that open door.  Japan did not convert as a nation and today are a non-sectarian materialistic (rather than militaristic) society.

            It is interesting that the 35th verse includes a plea for God to supply the stimulus for following the path: “make me walk.”  Here again we see the dependence upon Almighty God that is so key throughout Psalm 119.  Depend upon Him at all times.